Food factory training part 11

Anaerobic/lactate threshhold training is basically any exercise protocol that stresses the ATP-CP energy system of the muscle. Or, in other words, creates a big, big burn in muscle. For anaerobic-endurance athletes (biking, crew, swimming), this is a crucial part of their training. For wide recievers, who need to explode again and again throughout the duration of a game, this is also very important.

I believe that lactate training is the most powerful tool for recomposition. It's perhaps the most effective non-pharma agent for nutrient partitioning, speculated to be why HIIT can help a person lose fat and keep/gain muscle seemingly at the same time. By increasing mitochondrial density throughout the body, it in the long term converts your body into a food factory. And what this means is that it raises your local metabolism, resets your leptin set point (so you get naturally leaner while keeping muscle), AND it enables you to tap into fat stores more easily. In the long term, it lets you cut and bulk more cleanly.

For weightlifters, there's three popular flavors of lactate training. You can look for them here or the original articles at T-nation.

Charles Poliquin's German Body Composition
Charles Staley's Escalated Density Training
Don Alessi's Meltdown Training

HIIT itself is a bodybuilding-specific catch-all for schemes that encompass VO2 max and lactate training programmes. Virtually all HIIT schemes, being anaerobic exercises, tax VO2 max and lactate threshhold, though obviously with bias.


The downside is that these schemes are also the most difficult, and they implictly require a reasonable conditioning level before they're a practical option. EDT may be the "easiest" of the three, but only in the sense that it's a more "pure" expression of lactate training. The other two schemes -- GBC and Meltdown -- are sort of hybrid schemes, using circuit-style upper/lower supersets to push both lactate threshhold and VO2 max. Basically, when you run out of air, your body can't flush out the lactate. And because you don't flush it out, you get really, really sick. (It's great. ) I'm kind of critical with this approach, and strictly from a purist point of view, prefer a density matrix like EDT. In fact, if a person has read up on X-rep/partial training, traditional lactate vs. VO2 max templates, and the Kaatsu/occlusion studies, they can get pretty creative with this stuff. But from a pragmatic "get in your ridiculously great shape", where I can expect systemic parameters/signals associated with cardio in general being set, I prefer GBC and Meltdown. However, the sheer difficulty of these two prgogrammes into logistically difficult to confederate with other stuff in a cutting phase. In other words, don't add a strength or power cycle. You won't have anything left.

Most of these schemes have 10 reps in mind. For that range, I personally feel it's best to start with 15RM, and then every 2 weeks bump up load until you reach the original 10RM through week 6. It's more sensible (i.e. avoids failure), and it provides a progressive load element that helps you mantain or gain muscle while dieting. If your conditioning has improved, you would be strong enough to bump up the load and go another 2 weeks. If it's too easy, you can always go up to 4 supersets. Good luck.