Subject: Why antagonism is GREAT for fat loss (and keeping muscle)
I'm not talking about antagonism against people, though...I mean antagonism in your training...
When you’re losing fat, you NEED to keep an eye on your muscle mass and do whatever you can to maintain it.
Your muscles are what gives your body shape and it’s what powers your metabolism, especially when you’re trying to lose fat fast.
This is going to be done using my Time-Volume Training protocol.
It’s a form of what’s known as “density training” in that you set a block of time then try to fill that block of time with as much workload as possible. Then the next workout, you train and increase the density of the training by doing more work in that same timeframe.
This is an extremely powerful style of training for building muscle and it has the dual advantage of burning a tremendous amount of calories both during and after the workout, as your body strives to recover from it.
It’s honestly one of my very favorite training styles PERIOD.
The original version of Time-Volume Training is simple (the version I’m going to show you today is the “antagonistic” version)…
- Take a weight you can get 10 reps with and do 3 reps with it.
- Rest 10 seconds.
- Do another 3 reps.
- Rest 10 seconds.
- Do another 3 reps.
- Continue in this fashion, doing 3 reps sets on 10 seconds rest until you can no longer get 3 reps (don’t push to failure on ANY sets).
Now you increase the rest to 20 seconds and keep going with 3 rep sets. Instead of changing weight, you change REST.
When and if you can no longer keep up with 3 reps, then you increase the rest to 30 seconds.
Keep going for the duration of your time block (I use 15 minutes for back, chest and thighs, 7 1/2 minutes for all other parts).
If you can make it 1/3 of the way through your time block while keeping to 10 seconds rest, then you can increase the weight 10% in your next workout. If you can’t, then you stay at the same weight.
Very simple.
Antagonistic Time-Volume Training – What it is, why it’s good and how to do it
This version of Time-Volume Training will have you doing TWO exercises instead of one exercise…and these exercises should be directly opposite to each other. For example, in this demo, I’m doing barbell bench press and chin-ups, working the chest and the back.
This has several BIG advantages over regular TV Training for our purposes in this program.
1. By working two different exercises, you give yourself extra rest time between each exercise, allowing you to stay at 10 seconds rest with a heavier weight for longer. This allows you do to more overall work, which will build more muscle and strength, and kick up your metabolism that much more.
2. When you work two ANTAGONISTIC exercises, you will actually be STRONGER at each one because of the effects this style type of opposing training has on the nervous system. By working the opposite muscle group, you can actually be 5 to 10% stronger in the current muscle group you’re working. Going back and forth between two exercises like this will keep your nervous system fresh and highly tuned.
The first step do performing this is to choose and set up your two antagonistic exercises. Again, use a weight you could get at least 10 good reps with on both exercises.
In the demo, I used bench press and chins…pretty much any exercise that works chest and back can be used instead. You can also pair up biceps and triceps, and quadriceps and hamstrings. Shoulders are a tougher one…because they have such a variety of movements, they don’t have any truly consistent antagonistic muscle groups. I like to pair them with calves.
The second step is to begin!
Start your timer and do 3 reps of bench press.
Take 10 seconds rest then go to your other exercise (chins, pulldowns, rows, etc).
Take 10 seconds rest then go right back to 3 reps of bench press. Then 10 seconds rest, then back to chins.
Repeat until you can no longer get 3 reps then go to 20 seconds rest and keep going.
You may find that you hit that 2 rep wall on one of the exercise first. For me, I had that happen on the bench press. In that case, I kept to the 10 seconds rest moving from the weaker exercise to the stronger one (chins) but increase the rest to 20 seconds moving from the stronger to the weaker.
This allows you to continually adjust rest periods as you’re doing the workout based on how fatigued you are.
The beauty of this style of system is that you’re “front loading” the workload…meaning you’re doing more work when you’re fresher and less work as you fatigue, which allows you to stretch the workout and burn more calories.
It's a fantastic training method...one of the BEST ways to kick start your fitness journey in 2021...it works with very minimal equipment, or even no equipment at all!
Nick Nilsson
The Mad Scientist of Muscle
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http://www.fitstep.com/2/time-volume-training/
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