AboutJohn Izzo Expertise I can help answer any questions related to muscle development, muscle activation, fat loss, core strength, balance, spinal stability, warm-up, and proper exercise progression and execution. Most answers can be found on my website: www.standAPARTfitness.com
Please do not ask for a specific workout plan. In this field, I need to SEE you and evaluate your current physical capabilities. Answering such questions without assessing your needs and goals through a consultation would be irresponsible of me. Please be clear and concise in your questions. The more info you can give me, the more specific info I can provide.
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Expert: John Izzo Date: 4/9/2007 Subject: High reps and muscle maintenance
Question QUESTION: I've eaten a bit too much recently and have noticed some fat accumulation. I intend to work on burning that off. My question pertains to the maintenance of muscle tissue. You see, for some reason, I don't really ever get all that into weight training, but I love old-fashioned bodyweight calisthenics. I would like to continue doing my cal workouts and not do weight training, but am concerned that cals are not enough to maintain muscle. I’ve heard that high reps don’t activate enough muscle fibers, and muscle mass loss will occur. Is this true, or are high reps effective for preventing muscle loss? My concern with potential muscle loss is any lowering of my metabolic rate.
In terms of exercise goals, I'm not going for max strength personal records, just max rep personal records in cals. (I just tested yesterday at 75 pushups and 25 pullups, and would like to progress much higher.)
Can I continue with my current calisthenic workouts and maintain my muscle?
ANSWER: This is real easy. YOu can mainatin the present muscle mass you have now by performing your calisthenics on a regular basis. However, in order to increase those rep numbers...you are going to have to include some weight training or external loads (weighted vest, dumbbells, or bands). You should check out www.bodyweightculture.com...
they have great info on this stuff. Tell them John from stand APART sent ya!
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QUESTION: I found the following from T-Nation (sorry about the length):
“In a deprived caloric state your body will need a real good reason to keep its energy-costly muscle mass. Going from a heavy lifting regimen to an easier (as far as muscle tension production goes) high reps/lighter weights approach will not force it to preserve its muscle mass. The muscle used to need its mass to move heavy shit, now you're only asking it to move light weights so there is no need for that big engine anymore.”
“High-intensity strength exercises (in the 70-100% range) are better than low intensity strength exercises (in the 40-70% range) while dieting. The higher training loads help you preserve strength and muscle while on a hypocaloric diet much better than super-high volume/low intensity workouts.
To keep your hard-earned muscle mass you must give the body a reason to do so. Will lifting light weights do it? No. You need to continue to lift heavy, otherwise some muscle will go to waste!
…while on a hypocaloric diet your body has a lowered anabolic drive, meaning that it can't synthesize as much protein into muscle as it does when you're eating a ton. A super-high volume of work leads to a lot of microtrauma to the muscle structures; a lot of microtrauma requires a great protein synthesis increase, which your body can't do at this point.
So if you use high-volume/low-intensity training while dieting, you'll break down more muscle and build up less. Not exactly good news!”
Of course, I haven’t been doing prior lifting, so loss of muscle gained from prior hypertrophic training is not an issue. My concern is that I will lose from the muscle fibers not activated by the lower intensity exercises that would be activated by higher loads. I was thinking that a small deficit of a few hundred calories would prevent any real loss. I’m not looking to get shredded, just trim off some fat. Should I be concerned with what is mentioned above?
Answer If you haven't done any prior lifting, you have nothing to worry about.The T-nation article best suits lifters with 3+ years experience banging out weights. You have to give whatever program you try time to work. You can't expect changes overnight, and you can't apply everything to you. make modifications (caloires, frequency, and loads) to acomodate your progress.
