Sample RPFL (Rapid & Perpetual Fat Loss) Workout

Sample RPFL
(Rapid & Perpetual Fat Loss)
Workout
First thing’s first: When you’re training for Rapid AND Perpetual fat
loss, you have to have a plan.
And that plan follows a very logical and thought out process. It’s not haphazard and it’s
not random.
In other words, it’s more than just “doing some swings.”
(Swings are great, by the way – they have they’re place. It’s just because they’re so
overused in the KB community, we have to challenge the body with other, less popular,
and more demanding exercises to create the change we desire.)
There is a sequence to promoting rapid and perpetual fat loss – both dietary and
training. We’re not going to go into detail on the dietary side of things right now, we’re
just going to cover the training portion – the workout.
That being said, there are 4 major phases to this type of program – and this is why most
people completely fail at doing this – they don’t know these phases exist and therefore
they don’t do them. (Duh, right, I know, pretty self-explanatory, but I just had to point
that out anyway...)
Here they are:
Phase 1: Priming
Phase 2: Accelerant
Phase 3: Transition
Phase 4: Maintenance
Phase 1: Priming
In this phase we are priming the body to use fat for fuel. So the nutrition and the training
reflect that. Again, I won’t get into the nutrition too much, but one of the things we use to
do this is what I call “strategic carbohydrate cycling” – where we use very specific carbs
for a very specific purpose at very specific times.
Copyright 2014. Geoff Neupert. Kettlebell Secrets. Worldwide Rights Reserved.
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Phase 1 training is what can be thought of as “tri-phasic” in nature – there are 3
components and each component has a different purpose – whether to stimulate the
production of a certain hormone in your body (or group of hormones) or to stimulate a
part of your central nervous system to speed along the adaptation process by actively
promoting recovery. Or maybe to take advantage of hormonal changes that occur by
specifically structuring the training a specific way – regardless, what you need to know
is, there is a method to the madness, which I’m about to explain.
The first two phases, or parts, are simple:
Part 1: Force Production
This is where we lift heavy with whole-body lifts.
And we use short (-ish) rest periods. The purpose is to access the Type 2b fibers and
drive up the testosterone levels.
(Kramer, et al, demonstrated that testosterone levels increased with low rep, heavy –
around 85% of RM – short rest period, multi-joint exercises.)
Testosterone, if you’ll recall, is what puts muscle on guys. And yes, ladies have “T” too,
just nowhere near as much as men, but this still works great for them. Why? Because of
the energy demand from the Type 2b fibers (those energy-hungry little monsters).
Grinds are great. Combo lifts, like the Clean + Press are even better. They use more
muscle, and therefore more energy.
Part 2: Explosive Fatigue Management
Here’s where it gets “interesting”:
You’ll recall through my previous writings that one of the best ways to provoke faster
adaptation, which in this case is rapid fat loss is to use training contrasts – seemingly
opposite exercises, methods, and loading, among other things.
So “EFM” – Explosive Fatigue Management – is where we contrast the slow-strength
grind exercises with explosive, but NOT high rep ballistic exercises, that drive the heart
rate, which in turn elevates the metabolism post-workout and stimulates a massive
growth hormone release.
How do we elevate the metabolism AND stimulate a massive GH release?
One word:
Copyright 2014. Geoff Neupert. Kettlebell Secrets. Worldwide Rights Reserved.
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Complexes.
(Gulp. You were afraid of that, weren’t you...?)
You’ll recall, that a complex is a series of exercises performed sequentially without rest
using the same load, where all the reps in a set for one exercise are performed before
the reps of the next exercise.
The Twist That Makes All The Difference...
Of course, there’s a twist to all of this.
There are two pieces of research that I’ve come across in the last 20 years that have
sat in the back of my mind with regard to fat loss.
The first piece was done on training frequency and fat loss. Check this out:
Researchers1 discovered that breaking a 30-minute moderate cardio session into two
15-minute sessions separated by 6 hours burns more calories. They attributed this to
EPOC – Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen consumption, or, in layman’s terms, an elevated
metabolic rate (your body burns more calories after your workout than it normally
would).
And we both know that resistance training – especially kettlebell training – burns way
more calories than moderate cardio – therefore we can easily extrapolate that the
amount of calories we’re going to burn will be way more significant.
The second piece of research was done on national caliber Olympic Weightlifters2. It
looked at hormonal effects from training twice a day. Long story short, training twice a
day for short periods of time increased the lifters testosterone levels. Not by much –
only 4%, but it’s still an increase. Furthermore, rest periods were not noted in the
experiment, so it’s doubtful that the short rest, low rep, high load or short rest, moderate
load, high rep protocols known for increasing T levels were followed. (From the program
design, it looks like they weren’t because the goal was to train lifters to perform, not to
elicit a particular hormonal outcome.) Therefore, once again extrapolating the research,
we can make a positive hormonal change, particularly in testosterone and even GH
levels by implementing specific protocols that have been shown to do increase T and
GH levels.
So here’s the twist – guess what we’re going to do?
And don’t freak out or put up any walls, red flags or barriers when I reveal this ok?
Because there’s a VERY easy way around any objection you may have.
We (you) are going to train twice a day.
Copyright 2014. Geoff Neupert. Kettlebell Secrets. Worldwide Rights Reserved.
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See?
Feel that emotional objection?
I predicted that, didn’t I?
☺
Here’s how you overcome that:
First, realize that you are only going to be working out a total of 30 minutes a day.
Yup, that’s it.
Second, these workouts are easy to get in to the busiest of schedules – they only take
15 minutes each. (I routinely train twice a day with short 10-15 minute sessions. If I can
do it, so can you – I’m in school full-time, still train clients, and I have a newborn who
likes to wake us up multiple times per night.)
Anecdotally speaking, on a personal level, when I regularly perform twice-daily training,
my bodyfat levels are easier to maintain. And again, we’re not talking about marathon
sessions here – just 10-20 minute sessions. Sometimes the first session is 10 minutes
and the second is as long as 30.
My recommendation is that you do one workout in the morning and one in the evening.
Worst case scenario is you set your alarm 15 minutes earlier. If that’s not an option,
take your KBs to work and do your workout at the start of your lunch break.
Here’s how the day is going to look:
Session 1: Force Production
•
•
•
Find your 5RM with your double KB Clean + Press
Set your timer for 15 minutes
Perform as many sets of 2 reps as possible, resting as necessary, in that 15
minutes
Then, later that evening, perform the following:
Session 2: Explosive Fatigue Management
•
Use the right sized pair of KBs based on your weakest exercise
o Most women will use a pair of 8kg or 12kg
o Most men will use a pair of 16kg or 20kg
Copyright 2014. Geoff Neupert. Kettlebell Secrets. Worldwide Rights Reserved.
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•
•
Perform each rep of each exercise, as explosively as possible
Perform the following complex:
Swing x 6
Snatch x 6
Push Press x 6
Swing x 6
• Perform 4 sets
• Rest twice as long as it took you to perform your sets (so you’ll
need to time them)
• Again, make each rep as explosive as possible
Key Points To Pay Attention To:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
You should feel very alert, energetic even, after your first session.
You should also feel a “warmth” afterward.
And yes, you’re heart rate may get and stay relatively elevated during Session 1.
During session 2, you will be out of breath. A lot. You’re supposed to be.
If during session 2, you don’t feel challenged enough, you’re either not using
heavy enough KBs, or, and this is probably more likely, you’re dogging it – not
make each rep as explosive as possible.
6. You should still feel sweaty after Session 2, even after you’ve cooled down.
Give this a shot and get back to me.
(Oh yeah, you might be wondering, what about example / sample workouts from the
other phases? Well, those workouts are based on completing the ones in this phase, so
if you don’t get through this phase, there’s no point in doing them. Make sense? Good.)
REFERENCES:
1
Almuzaini, K.S., Potteiger, J.A., & Green, S.B. (1998). Effects of split exercise
sessions on excess post-exercise oxygen consumption and resting metabolic rate. Can
J Appl Physiol, 23(5), 433-443.
2
Hartman MJ, Clark B, Bembens DA, Kilgore JL, Bemben MG. Comparisons between
twice-daily and once-daily training sessions in male weight lifters. Int J Sports Physiol
Perform. 2007 Jun;2(2):159-69.
Copyright 2014. Geoff Neupert. Kettlebell Secrets. Worldwide Rights Reserved.
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