Damn, you, Tom Venuto!

So I had this whole workout plan cooked up that I was certain offered the best route to getting leaner and stronger over the coming months. It involved working out twice a day: cardio in one workout, weight training in the other.

The weight training involved mostly giant sets targeting specific muscle groups, such as I did the other day in performing three different exercises in succession that targeted the chest.

Then I read a new ebook from Tom Venuto that flipped my workout over on its side and rolled it out the door.

I purchased Venuto's Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (BFFM) ebook years ago, and it became my diet and exercise bible. Just last year he released in hardback The Body Fat Solution, which is aimed more at the average person who wants to lose fat. Though most purchasers of BFFM likely weren't bodybuilders, the principles outlined therein were certainly aimed at those who want to get really lean.

Today I downloaded "The Holy Grail Body Transformation Program." In spite of the grandiose title, this ebook outlines in simple terms some basic diet and exercise principles one can follow to build muscle and lose fat at the same time. The goal of building lean muscle, i.e. building muscle without gaining fat, can be elusive, hence the title of this ebook. Venuto presents the reader with some straightforward information about how to achieve this goal and backs his ideas with scientific evidence.

I realized a couple of facts about my current diet and exercise plan (one of which I was already aware, the other, well, it slapped me in the face):

1. I'm not eating enough. That sounds crazy because the natural assumption is that most people overeat, not vice versa. The fact is, I'm too deeply in a calorie deficit, and I owe that in large part to my current work schedule. I'm putting 300 miles a week on my car driving back and forth from work to one school to another school and home. I carry portable foods with me, but it's really not enough.

2. My workout plan could cause me to lose muscle mass instead of gain, which is ultimately counterproductive. Why is that? Well, I've placed too much emphasis on cardio in my plan. I was getting up at 4am to do a weight training routine followed by 10-15 minutes of cardio and then was following that up in the evenings with another 20-30 minutes of cardio.

That's a lot of cardo. One of the basic principles laid out in Venuto's latest ebook is to limit cardio to no more that three days a week. Focus on the weight training. As far as the weight training is concerned, the idea is to avoid the circuit training in favor of straight sets or super sets. While I have referred to what I've been performing lately as super sets, they are in fact giant sets. It's not quite the same as circuit training since I target specific muscle groups, but what I realize from reading this book is that I need to work out with heavier weights and perform fewer repetitions.

Tonight, while perusing the ebook, I logged a straight-sets workout. That's not because of what I read in the book since I was actually digesting it as I was working out, but it just so happens that the end result is more of what the book calls for in a weight training routine.

I started with deadlifts. I did three sets of 6-8 reps at 225. After the deadlifts I performed three sets of 6 on the vertical leg press at 370. I then completed three sets of crunches on the Powertec Workbench followed by three sets of hanging leg raises.

I finished up with a brisk 15 minutes on the treadmill on the steepest incline.

Not a bad workout overall, but, based on what I've just read, I need to trim the cardio a bit. My conclusion is that I need to go back to the basic bread-and-butter workout that took me from benching 185 to 250 in a matter of months. It's a routine I've split into three workouts built around the big three movements: squat, deadlift, bench press. Monday is leg day, Wednesday is bench press and Friday is deadlift. Tuesday and Thursday will be cardio days, and I will likely throw in another workout on Saturday or Sunday. The added day is because I've expanded the big three to become the big four. The latest entry is the standing overhead barbell press.

These are the movements that I have designated as the primary muscle builders. The bench press is a time-honored staple of every weight training routine, but I'm still not convinced that it's not the most overrated movement. Yes, I still do it, but the overhead press may supplant it in my workouts as a bigger priority. Time will tell on that front.

In any event, Tom Venuto has steered me in a new direction.