The M.E.T. - Maximum Efficiency Training System

Doubling your results in half the time – is it really possible?
Yes! Learn how with MET Aerobics Max – the ultimate aerobic fat burning program.
Lesson 4

Welcome to Lesson 4 of the MET Blueprints for Success series. As you probably already know, MET (Maximum Efficiency Training) consists of two components – MET Weight Training and MET Target Aerobics. Both are extremely efficient, results-producing and self regulating. You can start from wherever you are now and advance upwards as you improve and grow.
Last month we covered the first six levels of MET Target Aerobics, , which included the beginners and intermediates programs. (To read past MET lessons or print out tracker sheets, go to www.bodyfitness-uk.com and click on “m. lackner”)
In this lesson, we cover the advanced aerobics program, MET Aerobics Max. It’s designed to allow advanced athletes to dramatically reduce the time they need to do cardio yet produces fantastic fat loss results. Too good to be true? Just read on and then experience it for yourself!
By the way, I just found out that this method was used by the Japanese speed skating team. It was actually the only cardiovascular conditioning system these Olympic-calibre athletes followed. This amazing little program not only conditioned them aerobically and anaerobically, directly spiking their overall power output dramatically, it did so in as little as a tenth of the usual time! The results were superior to anything else they had tried. Best of all, they lowered their body fat in record time. This program offers overall benefits that no traditional cardio exercise delivers.

What is it and how does it work?

MET Aerobics Max works by stimulating the body to maximise its production of fat loss hormones. It does this via fat loss promoting cardiovascular, interval training exercise. It involves brief but intense aerobic sessions alternating between high and low intensity.
First, you choose an exercise that allows you to vary your intensity with every session, such as using an elliptical, treadmill, stairmaster or stationary bike. Whatever it is, you must be able to adjust very rapidly when you need it to, e.g. be able to go from low to high intensity in seconds.
If you choose sprinting, you will alternate that with jogging. The jogs should be at a pace just a notch above walking but the sprints all-out at or above 80% max. for 30 seconds at a time. Then you get time to recover by going back to the light jog. This is the key - you crank up the intensity and then lower it while keeping an eye on the timer.
With the sprints, go at it full on. Try to set a pace that really pushes you in every 30 second segment before you return to your light jog. I can’t emphasize enough the need to ramp up the intensity in the 30 second max zone before bringing it back down again in the low intensity rest zone.
Last month we looked at all the levels leading up to this pinnacle. If you are just starting to exercise, slowly build up your cardiovascular fitness at the lower level before doing this program. If you’ve been exercising for some time and feel confident you can safely push yourself in the 30 second max zone, then go for it! Just remember, when in the max zone it should take everything you have

Level Seven: total time – 18 mins
12 x 1 min segments. Each of the 1 min segments is made up of a 30 sec sprint followed by 30 secs light jogging (plus 3 mins warm-up at start and 3 mins cool-down at end).
Level Eight: total time – 24 mins
18 x 1 min segments. Each of the 1min segments is made up of a 30 sec sprint followed by 30 secs light jogging (plus 3 mins warm-up at start and 3 mins cool-down at end).
Level Nine: total time – 30 mins
24 x 1 min segments. Each of the 1 min segments is made up of a 30 sec sprint followed by 30 secs light jogging (plus 3 mins warm-up at start and 3 mins cool-down at end).

(I personally have never needed to use level nine. Level eight (18 mins plus warm-up and cool-down) gives me everything I need for fat burning and cardio. However, if you want to move up to level nine, and your body is ready for it, than by all means do so! - Mike Lackner)

Starting out

You can start out with 30 sec sprints combined with 45-60 sec light jogs and then work the light jogs back down towards the 30 sec time frame if you need to start slowly. However, the 30–30 combination (30 sec sprint followed by 30 sec jogging sequence) is the one that produces the greatest fat loss results in the least amount of time and the greatest cardiovascular benefit.
I must emphasize, if you haven’t sprinted all out since you were young, and haven’t exercised for quite some time, this level is definitely not for you. At the same time, I don’t want you to get stuck in the comfort zone of a lower training level that has become easy, and one in which your body is no longer forced to adapt at higher levels. Falling into that trap means that although you're working out and spending the time in the gym, in the end you simply won’t see the changes!
If you look around any gym, you often see people following a set exercise routine. One, which by it’s very nature is not self regulating or expandable, and thus it quickly becomes very limiting. With MET, the whole idea is to follow the unfolding map and to keep pushing forward and moving to higher and higher levels of physique development.

To help me charge up and operate at these higher levels of intensity, I often take, and recommend to my clients, a good workout driver and thermogenic formula called ENGAUGE. When taken 15-30 mins before the session, I find it really helps me focus mentally and fires up my body for action. With it, even after a full day, I find I can still push the inner throttle to the max and have a great workout! Engauge is an encapsulated Venice Beach product.

Taking it to the max…

If you find that you can, and want to, go up to level 9, then remember, three times a week is the maximum. Look out for any sign you may be overdoing it. Getting the right dose of exercise stress and not going beyond that is imperative to your ongoing success. Slower muscle gains, needing more time for recovery, reduced training capacity and performance, and increased fatigue are signs you could be over-extending yourself and may need to drop it down a level or two

Adaptogens for superior protection

When you start to train at the higher levels of the program, as in the case with MET Aerobics Max, or at any time when training for strength, I recommend you take a herbal adaptogen called Rhodiola. This arctic root supplement helps keep the body strong and recuperating at greater efficiency. Rhodiola roseas’s anabolic effects include the ability to increase body weight by improving the muscle-fat ratio. Muscle proteins, glutamic acid, haemoglobin and electrolytes are all improved when taking Rhodiola, all of which helps athletes to progress at a faster pace under intense training conditions.
US researchers have said that Rhodiola rosea has similar benefits to anabolic steroids without the negative effects on adrenal gland function. Basically, studies have shown that Rhodiola rosea promotes anabolism, or the building of muscle tissue, along with stamina and recovery and strength gains.
There are many different Rhodeola rosea supplements available so be sure to get the real deal and the most potent dosage possible. ADL3 has an abundance of the most potent and best quality Rhodeola rosea in each capsule along with very important co-factors that when taken in the combination and formula of ADL3 the benefits are substantially magnified. The nutrient bioavailability-magnifying agents in ADL3, like Absorbal, help to safely deliver more usable levels of the active ingredients into the blood over any other first generation Rhodeola supplement on the market that I’ve seen.
Just as we don’t train randomly under the MET System, I encourage you not to eat or take supplements randomly, target them according to what you want to achieve. Stick with absorption-enhanced supplements like Venice Beach products so you know they will get to the target areas and in large enough dosages to evoke benefit and change. Even just one capsule of a second generation bio-active absorption enhanced supplements like ADL3, which contains Absorbal, will get more usable active ingredients into the blood stream than four capsules of another leading brand could hope to deliver without a nutrient bioavailability magnifying agent added.

Conclusion

You never hit the ceiling with this program. Each aerobic level follows the next, and in the MET Aerobics Max sprinting segments, you are always striving to push into higher and higher levels of intensity. The bottom line is that each week, your body will burn fat at a significantly higher level – even after the training session when you're out and about town relaxing, even while you’re sleeping.
Remember, MET Target Aerobics has you doing aerobics three days a week for 30 minutes or less. Weight training is three days a week on alternate days with body parts broken down as on the MET Tracker Sheet (which you can print out from www. body fitness-uk.com).
You are capable of much more then you realize. By following this program to the letter you can shatter all your past experiences and false barriers and begin to truly grow into your full potential! Set aside 30 minutes a day for yourself. Print out the MET Planning and Tracker Sheets and pick your starting levels. Plan each work out the night before and work the plan!
Conceive, believe, achieve and, until next month, train with passion!