Marcella's Shoot Prep, Phase 1 - Derek

While I was busy eating to bulk up, Marcella's phases were geared quite differently. She has been making steady gains in strength and muscle size for the past year and she wanted to continue doing so, but her main objective for the 12 week process was to lose body-fat and gain muscle definition. The strategies of her first phase may look familiar to many of you who have sought my help in reaching similar goals. She used:

• Small portions of our normal diet with absolutely no 'cheat food'

• Lots of cardio, including cardio intervals during weight training

• Super sets, to burn more calories while weight training

• High repetitions on her exercises, for the same reason. You can see her phase one routine here .

As with my first phase, this was a learning experience. Marcella did lose weight and body-fat quickly, but we also noticed her hard-earned upper body muscles shrink just as fast. This caused me to alter her routine sooner than I had planned to get her back on track. Her programs from this point on did contain a lot of cardio, but also used strategies to maintain muscle mass.