This week for #WorkoutWednesday we caught up with Bio-Synergy ambassador and fitness competitor Mark Matthews who gave us some exclusive inside tips on getting lean and dropping your body fat percentage this summer.
At the moment a lot of physique athletes are well under way into their summer competition cut (including myself). Along with this comes the dreaded thought of competition cardio. There is a lot of back and forward arguments in the fitness community about which form of cardio is the best for losing fat and keeping that well-earned muscle, don’t get me wrong you can still get in excellent condition with resistance training and nutrition tracking alone but to get to stage worthy condition I believe that some form of cardio is a must.
Getting to a lower body fat percentage is achieved by expending more calories than you are taking in, this can be achieved by eating less; however, you will probably find that you will struggle with lethargy and the want to weight train, adding cardio allows you to increase your calorie intake and in a sense convince your body that you are not actually in a calorie deficit.
The two main types of cardio frequently used during competition prep are:
Steady state
Which involves working at a low or moderate intensity for a longer period of time while keeping your heart rate around – 60% to 70% of maximum heart rate.
High intensity interval training (HIIT
Which is thought to be more muscle conserving but it is very demanding and can impact recovery. You would usually work within two intensities, one at 85% of your maximum heart rate and the other at around 60%, and work between them.
What works the best? I tend to lean to HIIT (the old comparison between looking at the body of a sprinter and the body of a long distance runner always comes to mind) on the Thai bag but that is mainly from coming from my MMA background and the fact that I like to hit things lol
However I believe both can be used to your advantage depending on the time available to train, how drained you are feeling and the time you have for recovery before your next weight session. My training time is sparse and I want to spend my available time resistance training on the build up to a competition. I don’t want to have to spend an extra hour in the gym getting my cardio done.
This Wednesdays workout is one of the toughest I have devised and my Strength and Conditioning class can attest to this, this workout takes around half and hour including rest periods but it’s all you need for the day in terms of a fast paced, give it everything you have got, high intensity session! Perform the following exercise in a circuit fashion as many times as you can in ten minutes
• 10 Close to wide push up or clap push up
• 5 burpees
• 40 KB swings
• 20 Renegade Rows
• 40 mountain climbers
Doesn’t sound too taking does it? Add in my personal favourite of 20 second sprints every 2 minutes and you might change your mind. Rest 5 minutes after competition and go one more round.
I usually add on a finisher of a Tabata circuit which would be 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest 8 times. Today I will be doing ground and pound on the MMA ground bag.
• Main Circuit - as many rounds as possible in 10 minutes. X 2
• 10 Close to wide push up or clap push up
• 5 Burpees
• 40 KB swings
• 20 Renegade Rows
• 40 mountain climbers
(Sprints every 2 mins)
• Tabata ground and pound finisher - 20 seconds of work – 10 seconds rest. 8 times
If you decide to go for today’s workout , please let us know how you got on and how many circuits you managed in the 10 minute period. Thanks for reading and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch on Mark's Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/markmatthewsfit. Additionally, you can find more exclusive workouts, recipes and advice on sports supplements on the official Bio-Synergy Facebook page and Twitter. #MakeItHappen
