Explosive Training, Fast Twitch Fibers and 2 Challenge Workout Videos
Today I want to talk about one of my favorite advanced training techniques that will help you build more lean muscle and burn fat at a much faster rate. Explosive training, or fast twitch training, is a straight-up lethal weapon that you need to add to your fat loss arsenal. Before I get too technical on you and start rambling about the great benefits, let me give you a visual introduction to explosive training…
This first video is a 10 minute challenge workout that you can use to blast your pushing muscles. Because this isn’t a total body workout, you can use this more frequently (as often as once a week) than the 300 challenge workouts I listed the other day.
Like I said, we’ll be hitting all of your pushing muscles with two body weight movements – push-ups and squats. The goal is to complete as many reps as possible in 5 minutes for each exercise. You can take breaks when needed, but remember this is a challenge workout and you should be kicking all sorts of ass during this 10 minutes of pure lactic acid hell.
Oh, and there’s a catch – instead of completing normal reps of push-ups and squats, you’ll be exploding through the eccentric (lowering) phase of the movements. Some of you have probably heard of (or tried) using explosive training throughout the concentric (lifting) phase of the exercise…and this is an awesome tactic as well, but for today we’re going to get crazy with it, go against the grain and focus on exploding through the eccentric part of the lift.
I guarantee you’ve never seen this type of training before and you may even be questioning my sanity on this. After all, we’ve been taught from day 1 that all weight training should be done slow and controlled so you can ‘feel’ the lift, right?
Well, I’ve got news for ya…this is an ADVANCED fat loss site and I’m giving you some of my cutting-edge secret weapons…my body transformation ninja tactics…to help you burn fat and sculpt a lean body at a much faster rate than you’d see following all the politically correct, generic-as-hell fitness information out there.
Enjoy the first of two explosive eccentric challenge workout videos I’ve included for you in this post (warning: if you’re a complete beginner or if you have underlying conditions or injuries, this advanced challenge workout is not for you):
So how does going against conventional strength training wisdom and actually exploding through the lowering phase of the movement help us produce greater results? Well, let’s go back to the basics quick…
In order to increase lean muscle mass, we have to increase our intensity or amount of work performed during each workout. I doubt anyone wants to workout for 10 hours per week…and most of us want to do at least some of our workouts at home, where equipment is limited. Therefore, we have to find a way to up the intensity without working out longer and without having to lift heavier and heavier weights every single workout.
Enter high speed training, or explosive training. If we move the same weight at a faster speed, this translates to more power and greater intensity. Using this advanced training principle, we can keep our workouts short, increase the intensity and make better use of limited equipment (in other words, you can now get a better workout, even if you’re doing body-weight-only training or have limited weights available).
Another important benefit of using explosive weight training is the greater involvement of Tye II (fast twitch) muscle fibers. This is HUGE because Type II muscle fibers have the greatest potential for muscle hypertrophy (increase in size) and yet, these fibers are usually the last to be used during normal, slower weight training sessions, which recruit mainly Type I (slow twitch) fibers.
It’s hilarious (and sad at the same time) that most people spend their whole lives weight training in a way that is basically targeting only slow twitch muscle fibers that don’t have much potential at all to hypertrophy. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather take the shortcut and target Type II (fast twitch) muscle fibers that have the greatest ability to increase in size.
Remember, to achieve the lean and ripped look, we want to add as much lean muscle as possible to turn our bodies into fat-burning machines. Adding large amounts of muscle mass is extremely difficult and will depend mainly on total calorie and protein intake, so don’t think just because you’re shooting for the Cam Gigandet body that this advanced muscle building strategy doesn’t apply.
Trust me, I don’t like the bulky look either and I’m not going to turn you into a ‘roided-out freak.’ Truth is, even to get the lean and athletic look, you need to act a lot more like a bodybuilder than you’d think…especially in terms of finding out ways to maximize your muscle building efforts…because more lean muscle means more fat loss around the clock.
Now here’s another 10 minute challenge workout video for you to try out. This one focuses on the pulling muscles and will also use just 2 movements – lying hip extensions and bent over dumbbell rows. The same principles apply – complete as many reps of each exercise as possible in 5 minutes and focus on exploding through the eccentric (lowering) phase of each movement, while performing the concentric (lifting) portion slow and under control.
Record the total number of reps you completed for each exercise and be sure to set a personal best each time you repeat the challenge. Enjoy the video:
I’d like you to try both of these challenge workouts this week and let me know how many reps of each exercise you were able to get in 5 minutes. Also, what are your thoughts on my advanced and ‘ass-backwards’ explosive eccentric training technique?
I bet after trying these workouts you’ll feel a whole new level of soreness that you haven’t experienced before – this is evidence that explosive training has resulted in more damage to Type II (fast twitch) muscle fibers —> leading to an increase in lean muscle size (hypertrophy), a favorable release of fat-burning hormones and more calorie burning firepower in the weeks and months to come.
Your Fat Loss Coach,
Brad Campbell
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Posted by Brad Campbell | in Advanced Fat Loss, Challenge Workouts, Fat Loss Workouts | 26 Comments
Brad, great stuff here! This is opposite of anything I’ve tried before and it totally makes sense. Can’t wait to try this explosive training out and see how it feels. Awesome videos man, I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the info!
Brett
Hi Brett – no problem man…give this a solid effort and let me know what you think…I’m telling you, this technique works and works fast!
Brad Campbell
If you look at sprinters, they are absolutely ripped and that’s basically all they do is fast twitch training, so this does make a lot of sense. I’ve never seen anyone exploding through the eccentric phase, that’s some major “body transformation ninja tactics” as you say haha
Doing these challenge workouts this week. Thanks for your help!!
Troy- agreed completely…we need to learn from athletes, even though many of us aren’t/will never be/do not desire to be…athletes. If we ant to look like a lean and ripped athlete, it shouldn’t be surprising that we need to live, eat and TRAIN like a top-notch athlete. Good luck on trying out this advanced training tip.
Your Coach,
Brad Campbell
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@ Brett – thanks man…you’ll love this technique. Let me know how it goes. I’m sure you’ll be a lil sore, but it’s worth it. Take care….
@Troy – great point about sprinters…we love to make that comparison in the fitness world (sprinters vs marathon runners) that slow-go cardio is dead and explosive weight training and intense intervals are in. Good luck this week.
Brad Campbell
[...] heavy weights or by lifting moderate weights and mixing in advanced training techniques, like my explosive eccentric training tactic. I recommend going both heavy and advanced for maximum muscle building and fat burning [...]
Brad,
First time visitor and I like what I see. There’s not enough info out there on explosive training and still too much of the 80s-bodybuilding-take-it-slow approach. Kudos to you for covering it extensively. Like the videos too!
Mike
Hey Michael – thanks for stopping by…glad you like the content. I’ll be sure to swing over and check out your blog this weekend.
I’ve done a lot of research on the benefits of explosive training and it’s crazy to me that almost no one recommends this! One thing I can say for sure is that I’ve never come across anyone else who suggests the benefits of exploding through the eccentric portion of lifts – I’m guessing this is b/c it’s slightly risky (more chance of injury for beginners and intermediate lifters), or perhaps they just aren’t drawing the correct conclusions from the literature.
I think there are huge advantages to explosive training – I also see how using an exaggerated (4-6 sec) lowering phase can overload type II fibers as well, but even then, I’d recommend exploding through the concentric phase, so that you’re getting maximum results from that phase as well…this theoretically should really tear down some muscle fibers and cause a greater hormonal response!
Love talking about this stuff, haha. Thanks again for the positive feedback.
Brad
[...] be exploding through the concentric (lifting) phase of the movement. This is very similar to the explosive workout videos I posted the other day, with the only exception being that we’re using our speed through the [...]
[...] down, it’s on like donkey kong…and I’ll be confident that my conditioning and explosiveness that I’ve built up from intense training, will allow me to dish out a hurtin’ for [...]
[...] II) muscle fibers with the explosive exercises done at all-out effort. This is cool because your fast twitch muscle fibers have more potential for [...]
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[...] date you completed the workout, along with your time total time. That way when you repeat this challenge routine, you’ll have a little friendly competition with yourself to see if you can beat your previous [...]
Can you do both of these in the same day? Say give your self 30 mins rest in between. Or would you be too worn out?
Hey Gavin – you could def do both on the same day. In fact, I filmed both workouts back-to-back. You’re def ‘feeling the burn,’ but since you’re working non-competing muscle groups you’ll be able to do both of them.
Let me know how it goes if you give this a shot.
-b
Would you recommend doing all 4 of these in the same day, or session..
Hi Drew – yes, b/c these are all un-opposing muscle groups, you can do all 4 together in one challenge workout.
-b
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