During the past decade, the focus of the fitness industry shifted toward performing only the exercises that produced the greatest caloric expenditure during the workout along with the afterburn that is experienced post workout. This makes sense in the fact that you need to create a caloric deficit in order to lose weight. But, when your goal is to look great naked you need to look at the BIG PICTURE… and that’s exactly what we’re going to do in today’s article.
To my delight there has been a shift in the fitness industry recently toward Cosmetic Body Sculpting. In other words… training for looks. This isn’t something new or trendy. It’s been around for over half a century, but, as of late it’s been experiencing a resurgence.
With Cosmetic Body Sculpting you develop a fascination with your physique. You take note of any “lagging” body parts and you bring them up to speed and proportion with the rest of your body. It’s about symmetry and aesthetics.
Solely focusing on performing the exercises that burn the most calories and give you the most bang for your buck will not necessarily build a firmer, tighter, and rounder butt. It won’t necessarily sculpt your shoulders and shape your arms. That’s not to say that you won’t look better by performing these trendy workouts… it’s just that they won’t help you look your absolute best. They are simply missing the finer details that will give you that finished and polished look.
Cosmetic Body Sculpting is an art form. It’s beauty in motion. It’s about sculpting your best possible physique. It’s also about creating an optical illusion with your physique.
…For example; Cosmetic Body Sculpting has allowed me to create the illusion that I am a much bigger guy with a lot more muscle. At an impressive 5’7″ tall and a whopping 156 pounds, most people guess my weight to be around 175-180 pounds. They are shocked when I tell them how much I weigh. Personally, I could care less what the scale says. If I give the impression that I am a much bigger guy, I’m pretty damn happy with that. My goal this year is to hit 165 pounds and come in even leaner than my last photo shoot. It will be interesting to see what people guess my weight to be when I have 10 more pounds of muscle strategically placed on my physique with perfect symmetry and proportions.
The women who have been performing the Metabolic Masterpiece Body Sculpting Workouts are well aware of the benefits that come with creating an optical illusion. Sculpting rounded shoulders and building a firm and rounded butt will help create an hour glass figure even if you are not a busty female. This also helps create the illusion of a tighter waistline. This explains why these sexy and sculpted women have men doing a double take when they walk on by.
Burning calories efficiently is still very important to the Cosmetic Body Sculptor, but there is more thought, awareness, and feedback that goes into our approach.
I guess it’s time that I let you in on my secret about burning 100 times more calories…
…I don’t have a workout that burns 100 times more calories. I don’t even know how many calories I burn during my workouts. Whatever afterburn I experience I just chalk it up to a bonus burn and don’t give it a second thought. Any program that claims 9x faster fat loss, 100x faster fat loss, or anything above or between is reaching at straws. At least I’m being honest and not hyping up my program by claiming that you will incinerate calories faster than a supernova 😉 The calorie burn from workout program to workout program is dependent on many variables. I wouldn’t get overly wrapped up in it all. Instead, you should be focusing on what’s going to make you look HOT!
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s get back to the point of the awareness, thought, and feedback that should go into your workouts…
Weight training is the #1 priority with Cosmetic Body Sculpting. It takes priority over cardio or HIIT. It’s what’s going to shape your body. It’s crucially important to give 100% of your focused effort to your weight training and gain absolutely everything that you can from each session.
It’s when you begin to add cardio or HIIT to your weight training that you need to have a heightened awareness and pay close attention to your feedback loop.
For example, when you do cardio or HIIT does it increase your appetite and make you eat more? If you add 20 minutes of HIIT to your training, burning an estimated 250 calories with an estimated afterburn of 30 calories how do you feel afterward? Does it make you want to eat more? Think about how easy it would be to consume that 280 calories throughout the day. The same goes for steady state cardio.
The second most important thing that you must become aware of when you begin to add cardio or HIIT to your training is how it impacts your recovery. Does it impair your weight training? Most forms of cardio are leg dominant activities. If you are training your legs more than once per week, does HIIT or cardio allow you to recover before your next workout or are your legs still sore? Are you capable of progressing with your weight training when you begin to incorporate cardio and HIIT into your training?
These factors vary from person to person. How they impact me may be different than how they impact you. I’ve experimented with adding just HIIT to my training, just steady state cardio, and a mix of both over the years. What I have found is that anything more than 2 HIIT sessions per week seriously impairs my weight training sessions. When I am in a deficit during a fat loss phase doing more than 2 HIIT sessions per week absolutely runs me into the ground. Even steady state cardio can take it’s toll on me. Whether I’m cycling or jogging I have to pay very close attention to my ability to recover and how my workouts are impacted by the cardio.
Then there is something that many people do not consider…. Does the added cardio or HIIT add more stress to your body or your life? Being in a deficit is stressful enough in itself. Weight training is a stress that is breaking your body down and it needs time and proper nutrition to recover. Cardio can become a repetitive stress on your leg muscle and joints. HIIT can be very high impact and as it’s name states… it’s INTENSE! It takes a lot out of you. All of these things are stressful to your body and STRESS can make it more challenging to release fat from your body no matter how hard you push it during your workouts or how little you eat. Not to mention that trying to do 5-7 days of cardio or HIIT in addition to your weight training can add some extra stress to your life if you are living a busy and hectic lifestyle. This is why it’s so important to manage your stress.
Adopt a Pro-Awareness Mindset
After reading this article you may be thinking that I’m anti-cardio and anti-HIIT, but nothing could be further from the truth. What I am is PRO-AWARENESS! I’m all about paying attention to your feedback loop and making adjustments as you learn more about yourself and how your body responds to training.
What I do recommend is to start with 30-45 minutes of brisk walking 5 days per week in addition to your weight training. This is what I’ve been doing for several months. Although walking may not burn an outrageous amount of calories I’m looking at the BIG PICTURE. Walking helps me recover from my workouts quickly. Walking decreases my appetite. Walking reduces my stress. Walking is enjoyable to me. I feel more in-tune with myself. It allows me to clear my head and get focused on what matters most to me in my life. I love nature, which is a big reason why I love to get outdoors and walk around the park or along the river front.
So even though I may only burn 300 calories from walking 45 minutes, I am less likely to eat any more than I typically would if I had not gone for a brisk walk. Plus, I feel that with the joy I experience, the stress reduction, and the recovery benefits… walking creates an optimal environment within my body to burn fat and build muscle.
After two weeks of brisk walking you can begin to add some moderate intensity cardio or a HIIT session and see how your body responds. Pay close attention to your feedback loop. If your body is able to recover, your workouts are not impaired, and you aren’t stressed out from adding the cardio or HIIT, then you are good to go!!! The feedback that your body provides is the most valuable advice that you could ever receive.
One thing that you should be focusing a little more on is staying active all day long outside of your scheduled gym and cardio sessions. Maximizing the benefits of NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), can pay big dividends… and in many cases, greater dividends than your scheduled workouts. A few things that I’ve done to increase my NEAT is to stand at my desk while working on the computer. When I’m on the phone I stand up and walk around. I do the little things that you’ve always heard about such as parking your car as far away from the mall entrance. I had a successful personal training client who would park his car several blocks away from work, which would force him to walk before and after his work day.
To sum things up, working out is much more than burning calories. There are many more factors that come into play, which will determine the outcome of how your physique improves.
Become aware of how your body responds to training with the addition of cardio. It’s pointless to run yourself into the ground. You’ll find yourself continuously fighting an uphill battle.
I’m not here to tell you what workout program is better than another. What I am encouraging however, is that you begin to embrace the Cosmetic Body Sculpting approach to fitness. This embodies a huge variety of training, but the fundamental philosophy is viewing your body as a work of art. Sculpting an aesthetically pleasing body built with perfect proportions and sensational symmetry.
It has been incredibly rewarding to watch the shift in mindset that has occurred among the Metabolic Masterpiece physique artists… especially the women who once thought that body part splits were for big bulky bodybuilding freaks. To see these male and female body sculptors view their body as ART and become fascinated with how they can bring out the fine details of their masterpiece, absolutely makes my day. It has brought about a new awareness of what they are capable of achieving.
Isn’t it time that you began to view your body as a work of art… paying attention to the finer details and becoming fascinated with your ability to see changes where you want them to be seen? It’s time that you transform yourself from a fitness enthusiast to a physique artist!
Sculpt a Masterpiece,
Scott Tousignant
About The Author
Scott Tousignant, BHK, is a Certified Fitness Consultant with a passion for transforming fitness enthusiasts into physique artists. His most recent program, Metabolic Masterpiece guides you through the process of sculpting your body into a work of art, by applying what Scott has coined, “The A.T.T.R.A.C.T. Formula.
With his synergistic, boredom busting body sculpting workouts you will melt stubborn fat and gain muscle while skyrocketing your metabolism!