Bodybuilding is considered by many to be synonymous with “gaining muscle mass.” But few of the uninitiated know that muscle mass, even an impressive one, does not visually manifest itself in any way, at least until it is completely perfected. Agreeing that bodybuilding is original in that it is more like the art of creating illusions, every self-respecting serious iron lover no, no, and is obliged from time to time to pay attention to the planned stage of muscle drying. Moreover, this should be done, at least, because the contrast transition to a fat-burning training regimen will subsequently allow you to get a more tangible return from training for mass or strength. So, whatever one may say, you will have to dry sooner or later. True, there is one condition without which the training period of drying can turn into a real one. ”
When should you start drying
If you have successfully passed the general, initial stage of muscle recruitment, that is, you have already increased from 10 to 20 kilograms, you can safely add a cycle of “drying” work to your annual plan. In order to avoid ambiguity, let us clarify that by the term “drying” we mean targeted work to burn subcutaneous fat while striving to maximize the preservation of muscle tissue accumulated by such labor and then.
What can you hope for?
Armed with the intention to dry out, it’s worth figuring out what to hope for, even after a successful cycle. First, it’s important to prepare yourself psychologically. Since there will be no less training, the diet will be taken even more under control, you will not have to rely on the increase in new muscle volumes under drying conditions. Lovers simply do not have anything else. You need to chase only “one hare”, in this case – the drive of the hated fat depots. This also applies to the increase in strength indicators. In the mode of nutritional deficiency – and he will – it is extremely difficult to fight for extra pounds and even grams on the barbell. Most likely, you will have to work in a slightly different mode, namely: try to keep the bar of your own power records, at least at the same level. Trust me, this is hard work. And how you handle it the strength indicators with which you begin the next “after drying” training cycle will depend. But that’s not all. By counteracting the physiological decline in muscle strength, you will actively contribute to maintaining the maximum percentage of muscle mass in the body. As you probably already understood, this is one of the tasks facing you.
So, in order to implement a fat burning cycle, lasting 12 weeks, you first need to plan and then do the following. You need to decide to what result you will bring your muscles after this time. The fact is that the massive weight loss practiced among “non-athletes” is clearly not suitable for a bodybuilder. The reason is trivial: with abundant weight loss, not only fat disappears, but also muscles, including all this, which is also accompanied by dehydration. Based on the fact that muscles are protein and water, for the most part, this option may not be suitable for us in any way. It would be wiser to plan to burn fat reserves at the rate of a pound of your own weight per week. That is, it will be about 2 kg per month. And in 12 weeks, only 5-6 kg or so. With such a “scope” drying, it will be possible to ensure that 75-80% of the total weight lost is fat, not muscle. Be realistic, don’t go after ephemeral results. If your excess weight clearly exceeds the given figures, then please be patient, you may need to go through several stages of drying, alternating each of them with other types of training. And in this case, as a result, you will get both developed muscles, and the percentage of body fat close to the desired one.
What about nutrition?
To enter the fat burning mode, you need to make the necessary adjustments to the diet. The first thing to do is to organize a calorie deficit, but the deficit should be small – 250-300 kilocalories. In order to “calculate” it, you need to be extremely scrupulous about everything that you eat. You should not exceed the specified threshold of deficiency – there is a great risk of starting to lose muscle tissue. Moreover, sooner or later, excessive deficiency will lead to a slowdown in all metabolic reactions in the body, which will only slow down the breakdown of fats. And we do not need this at all.
You need to pay attention to the foods that you eat. It is important to exclude frankly unsportsmanlike foods: sweets, pastries, fast food, gastronomic masterpieces of little value in terms of nutritional value for a bodybuilder. It is important to focus on complex carbohydrates from cereals, animal proteins, preferably without excess fat. It is important to obtain the fats necessary for the body from vegetable oils, nuts and, possibly, pharmaceutical fish oil. Let it – vegetable fat – be a little, but it will still be in your diet. This is necessary for the joints and for the work of the whole organism, including for the normal functioning of the hormonal system.
Training modernization
It is believed that a calorie deficit, potentially leading to a decrease in body fat, can be achieved by increasing the duration of training. In particular, this was previously achieved due to the transition in all exercises of the training complex to the repeated mode of 18-20 repetitions. But over time, it became clear that prolonged periods of such training lead to even more significant loss of muscle mass. Therefore, if you make changes to the training program, they are clearly not “incinerating”. It is best to stay in the same repetition mode – 8-12. But at the same time, it is still worthwhile to innovate in your workout routine.
Constantly struggling with the working weights falling down, you need to combine exercises with supersets at each workout, at your discretion. Maybe it will be one or a couple of supersets, or maybe the whole workout will be organized according to this principle – not the point. Moreover, supersets can be both for one target muscle group, and for muscles that are relatively distant from each other. The main thing is to keep the rest between separate approaches to a minimum, ideally no more than 30 seconds, and even less in a superset. It is clear that in this case the working weights will fall – the muscles will not have time for full strength recovery. In a word, the training will have to focus on “strength endurance”.
Aerobic sessions
It is possible and necessary to spur the fat burning effect by including an aerobic session at the end of the workout. It doesn’t have to be extreme. Let it run for 20-30 minutes, but in an interval manner. That is, the intensity of aerobic exercise should resemble a wave-like process, with recessions at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the session. For example, cycling for 2-3 minutes at a moderate to low pace, alternating with fifty or a hundred jumps in place with a rope, is perfect – this is another way to test yourself for endurance. Don’t include aerobics at the start of strength training. In the case when cardio load follows anaerobic exercise, its fat burning effect will be more noticeable, since you have to work in conditions of low blood sugar. Which, naturally, will provoke the body to burn fat stores, and relatively quickly. Of course, it will take some time to achieve this goal. Usually the mentioned 20-30 minutes is enough, three to four times a week.
Fat burning food additives
The following can be allowed as food additives that stimulate the process of utilization of fat depots: carnitine-containing products, caffeine, in combination with aspirin. But they need to be used exactly as additives – on the recommendation of the manufacturer, and guided by common sense. If you have problems with the mucous membrane of the digestive organs, eliminate aspirin completely. Caffeine, despite the fact that it allows you to mobilize the psyche in the right way and bring yourself to the required level of performance, is also appropriate in adequate quantities and only on training days, in the morning and an hour before training. The use of ephedrine-based supplements banned in our country is undesirable, you are not an asthmatic, and you obviously banned it not because of its usefulness for the body of a basically healthy person.
Use BCAA amino acids as an anti-catabolic agent that allows you to resist loss in muscle mass without risking health, but, again, in the dosages prescribed by the manufacturer, in terms of your weight. Excessive dosages of amino acids can also lead to upsetting the digestive tract, which will immediately affect the performance of the entire “drying” in general. Consume amino acids with food, in the morning, before and after training.
Instead of a conclusion
Since working in a state of nutritional deficiency and heavy plowing in the gym requires a lot of patience, it is important to set yourself up in advance that within 12 weeks there will be a breakdown, and mood changes, and a desire to eat plenty of temporarily prohibited foods, as well as disrupt the nature of the chosen split. … Naturally, all this should be serenely swept aside, because the main and real reward ahead is a dried and muscle-flexing figure, a truly athletic figure.
