-: And then the last slide here.
So if you've got questions, start plopping them in there.
Tips and tricks of the trade,
all of my super deep secrets.
If you want a hotter flame, use better fuel,
carb it up.
So if you're doing local metabolic this is not the time
to be carb phobic.
This is not the time to test how lower carbs you can go,
and this is the scenario...
And when you're doing these phases, they aren't very long.
So, this is one of those places
where I will occasionally break the rules of how low
I will go in fat,
because you know if I'm trying to push a deficit or whatnot,
I wanna make sure I got enough protein.
I wanna make sure I have carbohydrates.
If I do go low in fat, I'm gonna make sure my sources of fat
are very high quality,
and I'm not gonna do that for very long.
But going lower in fat for like two weeks
while you're doing a ton of carbohydrates
and really just pushing this type of training,
is not gonna be like deleterious to somebody
if they're getting quality fats and stuff
during the other phases, right?
Now, going 12 weeks of doing, you know,
crazy metabolic and systemic type training,
and everything else that you know,
is stereotypically associated with a fat loss
and you're like eating, like you know way too little fat,
that's where you're gonna start to see hormonal issues,
mental issues, all sorts of problems from too little fat.
Use failure as a volume limiter.
So, what I like to do and I've done a couple talks on this
is say like I'm doing an IRM method or something like that,
is that I may write, you know, whatever,
I may write that it's gonna be eight sets of eight
but if I hit the degree of failure at six
or seven on the sets,
that's the end.
'Cause the goal, is to get to the failure point.
The goal is not to accumulate a specific amount of volume.
The goal is to accumulate the metabolic stimulus.
So, you can kind of put that,
"Hey, our goal is to do this and to hit failure
at this point, right?"
If you hit failure sooner, stop there.
If you're getting towards the end
and you haven't hit failure,
push a little harder until you get to that failure.
So it may need that you needed a ninth set
or you go over the reps or over the load
or whatever on that last set to make sure that man,
you know, maybe I undercut the middle of the volume
a little bit but I'm still gonna make sure
that I get to that end point.
So make the failure, the conclusion goal of the you know,
the number of sets or you know the degree of reps et cetera
that you do,
rather than just what's on paper because,
that's ultimately what we're trying to accomplish.
Is we're trying to get to that degree of you know,
metabolic fatigue, which we're measuring in this case
by failure over time.
You know, by accumulation of that density of work.
Don't underestimate the power of
exercise selection and tempo.
Exercise selection is gonna be a huge difference
between how much,
like how much soreness you're producing,
versus how much metabolic stimulus you're getting.
So the one below this
is kind of a tag on top of that.
Range of motion is more important than resistance profile
if you have to choose between the two
when it comes to choosing better exercises for,
like getting a metabolic stimulus
and avoiding that soreness and those dumps.
So that means that a reverse banded hacks squat
for quads is not as good
as a shitty resistance profile leg extension.
You would choose the shitty leg extension,
even though its resistance profile would be heavy
at the bottom and light at the top
the range of motion would supersede
the resistance profile in terms of importance.
So, use that as part of a guide to be really good
at your exercise selection.
Be like okay,
"First thing I wanna do is I wanna bias this muscle
towards working in the short position
and working away from its length and position."
If I can get the resistance profile to also be biased
in the short position, awesome.
But if I have to choose between
either a short biased range of motion
versus a short bias resistance profile,
I'm gonna choose the short biased range of motion,
and then on top of that,
you know especially if I have a poor resistance profile,
and that's where tempo can really come in
or using one and a quarter reps or things like that.
It's just like, well, if I can get to the range of motion,
I can use tempo to make up for a crappy resistance profile
'cause my goal is really metabolic work, not maximal
you know, like neurological or any of those things
so I can use time more effectively here than I can
and I need higher loads to drive the stimulus.
So, those are my kind of
extra coaches tips on there.
And now we will
get to some of these questions, all right.
Louis asks, and I never know,
when your Louise and Louis',
I'd never know which one it is.
So if I say your guy's names wrong, I apologize, right?
Is it normal for clients to have a lot
of soreness in week one even after coming
from a heavier phase
than it is then for it to drop off in week two,
or should local soreness never be very high?
So if they're sore week one,
chances are you overshot week one.
But if then it drops by week two,
you probably didn't overshoot it by that much.
And it probably means that you overshot it by,
you just gave a little too much volume in week one,
but your exercise selection was probably still decent.
That's what's probably happening in those scenarios.
So, if that's something that you're commonly getting
then you're probably being a little, maybe too aggressive
with the volume or pushing them too close to failure
in the very first week of this.
And so maybe you should
have your programs to be a little bit more progressive,
so starting a little bit lower and maybe then
working your way up a little bit more over the course.
Would I say two weeks tops for an AMPK phase?
No, I wouldn't say two weeks tops per say,
it really, I mean, you have to really
consider like what you want to accomplish in there, right?
'Cause, somebody could run an AMPK phase for four weeks
especially if they're really doing it
for body composition goals.
But if you're just using it to potentiate
for hypertrophy, basically you wanna like
get your adaptations and then get on and get out.
So in that case, then you're gonna error odd
you know like not staying longer
in which case yeah, probably two weeks is gonna be plenty
for the majority of situations.
But there may be times that you could extend that, you know,
to maybe four weeks,
if you're working with more of a body composition person
and then you also just have to consider like, you know,
if a real beginner comes in there,
they probably have a longer time that they can stay
in that stimulus because they're getting like,
they may be getting some hypertrophy
adaptations and everything.
If you have a general population beginner
that's just coming in and you just happen to choose this
as a starting point,
they may have a lot more progression that they can make
within that phase.
Then you can somebody that's fairly well conditioned.
Chap asks, would local conditioning
improve sprint repeat sport?
Sprint repeat sports use
often hit is cardio,
could use them together.
So, I mean, here's the thing, is that,
if they're currently doing that,
then you're probably not gonna be able
to add much more stimulus to that, you know.
Now, if this is like an off season
and they're not currently doing their sprint and hit work,
then potentially yes.
Then this could be something that could improve that.
But with sprints,
sprints are generally gonna be
more systemically limited.
I mean, it kind of depends on how long, right?
So, I mean,
obviously if they're just doing hills so,
pretty much I would say if we use distance, right?
Like once you get to 400 meters,
systemic might have a bigger impact than local,
you know, but anything under than that
then local probably could have a big impact on that.
Could we use local conditioning
to potentiate for game day
if you want to use it in a phase
where you put this in an athlete?
So here's the problem with using like
an AMPK phase
for performance-based sports is like a direct potentiation
mechanism like that is,
in general it tends not to be very specific
to their sport per say,
and then the other thing is you have to consider is,
the body weight and stuff like that shift.
So, you have to consider whether or not that would have,
you know, 'cause let's take the soccer for example, right?
And say you decide, Oh, you got a game coming up,
so I'm gonna throw you in an AMPK phase,
and we're just gonna get your quads
just like pumped and full.
That may not be better for soccer performance.
That's, you know, by the time you look at the weight,
and maybe you're pushing them to be
a little bit more glycolytic than they need to be,
you know, et cetera so,
really have to take this on a case by case basis.
How would the weight affect them?
How similar is the energy system demands et cetera?
You know, in general I would say, you know,
improving local conditioning,
you would be better off having AMPK stuff like, you know,
towards the end of the off season maybe something like that,
before they started their more specific conditioning.
But I wouldn't use it as like an in season
like getting ready for game day tool, all right.
Curtis asks, how to decide between sets and rep ranges.
Is it really just rest periods that drive the AMPK?
Well no, it's not just,
it's a harmony between them Curtis so,
it's about having high enough
output on the work side,
and then a low enough rest side,
so that, between those two,
the net is that you're driving that
ATP concentration really low
so that you can get AMP up, right?
So it's a marriage, it's not one of the other
it's gotta be a marriage between the two.
So, and that's why you can accomplish this with a variety
of rep ranges and rest intervals and sets.
Like there's a lot of ways,
to get there because as one thing goes up
another thing can adjust to compensate,
which gives you the ability to get an AMPK stimulus
using six reps, or using 12 reps,
as long as you get the sets and reps
to kind of work with that.
So it's just about everything being in the right ratio.
So obviously like lower, lower reps,
you're probably gonna have to use a few more sets.
Higher reps you may not need as many sets
because you're able to dig a little bit deeper
into that metabolic fatigue,
with a lighter load, right?
So it'll take more sets to dig that deep
with the lower reps.
All right Curtis says,
so on the slides hitting over stimulus
would be your indicator that they have stayed in the AMPK
phase long enough.
No, so long enough, like in terms of AMPK,
this is why you have to decide
why did you go into the AMK phase, right?
Did you go into it for body composition?
Did you go into it for potentiation, et cetera?
So, obviously if you're going into it for body fat
like body fat can be your main thing, right?
I mean, obviously
if that thing is improving at the rate
and whatever you want it, and everything is going good
then you may not have to like say,
okay while we're leaving this,
even though we're making amazing improvements in body comp
but from a hypertrophy perspective
what I'm looking for,
is I'm looking for those signs
that I've gotten the body shifted over
to that nutrient partitioning.
So, I'm looking to see like, okay, is the person more full?
Are we now to the point where like,
we've gotten decent performance improvements
so that I know right now we are currently better
at recovering between sets,
or I know that we're currently tolerating
volume and fatigue better, right?
So that's what I'm looking for,
is the signs that I've gotten enough of the performance,
and enough of the adaptations
that now I can take that and be in a better spot
when I go and do my other programming, okay?
So the end mark
when you're trying to use this as a conditioning tool,
would be specific to the conditioning.
The end mark when you're trying to use this
as a potentiation from hypertrophy is,
have I kind of like gotten to the point where I've, you know
really filled up my muscle tissues?
So you could use,
you could be looking at water retention,
and body weight and whatnot, and actually be trying to see
like you might be trying to drive somebody's weight up
during the AMPK phase.
And then when that kind of plateaus,
we know that like, okay, we've capped off,
like we're at the top of the cup here,
in terms of how much water glycogen substrate
that these muscles can hold, cool,
now let's go and take that and smash them
hypertrophy workouts with it.
Adrian asks, is AMPK training the best
for peak week carb-up?
So, that is typically what I use,
is I will use that.
But it's not always.
So the best comes down to the individual situation.
And it also depends on,
how far out you stop your training, et cetera.
'Cause sometimes I will have AMPK phase
going into it but then the last couple of workouts
will kind of just be like neuro almost
because they're kind of more like maintaining into the show
really avoiding any possibility of inflammation,
and actually not wanting to deplete any more carbohydrates
basically just trying to get the body to maintain.
So they may have like neuro the week before the show
but actually show week, they kind of,
I mean they might have AMPK the week before the show,
but the actual show week, they have like
two or three workouts that are kind of like
almost like de-load workouts where we're doing
like neuro type training, but like, you know, lower volume
you know, type of thing, like more of a, you know
hitting more muscle groups per session,
but like doing it low volume, but high intensity.
So different ways to do that.
At some point if there's you know,
there's enough interest then who knows
maybe we'll teach a contest prep course as well.
But I mean, to be honest,
you'll be surprised at how much it is
just kind of using the very principles that we taught
in course two.
(whooshing sound)