We have a large interest in the TV show The Biggest Loser, and of course watch very intently the actual Biggest Loser Workouts that the contestants perform on the show, as well as their diet plan, the camaraderie between the contestants, and the psychological environment that the contestants are placed in by the trainers on the show.  All in all, we feel that the show does a good job of illuminating the key points to what it takes to be successful in weight loss.

The Biggest Loser Workouts are the most obvious thing to the viewers of the show.  They appear to be brutal, and as personal trainers we can tell you that a lot of them really are! Cardio endurance training and gut busting cardio intervals; resistance training that includes weight lifting, military style calisthenics, and sports performance moves; and finally all kinds of just plain hard stuff that only a trainer like Jillian would smile at: hard runs through the sand, moving tires the size of a truck, hill climbing.  These last kind of workouts combine a lot of strength and power requirements with very difficult cardiovascular intensity.

Some info from the show on the MSNbc.com network site suggests that the contestants work out up to 4 to 6 hours daily, maybe more when they have challenges to meet. Amazing! My fellow LIVE Owner Bryan and I have talked about this frequently, and we ask each other, how do these people recover from these workouts and keep going?  They do far more work than we would ever give a client in person, because recovery from workouts and avoiding injuries would be a huge concern at this level.

The actual components of the exercise on the show are perfect.  Cardiovascular training is a must.  The contestants do a combination of cardio endurance training, or long workouts at steady heart rates, which develops the body's ability to burn fat more effectively, and interval training, which is very hard bursts of cardio for short periods interspersed with periods of rest at a lower intensity while recovering for the next burst.  Interval training really raises the metabolism and burns a tremendous amount of calories while doing it.

The strength training that the contestants do is well developed.  It is mostly done in circuit training fashion, one exercise after another, frequently using things like weighted bars to do a lot of reps, or other forms of resistance like tires or even other contestants themselves.  This type of training is appropriate for the body types on the show, as they don't necessarily need to put on a lot muscle, rather they need to build low bulk strength, endurance and raise their metabolism.

The heavy training that the contestants due in environments like hills and sand, or using things like giant truck tires, is really perfect because it is very functional and develops strength all around the body in a way that uses all the body at once, thus burning calories, raising the metabolism and getting a person strong all over.

All of these things can be included in any workout regimen for a person attempting to perform Biggest Loser Workouts, but like I said before, we ask ourselves here at LIVE how people could possible recover from all that work.  In reality, the people on the show are in a controlled environment where they don't have to do anything except workout, eat and sleep.  This makes recovery for them a lot easier.  It is recovery and staying injury free that is the big variable for most people.  Even given the chance to recover, many of the contestants still got injured on the show, which shows the need for any one in a more typical environment to take it at a good pace that keeps them losing weight but also injury free.  That's what we do here at LIVE, we keep people moving, yet at a pace they can recover from and still keep progressing their training.