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

Target Aerobics
Lesson 5

How to tell if you are pushing hard enough

The most accurate way is to track your heart rate during exercise and to stay in your target heart rate zone. As outlined last month, for beginners that’s 50-65% of your maximum heart rate, for intermediates it’s 65-75%, and for those at the advanced levels, it’s the all-out MET Aerobics Max.
How do you figure out your target training heart rate zone? Start by determining your maximum heart rate. This is done by taking the number 220 and subtracting your age. For example, if you are 40, your maximum heart rate is 180 heart beats per minute (220-40 = 180).
If you are looking to start out at the low end of the intermediate MET Target Aerobic program, then start out at 65% MHR. To exercise at 65% of your maximum heart rate, multiply 180 times 0.65 which works out to 117. To exercise at 75% of MHR, or the higher end of the intermediate level, the calculation works out to 135. If your heart reading lands somewhere within this range (117 to 135), you are training in the correct (intermediate) zone. If you choose the MET beginner or advanced program, then use the same formula to calculate your beats per minute range to help ensure you are training in the correct intensity zone.

Taking your pulse

Having figured out your ideal range, take your pulse periodically while exercising to see if you’re within that range. If your pulse is too slow while exercising, kick up the pace. Of course, if it’s too high for the level you chose, slow things down.
You can measure your pulse by placing your index and middle finger gently on the radial artery on the inside of your wrist, or on the carotid artery at the neck just under the chin. Start by counting the number of beats for ten seconds and then multiply that number by six. You now have your heart beats per minute to measure your performance by.
At every new MET level, always start at the lower end of the two numbers (percentages) and work your way up to the higher percentage until you’ve mastered that level. You’ll know you’ve mastered a level if you can sustain that intensity non-stop for the set time without feeling overly stressed. After you’ve exercised at a particular level for a while, you’ll naturally know how hard you need to push and where you need to be at after the warm-up to be in your target training zone without having to continually take your pulse. You’ll know that you are in the zone just by how you feel. Remember, there are nine possible levels in the MET Target Aerobic System, each with it’s own level of difficulty.

Heart rate monitors

A good heart rate monitor gives you valuable information about whether you need to speed up or slow down. Using a monitor is not essential but they are a convenient way to determine your maximum heart rate and target heart rate zone when exercising.
One type straps comfortably around the chest and transmits data directly to a special wrist watch.

Pay attention to how you feel

Be aware of how you feel when exercising, and again, strive to progress up in levels step by step as the body is ready. Don’t try to make a mad dash or take on level nine right from the start if you haven’t exercised aerobically in a couple of years. You may find yourself down on all fours unable to even finish your first session! Indeed, if you haven’t exercised for some time, it might be a good idea to get a doctor's “two-thumbs-up” before starting.
Commit to a starting program and 30 minutes a day and use the MET workout tracker sheets (you can download and print them from the mlackner section at www.bodyfitness-uk.com) to monitor your progress. Start slowly and try to become expert at reading yourself and how you feel. As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. But once the decision was made, it was built.
Remember, with MET, transforming your physique isn’t complicated or an overly time intensive task. Just pick your level, plug the numbers onto the MET tracker sheets the night before each workout, schedule the time for the workout and then work the plan.

Less is more

Once you master level 9 MET Aerobics Max, should you extend your workout to 45 or even 60 minutes? No!
For those few who truly master level 9 and want to increase the difficulty level, the focus should be on increasing intensity, not training longer. I know that once people feel they can comfortably handle 30 minutes of exercise, they think they should increase the time. They assume that spending more time in the gym is the way to improve results. Believe me, friends, this is not the way to improve or accelerate your progress. Instead, ask yourself what is your goal? Is it to be able to sustain longer and longer workouts until you can work out for the entire day? Yeah, wouldn’t my wife love that approach.
The idea with MET is to train smarter and more efficiently - not longer. Ideally, you want to do aerobics (and weight training) such that you get better gains and muscle recuperation, which is only possible when you are not doing ‘marathon’ sessions. Studies clearly show a direct link between overdoing aerobics (i.e. more then 30 minutes at a time) and a reduction in gains in strength and muscle size. With MET, the key is to always hit the right level of muscle stimulation, or exercise stress, and then to stop there rather than venture into the realm of diminishing returns.

Aerobics does promote fat loss and cardiovascular fitness but research at Penn State University’s Centre for Sports Medicine has confirmed that both strength and power drop noticeably when long aerobic sessions are added to a weight training program.
In one study, men who were weight training regularly experienced a 10% drop in leg press performance once they started doing an aerobic session four times a week. What’s more, they produced more of the catabolic hormone cortisol and the size of their muscle fibres reduced. The researchers noted that weight training increased protein synthesis and the amount of contractile protein in the muscle fibre. However, the stress from the aerobic training degraded the contractile proteins in the body, resulting in a net loss or reduction in the athletes’ overall strength and muscle gains by the end of the training program. Don't let this happen to you. Follow the MET Program as set out and the results will speak for themselves.

Managing cortisol to optimise muscle gains

Cortisol, of course, is the hormone that wreaks havoc on one’s ability to add more muscle size. Managing cortisol is the key to experiencing unimpeded muscle growth. Ideally, you want to train and supplement such that you minimize cortisol and maximize growth hormone and testosterone production. Failing to address this is often the reason people fail to add or maintain a good base of muscle mass.
By following the MET Program and supplement regimen as set out in these lessons, you can you’re your cortisol levels in check and keep the scale and measuring tape moving in the right direction. The main point here is to avoid excessive cardio sessions. When approached correctly, just thirty minutes three times a week is the most one would ever need to do both for aerobic conditioning and optimal fat loss.
Cortisol literally saturates your system during times of excessive physical stress, such as hard training. This catabolic hormone not only "reduces" the body’s natural release of growth hormone, it is responsible for breaking down muscle and slowing down the recuperation process. Physical stress brought on by training also causes the body to release the catabolic hormone prostaglandin-E2, which in turn causes an immune response that suppresses muscle growth. It also causes ACTH to drive down testosterone levels by more then 50%. The rise in cortisol also causes amino acids to leave muscle tissue at just the time when you need the greatest influx of amino acids to help in the growth building process.
To help keep cortisol at bay and the body in a positive growth cycle, follow the MET Training Program and supplement with Primestrin+ and ADL3. These are used to increase testosterone and GH levels while simultaneously blunting cortisol levels.
Primestrin+ tips the scale by substantially increasing the amounts of testosterone (and growth hormone) secreted in the body safely and naturally. Primestrin+ also causes the cells in the hypothalamus to begin to release more gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GNRH). ADL3 helps stop the rise in ACTH after training, which if not taken would lead to an actual lowering of testosterone levels and a sharp increase in cortisol. When using the full Venice Beach supplement program, athletes finally feel the full and natural release of their own testosterone combined with an even greater "extended" release of testosterone and GH from Primestrin+.
ADL3, in addition to blunting the release of cortisol, also helps prevent the rise in catabolic prostglandin-E2 (which further helps shield muscle cells against EIC’S immune system attack) while boosting the immune system so cells can devote far less energy to defending and more to the matter of muscle growth and recovery.

AGF - the essential (and non-essential) amino acid component

The benefits to bodybuilders taking an absorption-enhanced glutamine based supplement like AGF are numerous. Key features include: adequately restoring your body’s glutamine pool, reducing build-up of lactic acid from exercise, regulating the rate of protein turnover in muscle tissue, bolstering immune system function and increasing cell volumization.
The fact is, within a few hours after training, bodybuilders run short of glutamine, mainly due to the delayed effect of training. Specifically, each workout you do further decreases both blood and muscle glutamine. Replenishing glutamine pools in the muscle with Venice Beach’s AGF is another important aspect of the MET Program.
I should also point out that, like Primestrin+, AGF also responds better when used in combination with ADL3. Just like growth hormone, when cortisol levels are high, glutamine stores quickly become depleted. Researchers have detected a drop in blood glutamine levels by as much as 55% immediately after training.

The cortisol and glutamine link

When cortisol levels are high, glutamine stores become depleted, further compromising your ability to increase lean muscle mass. Because glutamine is intimately connected to muscle growth and plays an integral role in the muscle building process, you want to ensure you adequately replenish glutamine pools in the muscles with AGF following each workout, while ensuring cortisol levels are blunted with ADL3.

The perfect anabolic environment

One of the reasons Primestrin+ is so effective as an off-season mass building anabolic aid is its unique ability to raise HGH AND testosterone levels at the same time. Studies show that androgens alone are not nearly as powerful as androgens stacked with HGH. Hence the reason for combining both these powerful muscle building components into one single product called Primestrin+.
Studies also show that by increasing your HGH and testosterone levels while minimizing the release of cortisol through the use of ADL3, the benefits soon multiply. Don’t underestimate the value ADL3, Primestrin+ and AGF can have on your net gains. Each of these supplements is supercharged with Absorbal, a nutrient bio-availability magnifying agent. As with any absorption-enhanced second generation product, you don’t have to take a lot to experience the benefits. Just one capsule of a second generation supplement with Absorbal can deliver more usable active ingredients into the blood then four capsules of a first generation, conventional supplement without it. My advice is to always go with absorption-enhanced supplements.

Conclusion

Now you know not only how to determine which MET Target Aerobic level to choose and how often you should do it, but also how hard to push when doing the aerobics session at each level and how to measure if you are actually exercising with the correct level of intensity. Also, you know that to continue to progress, you must not stagnate in your program but continue to challenge yourself with higher levels as your body adapts and grows.
I have more to share with you about the MET Weight Training System next issue as I weave the entire program together. In the mean time, enjoy and be sure to put into practice everything that you’ve learned so far. Don’t forget to print out all the MET Tracker Sheets from the BodyFitness website and use them to construct your own personal Maximum Efficiency Training Journal.
Until next month, conceive, believe, achieve and train with passion!

Editor’s note: What are the best weight training exercises? How important is the order in which you work your muscle groups? What’s the best way to target supplements for the fastest muscle growth?
The answers are coming up so don't miss a single issue as the program further unfolds.