Meltdown Anti Diet EXERCISE PROGRAM

The Meltdown Anti Diet Principle is: More work performed intensely, in less time, equals more muscle. Now don’t go thinking you don’t want or need more muscle. You most certainly do! A shapely, lean, toned, sexy body is made of muscle; not fat, and not skin and bones. The shapes and contours you desire are honed from muscle. Male or female, the concept is the same. Additionally, since muscle is the furnace where fat is burned, the more muscle you have equals a greater capacity to burn fat. Don’t forget that! More muscle = less fat!

For our money, weight resistance exercises are the best way to increase lean muscle mass and improve several markers of health. While, weight-training is not considered the best aerobic exercise, it is a useful tool for increasing overall metabolic rate, which in turn dramatically improves fat burning. In addition, weight training done in a brief intense manner (described below) possibly provides the best combination of muscle building and fat burning for people who want the most results in the least amount of time.

The Meltdown Anti Diet principle encompasses the theory of high intensity training, or HIT. Rather than doing long laborious volume workouts, our goal is to use the science of HIT to get you in and out of the gym in as little time as necessary to stimulate the adaptive response, which signals the body to grow and repair muscle. There is no good reason why you should go to the gym confused and unsure if what you’re doing is right – or optimal. A rational approach to weight resistance training should be based on an understanding of the scientific principles of stimulating muscle growth through high-intensity training. The alternative (volume) approach will only leave you wondering when to stop working out.

Remember, your goal when resistance weight training is not to see how many sets you can force yourself to endure. It is to intelligently do the exact amount of exercise required to stimulate the growth mechanism - and no more. Any more than that is arbitrary, unscientific and counterproductive. Since there are only two accurate measures of intensity - total rest, and 100 percent - it is only by training to a point of momentary muscular failure, where another full-range rep is impossible despite your hardest effort – including a gun to your head - that you can be sure you have stimulated the growth response.

Usually when you think of high intensity, you think heavier weights and lower reps. However work over time is one of the safest and most useful ways to increase the intensity of any given exercise. Shortening the rest between sets is hard work – especially if you’re used to a long rest interval. Performing repetitions to the point of failure is the truest measure of intensity and the stated goal of every exercise you perform.

No matter what you read about a volume approach to resistance weight training, the undeniable physiological fact that remains constant is that in order for a muscle to grow you need three things: Stimulus, nutrients and rest. The latter two enjoy some degree of variable. However, the former can only be achieved when you experience the epiphany that materializes once you discover that in order to succeed you must fail. So, as strange as it may sound, your goal in any given exercise is to fail. All exercises are to be performed to failure.

CARDIO TRAINING FOR FAT LOSS

Its been over 30 years since the aerobics boom of the 70’s and still it is quite common to hear that long-duration, low intensity training is best for fat loss. This old school of thought was based on the premise that higher intensity cardio training did not burn fat, but instead carbohydrates. So to burn fat, you were told to park yourself on the treadmill or exercise bike and go for time, but don’t go too hard. The truth of the matter is that for the purposes of burning calories, increasing metabolic rate and overall fat loss benefits this old way of thinking is wrong. And, it’s too time consuming.

Cardio Intensity Defined
In case you didn’t know there is a simple equation to help you gauge your cardio training intensity. To determine your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. For example, if you are 20 years old, 220 - 20 = 200 max heart rate (HR). Low intensity exercise is defined as working at a heart rate of about 60% to 65% of your maximum heart rate and high intensity exercise is defined as working at about 75 to 85% or more of your maximum heart rate.

High Intensity Cardiovascular Interval Training

Low intensity cardiovascular training burns about 50% fat for energy while high intensity training burns about 40% fat for energy. This is not a huge difference. Say, for example, walking for 20 minutes burns 100 calories. Then 50% of 100 calories is 50 fat-calories burned. Now, say 10 minutes of high intensity interval cardio training burns 160 calories. Well, 40% of 160 calories is 64 fat-calories burned.

By doing the high intensity interval cardio training, you’ve just burned 14 more fat calories in half the time. Starting to sound good? There’s more...

High intensity interval cardio training continues to boost your metabolism long after you’re done (often up to 24 hours after, depending on the length and intensity of the training session). This means you’re continuing to burn fat all day long!

How to Perform High Intensity Interval Cardio Training

The absolute easiest way to start this type of training is to get on a cardio machine at the gym and select the interval training program. As you’ll see, you’ll start off with a fairly light warm-up cycle, then quickly jump up to a high intensity level for a short burst. You will then drop back down to a low level for a period of time, then back up to a high level again, repeated several times and finishing with an appropriate cool-down period.

You can manually replicate such interval training on any piece of cardio equipment just by monitoring your heart rate and adjusting your intensity up and down to replicate the same effect. High intensity interval training can be applied to any form of cardiovascular exercise. Anything from walking/sprinting to swimming to bike riding will work perfectly.