What is body recomposition?
To put it simply, body recomposition is losing fat and gaining muscle simultaneously. Most of the time people are focused on trying to lose fat, when retaining and building muscle is just as important.
Your body composition refers to the amount of fat-free (muscles, bones etc) and fat your body contains. Usually when people are looking to lose weight, they primarily focus on the scales, however this does not differentiate between muscle and fat. Similarly, BMI tests do not account for muscle mass, therefore it is inappropriate for someone that has a substantial amount of muscle.
Body recomposition is popular in bodybuilding and physique training as athletes need to lose as much fat as possible whilst retaining muscle mass. However, it has recently become popular in fitness as the general population see more of the benefits of strength training in their regular routine.
Traditionally, in-order to lose weight, people would heavily reduce their calorie intake and increase the amount of cardiovascular exercise. Although this will lead to overall weight loss, it will also lead to a depletion in muscle mass.
Benefits of body recomposition
Although body recomposition training is popular amongst the bodybuilding community, it still has benefits for everyday people that want to improve their strength, build muscle and increase their body confidence. If you choose this method, you will:
Build muscle size and strength
Lose body fat in a healthy and sustainable manner
Increased body confidence
Increase your knowledge of the gym
Improve cardiovascular health
That being said, going through a body recomposition takes dedication, and a lot of it. You must be willing to make sacrifices and work hard to get the desired outcome. There are a few things you need to ask yourself before you begin:
Do I have the time for this?
Am I willing to make some social sacrifices?
Can I be consistent?
How does weight training improve body composition?
Weight training is important for both the muscle building and fat loss elements of body recompositioning. Without a sufficient amount of weight training, you will not be able to build muscle and therefore won’t get the desired look. Therefore it is essential to incorporate a minimum of 3 days of strength training per week into your programme.
As you lift weights, your muscle tissue is damaged and small tears are created in the muscle fibres. It is then when these fibres recover (when you are resting and sleeping) that the muscles grow in size and strength.
When programming your training, you need to make sure that you are targeting all of the muscle groups for optimal results. This means that regardless of whether you choose to do full body workouts or splits, you should be targeting every muscle group at least once per week, more if possible.
There is still debate regarding which training method works best, as well as the rep range for body recomposition. In reality, you need to choose a workout that will fit your schedule. If you are not able to dedicate more than 2-3 days per week in the gym then you should stick to full body workouts. If you can do more, then a split may be ideal so that your muscles have time to recover.
Likewise, usually when training for body recomposition you stick to a hypertrophy rep range between 6-12 repetitions of each exercise. Focus on a combination of compound and isolated movements for the most consistent outcome.
Do you think you’ve got what it takes to undertake a body recomposition? Let’s talk.
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