Thread: Recomp workout routine helped me burn fat and stay the same weight

I have been bodybuilding for almost ten years now. I have competed several times over the years but in the last four years have slowly slid off track with my diet and adopted half ass routines out of complacency. I decide to get back into competeing six months ago and start by getting back to the basics and doing a basic recomp. I adopted a program I felt very comfortable with and within the last six months completely maintained by bodyweight of 210 lbs but have shed off 5% bodyfat. I am now at 10% bodyfat. This is my routine and I will explain exactly how and why it should work for almost everybody.

First off I have adopted a three day split which I preform twice a week. One day is chest, shoulders, and tricepts. The second day is traps, back, and bicepts, The third day is quads, hams, and calves. All exercises are performed four sets doing 12,10,8,6 reps.

Day 1
Flat barbell benchpress and incline dumbell flys, alternating military press, side lateral raises, v-bar pushdowns, single arm rope pushdowns

Day 2
Lat pulldowns, dumbell rows, wide-grip standing row pushdowns, EZ-bar curls, hammer curls, concentrated dumbell shrugs

Day 3
Lunges, legpress, hamstring curls, calf raises

Day 4
Rest

Day 5
Incline dumbell press, flat dumbell flys, Arnold presses, side lat raises, skull crushers, v-bar pushdowns

Day 6
parallel grip lat pulldowns, single arm cable rows, reverse incline flys, dumbell curls, concentration curls, shrugs

Day 7
Squats, front squats, hamstring curls, seated calf raises

The idea of this recomp workout is progressive resistance. For example I might do 12 reps of bench press at 245, 10 reps at 265, 8 reps at 285, and 6 reps at 335. My first three sets will stay the same weight all month long but my last set will increase by five pounds if I completed all 6 reps the week before. At the beginning of the next month I would increase the 12,10, and 8 rep sets by five pounds each. I will do this every month for every exercise. I preform no more than 24 sets per body part per workout to ensure overtraining does not occur but my working each body part out two days a week I get to hit each part with a minimum of 16 sets per week and from many differant angles.

Why should this work for everyone? Strength increases ultimately result in growth of your muscle fibers... that is well known. By strategically increasing the weight every week you continue to set new personal records and this increases motivation. Your newly acquired strength equals eventual hypertrophy because of the increased load you continue to put on your muscles. Also, your increased strength requires a new and higher energy expenditure (as weight lifted increases) from every workout resulting in an increase of calories burned from the week prior. This is why you can stay at almost the same weight but lose fat at the same time.

Of course with higher energy expenditure in the gym you need a higher amount of calories everyday to perform, right? Not exactly. Think about it.. fat and carbs are stored by our body for a reason. They are there as energy stores for us to use when out diet does not provide us with enough daily energy to preform. What I am getting at is that if you have fat to burn your body already has adequate calories to preform and an increase in calories is not required until you have reached your desired leanness in your recomp.

I hope some of you guys give this one a try. It worked wonders for me and like I said I have been training and competing for almost ten years nows. Good luck!

recomping is about diet/tren/training


in that order, mr. super experienced bodybuilder