Recently our Toughest Boot Camper (seriously she won that title) Raquel e-mailed me a question about maximizing fat loss. The conversation went something like this…
Raquel: Hey Billy, how can I maximize my fat loss. I’ve been attending your Farmingdale Boot Camp for a while and was looking to turn things up a notch.
Me: Hey Raquel, that’s a great question. The answer can actually be an article rather than an e-mail response.
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So thank you Raquel for inspiring this article that will hopefully help others as well.
Unfortunately, when it comes to fat loss there is no one-size-fits-all formula. If there was, we wouldn’t need our Farmingdale or Babylon Boot Camp. We would just package and sell the formula and most likely end up billionaires living on an exotic beach somewhere.:)
It turns out that being personal trainers in Babylon and Farmingdale is an art as much as a science. We help our clients figure out what works. With this said, there is one factor we have been discussing recently that could help you maximize your fat loss as well as performance.
Proper Intensity
When most people decide to turn things up, they either decide to train longer (e.g. run 5 miles rather than 3) or train more often (e.g. 5 days of running rather than 3). My fellow Long Island personal trainers and I propose an alternative approach. Rather than training longer or training more frequently, how about training at the proper intensity?
To condition the body to burn maximum amounts of body fat, training needs to be at a high intensity at least some of the time. The problem is if intensity levels are too high too often, injury and/or burn out are likely to occur. Subsequently, you will achieve less than stellar results at best. When the body is over trained, you are probably not working at the intensity you need to in order to produce your desired results, even if you feel like you’re working hard. The all out hard core Long Island Boot Camp more is better mentality can back fire quickly. My fellow Farmingdale and Babylon personal trainers and I have seen it again and again.
How to gauge intensity
One way is with something called Perceived Rate of Exertion (PRE). This is where you rate yourself 1-10 on how hard you worked. A 10 would be the absolute most intense you could have gone (e.g. running from an attack dog who wants to eat you for lunch). A 1 would be doing nothing (e.g. relaxing with your feet up). The problem with PRE is that if your body is over-trained, it will be misleading. You may feel like you did a level 9 workout but because your body is so beat up (form a lack of recovery), you actually didn’t work that hard. You just felt like you did. A great way to gauge intensity levels and compare workouts and recovery rates is by using a heart rate monitor.
How does this actually play out with a program?
My fellow Babylon and Farmingdale fitness coaches and I are in agreement on this. We generally train about 4-6 days per week with only 2-3 of them being high intensity. The other workouts are used to recover and improve our cardiovascular output.
This is what a sample week might look like for a TBBC client.
Monday – High intensity resistance training workout through small group
Tuesday – Team training wearing a HR monitor and monitoring intensity
Wednesday – Rest day, foam rolling
Thursday – High intensity resistance training workout through small group
Friday – Long distance slow cardio such as 2-5 mile jog or 30-40 minutes of various activities (rope skip, shadow boxing, bodyweight exercises) to keep heart rate moderately elevated
Saturday – Fat Blaster Advanced Team training class
Sunday – Off
Hopefully I didn’t bore you too much with some of the basic science. Science that you can’t apply to the real world is almost useless. The good news is that in this case it’s easy to implement.
I’m sorry if you were expecting a magic pill that would easily burn all the fat you want. Hopefully you realize that a magic pill doesn’t exist and probably won’t come along in your lifetime. If it does, maybe we can live together on that exotic beach somewhere hocking those miracle pills! In all seriousness, if the magic pill did exist, I don’t think it would bring the same level of satisfaction as reaching your fat loss and performance goals through consistency and hard work. What do you think?
*Be on the lookout for future articles from myself or my fellow Farmingdale and Babylon Boot Camp instructors on the subject of fat loss.