First, thanks for your help. I finished a cycle of ABBH, and made fantastic progress. I gained about 8 pounds, with 3 pounds of that being fat mass and the rest LBM. Nice. I don’t look much bigger, but can notice a bit more mass on the biceps and lats.
I threw the idea of dieting out the window, consuming 4000-6000 calories of real food (nothing out of a box for the most part) and protein powder a day. I’m amazed I didn’t gain more fat. The HOT-ROX I won has to have something to do with it, and I purchased a larger supply after the first week.
Now I need advice on how to keep that muscle. I’ve been accepted to the police academy and will be doing a lot of running, push-ups and sit-ups. Is there any way to minimize the amount of LBM that gets “eaten” in this aerobic activity? I won’t be able to eat the way I would like, and will have a net caloric reduction.
I was going to do another cycle of ABBH, but won’t have the time to devote to it that I think is necessary. I could do the routine, but doubt that I could recover properly. I was planning on NB3 for a month or two, with bench press and dips as the optional exercises. I’ll be doing push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups in the academy, plus stuff like holding a tire over my head. Is that the best approach, or would another program suit my needs better?
And to finish with an unrelated question, I would like to get some fight training. BJJ or MMA are the two I’m considering. Any comments or other styles I should look into?
Keep your cals up as much as you can, and down your training volume some. Dropping the training down will be crutial seeing as all the work you say they will have you doing. I would say just do some work on spot that you fell are not getting worked on their program.
But the main thing is eat dont try and lose weight right after putting it on yopu need to let it set in for a while if you can.
RINO, good advice from Phill. Diet is going to be the single-most important thing you can do to protect LBM.
Congrats on getting accepted to the academy, by the way!!! (gring)
If you can pack and/or carry a water bottle, you could pack up Surge (for longer session) and MRPs. If not, I’d recommend that you increase (quality) fat intake, eating some solid P+F meals at the start of your day. Intramuscular triglycerides do help with (aerobic) performance and endurance. It’s a legitimate energy subtrate. Definitely pack and eat nuts whenever you get a chance.
They key to minimizing muscle loss at any time is to convince your body that you need to keep it for survival purposes.
The best way to do this would be a relatively low volume but high weight type of training like a 5x5. I would expect your best results to come from training everything twice a week, which you could either do as two whole body workouts or as 4 half body workouts. Due to this split obviously you wouldn’t do 5 sets for each body part twice a week but rather split it up into a 3 set day and a 2 set day:
Day 1
Bench Press 3x5
Bent Over Rowing 3x5
Day 2
Squats 3x5
Military Press 3x5
Day 3
Dips 2x5
Chins 2x5
Day 4
High Pulls 2x5
Deadlifts 2x5
You could obviously combine days 1 and 2 as well as combine days 3 and 4.
While this isn’t the only way to do it this is one suggestion. Of course adding low dose androgens (mag 10) will aid in the muscle retention too.
I have to agree with Stu on the low volume, especially since you will be doing alot of running. You may also want to incorporate some bodyweight exercises into your routine or maybe devote a day to BW stuff, endurance is an important thing from what I here for Police Academys in general.
As for BJJ and or MMA either will help you. Both “styles” will help you and plus you will get a great workout. Just make sure you are working takedowns and pins alot, because in your case (Police)you will take a guy down and have to pin while your backup comes. Best of luck bro