TLDR: Do strength, power and endurance in one phase to morph muscle fibre type into Type-III muscle fibres
LHM is a 2 phase, 5 times a week, program that is written on the premise that through combining different types of training, one can change their muscle fibre type to a new ‘Type-III’ fibre type, combining the explosive power and strength of a Type-II fibre and the aerobic endurance characteristics of a Type-I fibre.
In the first phase, the types of workouts are Powerbuilding, Hybrid Circuits and Muscle Specialization. The goal of this phase is more focused towards hypertrophy as it contains more bodybuilding work than phase 2. An example week of 5 workouts is split into 2 Powerbuilding (1 upper body and 1 lower body), 2 Hybrid Circuits and 1 Specialization workout.
A typical Powerbuilding workout will feature one or two 5 by 5 upper or lower body compound movement, followed by accessory exercises depending on the split for the day. A Hybrid Circuit workout will generally be a giant set of 4 exercises, with 2 minutes rest in between sets for 4 sets and ends with a slow jog for 20 minutes. There are various options for body parts that a user would want to target in the Specialization workout, with 1 or 2 body parts is generally recommended, with 2 to 3 exercises to be done for that specific muscle.
The second phase’s goal is to lose as much fat as possible. The types of workouts are Density training and HIIT, and the week is set up to be 4 Density workouts and 1 HIIT workouts. The Density training session will generally be full body, done with high intensity with lower volume (5 sets of 4), with a fat loss finisher at the end of the workout which is either sprint repeats or fast walks. As for the HIIT day, it is a LISS session sandwiched in between 2 HIIT sprints. As an example, a HIIT day will start off with a HIIT at a sprint-rest ratio of 30s:60s for 15 minutes, followed by a slow jog of 25 minutes, and then followed by a 15-minute HIIT with a sprint-rest ratio of 60s:60s, and finally a cooldown 5-minute walk.
The program runs for a year, with the phases running for 1-3 months straight, back to back, before a 3-month maintenance phase of 3 sessions a week.
Pros:
- Big focus on big compound movements
- Conditioning aspect sorted out
- Long term view on phasic training
Cons:
- High amount of sessions may not suit well for busy individuals
- Pursuing too many goals at once
- No real guide to deload other than a sample ‘Maintenance phase’