High Frequency Training Part 2, A revolutionary training method: Fat Loss

When it comes to programming and training clients 90% of them are looking to cut, lean up, get ripped, tone ect. When a client comes to me with these demands I have one goal in mind: Maximum results in minimal time. How do I achieve this? High Frequency Training. In part one I established that quite simply, the more often you train without exceeding your ability to recover, the faster you'll achieve your goal. On the surface HFT seems like a training system that encourages a trainee to workout with an excessive frequency which could potentially lead to over training and over use injuries, but this system is smarter than that, it has effective methods to combat these issues. All these methods are based around the most important factor associated with HFT, fatigue management. Its only through fatigue management techniques and methods that training at a high frequency becomes possible. Here the insight to my own spin on the revolutionary training method you've all been waiting for.

Commence the program with 4 workouts a week preferably 2 days in which you train twice that day, rest 2-3 days between each double session day at first and cut the rest each week by adding single day workouts in between that will eventually progress into double day workouts.
Rome wasn't build in a day. The key point here is progression. This correlated directly to the S.A.I.D acronym, Specific Adaptation to Imposed demand. In order for your body to adapt to the high training demand (the frequency) of this program you must start off with a solid foundation of sessions and build up a workout capacity from there. Our body is capable of much more work (in this context workout capacity)than we give it credit for. Think of how many tradees who work between 50-60 hrs a week, balance a wife and kids with potentially a few workouts of their own every week, and they complete all this with a diet of beer and burgers, and some people complain that 5 sessions a week is too much? Compared to the tradee's lifestyle HFT is a piece of cake!

Always use an explosive concentric (contracting) phase and don't accentuate (focus) the eccentric phase, just control it.
I use this principle for 4 reasons. Firstly, explosive contractions possess the ability to recruit the type 2 b muscle fibres which have the most potential for strength and growth and overall muscle recruitment. Secondly it has now been proven that explosive muscular contractions are directly correlated with higher levels of overall calorie expenditure than slow lifting (for the burn), meaning that your going to burn more calories during and after your workout if you lift explosively. Thirdly, muscle soreness has been far more significantly associated with the eccentric phase of an exercise as opposed to the concentric (the concentric phase would be the lifting phase in a bicep curl, the eccentric phase would be the lowering phase of the weight once its been lifted). When an individual minimises the eccentric phase of an exercise it effectively allows them to perform more volume without excessive amounts of soreness a day or 2 post-session. This is why after eccentric training workouts you have a deep soreness for the next 48-72 hours. Lastly using an explosive concentric contraction can actually stimulate rather than fatigue the CNS (central nervous system) this leads to the potential lifting of heavier loads and if used correctly allows a trainee to train at a higher frequency with less accumulative fatigue. A great example of the above principle applied practically is evident in the sport of Olympic Weightlifting. Many of the top Olympic weightlifters, notably from Eastern European countries like Bulgaria and Hungary, are known to train with a very high frequency and with loads between 90-92.5% of their 1RM (one rep max). They achieve this due to the eccentric-less nature of the 2 Olympic lifts, the clean and jerk and the snatch (both do not possess an eccentric phase) coupled with low rep use and never working to failure. Many claim drugs and being an Olympic athlete are the reasons as to how this is possible, but this type of training is based on physiologically efficient methods that individuals without performance enhancing drugs can incorporate into their own training regimes with great success. This is what I do with my clients and it achieves results, fast.

When it comes to exercise selection pick 3 pairs (6 total exercises), vary exercises every 2-4 weeks but always stick to these rules: For the upper body use supersetted antagonistic pairing and superset lower body squatting movements with upper body isolation movements. 
Exercise selection is important but not as important as the fashion in which you perform them. Your 6 total exercises will consist of 5 compound movements and 1 isolation. 4 compound moves will be upper body orientated (2 pushing exercises like shoulder press and push ups and 2 pulling exercises like pull ups and dumbbell rows) and 1 will be a squat variation. The upper body isolation exercise can be either tricep, bicep or forearm specific and will always be paired with a squatting movement. Why isolation exercises on a cutting program? Simple: they produce significantly lower amounts of overall CNS fatigue, we superset them with a squatting variation because the squat is already a neurally and physically demanding exercise we dont need excessive amounts of accumulative fatigue so we pair a demanding squat compound move with a relatively less neurally-taxing isolation move. As mentioned earlier it links back to the most fundamental factor associated with HFT, fatigue management
      Pair upper body movements antagonistically and superst them. Antagonistic supersetting  simply means pairing two exercises that work opposing muscle groups and perform them back to back with no rest, back and forth until you've completed your max number of sets. An example of an antagonistic superset would be performing a set of pull ups followed by a set of shoulder presses with no rest in between until you reach your max number of sets. for each exercise.
After choosing your exercises pick a weight you can perform for no more than 7-8 reps but use low reps to focus on explosiveness, never choose less than 2 reps and never more than 5 reps. 3 reps is ideal for fat loss.
This goes hand in hand with the need for explosive contractions. Obviously when it comes to lifting explosively with a moderately heavy weight your not going to be banging out sets of 20, unless endurance is the goal. This particular HFT program is designed specifically for fat loss. For cutting use a 7-8RM and perform your ideal number of reps per set which is almost always going to be 3.

Use the rep speed of your selected rep range (chosen from above) in order to auto-regulate fatigue.
This is the KEY to HFT. Instead of using muscular failure (the point where you can't physically perform an additional rep on any given exercise) to dictate set termination as many trainees do, simply stop your set when the speed of the rep was not as fast as the previous rep. This allows your body to auto-regulate performance based on how your feeling that day. On days you feel good you will do more sets as your speed of movement will remain constant for longer, on the days you don't feel that good your body will naturally decrease your speed of movement earlier during your sets and restrain itself from over-training all while not having thinking about it! This performance auto regulation allows for efficient management of fatigue and in turn serves as an opposing force to Injury and over training.

Keep your total number of sets above 5 but never more than 8 per exercise, if you complete 8 sets of an exercise without a decrease in the rep speed then terminate the exercise, continue with the other one in the pairing and increase the weight by 2.5 kgs (or 5 pounds) next time you train the movement you hit 8 sets on.
No need for explaining, this ones self explanatory.

So to recap:
-Start with 4 workouts a week preferably 2 days in which you train twice that day, rest 2 days between each double session day at first and cut the rest each week by adding single day workouts, then eventually progress those single workout days into double day workouts.
-Lift explosively, don't focus on the eccentric
-pick 6 exercises; 5 compound 1 isolation, then divide them into 3 pairs. Use antagonistic supersetting for 4 upperbody compound movements, and superet an upper body isolation move with a squatting variant. Change the exercises every 2-4 weeks to avoid overuse injuries.
-Calculate your 7-8 RM for the above exercises, and perform sets of 3 reps
-Use rep speed to dictate set termination in order to auto regulate performance and reduce accumulative fatigue. You will never work to failure.
-Keep your total sets between 5-8 per exercise. If you can reach 8 sets of 3 reps without a rep speed decrease terminate the set, finish the other exercise in the pair and add 2.5 kgs to the exercise you reached 8 sets on at the next workout.

There you have it, a comprehensive evaluation into the HFT methods used to regulate fatigue in order to make one of the most efficient fat loss programs ever produced.