Better results, less time
What’s the best way to lose fat and gain muscle?
Can you do both at the same time? Which one is best…cardio, strength training, or body weight exercises?
At TAP, we refer to this as the “hierarchy of fitness.” We have definitively determined which exercises will give us the biggest bang in the shortest amount of time.
Sessions per week for best results
What is the optimal frequency of training days per week? If you’re like most of my clients your answer is “as few days as possible but to ensure I still reach my goals.” At TAP we teach the minimum number of days for the average American to train per week and still see results is three training sessions per week.
We also plan on contingencies because… well, life can happen. Vacations, sickness, family events… things come up right? So we recommend to plan four sessions per week in order to make on average the three we need.
A fitness shortcut to more results
So, now that we have your sessions per week determined, let’s plan how long to workout for each session. When we ask our clients how long they prefer to workout, they often say…you guessed it! “As little time as possible.” Everyone wants to achieve their goals with minimal work. Why wouldn’t you? No one wants to put in effort for it to be just wasted.
So, at TAP we practice a fitness shortcut. Every day. The shortcut to seeing your results faster is INTENSITY. The more intensity you can incorporate, the faster your results will come to fruition.
There’s no substitute for good ‘ol fashion hard work. Every Olympic gymnast, CrossFit Games athlete, or World’s Strongest Man uses the secret of INTENSITY to achieve their goals.
At TAP, we keep our sessions to one hour. This doesn’t mean we workout for one hour straight. We typically have 4 parts to each workout.
General warm up – 15 minutes.
Specific movements- 10 minutes
Strength – 15 minutes
MetCon – 20 minutes
A MetCon is a simple term for “a cardio/strength portion including 2-4 rotating components.” The MetCon portion actually varies from 3 minutes up to a half hour. We consistently vary the length on purpose – varying your workouts will optimize your results.
This efficiency is startling. Think about this: If we’re training for 3 to 4 hours per week, and there are 168 hours in one week, then you can get real results in only 2.3% of your week! That’s a crazy amount of a return on investment!
The secret to this efficiency is dialing into a well-balanced, high-intensity varied workout. These workouts are custom designed and delivered daily at TAP!
What’s the secret?
Why does the INTENSITY of a MetCon workout deliver exponential impact? Let me introduce you the concept of EPOC: Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption.” EPOC is a measure of how long your body needs to take in oxygen to adapt to the stimulus you’ve just given it after a workout is finished. Strength training and MetCons have a much higher EPOC than typical workouts. They elicit a greater amount of adaptation necessary post-exercise and give you much greater results than if you were to just train steady-state-cardio (e.g. treadmill, elliptical or step machines).
In other words, if you want to burn fat and develop strength at a higher rate per workout, do varied Strength Training and MetCons. Steady state cardio is great during the workout, but TAP workouts are effective during the workout AND for the next 48 hours! Your fat keeps burning. Your muscles keep building. Your body keeps changing.
Strength Training has a much higher post-exercise benefit than cardio. In fact, it’s typical to get around 48 hours of benefit, change, or adaptation post-exercise with strength training, whereas there’s really not much post-exercise benefit to steady state cardio. HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) can give you up to 18 hours post exercise benefit, but TAP workouts benefit you for 48 hours!
4 minute workouts prove more effective…
Dr. Izumi Tabata did a study proving a person could get more post exercise benefit from 4 minutes of intense exercise than 1 hour of steady state cardio. It rocked the exercise world. Higher intensity burns longer and gives you the change you crave.
Steady State Cardio does have merit and people benefit from it regularly. It’s just not for people who want the MOST benefit in their limited time. In fact, we recommend steady state cardio for those with a goal of running a Marathon, biking a century ride, or swimming a mile. Just know that most people are going to need to devote a minimum of 5-10 hours per week to train in these ways. TAP is designed for more results in less time, whether you are into competition, burning fat, or just desire better fitness and longevity.
So what are you waiting for?
We’re so glad you’ve made it this far in this blog! And we’d love to introduce you to the professionally designed TAP workouts.
If you are interested in testing out some of these ideas we’d love for you to join us at a first Friday free event, our next free week, or just come drop in for $25.
Focus on the finish,
Tom Petekavich