Men's Fitness Online

Lose carbs and build strength and size on a strict diet.

Going low-carb? You should lose carbs. It’s the fastest way to shred body fat and get ripped. But when you don’t do it right — or you combine it with a poorly planned training program — it can sap your energy and cause big-time losses in muscle and strength. If you’ve tried it already, you know exactly what we mean. On the following pages, we’ll show you how to make hard dieting feel easier while making the gains that critics of this nutritional style don’t think are possible.

HOW IT WORKS

We recommend following the Carb Nite Solution, a diet plan described on p.126. This approach will result in pure fat loss and maintenance of your hard-earned muscle. You’ll follow the workouts offered in the gym on the next few pages. Your goal is to stimulate your central nervous system (CNS) — your muscles’ control centre — without overly taxing it. Your CNS needs carbs to recover, so it doesn’t pay to risk denying it the nutrients it needs. To get your CNS to activate muscle without burning it out, use partitioned set ramping — a series of low-rep sets that get progressively heavier (see “Plans of Attack” below). For low-carb dieters, this yields better results than performing multiple heavy sets with the same load. Follow the program and you’ll see your six-pack within weeks.

DIRECTIONS

Frequency:

Perform each workout (Day 1, 2, 3 and 4) once a week.

Time needed:

60 minutes.

How to do it:

On Day 1, perform 1A and 1B as a superset. Do one set of A, then one set of B. Rest and repeat for all the sets. Treat all other exercises as straight sets, completing all the sets for one move before going on to the next. Make sure you note which training method to apply to each set (see “Plans of Attack” at right for descriptions of each technique).

LOSE CARBS: PLANS OF ATTACK

How to perform the exercises for maximum effect.

You’ll use one of these five different methods to complete the exercises.

• Partitioning set ramping (PSR) Choose a weight that’s 30 percent of your max and perform three reps (or whatever specific number the exercise calls for). Without resting, go up in weight to a load that’s 50 percent and perform another three reps. Then go to 75 percent, and then 90 percent. All of this is one set. Rest as needed and repeat for the prescribed sets.
• Negative (NEG) Focus only on the negative (lowering) portion of the movement. For example, for the dragon flag on page 125, powerfully swing your legs up in the air to the top position of the rep and then slowly lower them back to the bench, taking up to three full seconds on the negative.
• Fast (FST) Perform each rep as explosively as possible.
• Drop set (DROP) Perform the set normally and then reduce the weight 10 percent to 20 percent so you can get another few reps. You should take no more than 20 seconds to reduce the load.
• Standard (STD) Complete your set in the regular fashion, lifting and lowering with a smooth, controlled tempo.