Fat Loss Training Plan

Kinds of Strength Training

The major types of strength training are:

• Barbell
• Olympic
• Dumbbell
• Machines
• Bodyweight / Calisthenics

While each of these training styles is distinct, it is not necessary to pick a single one to focus on. Instead, movements from each category can be used in combination to produce effective workouts. There are a few types of training I've left off this list (resistance bands, weight bags, etc.). While these can be valuable tools in your training arsenal, they are less commonly available and tend to have more limited applications.

Let's look at each major type of training in detail and how to craft an effective workout.

Barbell Strength Training Pros and Cons

Starting with the absolute basics, a barbell is a piece of weight lifting equipment (a metal bar) which can be loaded with metal plates. Barbell training has a few distinct advantages:

• It is easier to stabilize the weighted bar during a movement than dumbbells and some bodyweight exercises.
• The barbell can be loaded with high volumes of weight, allowing you to continue to progress over time.
• Barbells are incredibly versatile. Nearly any exercise can be done with a barbell.
• Easy to store and transport the bar and plates.
• Once you get strong, you wear cool looking belts and straps

Now some disadvantages:

• Many movements require a rack to position the bar appropriately to begin movements. It's difficult to start a back squat with the bar on the floor, for example.
• Racks take up a large amount of space and are difficult to transport.
• It is difficult to do isometric exercises (Ex. working one bicep without the other one activating) due to the size of the bar.
• It is easy to load too much weight on the bar.
• It is easier to hurt yourself with barbell exercises than some other lifting methods
• If you are a true beginner, the bar may be too heavy for you on some movements.
• If buying a home gym, getting a full set of bar, rack, and weight plates can be cost prohibitive.
• You can rough up your hands (unless you have a cool pair of lifting gloves, like these)

Olympic Strength Training Pros and Cons

Olympic lifting is a subset of barbell lifting. This style is a specific set of movements which are performed at the Olympic games, namely the snatch, power clean, and jerk. These lifts have a distinct set of pros and cons from barbell training in general. The advantages:

• Full body and athletic training. The movements emphasize explosive power generation and speed in moving the weight.
• Olympic lifts do not require a weight lifting rack and typically start on the floor.
• Like barbells, you can load large amounts of weight and the equipment can be stored in a small space.
• As a very small pro, the movements are visually impressive. You are whipping around these weights and generally make a considerable amount of noise.

Now, the cons:

• Olympic lifts take considerably more coordination and form technique than other, less complicated movements. This has the benefit of building your coordination, but can make it more difficult to learn the movements and experience the benefits of the training.
• It is far easier to hurt yourself on Olympic lifts than other training styles. It is easy to lose control or drop the weight and frequently that weight will be above your head.
• The movements are far more physically exhausting than other types of training. Will be difficult to maintain in a deep cut and will require more recovery.
• Because the movements are so specific, this training style eliminates the ability to do isolation work on specific muscles.
• You need specific bumper plates to do Olympic lifts or you risk breaking plates when dropping the bar.
• For a home gym, you need a lifting platform of some kind or you risk damaging your floor by dropping the bar.
• You can tear up your knee joints (unless you have a good pair of compression sleeves like these)

Dumbbell Strength Training Pros and Cons

Dumbbells are hand-held weights that range (in most commercial gyms) from 5-100lbs. Here's the good:

• Dumbbells are extremely versatile. They can be used for nearly any exercise variation.
• With the low entry point of dumbbells, it can be easier for weaker beginners to get started.
• Dumbbells require you to perform more stabilization and coordination than a barbell because you move your hands independently.
• It is far easier to do isolation and isometric exercises.
• For home gyms, you can get adjustable weight dumbbells which take up very little room.

And the cons:

• There aren't effective safety bars or racks for catching dumbbells. If you fail an exercise (bench press for example), then you have to drop the weight on the floor.
• If you hit an advanced level of strength, some movements will be difficult to continue to challenge yourself with standard dumbbells.
• In commercial gym settings, dumbbells are typically used more than barbell racks. This is especially true of the 5-50lb range.
• For home gyms, if you don't get adjustable weight dumbbells then a full set can take up 20-30 feet of wall space with their racks. These full dumbbell sets are expensive and very difficult to move.

Machine Strength Training Pros and Cons

Machines are typically large and heavy tools which are designed to help work a single muscle or muscle group with a single movement. For example, there are leg curl machines for your hamstrings and leg extension machines for your quads. Similarly you would have a biceps curl machine and a triceps extension machine, and so on. These machines are usually constructed to have a seat that puts your body in the correct position for the movement, a lever for you to exert force against, and a pulley system that connects the lever to a stack of weight plates.

Here are the benefits of using machines:

• They are the ultimate in stability. Most machines cannot move outside of their intended trajectory unless they break (which is rare).
• Because they provide so much stability and are typically used for isolation movements, they are great for avoiding injury. Similarly, they are good for helping provide active injury recovery.
• Machines can be used to work muscles which are difficult to target with other exercise types (abs, rear delts, ad/abductors, etc.)
• They provide a unique stimulus from other lifting methods as the cables provide the most resistance at the 'top' of the movement instead of the 'bottom'. Example: a dumbbell curl feels heaviest at rest (arm by your side) while a cable curl feels heaviest at the peak (arm fully curled, weight at your face).

Now, for the downsides:

• Poor for building stability and general purpose athleticism. The machine provides such stability that each movement is essentially done in ideal conditions. Good for preventing injury but not good for building versatility.
• Advanced lifters may max out machines and find it difficult to continue to challenge themselves.
• Because there's no stability required from you, it is easier to build an imbalanced physique if you only use machines.
• Machines do not load your body with the weight and so your posture, spine, and general mobility are not improved as much as they are with other lifting styles.
• Machines require an incredible amount of space. A single machine working a single movement on a single muscle can take up as much space as a full power rack or Olympic lifting setup.

Bodyweight and Calisthenics Strength Training Pros and Cons

Last, but certainly not least, we have bodyweight exercises. Here are the upsides:

• Only your body is needed for most of these movements. At most you would need a bench or a pull-up station so there is incredible space saving by focusing on calisthenics.
• Very low friction to begin a workout. You can do one anywhere, any time as you just need your body. Helps eliminate excuses for going to the gym, etc.
• Help build a mind-muscle connection more than other lifting styles. In other styles you're working against an implement but in bodyweight training you are only moving yourself.
• Advanced levels of calisthenics are visually impressive (think muscle ups, hand stand pushups, etc.)

And here are the downsides:

• The largest downside is your strength is capped by your body weight. You can do more difficult variations of movements for a while but eventually the only way to increase the resistance will be to add equipment or body weight.
• Because resistance can't be increased without equipment, reps are the only way to increase challenge and continue progressing after a certain point. This can be difficult for your joints to maintain.
• Some may find it more difficult to fully exert and work themselves just using their body versus pushing against an external weight.

What strength training type should I use to lose weight?

This question is a common one for men trying to lose fat. They wonder what the most effective, and usually fastest, method is. The best answer to that is: whichever one you enjoy the most. If you like your training it will be far easier to continue long term and make the progress you want.

BUT, you don't have to use just one of these types and using multiple types of exercises (and fitness accessories) can help working out stay both engaging and successful long term. Let's look at how to craft an effective workout.

Creating an Effective Strength Workout

Before we get into theory and example workouts, we must understand what 'effective' means in this context. There is a near infinite volume of workout content so how do we parse the flood to find the best thing? The key for our purposes is this: there is no such thing as 'fat loss' workouts or training styles. Remember, for fat loss the only thing that matters is calories consumed being less than calories burned. So, an effective workout is one that helps us build muscle mass and burn calories. And, as mentioned earlier, one good way to do this is to work the whole body every workout. But what else factors into having a good workout?

To be incredibly general, there are three types of training styles:

• Power Lifting
• Body Building
• Endurance Training

Power lifting is the practice of building as much strength as possible. To reach this goal, lifters typically do a few heavy sets of 1-5 reps for each movement. This has the effect of increasing strength fairly quickly, but this doesn't necessarily correlate to muscle volume or mass. What typically happens is your muscle density increases but total volume of muscle fiber does not rapidly increase.

On the other extreme is endurance type training. This is typically 'tough guy' sets of 20-100 reps with relatively light weight. If you're yelling, 'Who's gonna carry the boats?' while training, then you're in this endurance style. The primary point of endurance training is to push a muscle to its absolute limit in order to increase mental fortitude, pain tolerance, and muscle endurance. This training style is very taxing which is a double edged sword. Yes, it can burn a larger amount of calories than other methods, but it requires significantly more recovery and mental discipline. And, muscle will regrow both slower and smaller when pushed to a deep level of fatigue than it could have otherwise.

As you can likely guess, my recommendation is going to be the body building style. With this style, sets are done in the 8-12 rep range with an emphasis on pushing to or near failure with a moderately heavy weight. This tends to be the middle ground between absolute burn out with light weight and very little volume at an extreme weight. With body building training, you are getting the best of both other styles. You are fatiguing the muscles to the point where they must grow, and yet you're not completely destroying them. At the same time, you're using enough weight to challenge yourself, but the focus isn't entirely on increasing the weight at the cost of everything else. Especially as you get lower in body fat and experience some of the side effects of fat loss, this moderate training style will be easier to not just maintain but also see continual improvement.

So, an effective workout is going to be one where we target our full body of muscles with moderate length sets to failure. The next obvious question is, how do we actually select the movements for our workout.

How to Select Exercises for an Effective Workout

To make this simple, let's break the body down into quarters. Each workout we need to exercise the muscles in our:

• Chest
• Back
• Shoulders
• Legs

Each of these muscle groups can be broken down further. In the chest you have the upper, middle, and lower with opportunity for pressing and squeezing in all three areas. The back has some muscles which are best worked by pulling vertically and some by rowing horizontally. Your shoulders have the front, side, and rear deltoids plus your traps. And then your legs have the quads, hamstrings, and calves. Plus you could add in forearms, neck, biceps, and triceps training if you wanted.... There's a lot of muscle groups! I go into this detail for two reasons:

First, even through we are doing a full body workout you don't have to actually work every muscle in this list. The important thing is to pick at least one good compound exercise for each big group (chest, back shoulders, legs). Activating the whole body is what we're going for, not focusing on every muscle.

The other reason for listing everything is to show the variety that's possible. You don't have to do the same workout every session and you can try many exercises over time to find what works and feels best for you.

So, to select an exercise simply look at a list of exercises for each muscle group and select one that works a sub-group you didn't touch in your last workout. Here are some essential movements for each muscle group, many of which can be done in different style variations:

Chest Exercises

• Chest press (barbell, dumbbell, machine, pushups, bands, cables)
• Incline chest press (same variations as chest press)
• Chest/Incline flys (dumbbell, machine)

Back Exercises

• Pull-downs (machine, cable, bands)
• Pullups / Chin-ups (assisted or weighted if needed)
• Rows (cable, barbell, machine, dumbbell, reverse)

Shoulder Exercises

• Shoulder press (dumbbell, barbell, handstand pushups)
• Lateral raise (dumbbell, cable, kettlebell)
• Shrugs (barbell, dumbbell)
• Rear delt flys (dumbbell, machine, cable)

Leg Exercises

• Squats (bodyweight, barbell, goblet, split)
• Deadlift (barbell, dumbbell, Romanian/straight legged)
• Leg extensions (generally machine)
• Leg curl (machine, bodyweight hamstring extensions)
• Calf extensions (barbell, machine, bodyweight, on leg press)

Next Steps

Once you have your movements selected, its time to get out and get to work! But, it can be daunting to get started. Let's take a look at some basics that will help your training not only be smoother, but more effective.

(Also, you can't go out without a sick gym fit. Check out some of these great options for improving your style)

General Training Principles

The following advice is for guys new to strength training. If you've done training in the past but have been out of the game for a while, I still recommend you review this section so you have the fundamentals fresh in your mind. The basics are all you need to get a great physique.

The first rule of training is KISS: Keep it Simple, Stupid. Like with all things, simplicity makes it infinitely more likely you'll be successful. If you have a complex training plan or schedule or whatever, it will be more difficult for you to execute correctly. Worse, it will cost you more calories to figure it out and stick with it because you'll need to use extra processing power. In the same vein, you don't need the best machines, perfect plan, or most optimized science-backed regimen. All you need to do is pick a set of exercises, execute them consistently, and stay disciplined in your diet. If you follow this way, you cannot fail. Don't forget, the second S in KISS stands for you. It is human nature to get bored and try to 'innovate'. Frequently in lifting, this just means doing more work to get worse results or not doing any work at all. Don't make a little progress and then get a big head. What worked to get you from A to B will also get you from B to C (provided you increase resistance, obviously).

Next, muscle is built outside the gym, not in it. This doesn't mean you should skip workouts or avoid going to the gym. The point of doing a workout is to break your muscles down. When you exert your muscle, you are literally tearing the muscle fiber tissues. Then your body heals and these fragments grow back bigger and stronger than they were when you tore them. Because the muscle fibers grow back stronger, your muscles get stronger too. So, what does this mean for training? Your objective in the gym should be to break down your muscles in a constructive way. Then your objective outside the gym must be recovery. You must take recovery seriously because if you don't recover effectively, your torn muscle fibers never heal effectively, and both your muscle growth and strength will be limited. This is a poor situation and will hinder your progress. To recover effectively, ensure you eat enough protein (1.5-2g per lb body weight) and get adequate sleep. Eight hours is ideal for most adults, but being low on calories and regularly working out can make you need more. Don't be afraid to take naps or sleep 9-10 hours per night if your schedule allows. If you're going hard in the gym, this will only help you.

Always use proper form. There are infinite videos of how to correctly do exercises. If you're new to lifting or something doesn't feel right (joint pain, muscle pain that isn't soreness, feeling pain in the wrong muscles for an exercise, etc.), then stop and check your form. Record yourself doing an exercise with little to no weight and compare to form technique videos. Have someone in the gym advise you or get a couple sessions of personal training if you need it to get your body used to doing things right. If you have poor form, you will hurt yourself. Poor form always causes injury. The only question is when it happens. And when you get injured, you won't be able to train. Worse, it will be difficult to maintain the discipline needed to stay on your diet while you're laid up and in pain. This is a worst case scenario so make sure your form is right and you stay healthy. (This is not an excuse to avoid going hard in the gym. Proper form enables you to go hard and lift heavy)

The next foundation is to Always Be Adding. In sales, many organizations teach ABC or Always Be Closing. Basically, you always need to be moving to a sale and you must always have the next sale in mind, even when the client is signing a contract. In strength training, we should always be looking to the next increase. This can be adding weight, adding reps, or changing exercises to increase difficulty (knee pushups to regular pushups to archer pushups, for example). If you can do four sets of eight on an exercise this week, you should either be doing more reps or more weight next week. Now, use common sense with this. Go up by five pounds, not by 50. Go up by one rep, not by 10. Pushing yourself in this gradual increasing way will ensure you're always gaining muscle and strength, which is exactly what we want.

Push yourself to failure on your strength training. There are many training philosophies which recommend doing exercises while 'leaving reps in the tank'. Basically, stopping a set before your muscles actually hit failure. This method of training is not as effective as going to failure because it doesn't break the muscles down as much which means they don't grow back as strong. If you're getting adequate recovery, pushing to failure on your sets will ensure you make great progress. An important note here is to not let your form break down. Never do extra reps at the expense of form because you will injure yourself. Additionally, pushing your body to failure is a skill that must be trained. Your first month of training will (should, at least) look vastly different than a year in because you'll have developed this skill. Treat it like a skill and focus each set on not just getting to failure, but developing your capacity for pushing to failure. Of course, use appropriate weight so you're not too far above the ideal 8-12 rep range on your sets.

Finally, you must review and evaluate both your training and your progress. Each week you should look back at your workouts and determine how many were effective. Were these better or worse than previous workouts? What factors made them that way? What can I do to ensure future workouts take the good parts and remove the bad ones? These kinds of questions are very helpful. Every 3-4 months you should do a larger version of this. Am I making meaningful progress to my goals? Am I on the right pace? Have I been consistent with my diet and workout plan? Do I need to make adjustments? Constantly iterate on your training and improve your methods. Don't let yourself fall into ruts, patterns, or routines which are not helpful. Do establish habits that accelerate you toward achieving your goals.