These are advanced exercises... attempt with caution:
There are 3 videos below showing a progression of barbell exercises. Each video gets more difficult than he previous one.
Barbells are great for burning body fat because they usually call for you to use your entire body to complete the exercise. If you're not comfortable with the barbell It may take you a few weeks to master these exercises. If you're not strong enough to handle a 45lb Olympic bar, then it may take you longer until you develop enough strength. There are also lighter 35lb and 25lb Olympic bars available.
1) BB suicides: a real calorie burner - work on this for a week or two before moving on to the 2nd progression
2) BB suicide with a clean to squat (progression #1):  pull the bar to your shoulder and then go into a squat
3) BB Suicide with a squat press (progression #2): now we complete the movement with a squat press
These exercises are not easy to do. It's easy to get frustrated if you don't have the strength or coordination to do these exercises. Stick with it. your strength will increase quicker than you think.
  • Squatting with an Olympic bar in front is difficult, you may have to practice with a broom stick to get the proper form.
  • Jumping with an Olympic bar has to be done with a nice and smooth motion (soft landing) so that you don't hurt your knees.
  • Doing pushups on a bar may be a little scary at first... trust me, the bar won't roll away (just make sure you stay over it)
  • get ready for strange looks at the gym when you start doing these exercises
Workout suggestion:
Try running for 4 or 5 minutes on a treadmill and then doing one of the above exercise for 10 ro 12 reps... then repeat {treadmill + exercise (above)} for 30 minutes!
1 Comment
 
 
Figure competitors often email me and ask me, what is the hardest workouts that I give to competitors to really burn body fat. Well it's called the 'tree'.... and it works like this:
(the explanation below is a little hard to follow - the video is a lot easier to understand)

   Choose 8 exercises and number them 1-8
   for example:
       1. Jump squats:          15 reps
       2. Db swings:              20 reps
       3. Pushups:                 15 reps
       4. Squat row:               20 reps
       5. Mountain climbers: 80 reps
       6. Db squat curls:       15 reps
       7. Frog jumps:            20 reps
       8.1 arm high pull:        20 reps each arm

Using the exercises above the following sequence is done without interruption:
    A) perform exercise #1
    B) immediately perform exercises #1 and #2
    C) immediately perform exercises #1, #2 and #3
    D) immediately perform exercises #1, #2, #3 and #4
    E) immediately perform exercises #1, #2, #3,#4 and #5
    F) immediately perform exercises #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 and #6
    G) immediately perform exercises #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6 and #7
    H) immediately perform exercises #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6 ,#7 and #8
Basically every time you add a new exercise you start over at the beginning
The video below shows an abbreviated circuit of 5 exercises (db swings, jump squats, pushups, mountain climbers, 1 arm press). Most of the your circuits should contain more exercises and higher reps (15-20 reps for most exercises)
When to use:
  • You can perform this workout once or twice a week in place of your regular 60 minute workout.
  • You could repeat the above circuit for your entire 60 minute workout.... or come up with others and perform a few of them.
  • I wouldn't suggest not working out like this too often to avoid over-training, unless you are getting ready for a show and you are close to your goal weight but the last few pounds are holding on tight. Then you might want to alternate this with your regular workout. Otherwise, once or twice a week is good.
7 Comments
 
 
Picture
Plain and simple…If you are a figure competitor then Interval Training is better than trying to stay within a certain heart rate range (THR: target heart rate training) fat loss cardio workouts. The leanest athletes in the world usually train in an interval-like manner. Take a look at track sprinters (100, 200 and 400 meters). These athletes are very lean and muscular… and the shorter the distance the more muscular (the 100 meter runner is more muscular that the 400 meter runner). NFL running backs and wide receivers. These athletes aren’t calculating numbers so that they only work out at a certain level of intensity. No… they just work out hard every workout!

Research shows us that you can burn more calories with interval training than you can with other forms of cardio. What this means is that you can get the same results while working out less, which leads us to our next example…

Look at the difference between an elite marathon runner and an elite sprinter. Although the marathon runner is also lean…. he/she will also be very thin from excessive cardio. The sprinter, by contrast, will be just as lean but much more muscular.

The goal of a figure competitor is to get lean while keeping as much muscle as possible – therefore interval training is the best type of training for competition. The last thing you want to do is burn hard-earned muscle.

The Missing Piece of The Puzzle:

Because figure competitors must keep as much muscle as possible – You  must include resistance training in your workouts. This is extremely important because If you don’t stimulate muscle often enough, you will lose it during the precontest phase. The best thing about using resistance training is that research shows us that metabolism may stay elevated up to 72 hours (it may be as short as 24 hours depending on the intensity.. but that’s still a great benefit). Regular cardio only elevates metabolism during the workout – your metabolism returns to normal right after a regular cardio workout (regular = cardio with no resistance exercises included)

Add Comment
 
Muscle vs Fat 11/07/2010
 
Can Figure Competitors Lose Fat & Build Muscle At The Same Time?
Picture
Answer: This may help you figure out the answer
1) In order to build muscle you must eat MORE calories than your body needs to maintain its current weight

2) In order to lose body fat you must eat FEWER calories than your body needs to maintain its current weight

The answer is a resounding NO! NO! NO!

There should be a clear distinction between the gaining phase (off-season) and the fat loss (precontest) phase… never the two shall meet. Competitors who try this are only spinning their wheels and often wonder why they don’t make progress. It’s like trying to build a house when someone takes a brick down as soon as you put one up – gonna take a long time to build that house!

When it comes to women it’s especially important not to mix the two because it’s really hard for most women to gain muscle… even with proper rest, eating and heavy lifting. If you want to build muscle, stay away from cardio during the building phase.

“But I read something that said….“

I know, I know, I know… you read in XYZ Magazine or ABC website that if you follow this ‘special’ program or drink that ‘new and improved’ protein powder you can gain muscle and lose body fat. Don’t listen to them… most likely they are just trying to sell you something or trying to get you to sign up to train with them. When I tell new competitors that they should do NO cardio in the offseason if they need to gain muscle (which most newcomers need to do)… a look of shear horror comes on their faces: “Omg! no cardio? I’m going to gain a ton of weight!!!” I tell them there is only one way to gain too much weight… and that is to eat too much food!

Fear of weight gain…

Many figure competitors are afraid to gain weight in the off season so they try to slow weight gain down by doing cardio, while trying to gain muscle. This will result in minimal gains in muscle size. The nervous system only has so much ‘energy’ in it’s reserve each day… you need all of the energy going toward building muscle. If half is used for your 60 minute treadmill run... how much do you think is left over for building muscle?

If you need to build muscle you must take the time in between shows to lift heavy and build some size. Get over the fact that you need to gain a few pounds. you can gain muscle holding 10 lbs over competition weight. You don’t have to gain a ton of weight. If you find yourself gaining too much fat then do more push-backs everyday…. push back from the table! don’t do cardio…. save the energy for building muscle, otherwise you’re just spinning your wheels.

3 Comments