How to lose weight without losing muscle mass: hybrid training

Pablo Guevara, head of the GueviFitLife firm and author of the book ‘Beyond Fear’, is a staunch defender of hybrid training. This vision of sport considers that performing a single sporting activity, such as running or lifting weights, can be limiting, but mixing both in an intelligent way produces many benefits. These routines pose a challenge to the most extreme mentalities, which until now considered that weights can act as a brake for runners or that bodybuilders will lose their muscle mass gains if they practice cardio.

«Three years ago I came to the conclusion that fitness, as it is conceived, did not represent me. It seems that a large part is aimed at people who want to get on a stage to exhibit their body. I have nothing against bodybuilding, but I was looking for something more linked to health, something that involved a balance between having strength and also endurance,” he explains. That search for health in sport, even in an activity as extreme as the triathlon, led him to use weights and have personal bests such as being able to lift twice his body weight in squats and deadlifts.

Less injuries

“What I would say to a runner is that if he uses weights with common sense, his muscles will strengthen his joints and skeletal system, so he will be injured much less,” says Pablo Guevara at the time. to explain some of the benefits of hybrid training. In the case of people who lift iron almost exclusively in gyms, Guevara also relies on the benefits of cardio, which improves VO2max – the amount of oxygen that the body can use – thus “their practice “Every day you will also benefit, since you will be able to train with much more intensity and you will notice the benefits in all sessions,” says the expert.

“In any case, intelligent nutrition will allow the losses of muscle mass that could occur with a caloric deficit to be minimized,” he adds.

Hybrid training is also part of some of the fitness trends of recent years. One of the most widespread and traditional is CrossFit, in which the workouts are combined in such a way that strength and running sessions can be carried out in the same session. «In my opinion, CrossFit athletes are currently some of the strongest athletes there can be. What happens is that this activity is in itself a sport, with its established rules and procedures. The second and most innovative trend is the so-called Hyrox, a practice that consists of running eight kilometers –in sessions of one kilometer– with strength and high intensity exercises interspersed.

Sanity

Pablo Guevara, however, is in favor of hybrid training understood in a much broader way. «The important thing is that training is fun so that you don’t give up and you can be consistent. Going for a run is great, but cycling, swimming or rowing can also be interesting. And the same thing happens with weight exercises. There are days when you may be interested in moving a bar but you also have dumbbells or body weight exercises more typical of calisthenics. What we seek is to be persistent in practice. After all, the best training is the one you do,” Guevara emphasizes.

In his opinion, the two words that define hybrid training are balance and efficiency. «Efficiency seeks to make training hours count to make the most of them. And balance, practicing this type of hybrid training in such a way that, for example, fatigue is reduced and sports are done in a sensible way. Because what Guevara defends is acting with head. «To anyone who wants to start in this way of training I would say to consult the experts and not start like crazy. “Both running and lifting weights require going little by little,” says the expert.