Opinions Wanted on recent Advice from Trainer

LoveActually
LoveActually Posts: 177 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I was approached by a trainer at my gym who I will now refer to as "Robo-Trainer". He is massive. He told me I worked out like a man. LOL! My goal is simple, I want to trade my fat for muscle.

He suggested a few things to me and for you experienced peeps out there, please let me know if this will better help me to accomplish my goal.

1. I need to increase the intensity and shorten the duration of my cardio workouts.
2. Supersets are my friend.
3. HIIT - Is this the same as Supersets?

He gave me some routines to do for upper and lower body and said I should be done after about 25 minutes. I usually spend an hour to an hour and a half in the gym. Can I get the results I want by speeding up the process with supersets?

And any other advice anyone may have is greatly appreciate. Thanks!

Replies

  • kerriknox
    kerriknox Posts: 276 Member
    SOunds right to me. My trainer said the same thing last year. Unfortunately I then moved and never got into them with him.
  • mynameiscarrie
    mynameiscarrie Posts: 963 Member
    I only know one thing you're asking, and that is that HIIT is not the same as supersets.
    HIIT is increasing the intensity of an exercise for x amount of time.
    Supersets (At least the way I was taught) are doing a set of multiple exercises (a "push" and a "pull" of the same area) back to back then resting. EX: bicep curls and tricep extensions. 10 of each without a rest between the two. then a break. then a set of each. then a break etc...

    HIIT would be doing as many pushups as possible for 20 seconds then slow for 10 then fast for 20 etc...
  • healthymission92
    healthymission92 Posts: 157
    I'm no expert but I use to have a p.t and we did supersets (usually squats with barbell then straight into walking lunges with weights) they only lasted 40mins and I done it 2x a week and lost over 8% bodyfat :)
  • denitraross
    denitraross Posts: 325 Member
    I would tend to agree with what he is aiming for ..higher intensity for better results. Supersets are great as they shorten you time needed for working out (that is no rest in between needed) also your heart rate will stay up when doing them...and HIT training is great for burning calories, your heart rate is up and down constantly...I go to a bootcamp that is structured all around different interval training and the class kicks *kitten* for sure!!
  • KarmaxKitty
    KarmaxKitty Posts: 901 Member
    I'm no expert but I use to have a p.t and we did supersets (usually squats with barbell then straight into walking lunges with weights) they only lasted 40mins and I done it 2x a week and lost over 8% bodyfat :)

    How long did the 8% take you to lose doing this? (I don't want to hijack the thread...my message won't send for some reason...)
  • kariebo
    kariebo Posts: 101
    Not a pro but my husband *loves* the gym (its probably the only thing that could take him away from me) and is always saying that upping the intensity rather than lengthening duration is the way to go... it puts a demand on the muscles that makes them 'jump' into action -- at least thats how he explains it to me. I did the HIIT -- which is basically what has already been said.. increasing intensity then going back... kind of a toggle if you will... and have had good results - i believe it actually got me past my last little hump... I did 3 minutes of elliptical at about 6mph then did 1 minute as fast as I could (which was about 10mph) and just did that for 30 minutes (at 3 i did a minute full out, also at 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27... it left me finishing 28 - 30 at a regular pace).

    Overall, based on what I have implemented into my exercise and what my husband has been advising me on --- Id say the advice was good and warrants a good try...
  • akaOtherWise
    akaOtherWise Posts: 110 Member
    It's really about diet. The work out won't be what determines if you gain muscle or lose fat. Also, despite what people think, it's almost impossible for you to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. It can happen when people first start training but if you've been training for a while, it's more than likely not going to happen.

    If you want to gain muscle, you simply need to eat more. Progressive tension overload in the gym will be your friend along with a calorie surplus.

    HIIT helps with burning fat, yes...but if you have your diet right and your training is right you should be able to gain muscle while putting on very little fat. It's best to try and put on muscle and then after that you go on a "cut" to lose the fat you have put on.

    increasing intensity and lowering duration of cardio can also lead to a equal amount of calories burned...it just gets in done in a faster amount of time.

    Supersets aren't needed. I only suggest supersets to clients that are short on time and need to get out of the gym faster.
  • Goal_Line
    Goal_Line Posts: 474 Member
    All good advice. Everything I do is supersets. if lifting light with multi reps only give yourself 30-45 seconds rest between sets. You'll be shocked at how intense such a work out can be.
  • lckunz
    lckunz Posts: 56 Member
    Sounds like HIIT could stand for High Intensity Interval Training. Just a guess.
  • Lmfloyd28
    Lmfloyd28 Posts: 24 Member
    It's really about diet. The work out won't be what determines if you gain muscle or lose fat. Also, despite what people think, it's almost impossible for you to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. It can happen when people first start training but if you've been training for a while, it's more than likely not going to happen.

    If you want to gain muscle, you simply need to eat more. Progressive tension overload in the gym will be your friend along with a calorie surplus.

    HIIT helps with burning fat, yes...but if you have your diet right and your training is right you should be able to gain muscle while putting on very little fat. It's best to try and put on muscle and then after that you go on a "cut" to lose the fat you have put on.

    increasing intensity and lowering duration of cardio can also lead to a equal amount of calories burned...it just gets in done in a faster amount of time.

    Supersets aren't needed. I only suggest supersets to clients that are short on time and need to get out of the gym faster.

    So, after you've put on muscle, you suggest a cut to lose the fat - what's your take oon the best way to go about that?
  • akaOtherWise
    akaOtherWise Posts: 110 Member
    It's really about diet. The work out won't be what determines if you gain muscle or lose fat. Also, despite what people think, it's almost impossible for you to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. It can happen when people first start training but if you've been training for a while, it's more than likely not going to happen.

    If you want to gain muscle, you simply need to eat more. Progressive tension overload in the gym will be your friend along with a calorie surplus.

    HIIT helps with burning fat, yes...but if you have your diet right and your training is right you should be able to gain muscle while putting on very little fat. It's best to try and put on muscle and then after that you go on a "cut" to lose the fat you have put on.

    increasing intensity and lowering duration of cardio can also lead to a equal amount of calories burned...it just gets in done in a faster amount of time.

    Supersets aren't needed. I only suggest supersets to clients that are short on time and need to get out of the gym faster.

    So, after you've put on muscle, you suggest a cut to lose the fat - what's your take oon the best way to go about that?

    on adding muscle, cutting the fat after, or both? lol
  • iWaffle
    iWaffle Posts: 2,208 Member
    1. I need to increase the intensity and shorten the duration of my cardio workouts.
    Sounds good. Excessive long cardio is a negative for muscle building. I don't do more than 30 minutes at a time.
    2. Supersets are my friend.
    Supersets are a good tool for really working out a specific muscle group. It's not the end all but it's good for shaking things up and challenging your body in a new way.
    3. HIIT - Is this the same as Supersets?
    HIIT is High Intensity Interval training. I think of it mostly in terms of cardio. Lets say you sprint for 2 minutes and then jog casually for 2 minutes to get your breath, then go back to sprinting.... repeat till done. I suppose you could do something like this with strength training.

    Supersets is adding a series of exercises for the same or similar muscle group back to back. As an example sometimes I do bench dumbbell press, and then switch to lying dumbbell extensions and then jump straight into push ups. That's one set of a superset.
    He gave me some routines to do for upper and lower body and said I should be done after about 25 minutes. I usually spend an hour to an hour and a half in the gym. Can I get the results I want by speeding up the process with supersets?
    Increasing the speed of your strength training is sort of like incorporating cardio with your strength training. It keeps your heart rate up. I like doing that from time to time because it does help burn a lot of calories but normally I do strength training with rest periods just long enough to be able to finish the next set successfully. I don't stress about doing it in record time. I don't personally think that works your muscle any better but hey, I'm not a trainer.


    As far as other advice. Speed can be a cool way to shake things up but never, never, never sacrifice posture and form to do the workout quicker. I popped a rib out of place on the leg press last week by not keeping proper form. You can seriously hurt yourself if you don't do the exercises correctly and keep the motion controlled and use proper form. The inertia of moving weight is more than the actual weight itself. Don't get sloppy or you'll pay dearly for it. If you need to cut time do it by reducing rest periods but again be careful to not be so focused on time that you get too tired to do the exercise properly.
  • LoveActually
    LoveActually Posts: 177 Member
    Great info everyone, thank you!
  • healthymission92
    healthymission92 Posts: 157
    I'm no expert but I use to have a p.t and we did supersets (usually squats with barbell then straight into walking lunges with weights) they only lasted 40mins and I done it 2x a week and lost over 8% bodyfat :)

    How long did the 8% take you to lose doing this? (I don't want to hijack the thread...my message won't send for some reason...)

    One month :) That was with a high protein, lower carb diet too
  • RuthieCass
    RuthieCass Posts: 247 Member
    I was approached by a trainer at my gym who I will now refer to as "Robo-Trainer". He is massive. He told me I worked out like a man. LOL! My goal is simple, I want to trade my fat for muscle.

    He suggested a few things to me and for you experienced peeps out there, please let me know if this will better help me to accomplish my goal.

    1. I need to increase the intensity and shorten the duration of my cardio workouts.
    2. Supersets are my friend.
    3. HIIT - Is this the same as Supersets?

    He gave me some routines to do for upper and lower body and said I should be done after about 25 minutes. I usually spend an hour to an hour and a half in the gym. Can I get the results I want by speeding up the process with supersets?

    And any other advice anyone may have is greatly appreciate. Thanks!

    I think he comes from a good motivation- you want to make sure that you're pushing yourself. But first, diet is going to be the most important factor when it comes to fat loss. So make sure you have that down. General recommendations are 1-1.5 g of protein per lb of lean body mass (total weigh- lbs of fat), .3-.7 g fat per lb, and the rest carbs (100 g + to avoid ketosis). Keep in mind that if you are doing a good amount of cardio, you may not want to cut carbs (or calories) too low. As for his other points:

    1. Depends on what you want to do. Do you want to increase your endurance? Then shortening your time is not necessarily the way to go. I do think you should periodically be increasing your distance/duration OR intensity. You do want to push yourself every workout, whether it is for endurance or intensity. If you're *just* trying to burn off fat, though, you probably don't need to do cardio for very long, though (30 min-45 min should be sufficient). Not that it's practically very important, but lower intensity cardio actually burns a higher % of fat than higher-intensity cardio. But this tends to not matter b/c low intensity is not very efficient for overall fat loss.

    2. Great way to cut down work out time. I have no idea whether doing supersets vs a longer workout with all the same exercises would give you different results. But very efficient.

    3. Not the same as supersets. You would do a high intensity cardio interval followed by a low intensity interval. Say you run really really fast for 45 seconds followed by walking or low-jogging for 30 seconds. These also give you an efficient workout, but I don't think it's necessarily better for fat loss.
    a) You can do steady cardio for longer (HIIT's should be maybe 10-20 mins long, depending on fitness level) and
    b) more frequently than HIIT without risking yourself to injury and tiring yourself out. (It's probably not a good idea to do more than 2 HIIT workouts per week.)
    c) Many people, especially many body builders, think that HIIT gives you a huge "after-burn" in comparison to steady-state cardio. But the difference is not very large in practical terms.
    d) You should already be relatively fit before you start doing HIIT (which it appears that you are). I've seen someone on here recommending HIIT to someone who just started working out after who-knows-how-long. Bad idea, IMO.
    I'd suggest you read this AND all the blue links for more info: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/stead-state-versus-intervals-finally-a-conclusion.html

    I think adding an occasional HIIT might be a good idea. But some people have found it too be too much pain for too little gain. On the other hand, some people hate longer cardio and would prefer to do HIIT. Try it and see what you think. A good start, assuming you're already fairly fit, might be to do the high intensity interval (very fast running) for 30 seconds and walk for 45-60 seconds. Repeat 10X. You may need to adjust the times depending on how you do on the 1st one. Then gradually shorten the low intensity/walking interval to 30 secs. Once you are at 30/30, you can try increasing the HI interval up to 45 secs (some go up to 60, but this should be REALLY hard if you're doing the HI intervals right).
  • Lmfloyd28
    Lmfloyd28 Posts: 24 Member
    HIIT helps with burning fat, yes...but if you have your diet right and your training is right you should be able to gain muscle while putting on very little fat. It's best to try and put on muscle and then after that you go on a "cut" to lose the fat you have put on.



    on adding muscle, cutting the fat after, or both? lol


    Haha - specifically, the "cut" you mentioned. I've been pretty successful with adding muscle, but not with losing excess weight. So things are fitting better, but the scale is not budging at all anymore and I want the gut gone. :)
    [/quote]
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member

    1. I need to increase the intensity and shorten the duration of my cardio workouts.
    2. Supersets are my friend.
    3. HIIT - Is this the same as Supersets?

    He gave me some routines to do for upper and lower body and said I should be done after about 25 minutes. I usually spend an hour to an hour and a half in the gym. Can I get the results I want by speeding up the process with supersets?

    1. Yes
    2. Yes.
    3. No (HIIT is not supersetting. It's more in line with #1, shortening and intensifying your cardio.

    90 mins is WAAAAAY too long to be at the gym, even if it includes your cardio. I'm relatively strong and I'm done in 45 mins, sometimes 30 if it's Friday. If I do some sort of HIIT cardio add another 24 mins to the entire thing.

    Take his advice. Hit everything hard(er), and get out of there and do something more interesting with the extra time he just found for you.

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