Hey Team,
After Sunday’s blog about the challenge and everyone’s improved MOOD, ENERGY and SLEEP I did think it was important to add that not EVERYONE was HAPPY.
“Gained fat, lost muscle, not impressed”.
Now, to present a full picture of their responses (below), they recorded pretty reasonable scores for SLEEP, MOOD and ENERGY so if clearly wasn’t ALL bad, but clearly the outcome wasn’t what they were expecting – or WANTING!
Now looking at the response, my first reaction is to say that post challenge I’ve certainly been there. I don’t want to turn this into a ‘How to gain muscle’ blog (in fact, I want to keep this QUICK!!) but I do want to remind everyone that this is FAR from an EXACT science. If you are like me and you want to ‘STICK TO THE RULES’ then what can happen is this:
1/. Your training volume INCREASES.
2/. Your food volume DECREASES.
The outcome is that your body uses muscle to fuel your training…which means your muscle goes DOWN despite all your hard work and as a result of muscle dropping, your body fat percentage will increase.
Does that sorta kinda make sense??
In order to GAIN LEAN MUSCLE, you simply must:
| -STRENGTH train, 3-4 times per week – you need to STIMULATE your body to build muscle. |
| -Drink WATER. I think we all know this by now and I am not going to be prescriptive here – most of us KNOW whether we are drinking enough water (I know I don’t) or not. In Australia, “healthdirect.gov.au” say that men should average 2.5lt per day and women 2lt per day. |
| -Increase your INCIDENTAL exercise. I believe in this more than ever lately. If you want to maintain your body comp, well…you need to WALK. 10K steps per day is a good ‘get started’ goal…but 12500 is a nice challenge target. It WORKS! It’s measurable…it’s easy to track where you are… |
| -Eat WELL – you NEED 2g of protein for every kilogram of body weight EVERY DAY. |
| -Eat WELL – if you want to LOSE FAT, then you need to be in some kind of CALORIC DEFICIT. So stick to the straight and narrow path – focus on Fresh Meat, Vegetables and Fruit – whilst minimising foods that contain sugar (and, of course, minimising alcohol). |
| -SLEEP – Your body builds muscle whilst you are RESTING, not whilst you are training. If you are sleep-restricted, it is going to be very hard for you to change your body composition. |
| -Find a way to DESTRESS. As with sleep, your body builds muscle whilst you are at REST. If you are constantly STRESSED and ‘ON-EDGE’, well…you aren’t at rest – so your hard work in the gym will not bring you the results you are dreaming of. |
If you look at the table above, most of us tick ‘MOST’ of the boxes when a challenge is on. And some of them outside of challenge times. Which is why (to be fair) that ‘most’ of us get ‘kinda, sorta’ good results…we get fitter and we get a lot BETTER at doing the ‘things we do’ in the gym (Strength gym get better at deadlifting and bench-pressing because they regularly do those activities, Boxing gym people get better and boxing and hitting cardio targets because they regularly do those things…but being BETTER at something doesn’t mean losing weight/gaining muscle).
Back to the challenge and the ultimate ‘PROBLEM’ – increase in training volume accompanied by reduction in FOOD volume = lack of muscle. Now, it is hard to talk specifics in this instance but I can talk about the times this has happened to me.
1/. I want to follow the rules so I do ALL the training.
2/. I want to follow the rules so I follow ALL the food rules.
3/. My day gets out of control with work, it gets to 2pm and I haven’t eaten breakfast (let alone lunch) and I find myself trying to work out my ‘food options’…rather than risk ‘cheating’, I go without…
4/. I still do my training that day (it’s the rule!!) and guess how my body fuels that training effort? With muscle.
The key to all of these things is to be BALANCED. Well, of course the ACTUAL key is to be PREPARED (lunch? Yeah, grab that lunchbox out of the fridge…whoops, I didn’t make it/forgot to bring it!!!). But if you aren’t PREPARED, you need to be balanced. You might just have to have that protein shake on the way to work after being in the gym – YES, EVEN IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT. You might have to order that chicken and salad wrap from the local cafe at 11am and MAYBE another one at 2pm. It might not be an ideal solution – it might be covered in mayo and not be the ‘healthiest’ choice…but if you want to gain lean muscle, then you simply MUST get sufficient protein.
Anyway – I didn’t want to make this into a lecture…that’s probably enough now. But the important thing to remember is that being dedicated to your food without the training piece will NOT get you the results you want. Equally, being dedicated to your training WITHOUT getting your food sorted out…that simply WILL NOT get you where you want to go. Eat good food. Drink Water. Lift weights. Get your steps in. Go to the gym. Sleep. De-Stress. EASY!!
See you in the gym,
Michael.
