Fat Loss Secrets with Men’s Health Expert, Alwyn Cosgrove(reprinted from cbathletics.com)

Prepare yourself to achieve the lean athletic physique that you’ve always wanted. The secrets to success are about to be unleashed. Alwyn Cosgrove is a superstar in the world of personal training, physique transformation, and athletic preparation. He’s contributed his advanced knowledge to both cbathletics.com and on www.grrlathlete.com, training champions in multiple sports and in 12-week body transformation contests.

CB: Alwyn, tell us about the foundation of the 12-week transformation contests that you do with your clients. Where do you start?

AC: The single most important part of the process is goal setting. They need to really want to get amazing results and be prepared to do whatever I ask to get them. It’s not that hard to get the results — it’s building that overwhelming desire that counts.

Most people think — “Well – this cake won’t hurt me will it?” I get my clients to think, “Will this help me or not? Is this a positive step or not?” Once you get that — you’re a hit. After that — it’s reverse goal setting as I’m sure you know a lot about, and at that point I do a full functional screen to assess any weak areas that may need special attention.

CB: After you have assessed the person, and drawn up the plan, what are the exercise techniques that you use for the continuous loss of body fat?

AC: Typically a 3 day split using full body workouts each time (a bodypart split is a thing of the past in my opinion — except for bodybuilders). I usually lean towards upper-lower body supersets and have had great success with a combination or modifications of the German Body comp program, and Charles Staley’s EDT program. Basically I pair an upper body and lower body exercise and we try to perform as many reps as possible in a given time period (e.g., 15 minutes). I usually do three such pairings in the workout. This takes a bit of planning.

One of the best methods I have ever seen for rapid physique changes (i.e., adding lean tissue and stripping fat fast) is a program called Turbulence Training which combines the above with some serious high intensity interval work. Have you ever heard of it? :)

(CB: Turbulence Training is included in the Get Lean manuals available at www.workoutmanuals.com).

CB: What do you think about using high reps and low weight for losing fat?

AC: If using light weight and high reps worked, then using no weight and even higher reps would work even better right? So the best exercise for lean legs would be walking which does absolutely nothing.

Basically if you don’t do something your body cannot do — it will not change. My rule is the reps can be high, but you still better lift as close to your max as you can for those reps. You need to tap into that overload zone.

CB: And another debated topic is “cardio” training. How effective is this for fat loss in your opinion? Are there more effective alternatives?

AC: Aerobic training is useless. Take a look at aerobics instructors. They are fat. Sprinters (20 seconds or less of cardio work) are leaner than marathoners (2 hours plus). If more is not better, and in fact in the example I gave less is actually better, why do more?

I’ve always felt that the core problem with aerobic training has always been the prescription. As there is an upper limit to the aerobic state, the only way to further increase the participants fitness is to do anaerobic work (which they have yet to do any training in that state) or to increase the duration.

Doing aerobic training will not prepare you for anaerobic training — so we have a problem. And just doing more and more and more at each stage is just dumb.

As for the fat burning zone — the ridiculous idea that we somehow burn less fat if we work too hard … PLEASE! If that logic were true — and we burn less fat (I know it’s true as a percentage but it’s not true as a whole) at lower intensities — then the best exercise for fat loss must be sitting on the couch right?

The only cardio training I recommend is short rest intervals in the weight room and some kind of interval training. I never recommend aerobics. A total waste of time.

CB: Realistically, how often does a person need to train to make improvements in their body composition?

AC: I truly believe with sound attention to diet, and following the above guidelines (especially no aerobics), 99% of all trainees will make amazing progress with three one hour total training sessions each week. That’s 3 hours out of 168 or less than 1.8% of your week.

CB: Thanks Alwyn. To hear more from the master, visit www.alwyncosgrove.com