Written by Jason Ferruggia
"Definitely don’t train to failure”his real message seems to be:
while in the next breath he says
“Learn to be able to wipe yourself out completely on a set of bodyweight pushups or 20 pound dumbbell curls. Tension is key. “
- not to overtrain (ie manage frequency, rest issues)
- not to train train like naturally bigger muscled guys (ie excessive weight-driven tension, as opposed to time and form driven tension)
- not to train like a crossfit lunatic (ie always going to cardio exhaustion, red-lining cortisol)
"You should NEVER feel an exercise in your shoulders, elbows, knees, hips or lower back. Belly of the muscle only."
hugh-jackman
Here’s a question that was asked recently in The Renegade Strength Club Forum, followed by my response.
Jay,
I’m coming back from multiple injuries. I recently got my bloodwork done because I just felt like something was off. And I was right. My estrogen levels are higher than my testosterone, which is low.
My cortisol is high as well.
I’m 5’10, 168 pounds. I am skinny fat!
A guy I hired put me on six meals a day and I followed something called a 4x4x4 workout. Basically it was 4 exercises for 4 sets and you took :04 seconds to raise the weight and :04 seconds to lower it. I did smaller muscles groups (bi’s, tri’s, shoulders) twice a week and larger muscle groups once a week.
My body temperature is only 96.5.
I just keep getting smaller and fatter.
Help
KV
My reply…
Welcome back, brother. You’re the prototypical skinny-fat, injury prone, low-testosterone-high-estrogen/cortisol-having, hardgainer. I can totally relate.
Here are the top 7 things you need to do right now.
1) Reduce Training Volume
Train three days per week. That’s plenty right now.
NO BARBELL LIFTS. First of all, you’re injury prone. Secondly, you’re not built for a lot of the traditional power and Olympic lifts. Lastly, you don’t need the stress right now. Focus on dumbbells, kettlebells and bodyweight.
2) “Stimulate. Don’t annihilate.”
That’s a quote from 8-time Mr. Olympia, Lee Haney. In the day and age where every workout is a competition to be posted on social media, most people train too hard.
You can’t go all Ultimate Warrior on shit and expect to get the results you want and remedy your situation. No extreme psyche up or anything like that.
Definitely don’t train to failure. Lighten all the weights and don’t go below eight reps for a LONG time.
Since you’re 40 and very injury prone I would never recommend going below an 8RM weight.
You could do multiple sets of 5-6 with an 8RM but lets not even worry about that or over-complicate things right now.
3) Master Technique
Only train with weights you absolutely master with perfect form and constant tension. Right of the top I can tell you that you’ll need to reduce the weight you do on every exercise by at least 20%.
You should be getting pumps that make you look 10-15 pounds bigger at the end of a workout. If you’re not something is wrong. It could be your nutrition and hydration but often times it’s just that you’re training too heavy with sloppy form.
This is what 95% of all people do.
Most skinny-fat guys always stay that way, and never look like they train because they constantly go too heavy. They train their egos but never the actual muscle they want to build.
You should NEVER feel an exercise in your shoulders, elbows, knees, hips or lower back. Belly of the muscle only.
Lower the weight in a very controlled two count. Stretch under load (but only to full range of the muscle, NOT the exercise. There’s a big difference and most people have no clue), then contract and squeeze the target muscle as hard as you can. Don’t pause at lockout. Controlled, piston like reps.
Until you really lock in a mastery level of technique don’t “explode” the weight up on anything. Squeeze it up while creating maximum tension in the muscle and throughout the rest of your body. Learn to be able to wipe yourself out completely on a set of bodyweight pushups or 20 pound dumbbell curls. Tension is key. You can get back to exploding sometime later on down the road.
4) Train Each Muscle Group More Frequently
What you are doing right now- training each muscle group once per week is NOT what you want to do. It’s the complete opposite. In skinny-fat hardgainers like us the anabolic response from exercise is very short lived. It lasts just 1-2 days. That means you’d be better served doing a full body workout three times per week right now. Or you can do a well designed upper/lower split where you still get some crossover on each day. Otherwise you are sacrificing gains and taking two steps forward followed by one step back.
5) Stop Doing Cardio
Do zero medium intensity cardio. Do something high intensity for ten minutes at the end of two of the workouts. Sled sprints, battling ropes, Air Assault bike, etc. in short burst intervals of twenty seconds. That’s it for now. Spend an hour doing mobility, yoga and walking on your off days.
When you get healthy we’ll talk about how to add some more conditioning back in.
6) Eat for Hormone Optimization & Reduced Stress
Skinny-fat guys only get “more skinny-fat” when following a low carb/ high fat diet. Don’t do that. Keep your carbs up and your fat intake moderate. Definitely never more than 30% of your total calories, max.
No intermittent fasting right now. You don’t need any additional stress and you need to get your body temperature up.
Just eat. Wake up and have breakfast. Protein and fruit. Do that again a few hours later whenever you get hungry.
One cup of high quality coffee per day is fine. I’d limit it to that for now.
Have 30-50 grams of starch with protein 90-120 minutes before training. So oatmeal, rice or potatoes with some cottage cheese, chicken, fish, protein powder or eggs.
Have a similar meal 30 minutes or so after your workout. Eat a decent sized dinner with protein, greens and starch. This will be your biggest meal of the day but don’t stuff yourself. Just eat until you’re content.
7) Chill the F Out
Prioritize deep sleep above all else. You need it desperately. It’s the most important thing.
You absolutely CAN’T go a day without meditating for a half hour.
You also need to spend at least ten minutes per day practicing deep breathing.
I would definitely recommend you take yoga twice per week. Or get some of Jill Miller’s Yoga Tune Up DVD’s and do them at home.
You need a calming hobby as well. Trust me. Take up an instrument and/or an art class. Book it on the calendar every week.
Read the Tao Te Ching every morning and spend five minutes writing in a gratitude journal.
Slow down.
Read The One Thing and Essentialism. Figure out what is important in life and in business.
Lastly, go see a good doc in the city, get a full blood panel and work with him to get everything else where it needs to be.
