Bearing those “safety” concepts in mind, click through the jump to learn how to add fasted training to your\u00a0cycling program.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Always](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/womenscyclingenergybar-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>Nutritional notes and considerations<\/h2>\nFasted training can be full of pitfalls if you're not careful. Among them are bonking and muscle catabolism, which you'll want to avoid at all costs. Additionally, you can stimulate some of these fat burning adaptations by modifying your diet to stimulate your body's fat burning machinery.<\/p>\n
To prevent bonking, you'll want to carry some food in your pockets with you while you're training. \u00a0Typically you have between 60 and 90 minutes of glycogen stored in your muscles and liver, and that's usually enough to handle a fasted training session. However, sometimes you just haven't recovered well from a previous effort or you push well beyond what you're capable of. \u00a0A banana, bar or gel in your back pocket will ensure you don't hit the wall before you've hit your front door.<\/p>\n
Avoiding muscle loss is also a valid concern when performing fasted training intervals. \u00a0You can stave off muscle loss with pre and post workout protein supplementation (such as a
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t[easyazon_link identifier=”B008H7DYJ2″ locale=”US” tag=”taicoaandthed-20″]simple whey protein[\/easyazon_link]) and pre-workout <\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t[easyazon_link identifier=”B000SOXALE” locale=”US” tag=”taicoaandthed-20″]BCAA supplementation[\/easyazon_link]. \u00a0Protein supplementation is important because it acts as a secondary energy source and prevents muscle catabolism by providing sufficient amino acid building blocks for those working muscles. \u00a0BCAA supplementation is hugely important for\u00a0stimulating fat loss while sparing muscle tissue<\/a>. BCAAs are an\u00a0extremely important\u00a0requirement for fatty acid metabolism<\/a>, so supplementation will help to create a fat burning environment.<\/p>\nNutritionally, you can stimulate \u03b2-oxidation with\u00a0fat prior to training by ingesting fat. \u00a0Ingesting fatty acids (such as those found in the butter and MCT oil in a Bulletproof Coffee) does a couple of specific things. \u00a0A fatty meal will stimulate hormone sensitive lipase, and it will increase fat to carbohydrate ratio in the blood stream. \u00a0This change in fat\/carbohydrate ratio will stimulate glucagon and stimulates protein kinase A. \u00a0These, in turn, lead to phosphorylation of perilipin, expose the fat cell to the hormone-sensitive lipase and cause it to release free fatty acids. \u00a0Those free fatty acids are then used to fuel your workout.<\/p>\n
Finally, caffeine stimulates fat metabolism by sparing glycogen stores in muscle tissue at sub-threshold levels. \u00a0It acts at several points in the citric acid cycle to stimulate fatty acid usage and help to spare glycogen in the cell by creating additional sources of Acetyl-CoA and Citrate. \u00a0So that pre-ride cup of coffee<\/a> may be a way to stimulate your fat burning machinery.<\/p>\nYour first month of fasted training<\/h2>\n
If you\u2019ve been following any kind of higher fat diet<\/a>, you\u2019ll have a little bit of a physiological advantage since your body will have been ramping up your fat burning machinery already. But this doesn\u2019t mean your body is used to exercising in a fasted state; far from it. Exercise requires significantly more energy expenditure than simply sitting at a desk or working behind a computer. To ask your body to go from zero to one hundred without giving it some baby steps along the way is a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\nFor that reason, during the first month of your fasted training program, you\u2019ll want to start off nice and easy. I\u2019d recommend you only perform one day of fasted training every week during the first month of your training schedule. This may not sound like much, but once you get out there (or on the trainer) and you start going at it, you\u2019ll realize that it may be a little more of a shock than you would expect.<\/p>\n
Typically, the best workout to perform during this first month of fasted training will be your easiest day. I\u2019ll even go so far as recommend that your very first fasted workout be a recovery ride. Why? Isn\u2019t a recovery ride supposed to help you recover from harder workouts? Yes, it is. But it\u2019s also a chance to get some effective training done on your fat burning machinery. Since much of your energy during a recovery ride is coming from fat stores anyway, it\u2019s the perfect opportunity to help push that physiology a little bit further without adding a lot of training stress to your body or forcing it into an anaerobic state with little circulating blood sugar to spare.<\/p>\n
Following your very first workout, you\u2019ll want to perform the next three weeks of fasted workouts on your easiest training<\/em> day. This would not be your recovery day, but would be a day you\u2019re performing primarily aerobic work such as neuromuscular drills, speed drills or other aerobic, technique-driven work. When performing these drills, you should be primarily utilizing aerobic energy pathways, so limiting the amount of carbohydrate available to them during activity will help to increase your body\u2019s ability to break down and use fat as fuel.<\/p>\nA nifty side effect of this is your easy training day also becomes a big fat burning day. Imagine if you can spend most of your ride burning fat? Not only will you be fresher at the end of the ride, you\u2019ll be lighter in the long run as you melt off pounds.<\/p>\n
Your second month of fasted training<\/h2>\n
After a month of once-per-week fasted workouts, you\u2019re ready to start ramping things up a little bit and challenging your body a little bit more. In the second month of your quest to become a fat burning cyclist, you\u2019re going to aim to do two fasted workouts per week. Assuming you\u2019re riding your bike four days per week, this means you\u2019re going to be doing fully half of your days as fasted workouts. You\u2019ll want to give at least a couple days of \u201crecovery\u201d in between these fasted workouts, and I generally recommend doing every other workout without eating before hand.<\/p>\n
Which two workouts will you want to do without food? You\u2019re going to be sticking to your easiest days once again. Anything that involves you doing primarily aerobic work such as neuromuscular drills, speed drills or specific technique work is a perfect example of a fasted workout day. Where this starts to become a problem is when you\u2019re riding less than four days per week OR you\u2019re doing a lot of higher intensity, harder efforts (such as during a peak phase<\/a>.)<\/p>\nIn these cases, you have a couple of options. My recommendation is to do as much aerobic work as you can in those two fasted days, and even break your days into doubles if you have to. Do the aerobic portion of your workout in the morning in a fasted state (even if it\u2019s only 30-45 minutes) and then do your interval work in the afternoon or evening. You can even do your fasted workout in the early morning, then chow down on a light breakfast before returning to your bike half an hour later to finish your higher intensity intervals.<\/p>\n
One secret that I use when directly coaching athletes: I\u2019ll start directing my athletes to do one day of sweet spot level training<\/a> (usually of the muscular endurance type) for their fasted workout. This is a perfect way to get them to slowly ramp up the intensity, challenge their body to really start churning out some energy from their fat stores and build a little bit of fundamental fitness in the process. This slightly higher intensity will really ramp up that AMP Kinase enzyme (which drives mitochondrial density changes<\/a>), leading to some significant increases in b-oxidation of fat<\/a> and increases in mitochondrial density<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/science-in-sport-winter-riding-300x194.jpg\")
<\/a>Your third month of fasted training<\/h2>\nThe third month of your fasted training will be basically the same as the second month of fasted training. You\u2019ll continue to perform two fasted training sessions per week, generally on your easy days. As you progress through this month, you can experiment with adding more sweet spot training to your fasted workouts. Continue monitoring your body and adjusting your training as necessary by adding more intensity: if you're getting through your workouts fine and feeling like you've got something left, start adding some extra intensity. \u00a0If you find you\u2019re bonking hard during workouts, you may need to turn down the intensity a little bit or consider adding a very small amount of carbohydrate during your workout to stave off central governor fatigue (your brain and central nervous system requires carbohydrates for fuel, so part of fatigue in a fasted state is due to carbohydrate depletion).<\/p>\n
At this point, when I\u2019m coaching an athlete on a fasted training protocol, I do start to add smaller amounts of threshold work to their fasted workouts. Again, this forces the body out of its comfort zone and into new territory that it hasn\u2019t explored before. That shift out of your body\u2019s comfort zone is what forces it to adapt, and adding fat adapted threshold work will certainly push your physiology beyond any place it\u2019s been before.<\/p>\n
Another trick I\u00a0use is to have the athlete complete fasted work on back-to-back days. Just like stacking up training stress with back-to-back workouts, you\u2019ll stack up fat adaptation as well. You\u2019ll have to be careful with these, though, as the temptation to overdo it is very high and the potential for disastrous bonking is real.<\/p>\n
Your fourth month of fasted training<\/h2>\n
During the fourth month of your fasted training program, it\u2019s going to be time to throw down. You\u2019re going to challenge your body\u2019s ability to perform under high intensity while still generating a significant portion of the energy needed from fatty acids. These will probably be some of the hardest intervals you\u2019ll be taking on, and you\u2019ll be exceeding your threshold without much glucose with which to do so. \u00a0Expect to have a tough time with these intervals initially, and remember that you'll want to be carrying some kind of nutrition with you to ensure you're not stranded somewhere.<\/p>\n
Nutritionally, you can stimulate \u03b2-oxidation with\u00a0fat prior to training by ingesting fat. \u00a0Ingesting fatty acids (such as those found in the butter and MCT oil in a Bulletproof Coffee) does a couple of specific things. \u00a0A fatty meal will stimulate hormone sensitive lipase, and it will increase fat to carbohydrate ratio in the blood stream. \u00a0This change in fat\/carbohydrate ratio will stimulate glucagon and stimulates protein kinase A. \u00a0These, in turn, lead to phosphorylation of perilipin, expose the fat cell to the hormone-sensitive lipase and cause it to release free fatty acids. \u00a0Those free fatty acids are then used to fuel your workout.<\/p>\n
Finally, caffeine stimulates fat metabolism by sparing glycogen stores in muscle tissue at sub-threshold levels. \u00a0It acts at several points in the citric acid cycle to stimulate fatty acid usage and help to spare glycogen in the cell by creating additional sources of Acetyl-CoA and Citrate. \u00a0So that pre-ride cup of coffee<\/a> may be a way to stimulate your fat burning machinery.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve been following any kind of higher fat diet<\/a>, you\u2019ll have a little bit of a physiological advantage since your body will have been ramping up your fat burning machinery already. But this doesn\u2019t mean your body is used to exercising in a fasted state; far from it. Exercise requires significantly more energy expenditure than simply sitting at a desk or working behind a computer. To ask your body to go from zero to one hundred without giving it some baby steps along the way is a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n For that reason, during the first month of your fasted training program, you\u2019ll want to start off nice and easy. I\u2019d recommend you only perform one day of fasted training every week during the first month of your training schedule. This may not sound like much, but once you get out there (or on the trainer) and you start going at it, you\u2019ll realize that it may be a little more of a shock than you would expect.<\/p>\n Typically, the best workout to perform during this first month of fasted training will be your easiest day. I\u2019ll even go so far as recommend that your very first fasted workout be a recovery ride. Why? Isn\u2019t a recovery ride supposed to help you recover from harder workouts? Yes, it is. But it\u2019s also a chance to get some effective training done on your fat burning machinery. Since much of your energy during a recovery ride is coming from fat stores anyway, it\u2019s the perfect opportunity to help push that physiology a little bit further without adding a lot of training stress to your body or forcing it into an anaerobic state with little circulating blood sugar to spare.<\/p>\n Following your very first workout, you\u2019ll want to perform the next three weeks of fasted workouts on your easiest training<\/em> day. This would not be your recovery day, but would be a day you\u2019re performing primarily aerobic work such as neuromuscular drills, speed drills or other aerobic, technique-driven work. When performing these drills, you should be primarily utilizing aerobic energy pathways, so limiting the amount of carbohydrate available to them during activity will help to increase your body\u2019s ability to break down and use fat as fuel.<\/p>\n A nifty side effect of this is your easy training day also becomes a big fat burning day. Imagine if you can spend most of your ride burning fat? Not only will you be fresher at the end of the ride, you\u2019ll be lighter in the long run as you melt off pounds.<\/p>\n After a month of once-per-week fasted workouts, you\u2019re ready to start ramping things up a little bit and challenging your body a little bit more. In the second month of your quest to become a fat burning cyclist, you\u2019re going to aim to do two fasted workouts per week. Assuming you\u2019re riding your bike four days per week, this means you\u2019re going to be doing fully half of your days as fasted workouts. You\u2019ll want to give at least a couple days of \u201crecovery\u201d in between these fasted workouts, and I generally recommend doing every other workout without eating before hand.<\/p>\n Which two workouts will you want to do without food? You\u2019re going to be sticking to your easiest days once again. Anything that involves you doing primarily aerobic work such as neuromuscular drills, speed drills or specific technique work is a perfect example of a fasted workout day. Where this starts to become a problem is when you\u2019re riding less than four days per week OR you\u2019re doing a lot of higher intensity, harder efforts (such as during a peak phase<\/a>.)<\/p>\n In these cases, you have a couple of options. My recommendation is to do as much aerobic work as you can in those two fasted days, and even break your days into doubles if you have to. Do the aerobic portion of your workout in the morning in a fasted state (even if it\u2019s only 30-45 minutes) and then do your interval work in the afternoon or evening. You can even do your fasted workout in the early morning, then chow down on a light breakfast before returning to your bike half an hour later to finish your higher intensity intervals.<\/p>\n One secret that I use when directly coaching athletes: I\u2019ll start directing my athletes to do one day of sweet spot level training<\/a> (usually of the muscular endurance type) for their fasted workout. This is a perfect way to get them to slowly ramp up the intensity, challenge their body to really start churning out some energy from their fat stores and build a little bit of fundamental fitness in the process. This slightly higher intensity will really ramp up that AMP Kinase enzyme (which drives mitochondrial density changes<\/a>), leading to some significant increases in b-oxidation of fat<\/a> and increases in mitochondrial density<\/a>.<\/p>\n The third month of your fasted training will be basically the same as the second month of fasted training. You\u2019ll continue to perform two fasted training sessions per week, generally on your easy days. As you progress through this month, you can experiment with adding more sweet spot training to your fasted workouts. Continue monitoring your body and adjusting your training as necessary by adding more intensity: if you're getting through your workouts fine and feeling like you've got something left, start adding some extra intensity. \u00a0If you find you\u2019re bonking hard during workouts, you may need to turn down the intensity a little bit or consider adding a very small amount of carbohydrate during your workout to stave off central governor fatigue (your brain and central nervous system requires carbohydrates for fuel, so part of fatigue in a fasted state is due to carbohydrate depletion).<\/p>\n At this point, when I\u2019m coaching an athlete on a fasted training protocol, I do start to add smaller amounts of threshold work to their fasted workouts. Again, this forces the body out of its comfort zone and into new territory that it hasn\u2019t explored before. That shift out of your body\u2019s comfort zone is what forces it to adapt, and adding fat adapted threshold work will certainly push your physiology beyond any place it\u2019s been before.<\/p>\n Another trick I\u00a0use is to have the athlete complete fasted work on back-to-back days. Just like stacking up training stress with back-to-back workouts, you\u2019ll stack up fat adaptation as well. You\u2019ll have to be careful with these, though, as the temptation to overdo it is very high and the potential for disastrous bonking is real.<\/p>\n During the fourth month of your fasted training program, it\u2019s going to be time to throw down. You\u2019re going to challenge your body\u2019s ability to perform under high intensity while still generating a significant portion of the energy needed from fatty acids. These will probably be some of the hardest intervals you\u2019ll be taking on, and you\u2019ll be exceeding your threshold without much glucose with which to do so. \u00a0Expect to have a tough time with these intervals initially, and remember that you'll want to be carrying some kind of nutrition with you to ensure you're not stranded somewhere.<\/p>\nYour first month of fasted training<\/h2>\n
Your second month of fasted training<\/h2>\n
![\"In](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/womenscyclingenergybar.jpg\")
<\/a>Your third month of fasted training<\/h2>\nYour fourth month of fasted training<\/h2>\n