UI gotta chime in that without an actual detailed dietary breakdown, or even your current training plan and corresponding photo so anyone can see what’s gotten you to where you are, all anyone can do is throw out general recommendations.
Also, eating “clean” doesn’t mean anything, eating within a certain caloric range and addressing your specific nutrient requirements thAt will support profess in terms of both muscle gain and fat loss over a length of time.
Lower body will usually lag behind upper body simply due to amount and types of fat receptor sites. This is something every female (and even most male) competitor had to deal with. Brad (@BrickHead) was a freak when We prepped because his quads were diced even when o told him he still needed to lose another 15 lbs -lol.
S
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I understand. I had a feeling I probably wasn’t being specific enough. But I’ll probably just wait for a few months to ask this question again when I’ve at least got comparison pictures up, but I thought I’d ask.
And I should probably use a better word for “clean” eating, but I just use that out of habit.
But thanks.
You weigh 197, but your lean weight which should dictate your Macros isn’t 197, so your protein could be seen as excessive. You are carbohydrate intake, around 200 g, is probably also high considering your level of leanness and I’m going to guess degree of insulin sensitivity. Considering you only train about three days a week, you really don’t need that much fuel on days where there aren’t any real physical demands placed on your body.
These are all things that need to be taken into account when setting up any type of plan. I’m not saying people dont need to go on low carbohydrate diet’s (it’s an individual and constantly Changing set of variables), but you need to assess your demands, and requirements, on a daily basis especially if you plan on excelling in some type of powerlifting goals while also addressing body composition.
When I set up plans for Brad and Rob ( i’m assuming you’ve seen their progress photos as well as the end results) our goals were completely appearance focused. On the other hand, you can pop over to the bigger, leaner forum and see photos where I helped a pretty well known power lifter and coach lose 60 pounds (so far!) these last several months while helping set PRs in addition to dramatically altering his physique in the process. So you don’t need to forgo physique recomposition just because you mainly train as a power lifter, and that means training and diet.
S
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I have seen your work with the powerlifting coach. Absolutely flawless.
And thanks for the feedback. I’ll implement it with a bit more care.
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Thank you! Still a work in progress! Hopefully when this is all over (I’d like to see him go a lot further than where we currently are!) he’ll have learned new habits, and actually understood my reasoning and rationale behind every change I made in his plan as we went along.
The fact that he’s someone people go to as a coach for powerlifting, there’s the worry that having the ego of always trying to push himself as the authority might be an issue. Hell, I’ve seen plenty of my clients have a conversation with me about something training or nutrition related and 5 minutes later I see they’re on social media parroting an exact scientific explanation I gave them or even word for word extolling a bit of wisdom I’ve imparted for motivation as their own -lol.
I’ll probably update a few months from now. I’m sure it’s motivation for a lot of people to see. stay tuned!
S
Ive seen people do that as well. I’m not sure if that bothers you, but I just chalk it up as them learning, and being excited maybe?
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I don’t think you should hold back on sharing photos because no one on here belittles people. Photos are actually important in gauging fat loss progress, possibly more so than weight in some cases.
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I’d be stupid to disagree with you.
I’ll save an entire story worth of explanation, because everyone has one, but from the past, I’m not really comfortable with picture sharing just yet. It’s not about people belittling me. It’s just me overcoming the anxiety that comes with things like that. I understand photos are crucial for helping and offering insight and advice, and in due time I’ll be able to contribute more. I just thought I’d test my luck by asking.
Oh, OK, that’s fine.
Feel free to disagree with me. I’m far from perfect.
Mmmm no. I agree with what you have said. A lot actually.
This just gives me a chance to work on some things a bit more. I’m using the T-ransformation challenge as goal to overcome some things, and to push me to achieve my goals. By then I’ll come back here and actually give proper details. That way you guys can actually provide insight.
You know, if you’re not thrilled with putting it all out there publicly You can shoot Brad an email.
S
Well I don’t want it to be hassle or anything. But thanks. I’ll shoot him an email.
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Thanks for the tag! Be happy to offer any input I can. As Stu and Brick have said, without a current detailed diet break down and pics, it’s not really possible to give detailed or informed feedback.
But, to generalize:
This depends entirely on your goals and what your priorities are. Just my .02, health comes first, unless you’re making a living from powerlifting. Assuming you’re not and it’s a hobby, I think body fat should be in a healthy range that allows you to perform the way you want to, and look the way you want to. IMO 3000 cals a day is too much for a 5’6" female. To put on muscle doesn’t take a huge caloric surplus, 10-20% at most. Powerlifting also doesn’t burn a ton of calories, and if you’re training 3-4 days a week, your TDEE I’m GUESSING is around 2,200. Have you ever calculated this?
So, again, ultimately, it comes down to your goals. IMO it would be beneficial to concentrate on losing fat while maintaining strength, which isn’t really hard to do, just takes consistency. General guidelines are a 20% deficit, might need to add some more LISS or HIIT cardio depending on what works for you and your schedule, and keep that up until you reach a weight/conditioning that works for you.
Hope this helps, please feel free to post any further questions!
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Just happened upon this epic thread and read it ‘cover to cover’… some seriously interesting stuff! I’ve very much bought into the so-called ‘science based fitness community’ over the past few years in terms of their recommendations for training and nutrition, not because I’m zealot but because a lot of it has just been logical and made sense. But there’s always that other little sceptical side which finds question marks here and there and some of you guys in this thread have absolutely nailed the bits and pieces which are a tad murky – one of which being that many of these guys talk the talk but don’t appear to walk the walk, if that makes sense.
Anyway, as for the discussion about training splits, the major reason I believe in hitting body parts with a higher frequency than once per week is not so much about this supposed ‘muscle protein synthesis magic’ but rather that simply, it enables me to fit more total volume per body part into a training week. So say if 18 sets was the goal for a muscle group, hitting say eight or nine sets early in the week and the remainder later in the week has led to more productive and heavier sets for each movement than trying to fit all of that total work in one session.
It is fine line though with recovery and for me, I’ve found that splitting volume up over two weekly sessions for most muscle groups is the sweet spot as far as sustainability goes. Whenever I’ve upped it to three times per week I’ve run into recovery issues pretty quickly as the fatigue / soreness from the previous week just doesn’t seem to drop off enough before I’m hitting it again.
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Throwing it to everyone here and asking how much attention people pay to their front delts? As for my traps it’s never occurred to me to isolate them in any way because of the work they get pressing etc.
Mostly front delts get hammered with my chest work. I do some dedicated overhead barbell pressing work (+ dumbbell flies for extra volume if needed), but nothing specifically for front delt isolation.
In terms of traps, I like to add in some barbell shrug work. But traps also get a kicking from T-bar work, barbell rows, rack pulls etc.
Really kind of depends on the rest of your routine and how your overall volume is looking.
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How do you guys see the relation between leg volume training and hypertrophy?
I have always done mid~high volume each 4th day focusing hams or quads, 4 exercises + 2 for calves
Im a bit curious about lower specific volume training and higher reps like Stan Efferding since my strenght e size gains on legs are heavily staled
Im trying little bit less volume (less exercises) and high reps exercises like 20 reps leg presses or high reps squats and because i rarely do more then 4~6 reps on squats and 8~12 on leg presses
Would you mind posting your weekly split?
Little bump to keep the thread going.
1.) How well do contrast showers and massages actually affect recovery? I know they’re enjoyable, but are they actually effective recovery tools?
2.) anybody still using push ups in their chest workouts? Seems like repping out a couple amrap sets at the end of a heavy workout is a good way to really finish off the chest. If so, what techniques do y’all use to make em “hypertrophy specific” for lack of a better term?
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