10 questions with Alwyn Cosgrove

1. Hi Alwyn, thank for joining us. I'm sure you've answered this repeatedly but, for the sake of our readers, but how did you get into this field?

AC: Thank you for the opportunity Lyle. And I'll start by saying that this is the single most boring question that ever gets asked when doing interviews_ But I'll assume that there is someone reading your newsletter who really, really wants to know the answer to this question.

The short answer is I was a competitive athlete - competing in a couple of fighting sport disciplines (ITF Taekwon-do, kickboxing and open continuous sparring - all stand up disciplines).

I realized at about 16 years old that the top fighters really didn't do anything different in terms of technique, yet the champions remained dominant. If you look at boxing for example, there are really only four techniques - jab, hook, cross and uppercut. But the difference between a champion and a rank amateur is obvious. It came down to two things really - number one - strategy (from a good coach and corner-man) and number two - the ability to be able to physically apply any strategy they determined was effective.

I already had a fantastic coach - so my role was just to have the ability to do whatever he asked. So for me, strength, speed and conditioning were going to be the difference makers. When I figured that out and dialed it in, I pretty much won everything I entered after that. I was obsessed with winning. Which ended up being an obsession with the "Science of Winning" which is all that training really is for an athlete.

And my obsession with the topic lead me to college where I studied sports science, and into the training world where I just kept studying, and applying what I was learning. I'll admit though that I learned more in the real world, coaching real people than I ever learned reading pubmed or any journal articles.

2. Weight training for fat loss is always a perennial favorite topic, you and I discussed it in depth just a few weeks ago. What are you doing with your fat loss clients to help them drop fat as quickly as possible?

AC: I think this topic gets bastardized more than any other right now.

There are really only two camps right now - and they seem diametrically opposed to each other. One camp recommends heavy weight and low reps (i.e. the same program they recommend regardless of your goal) and the other camp is the higher rep, metabolic disturbance crowd who approach weight training purely from a metabolic standpoint.

I fall somewhere between the two camps, although I think the "massive losses of muscle" that everyone seems to be concerned about don't really happen as long as the resistance program is a) somewhat heavy, and b) the diet and cardio approaches aren't completely stupid. Now in the real world, I suppose these are massive assumptions, but when I'm working with clients I tend to be able to control those variables, so the muscle loss factor isn't really an issue.

So I guess if I had to choose one, I fall into the more metabolic approach camp. This is the approach we use with our clients, and to be honest we get excellent results. The entire approach, with an actual example is outlined in Afterburn (click here to order)

3. Does anything change for beginners versus more advanced individuals, what about athletes versus the non-athlete who just wants to get in shape quickly?

AC: With more advanced athletes, muscle loss now does become more of an issue so I like to use a combination of the above methods. Nothing crazy, maybe just one to two exercises for 2-3 heavy sets each before doing the higher rep superset stuff.

So exercise A; e.g. Squat 3 sets of 5 reps.

Then maybe 6 exercises, covering the total body for 2-3 sets of 8-15 reps with short rest periods.

With athletes - I don't really like to do fat loss training unless it's in the off-season. So for their fat-loss work I like to approach it primarily from a nutritional standpoint. Which, as anyone who works with college or high school athletes knows, that's just an understanding of the basics - it's nothing complicated.

However in the off-season I'd use something similar, with the primary exercise being a max strength exercise. In-season fat loss is not an optimal situation but assuming that we had to address it (i.e. if I didn't get them before that) then we're making a decision that the fat loss would result in a better performance enhancement than anything else. In this case I'd use an undulating program where I rotated between 4, 8 and 12 reps, but the first exercise remained heavy. However I'd select an explosive exercise for the first exercise in season as opposed to a strength based exercise.

4. What's the best piece of training advice you've heard lately?

AC: Actually it's probably a snippet from that post the Australian strength coach to the cycling team made on Supertraining (I believe you sent it to me).

Basically his points were that were you to have a completely crappy workout -and be unable to hit loads you've used before - you go home. In other words, if you didn't hit the target loads or times on the first effort or set - you go home. You aren't fresh enough to train at a level that will make you improve. Now I'd always believed this, and put it into practice. But I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't do the reverse.

This guy pointed out that: "if you do a PR, you warm down and go home. If you are on fire that much you can blow yourself to pieces in a couple of sets or efforts and it will take weeks to dig you out of the hole you put yourself in, so whatever it is, if you PR, you stop and come back next time".

I thought this was huge and I'm embarrassed to say that it wasn't something I'd thought about prior to reading this. But I've adopted it with excellent results so far.

5. What about the worst?

AC: I forget the exact title but it was something like 99 fasted workouts to shredded-ville. The advice wasn't effective, and the science it was based on just isn't there.

Substrate utilization during the actual exercise session is a largely irrelevant issue when it comes to fat loss. Whether you burn the calories from fat stores or carb stores won't really make a difference in the big picture. Caloric deficits lead to fat loss regardless of where the original deficit came from.

And even if substrate utilization did make a difference, the calories burned during such a low level activity (non-panting cardio), is only about 200-300 calories per hour of training. This would only add up to about 20-30,000 calories over the course of 7 months. Or about 6-9lbs of fat loss total. Hardly shredded-ville.

6. Who in this field has influenced you and who do you listen to?

AC: I have studied under several of the "names" in the field, probably moreso than any other coach today. I've spent a lot of time with Charles Poliquin, Ian King, reading Paul Cheks' stuff, Eric Serrano and a host of others including some amazing coaches that most guys have never heard of. Recently I've spent some time with Mike Boyle, Gray Cook, Lee Taft, Brian Grasso, Chris Mohr, Jason Ferruggia. Dave Tate, Robert Dos Remedios and Zach Even-Esh.

I've learned something from everyone to be honest.

Recently my own interests have focused more on improving my business and that has changed who I listen to more than anything - Ryan Lee and Dave Tate being top of that list.

That said I think I've spent more time talking to you, Dave Tate and Jason Ferruggia recently than I've spent talking to anyone else. And I've learned something from every conversation. All that stuff you shared with me about monkeys has been truly life-altering.

7. If you had to give new lifters/athletes/bodybuilders a single important piece of advice in terms of making gains, what would it be?

AC: Probably do less total volume. That's still overdone. And I've gone on enough about the over-emphasis of bodypart splits in training. It's just flawed logic. If you go see an exhibit like "BodyWorks" you will see that the muscular system is like a "Web" - it works together. There is absolutely no valid physiological reason to separate your workoutsbased on muscle group.

We have interesting trends and pendulum swings in the training field though. A couple of years ago, we were in the middle of an "Olympic lifting training is the ONLY way to go" phase. Then we entered into the "Westside" phase. Currently we are somewhere between the 5x5 approach (popularized by Glenn Pendlay) and a Strongman phase.

As usual - the focus has been on the tools, and not on the principles necessary to apply these tools.I spoke to you recently about this. If we were both asked a question and responded with:

Me: Rack deadlifts : 5 sets of 5 reps.

You: Romanian deadlift: 6 sets of 4 reps.

Most people would focus on the differences, despite the fact that we both recommended a heavy barbell hip extension movement for 24-25 total reps in the 4-5 rep range. In other words - there are more similarities than differences.

8. Do you train males and females any differently? For fat loss, muscle gain, or sport performance?

AC: The short answer is no, although females tend to respond to slightly higher reps in the beginning and I also tend to see more females with no strength training experience.

I design programs for the athlete in front of me, based on their needs and experiences.

My coaching style for males and females is completely different though. But that's a whole other topic to be honest_

Interestingly females tend to be better as they have no preconceived ideas as to how to train. They are not as driven by ego either so their form is better.

In general though, when we are talking about athletes - if they are hiring a strength and conditioning coach then it's nearly always fro the same reasons, regardless of age, sex or sport. They are too weak, too slow, too fat, and sometimes (more so with males) too small. There are exceptions obviously to that rule, but most of the time that covers their goals. The fact that they are male or female isn't really a big factor.

9. A question that comes up from time to time on my forum is how to get a good workout without equipment. Either folks can't afford a gym, or are travelling. Is it possible to get a good workout without having to join a gym?

AC: You definitely don't need to join a gym as the actual equipment needed to get strong is pretty minimal. If you had a power rack, a bench, a bar and some weight you can pretty much do everything.

As for a workout without equipment - most guys have such poor control over their bodies that bodyweight training can still be extremely challenging. I wrote a workout for Mens Fitness that was recently re-printed on elite where I provide a bunch of bodyweight exercises and advanced loading methods with these techniques. It's definitely worth checking out or giving a test-run for a while.

In our facility we use a lot of bodyweight exercises in the beginning stages, however we also use them as RE (Lyle: repetition effort, basically reps to fatigue) exercises in other phases.

Try doing 2-3 circuits of 24 squats, 12 lunges each leg, 12 lunge jumps, 24 squat jumps and 24 push ups, and then tell me bodyweight-only training isn't challenging. It seems to go from being completely ignored to completely overemphasized from time to time.

I recently completed a bodyweight exercise DVD that describes numerous bodyweight exercises that can give traineed a complete workout without equipment, you can purchase it in my store.

10. Where can people get more information about your training ideas and programs.

AC: My newsletter is the only uncensored, unedited source on the internet to read my stuff! Other than that I'm writing for a bunch of different websites and magazines, and have a new book in stores - The New Rules Of Lifting.

Thanks again for the opportunity Lyle.

Questions and Answers

Q: What are your thoughts on manipulating macros & calories based on your somatotype, or if you have carb sensitivity issues, etc.?

A: I don't think somatotype per se is a very good indicator of things. What people fail to realize is that somatotype was basically an arbitrary system that was originally developed to try and correlate physical characteristics with psychological characteristics. And for every 'ectomorph' (roughly, tall and skinny) who is edgy and nervous, you can find one who is sluggish and laid back. Also, the supposed somatotype can change. Take an 'ecto' and feed them heavily for a couple of years and now they will rate as an 'endomorph'. Has their fundamental biology changed? What if I weight train an ecto and turn them into a more mesomorphic (muscular) build? Different underlying biology? Of course not.

Which isn't to say that different people don't tend to respond relatively better or worse to different types of diets. Over the years, I have found that how well people handle carbohydrates can vary quite a bit, even given relatively identical levels of activity. My very general rules of thumb are this:

a. People who feel terribly on high carbs (they get wide energy swings, feel sluggish, bloated), tend to do very well on lowered carbs

b. People who feel wonderful on high carbs (they get full and tight) tend to do terribly on low-carb diets

c. Some people don't seem to care either way.

Q: If you had to pick a single repetition range for hypertrophy, what would it be and why?

A: I would pick 5-8 repetitions. The reason is based on recruitment thresholds of motor units (MU's, the muscle fibers and nerve that activates them). 5-8 reps is roughly 80-85% of 1 repetition maximum, at that intensity, you will get full MU recruitment through the entire set. Doing 5-8 repetitions with that weight will then ensure that maximal amount of metabolic work given 100% MU recruitment.

That is to say, if you went heavier, say 90% 1RM (about 3 reps), you wouldn't get any further recruitment effect, but you would do less metabolic/mechanical work.

If you went lighter, say 75% 1RM (12 reps), you would get more total work but you wouldn't know when or if the highest threshold MU's were recruited.

5-8 reps maximizes both recruitment and metabolic work, given full recruitment from the first repetition.

Q: What diet should I look into to maximize muscle gain, with some regard to minimize fat gain?

A: It depends. As per question 1, some people find that they gain best on high carbs and relatively low fat. They tend to have high insulin sensitivity, a relatively high training volume and partition carbs very well towards muscle. At the same time, folks who get bloaty and sluggish on high-carbs often do better with lower carb bulking approaches. They do better keeping carbs to 100-150 grams/day, high enough to avoid ketosis but not so high that they run into problems, and making up the remainder of their calories from protein and fat. A future project of mine will detail the low-carb bulking approach.