Christian,
I am looking for suggestion(s) on how to optimize my ability to gain LBM in the situation where I’m stuck with several counterproductive factors. Here’s some background info you may need. From age 17-40 yrs: 5’10’', 160lbs, 2 square meals plus massive amounts of coffee, cigarettes, and beer. Kicked the habits at age 41 and gained 15 lbs of adipose in 2 months. Fear of being a contributor to the great American obesity statistic turned me to weight training and cardio. I am currently 42 yrs @ 182lbs and ~10-12% BF. Cardio consists of a 3 mile/50 min power dog walk 7x/week (Factor #1) required to prevent my Lab from eating the house.
I focused on hypertrophy for the the 1st year of training using a full-body circuit and then a 3-day split. I have changed my focus to strength (thank you) for the past 2 months with 5x5 for compound exercises (bench, pullups, DB press, squat, deadlift) plus abs. My time is extremely limited, resulting in 6-7 hrs sleep max (Factor #2) and a 3-day split max (Factor #3). My low-ceiling basement gym consists of free weights used on a smith machine with hi/lo pulley, dumbells, and various barbells (i.e. unable to perform your favorite olympic lifts).
I am however able to control the diet, consuming 3430 cal (548c/194p/61f grams) daily plus dinner (wifey doesn’t like to be cramped with planning reqts). I use whey, creatine, fish & flax oil, and vitamins. I have a strong family history of cancer, diabetes, CHD and high cholesterol, and have therefore ruled out use of steroids and their legal counterparts. My borderline cholesterol of 204 consists of HDL @ 52 and LDL @ 140 but I hope a year of clean diet, oils, and fitness will bring it down (my physical is next month).
My current goal is +20lbs LBM, but I’m stuck. Any suggestions would be appreciated?
Thanks.
Hard situation indeed. First thing I wpould do is increase protein intake to 250-300g/day, lower the carbs and ingest them only post-wotkout and 2 hours after your workout if possible. 20lbs of LBM is a HUGE gain to make under perfect conditions, so since you are in a less than perfect situation it’s something that you can only hope to accomplish slowly.
I would recommend my pendulum approach, but since you cannot perform the olympic lifts or most explosive lifts I would suggest that you limit your work to hypertrophy and strength weeks.
Week 1: Hypertrophy
Week 2: Strength
Week 3: H
Week 4: S
Week 5: H
Week 6: S
etc.
HYPERTROPHY WEEKS
In your case I recommend a quick hit-and-run triple set approach:
Christian,
Thank you for your time and suggestions, they are greatly appreciated.
I searched this forum and found where you recommended the pedulum approach in the “Canadian Non-linear Autoregulating” thread. I was expecting recommendations of the jerk and snatch lifts found in your Money Exercises article. The push press and depth jump are the only two that would present problems. I thought maybe I could alternate between the 2 workouts after finding suitable replacements.
I should have been more detailed about my goal. I was targeting ~1.5 lb total weight gain per month, half being muscle. Is this too optimistic?
Also what specific carb/protein/fat ratio do you recommend, because carbs only post workout sounds like Atkins to me. Thanks again.
1.5lbs per month is realistic if you consume enough good food and train hard. If you find that you are not reaching that target you’ll need to up the calories, especially in the form of proteins and good fats (fish oils).
I’m not recommending an Atkins approach. I mean that carbs should only be consumed post-workout. Not necessarily only in the post-workout shake but in the meals after your training. You can include up to 3 carbs meals after your session provided that these are consumed within 6 hours of the end of the workout.
But still, 500g of carbs seems high to me. It will help you gain weight, but you may get fatter.