Photo Gallery
Hybrid Workouts
Published: 02/04/2009 by Jade Teta ND CSCS and Keoni Teta ND CSCS
Take a look around any gym in America and you will see the same story, personal training clients being guided through workouts modeled after bodybuilders where weight training and cardiovascular exercise are seen as incompatible. We're not saying these workouts aren't beneficial, but the same old line of, lift heavy to put on more muscle and do your cardio for weight loss doesn't leave a whole lot of options. Athletes have been engaged in exercise that combined aerobic and anaerobic components for years, yet they exhibit lean muscular physiques. I think we would agree most people involved in fitness seek improved body composition and prefer the look of athletes to bodybuilders. People want to build muscle and burn fat and they want it fast and cheap. You can deliver the lean muscular look your clients want, but it requires a departure from the lift then run motto espoused in most gyms. Losing fat and gaining muscle is possible through taxing the anaerobic and aerobic system in one workout with hybrid movements.
Weight Loss and Bulking Up
Before we began this discussion, it would be useful to straighten out some common terminology that often gets misused. Take weight loss for instance. Isn't it really fat loss we are after? It is easy to lose weight, just starve yourself and your mission is accomplished. However, looking thin and flabby is not what most would desire. Some call this look skinny fat or in medical lingo, sarcopenic obesity. It describes a body that is within a normal weight, but still has an undesirable muscle to fat ratio. In the world of fitness training, this is most often seen in exercisers who avoid weight training, shun food, and run for hours a day. All cardio and no food will rob the body of muscle. Although these people may look thin to the untrained eye, their less than toned body lets you know muscle is missing.
One more issue to point out is bulking up. Part of the reason the above scenario is so prevalent is from fear of getting bigger through weight training. This is a fear more common among female clients, but men increasingly share the concern. We think trainers have skirted this issue for far too long. If building increased muscle under a layer of fat cannot be described as bulking up, than what can? The issue is not whether it happens, but rather why. It is not what most people perceive. Women are not going to build big huge muscles like men unless they are using anabolic hormones, and even men will tell you putting on muscle is no easy task. Bulking up, as it is referred to by most, happens only when muscle is gained while fat is increased or maintained. This is like putting two sweaters on underneath your jacket; of course you are going to appear bigger. Bulking up occurs when muscle is added without losing fat. However, improving the muscle to fat ratio is the definition of lean, and is something both male and female clients want.
What are hybrid movements?
The most effective solution to escalating fat burning and muscular development is a full body workout that uses hybrid-based movements. Hybrids are exercises that combine multiple movement patterns into one congruent action. Probably the best and oldest of the hybrid movements can be seen in the Olympic power movements. Power-cleans, push-presses, and the snatch are all examples. Anyone who has ever trained using these movements can attest to the simultaneous aerobic challenge and muscular exertion. While these Olympic movements are usually far beyond the skill of your stereotypical trainee, hybrid movements can be tailored to the fitness level of the individual. If your client knows how to do a squat and can also do a shoulder press, then they can morph the two movements into one, a Squat-Press.
You may be thinking, how can these exercises be so effective, especially if one segment of the movement limits the amount of weight that can be used on the other part? This is where you are going to have to give up some of your preconceived notions. Heavy weights are key to building muscle, and most well informed trainers understand that the volume of work done by a muscle is also a major stimulant for muscle growth. Hybrid movements take advantage of heavy weight, increased volume, and also amplify fat burning by several mechanisms. First, the amounts of calories burned in a workout are directly correlated to how much muscle is engaged. Hybrid exercises close to double the muscle mass usage in each lift. Secondly, any movement using multiple muscle groups will demand increased oxygen consumption and lactate production. Oxygen fuels the fire of fat burning and lactate is directly correlated to the production of fat burning and muscle building hormones after the workout.
Hybrids are the closest things we have to giving our clients the same benefits afforded athletes. If asked, the average trainee averse to bulking up would select the look of an athlete over the look of a bodybuilder any day. Of course, it depends on the sport, but athletes are more lean than bulky and bodybuilders are both. While bodybuilders use isolated movements as the foundation of their training, athletes use full body movement's specific to their sport. Hybrids provide the exact stimulus athletes use in their training. The advantage is a lean muscular physique that is also extremely functional and fit.
The Science of Hybrids
The use of hybrid exercises in workouts is so new that very few studies have been done on their metabolic effects. However, we have a large population of athletes from all different sports to show their value. Like most things in the world of science, the things that work today will be the material of study ten years from now. A complete reliance on science over practical experience will leave the best trainers playing catch-up. Some studies are showing hybrid workouts can build muscle and burn fat without needing to split the efforts into separate cardiovascular and weight training days. This is a powerful tool considering most trainees often neglect one or the other components of their training. Incorporating a few of these advanced moves into a workout can save on time, deliver substantial results, and break the monotony of more conventional exercises.
Research shows workouts combining upper and lower body exercise deliver multiple fitness parameters all at the same time. In 2001, the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise published a study on thirty-five females undergoing a workout that combined lower body aerobic exercise and upper body weight training. Contrary to what some guessed at the time, the workout showed improved body composition as well as enhanced muscular endurance and strength compared to doing aerobic exercise alone. In volume 94 (2005) and 97 (2006) of the European Journal of Physiology, two articles came to the same conclusion, this time in men. The studies showed that combined lower and upper body workouts were able to improve muscle mass, lower body fat, and improve multiple fitness parameters in as little as 8 weeks. Thigh and abdominal fat measured in the second study decreased by 11% and 12% respectively in a fourteen-week period while muscle cross sectional area increased between 2% and 14% in nine out of ten muscles measured. In another study coming out of Ireland, exercisers were shown to burn up to 50% greater fat by combining upper and lower body exercise. These are impressive results by anyone's standards, and are even more surprising considering many experts assertions that cardiovascular and resistance training are incompatible within the same workout.
All the studies above used variations on hybrid exercises that combined upper and lower body movements. What these studies illustrate convincingly is that the idea of separating the upper body from the lower body and avoiding cardiovascular responses in a resistance workout are not necessary and may not be the best idea for clients desiring optimal changes in body composition in minimum time. Although more studies should be done, many prominent strength and conditioning coaches have been using full body movements aimed at improving both cardio-respiratory fitness and strength and muscle gains for years.
The Hybrid workout
We recommend you experience these movements for yourself before you begin using them on your clients. Hybrids will require extra diligence in exercise instruction and coaching on form, but will more than make up for it through results. Not unlike sprinting, expect your clients to enjoy a large cardiovascular stimulus with these exercises. The best way to explain the feeling is trying to push a heavy wheelbarrow up hill. You will be panting to breathe and feel that heavy pumped feeling in the extremities. Give rest as often as it is needed and don't forget the basics of delivering effective workouts; train heavy, train to failure, and train safe. Failure in this workout will be achieved mechanically from heavy loads and metabolically from build up of anaerobic byproducts. Both forms of failure combine to stimulate muscle building and fat burning. It will be a good idea to use heart rate monitoring along with perceived exertion rates in this workout. This will make for a safe and effective workout. All fitness levels will benefit by adjusting weight, rest intervals, and movements based on ability.
Start off choosing your exercises. We suggest starting with the simple and more intuitive hybrid movements. A squat/press, lunge/curl, and push-up/row would be a good place to start. Now you have a choice, you can use these movements in a simple workout of three sets of 8-12 reps of each exercise. In order to maximize the cardiovascular benefit, you will want to keep the rest short, between thirty seconds and two minutes. Another way of conducting the workout naturally incorporates short rest. In this scenario, you can use the exercises in a superset where one movement is done for 8 reps and is immediately preceded by the next for 8 reps. In this way, you can create a continuous round-robin circuit that is action packed and will tax the most advanced trainees. The rest periods in the circuit routine will be based off individual fitness and some clients will need rest before others. Remind your trainee to rest whenever they need it, and continue as soon as they can. Exertion rates and heart rates can be used to judge safety and guide rest periods. 85% of maximum heart rate is the intensity you want to breach, but usually cannot be sustained for long. When your client rests, a return of 70% is a good indication they are ready to resume the workout. Every trainee is different and prescription drugs can affect heart rate, so always defer to exertion rates. On a 1 to 10 scale, with 10 being maximum effort, an exertion rate of 6/7, or where talking can be resumed without panting, will signal a restart to the workout for most.
Whichever workout you employ, make sure you keep the weights heavy. Dumbbells are your best bet since they are easier to maneuver, take up less space, and will not impede the movement of the extremities. A ten-repetition maximum should be chosen from the weaker movement. For instance, since the legs can handle much more weight than the shoulders, the weight for squat/press should be one the shoulders can just barely handle for ten repetitions. If failure comes prior to completion of a full set, resume where you left off when the workout resumes. It is better to keep the load heavy and complete the set in two or three attempts rather than reduce the weight to make it easier. Move as fast through the workout as possible based on your client's ability. We recommend sticking with the same workout for six to eight weeks before choosing another set of movements.
Just like with traditional exercises, the pairing of movements will determine the degree of difficulty. For advanced clients, doubling up on leg heavy hybrids will push them to the max. For instance, a lunge/squat hybrid in a superset with a squat/step-up hybrid will torch the legs and create a marked anaerobic response. For clients less fit or new to exercise, the use of machine hybrids is safer and yields similar effects. A leg-extension/shoulder-press will quickly prime the nervous system and stimulate the metabolism. Hybrids deliver maximal caloric burn and adequate muscle stimulus for any beginner. The important thing is to be aware of whom you are training and what their goals are.
The construction of hybrid movements is limited only by your imagination, but should be constructed so the whole body is worked and the cardiovascular system is taxed. You can even combine a recumbent bicycle with a dumbbell curl and press to get the full effects of this style of training while mixing up the scenery. Adding just one or two hybrid exercises into your standard machine or free weight routine can add variety and effectiveness.
The beauty of hybrids is that they are extremely functional and can substitute for both a resistance and cardiovascular workout. They are able to develop all the attributes of fitness by improving cardio-respiratory parameters as well as muscular strength and endurance. They also work in multiple planes and combine different movements in one, and therefore are a test to the nervous system and also challenge balance and coordination. In this way, they actually surpass more traditional forms of functional training, which fall short in development of body composition. Give hybrids a try. Their religious use in your routines will help you achieve optimal fat loss and muscle development in your workouts and avoid indiscriminate weight loss or bulking. You and your clients now have a whole new exercise arsenal that can deliver in more areas than one.
