Quarterly Overview

4th Quarter. Crunch Time. In sports, in business and in life, this is when the big bucks are made, the leaders step forward and the winners finish fastest! How you finish in the end is what you and everyone else will remember. You have 3 months to complete your 2011 goals and to peak for Year End Activities. Get ready to shine because Change Your Body Boot Camps will help you get there. Here we go!

The last quarter of the year is themed, Fight Holiday Season Weight Gain before It Starts. The final Quarter brings many wonderful things like a return to routines, great holidays and holiday themed parties, the changing of seasons and some not so wonderful things like stress, sickness, overeating, sugar, less sleep, overworking, cold weather and potentially more sedentary activities. To combat this and create a new habit we will introduce a pro-active approach to the fall season, the holidays and life in general by mentally and physically preparing by

• scheduling extra workout(s) and workout time,
• combining social outings with family and friends with workout times (everyone needs to train and most everyone needs to fight holiday season weight gain),
• decreasing training intensity when stress increases, but still making time for activity
• moving around for 10 minutes every 50 minutes like in college
• creating caloric deficits by eating less before and after big splurge meals,
• throwing away tempting treats before weak moments occur,
• putting fork/spoon down in between bites,
• eating only until your 80% full,
• eating green vegetables at every meal especially after splurge meals
• saying NO to unimportant time sucking tasks or opportunities,
• washing hands more frequently,
• never touching face or licking fingers unless you just washed your hands,

and then executing these, one habit and day at a time.

To Fight Holiday Season Weight Gain before It Starts your program will have a weight loss / fat loss emphasis and will include exercises and conditioning drills to help you to peak for triathlon and endurance events, to peak for soccer and flag football seasons and to prepare you for basketball and winter sports seasons if you choose to participate. The workouts will alternate endurance rep ranges (12-30) which are good for weight loss with hypertrophy rep ranges (8-12) which are good for fat loss.

Here is a table to demonstrate how exercise tempos will be periodized over the final quarter.

One key reason for the increased emphasis on the weight loss / endurance rep ranges is to not make you feel so sore you don’t want to be active, but rather to make you feel good so you’ll have the energy and the mobility to run around living life and doing “stuff”. Hard training like we did during the summer months which left you very sore was intentional because we were working on beach bodies. We haven’t stopped working on beach bodies as I’d like for you to be beach ready year round, but you’re more likely to be sedentary during the colder months if your body is sore vs. in the summer months when they weather is great.

Another way we’ll fight holiday season weight gain is through our Burn & Earn & Bonus Workouts

CYBBC Bonus Week: 10/31/1 – 11/4/11
Dates, Times and Locations TBD
Bonus Week Rates: $60/3day, $44/2day, $25/1day
Bring Usual Equipment
*CYBBC current members only

Thanksgiving Day Burn & Earn Workout
8am, Thursday, November 24, 2011
Mackenzie Center-Gym
1337 Centre St, Newton, MA 02459
$20
Bring Usual Equipment
*Boot Campers and Guests Welcome w/ Advanced Registration

In summary, if you take a proactive approach in Fighting Holiday Season Weight Gain, every year you’ll be able to say 1 of 2 things: either I lost weight again this year or I maintained my weight again this year. That’s saying something BIG when the norm is for people say they gain a couple of pounds every year.

Quarterly Overview:  Q3, ‘11

This quarter the goal is to switch from fat loss based programming to fat loss-muscle building and performance, but before I explain further we need to establish a baseline understanding of how Change Your Body Boot Camps is structured.  Overall it’s designed to take out of shape, overweight people to their best shape, in the fastest time possible while making it fun, safe and sustainable.

+

=

BASELINE UNDERSTANDING

Click here to read the baseline understanding of what CYBBC can and cannot do, what weight loss vs. fat loss programming looks like, what’s the difference between the two and how abs are made in the kitchen.  Go ahead and click here for a refresher.

WL & FL vs. Fat Loss-Muscle Building and Performance Programming

Now that you know the subtle differences between Weight Loss (WL) programming and Fat Loss (FL) programming, Fat Loss-Muscle Building and Performance Programming (FL-MB-P)is where your training takes it to the ultimate level and the timing is just right because its summer, when you’ll be wearing the least amount of clothing in public and being more active outdoors.  Its beach season so you’ll want beach muscles and it’s a big sports season, so you’ll want to perform at a higher level and peak for your playoffs, races and fall pre-seasons.  Your programming will continue to use the same equipment we’ve always used and the same rep ranges (hypertrophy, 8-12 reps, and endurance, 12+ reps), but we’ll be intentionally differentiating workout days between strength & acceleration days.  The strength days will be hypertrophy workouts (8-12 reps), but they’ll also include some strength (3-7 reps) and power (1-5 reps) days.  We can’t yet bring in 125 lb. dumbbells, but we can use your body weight more effectively and chose more challenging exercises that you might only be able to do 1-7 times in the allotted time.  This would represent a strength workout and have a similar whole body system response.

The acceleration days will use movements that require a bit less skill and/or use a bit less weight so you can focus on accelerating as fast as possible.  When you want to develop Force, the equation reads, Force = Mass x Acceleration, but it mine as well read when you want to build muscle, get stronger and perform better = lift heavy x lift fast.  And if you want to lose fat, while building muscle, getting stronger and performing better, lift heavy x lift fast and take minimal rest.   The strength workouts will cover the mass portion and the acceleration or endurance rep range days will cover the, obvious acceleration portion.

We’ll include exercises (some isolation movements), tempo and exercise order designed to get the beach muscles popping and we’ll add an extra workout day (Workout D) or 2 (abs) to your weekly schedule so you can peak now.  We’ll use drop sets, finishers and dynamic interrupts to help get us there fastest.

Our in class cardio workouts we’ll compliment the above goals and we’ll use themes (workouts/exercises) from soccer, volleyball and running based sports so you can peak for them as well.

All in all, this will be the most challenging quarter to date of 2011, the quarter in which your physical potential is pushed, pulled and stretched to its limits and a driving motivator for you to make abs in the kitchen so you can have beach muscles, be beach ready and peak your performance this summer instead of next summer.

Summary

In summary, as the weather, seasons and sports change so will your programming.  You’ll be more active in the better climates, so I’ll challenge you accordingly.  This will result in increased soreness (you’ll feel like a rookie again), but your body will adapt and provide exciting new changes and you’ll continue to lose weight or lose fat depending on your goal, nutrition consumption and cardio efforts.  Either way, enjoy the process, your teammates, your experience and the pursuit of your genetic potential and the limitless and bountiful rewards it brings.

Your coach,

Mike Alves

p.s. if you have a question or would like to comment please post it below.

p.p.s.  How’s your training going so far this month?

Saturday, June 11 upon completion of all measurements, which start at 7am, will be Quarterly Testing.  If you’re being measured, you’ll want to bring a protein, carb shake or smoothee with you to consume prior to testing.  Less is more in this case and if you want to have caffeine, you can, but not until after you’re measured if measuring.

Remember, physical testing tracks your strength & conditioning performance by testing your anaerobic conditioning, your lower body and upper body strength endurance, local muscle endurance and aerobic conditioning.

Go ahead and click “Buy Now” below to sign up for Quarterly Testing.

Quarterly Overview

This quarter the goal is to switch from primarily weight loss based programming to fat loss based programming, but before I explain further we need to establish a baseline understanding of how Change Your Body Boot Camps is structured.  Overall it’s designed to take out of shape, overweight people to their best shape, in the fastest time possible while making it sustainable, fun and safe.

BASELINE UNDERSTANDING

• We use light weights -compared to, what you might be able to lift for 1 set of 5 reps, what you might want to carry to class or what you might find in a gym (125 lb. dumbbells for example) which prevents you from building muscle at a faster rate, which can increase your metabolism to a greater rate, but also increase your chances of gaining unwanted bulk or size, but as always, this depends on what you do in the kitchen.

• We take minimal to no rest, which prevents you from recovering fully, so you can’t lift maximum weights and therefore reduces your chance of putting on a lot of muscle, gaining size or bulk that you may not want, moving slower (sometimes, not always, when you’re big you move slower) and becoming sorer than you ever thought possible.  (yes it’s possible to be more sore than you’ve been in class)

• We choose total body, multi-joint, compound movement workouts which burn more calories during a workout and after compared to split routines like upper body, lower body, chest & back, arms, legs & shoulders, etc…and therefore helps you to lose weight & get in your best shape faster.

• We run around, which is really bad if you want to keep weight on, put on more weight or build more muscle.  Expending a lot of calories is bad if those are your goals.

• We give you outside of class cardio goals which are counterintuitive if you want to build muscle and gain weight.

• We stretch, roll and do corrective exercises to keep you loose, healthy and elastic, which reduce bulk and makes for long lines and long muscles.

• We teach nutrition for weight loss, for fat loss and for performance and muscle building goals, which can complement at least one of your goals.

Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss Programming

Now that we’ve done that, why was the 1^st quarter about weight loss programming, why was the 2nd quarter about fat loss programming and why is the 3^rd quarter about fat loss-muscle building and performance programming, what’s the difference and will I still lose weight if I want to?

The 1^st quarter was about Weight Loss Programming because we were starting a new year and coming off the holiday season, where some more than others may have enjoyed far too many calorie rich meals and not enough (at least proportionally) calorie burning activities.  The reps were higher in nature (12-30 reps per set) or an endurance based rep range, which leaves one less sore if at all, compared to fat loss programming.  This was important because if you’re sore when it’s cold out or if we have an accumulation of snow like we did this year, you’re less likely to get moving and more likely to sit on your butt.  Sitting because your sore, means you’re not burning calories like you could be and that’s bad for weight loss.

The reps in this quarter will still be high, but the trend will move downwards to lower reps or more specifically hypertrophy (8-12) and strength rep (5-8) ranges.  Hypertrophy means your muscles pump up with blood and stays that way as long as you train that way.  This means shape for woman and buff for men.  This is good for fat loss because not only will you burn more calories during a workout, but you’ll burn more calories at rest and at rest, or sleep or at times when our heart rate is 59% or less of our Max Heart Rate, is when we burn the most fat.  And if we’re burning fat calories at a greater rate following this type of workout compared to the 1^st quarter or to not training, even though initially we’ll be sorer, we’ll not only preserve our lean muscle or add to it, which promotes an increase in resting metabolic rate, but we’ll decrease our body fat percent as well and if you’re doing your work in the kitchen and on your cardio minutes, you’ll lose weight too.

What’s the difference?

What’s the difference between weight loss programming and fat loss programming?  That’s a good question, who asked that.  (Joke)  Both programs are going to use total body, multi-joint compound movements like Burpees, lunges, dead lifts, squats, rows, pushups, step ups, overhead presses, etc…but weight loss programs will be more continuous with next to no rest, whereas fat loss programs will be continuous with some rest.  Weight loss programs will be primarily high rep ranges or endurance based rep ranges (12-30+ reps) and fat loss programs will be more of a hybrid.  Some endurance based rep ranges, some hypertrophy and some strength.  You might even argue power rep ranges (1-5 reps) can be used here, but in most cases they won’t fit in our class, at least not yet.

Also, the exercises will be simpler for weight loss and gradually become more challenging and skillful for fat loss.

Now, remember all of the bullet points above.  Regardless of your goal, the season or the time you became a boot camp member, unless of course your goal is to get bigger (as in move up in dress, shirt or pant sizes), to be a body builder, to be a power lifter, to train for something very specific like tackle football, a mixed martial arts fight or to rehab an injury, then you can lose weight, lose fat, maintain weight and improve performance while on this program.  It’s that special.

Abs Are Made in the Kitchen

And of course, regardless of the goal, what you do or don’t do in the kitchen makes all the difference.  If you want to lose weight, move more and eat less.  If you want to gain weight, move less and eat more.  If you want to lose fat, lift heavy and/or move fast, take little to know rest, do interval based conditioning and come to the nutrition discussion (or buy Precision Nutrition).

In summary, as the weather, seasons and sports change so will your programming.  You’ll be more active in the better climates, so I’ll challenge you accordingly.  This will result in increased soreness (you’ll feel like a rookie again), but your body will adapt and provide exciting new changes and you’ll continue to lose weight or lose fat depending on your goal, nutrition consumption and cardio efforts.  Either way, enjoy the process, your teammates, your experience and the pursuit of your genetic potential and the limitless and bountiful rewards it brings.

Your coach,

Mike Alves

p.s.  if you have a question or would like to comment please post it below.

p.p.s.  How’s your training going so far this month?