Accomplish your 2014 weight loss resolution!

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Prehab:

Monster walks
Super rack stretch
Ankle/Wrist mobility
Samson stretch

The goal for today is continual movement.  We will work to keep everyone together.  If you finish any part ahead of the class, hop on a rower or grab a jumprope to keep moving between parts until the coach indicates it is time to move on.

Part 1: Holds and Warmup

2 Rounds:
Plank or Handstand, 30 seconds
L Hang, 30 seconds
Hollow Hold, 30 seconds
100 Butt Kickers (50 each)
Jog 200 meters

Part 2:  Agility and Plyometrics

4 Rounds for best effort:
3 Cone Shuttle Run –DEMO
10 Speed Skater Hops –DEMO

Notes: Try not to rest more than 30 seconds between exercises.  Cones will be 10 yards apart for the shuttle run.  Start with your hand down in the middle, run 10yds one direction, touch one hand over the line, sprint back 20yds to the opposite end and touch your hand over the line and finish by sprinting through the center line.  You do not have to touch the line when you finish, just sprint through.  For the hops, create a specific target for your feet to land inside. Focus on being accurate and landing balanced on one foot. See how far apart you can maintain!

Part 3:  Conditioning

12 minute Amrap:
15 Burpees
Row 300 meters

Part 4:  Midline Strength

“100 Abs”
30 Situps
25 Flutter kicks (L/R equals 1 rep)
20 Tuckups
15 Hollow Rocks
10 Straight Leg Raises – DEMO

With New Year’s and the ritualized resolution on the horizon, many people will undoubtedly be setting a fat loss goal. With this specific goal in mind, I want to address a tool that sometimes ends up buried and forgotten because it lacks luster. This tool is low-intensity, long-duration exercise (LILDE).

To avoid losing your attention right away, let’s play a game. What comes to mind when you think ‘low-intensity’? Maybe, ‘I am a CrossFit athlete and high-intensity is a basic tenet’. What about long-duration? Maybe, ‘Haven’t you heard of Tabata, bro?’ What about exercise? Maybe, ‘using it in the same sentence as low-intensity and long-duration makes it sound boring’.

These are all reasonable answers as you have probably seen some great progress towards your goals coming into group class and hammering out WOD after WOD. The problem with this mindset is, if you have a specific goal you cannot train generally and expect to quickly achieve said goal, you must train specifically to hit specific goals. If your specific goal happens to be weight loss, and you are only attending group class or lifting, you are spinning your wheels. Here is why.

Your body only utilizes fat in one major metabolic pathway. This pathway is known as the oxidative pathway which utilizes either fat or glucose to provide energy for your muscles. The oxidative pathway is almost always turned on, but is at its peak fat-burning potential during LILDE. It also supplies the energy for low-intensity everyday activities like walking, carrying groceries, etc.

Here is how to put the knowledge of the oxidative pathway to work to achieve your goals.

Exercise for Fat Loss

Pick 2 days per week and do something you enjoy that fits the LILDE description to achieve your fat-loss goals. You can walk, jog, bike, climb, hike, row, have slow sex…whatever tickles your fancy (pun intended). Do it for at least 40 minutes nonstop.

Also, remember that everyday low-intensity activity can burn fat. If you sit at a desk all day at work, pick a few times during the day to get up and move around or go meet with Steve for a half-hour and have him give you some core activation/mobility exercise you can do intermittently throughout the day…I think they call that killing two birds with one stone.

Another thing you can do if you are committed is get a standing desk. If you are super committed, financially well-off, and don’t care what other people think you can get a walking desk!

Eat to Support Fat Loss

LILDE alone will not lead to fat loss. Remember earlier I mentioned that the oxidative pathway burns both glucose (carbohydrate) and fat? What you eat before LILDE determines the preferred energy source. The body, in all of its economical glory, prefers to utilize the last ingested energy source for cellular metabolism during exercise. What this means is, if you eat fat before LILDE, your body will oxidize fat for energy. If you eat carbohydrate, your body will oxidize glucose for energy. If you are fasted, it will prefer fat stores.

So, fast or eat something like coconut oil, butter, or egg before LILDE.

Timing

Timing your LILDE is also important. Doing it immediately after a strength session can hurt strength gains. Doing it at night might hurt your circadian rhythms. Doing it in the morning appears to be the best time to engage in LILDE from both a circadian rhythm and metabolism standpoint. Your body is primed for fat metabolism in the morning, so this is the best time to engage in LILDE to support your fat loss goal. If you do a fasted vs. fed LILDE session first thing in the morning this will optimize your fat loss.

Don’t Take it To the Extreme

Just because you burn more fat DURING aerobic exercise does not mean anaerobic exercise (ex. Group class or barbell club) burns no fat. So don’t give up anaerobic exercise and group class altogether if fat loss is your goal.

Anaerobic exercise will help you build muscle mass, and because muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in the body, more muscle will mean a higher resting metabolic rate (RMR). Higher RMR=more calories burned at rest=more potential fat loss.

You also create an “oxygen debt” when you exercise at high intensity. Your metabolism stays high, even after exercise, to make up for this oxygen debt. What this means is you burn more calories, even at rest, as your body attempts to make up the oxygen debt. It takes hours, sometimes up to 12, to make up an oxygen debt. Conversely, aerobic exercise does not create an oxygen debt, and your metabolism returns to normal shortly after exercise.

The combination of LILDE with the anaerobic training you experience in group class will lead to great systemic adaptation, and when paired with proper nutrition and nutrient timing will lead to weight loss.

To be completely clear, you should find one or more LILDE activities you enjoy. Again, examples of LILDE are hiking, biking, walking, jogging (at 10K or slower pace, you should be able to hold a conversation with a running partner), climbing (top rope vs. bouldering), swimming, and slow sex. It is important that you enjoy the activity so that you do not skip it, and so that it relieves stress vs. causing it (stress can hinder fat loss). You should spend 40 minutes or more doing LILDE, twice per week. The best time to do LILDE is in the morning, fasted or with a small fatty snack that has 0 carbohydrate.

Now get out there and have fun losing fat!

Author: Matthew Walrath