Do You Have A Protocol?

[Phil]

Do You Have A Protocol?
By Charles Staley





Your Complete Video Guide To Escalating Density Training...

[SaraJane]

First, I find the articles on your site very helpful. I just purchased some info on EDT, which also came with EDT-Cardio Free Fat Loss guide, and some other useful items. I'm having some difficulty understanding a specific issue when it comes to leg development.

I like strength work, and typically do a combination of squats, lunges, calf-raises, and deadlifts for my lower body (heavy as I can manage alone)....I find these do great things for my rear and legs, however, I have enough fat sitting on my thighs that they tend to just look proportionately big. I know I can lift more than what I do for the lower body, but shy away from it because of the big leg issue and not knowing what the best training course would be.

I'm about 17.5% body fat, follow good nutrition most of the time. I'm wondering if doing the EDT plan on my legs will just complicate my issue? Should I be considering a fat-loss approach instead?

thanks,
SaraJane

[Phil]

Sara fat loss is mainly diet related. But I would take an approach where you still lift VERY heavy but just not a lot of volume. High intensity but not eh reps or sets. Might be something as simple as working up to 1 single 3rm set and looking to make progress on that. This will be enough to make you stronger, much harder dense muscle and more neurally efficient but with out the volume to create a lot of hypertrophy that you can get from a higher rep program.

[SaraJane]

Phil - thanks for the advice. Yes, working up to a 1rep max/3 sets would be pretty intense, but one I'm open to giving a go on. Over time, even though my strength would improve, do you think my leg size will go down (in addition to a tighter look at the diet)? And will adding some kind of routine that would involve body weight workout for the legs (squat thrusts, jumps, etc. and lots of them) be a good accompaniment to that for the legs and/or burning fat overall?

Also - when you build for strength in the way you mention - you're still building muscle, but you said it would be harder and more dense - does it still have the same long term impact on metabolism and calorie-burning that larger muscles do?

thanks again

SaraJane

[Phil]

Actually Sara what I meant was 1 sinlge 3rn sets as in work up slowly to a Very hard triple and call it. I wouldnt have you work up to singles until you get some time in under heavy loads. But yes working heavy in the 1-5 rep raneg and keeping the total volume down Id say under ten total reps in all the heavy sets is going to go along way to making you stonger more dense and smaller or not casue any more growth. A LOT of growth has to do with the total volume. Thats why you get women that get on say an elliptical and work damn hard say do HIIT and then get upset becuase there legs grow.

So NO if you want the to get smaller I would not add "squat thrusts, jumps, etc. and lots of them" if you want then to get smaller. I would do very basic prety heavy work and keep it low in total volume in any one session and then low intensity caridio. Modreate to High intensity 70% and up and higher volume is whats going to add size.

You cant ry and spot reduce and get those legs pumped up and expect hem to shringk and you can spot reduce fat you could do arm curls and lose fat off the legs just as fast. Plus 17% isnt bad for afemale and very much in the healthy range,

OH and no you may not build muscle when you build strength that way you could actually lose muscle and muscle size as long as you dont eat to grow its impossible. YOu do so by becoming more neurally effeceint being able to fire more fibers at one time by practicing lots of sets with heavy load, and then making the muscle you have much denser and leaner. Its like you see in older BBer as complared to younger ones, Some of the young guys may be as big but the look kind of puffy they dont have that muscle maturity that density from the time under heavy weight.

As for the metabolsim. Sorry but not as much sure it will have some and yes lifting heavy dose cause you to burn more calories post training but you cant have your cake and eat it to. You cant want o shrink your legs muscle and fat and expectto burn more calories, Even fat cells use energy, losing them and wanting to keeo them off you will need to eat less and more so if you want less muscle. Youll have to pick your poison??

Heavy low volume to make the legs STONG and try and haneg onto or lose a bit of muscle size, make you more neurally effecient, through in low intensity cardio to target fat loss and not enhance growth or burn muscle, the rest is nutrition.

Are you sure your legs are really to large thats one thing I would question?

[SaraJane]

This is SO helpful. My legs tend to be squatty and full looking with no definition as opposed to "big"...one of the things that's made it all a bit confusing to me is that a few months ago I had to stop almost everything I had been doing due to major surgery. I lost almost 10 pounds almost immediately after the surgery without making any real dietary changes. I spent almost 2 months of doing almost nothing other than easy stretches and light cardio (2-3 times a week, 20-30 minutes, easy pace). and, for the first time since I'd started working out (about a year and ahalf now), I could actually see decent muscle definition in my leg, almost like the fat went away and you could actually see the muscle I'd worked so hard to out on over time - I don;t know if the weight I lost was muscle or fat, all I really know is that my legs looked slimmer and more defined. know the body requires alot of energy for the healing process too, that figures into things somewhere.

For the past, oh, 6 weeks, though, I've been able to get back almost to where I had been previously, but my legs are starting to get that "puffy" look again. There's actually a photo on the right side of this web page that shows what I'd be happy with on the lower body - "inspired images".

Some quick stats:
5'5", 125 lbs., 17% bf
upper body definition: great
lower body: hm. definitley have muscle in there, but puffy/fat looking.
Nutrition: M-F = 1500-1800 cals | P40-50%, C30-40%, F20-30%
Nutirion: SS = 2500-3500 cals | (most likely where I'm getting into trouble)
I'm usually able to get at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight

Workouts: 3x/week/1.5-2 hours each session
1 hour of mixed weights (I try to hit every area hard), 20-30 minutes of cardio machine, 20-30 minutes of other (pushups, pullups, abs, jumproping - things that are more body weight or light weights, like 10-20 pounds).

Any thoughts? Too much food on the weekends? ?.

thanks,
SJ