Slimming down with weights

  Now that the holidays are over I, along with a lot of other people I bet, have realized just how much I ate when I wasn't paying close attention. On New Year's day I weighed in at 284.8 lbs. Not good. I have a competition coming up on February 4th and I am registered for the 275 lb weight class.

  So I reached into my trusty bag of tricks for a quick, effective solution.

  I have never been a fan of running. Likewise, the treadmills bore me to tears. More importantly, they have never been fast solutions for me.

  Instead, I turn to weights in order to turn up the fat burning furnace. Normally I have been training 3 times a week. I have found that to be the optimal frequency that enables my body to recover efficiently and increase strength and power the fastest. I don't want to mess with that with a meet just a few weeks away. So, I tweak my secondary exercises in order to increase my fat loss.

  Normally I will hit the big three lifts, and then move on to my secondaries, working through the auxiliary lifts one set at a time. However, what I am doing now is slightly different. You will see that my auxiliary lifts have a light-medium weight, nothing too heavy. This is because I am using giant sets on ALL auxiliary lifts.

  So for squats, bench, and deadlift I perform them as normal with the usual rest periods. For all other lifts, I am taking two lifts and performing one set of lift A and then performing one set of lift B, and then without rest going back to A and B again until I have performed three sets of each. Once I hit the auxiliaries, the only rest I get is between giant sets while I set up the next couple of exercises. Think of them as doing several "mini-circuits" if you will.

  The benefit to such a routine is that Muscles A take their rest while you are performing lift B. However, your cardiovascular system has to work much harder because while a set of muscles may be resting, you are never entirely at rest or sitting down motionless.

  This very method, added with regulating my diet carefully (notice I didn't say crash dieting, I just said regulating carefully!), has already resulted in me losing 4.4 lbs. I stepped on the scales today weighing in at 280.4. (Normally, 2 lbs a week is a good target to hit for weight loss to ensure you aren't sacrificing muscles weight. However, I admittedly have a bit of extra fat. Additionally, I watch my strength and power levels. So long as I am hitting my minimums in my big three lifts, I am good.)

 With 4.4 pounds down already, I am looking forward to hitting close to 270 or below by using this method over the next four weeks before the competition. Stay tuned to see how it goes! (Also, for those worried about losing strength while cutting, I have found that as long as the big 3 are still hitting good, competition form singles with 80% or more of your 1 rep max, your strength should stay, or even slightly increase.)

 For a practical example, here is what I did on Monday, Jan. 2:
                                                
                                                             Set    lbs.         Reps.

Squats (2 min rest between sets)	#1	135	5
	#2	225	3
	#3	315	1
	#4	405	1
	#5	500	1
Bench Press (2 min rest)	#1	135	5
	#2	225	3
	#3	315	1
Pull Up (Giant set with partial bench press)	#1A	BWT	2
	#2A	BWT	2
	#3A	BWT	2
Partial Bench	#1B	405	2
	#2B	405	1
	#3B	405	2
Sumo Deadlift (2 min rest)	#1	225	3
	#2	315	1
	#3	405	1
Military Press (giant with bent over rows)	#1A	95	10
	#2A	95	6
	#3A	95	6
Bent Over Row (Dumbbell)	#1B	60	6
	#2B	60	6
	#3B	60	6
Incline Bench Press (Giant set with shrugs)	#1A	225	5
	#2A	225	5
	#3A	225	3
Shrug	#1B	315	3
	#2B	315	3
	#3B	315	2
Lateral Raise (Giant set with stiff leg deadlift)	#1A	10	8
	#2A	10	6
	#3A	10	6
Stiff Leg Deadlift	#1B	225	3
	#2B	225	3
	#3B	225	3
E-Z Curl (giant set with tricep push down)	#1A	65	6
	#2A	65	6
	#3A	65	6
Tricep push down	#1B	200	6
	#2B	200	6
	#3B	200	6
Concentration Curl(Giant set with Tricep Rope Ext)	#1A	25	10
	#2A	25	8
	#3A	25	6
Tricep Rope ext	#1B	70	8
	#2B	70	8
	#3B	70	6
Leg Extension (Giant set with leg curls)	#1A	90	6
	#2A	90	6
	#3A	90	6
Leg Curl	#1B	90	6
	#2B	90	6
	#3B	90	6
Decline Crunch (Super set with Hanging Leg Raise)	#1A	45	3
	#2A	45	3
	#3A	45	3
Hanging Leg Raise	#1B	BWT	3
	#2B	BWT	3
	#3B	BWT	3
Single leg ext (Giant set by alternating legs without rest)	#1AB	35	6
	#2AB	35	6
	#3AB	35	6
Single leg curl (giant set by alternating legs without rest)	#1AB	35	6
	#2AB	35	6
	#3AB	35	6
Standing Calf Raise (1 minute rest)	#1	135	10
	#2	135	10
	#3	135	10