After working with Fred Hatfield, Dr. Squat - the first man to squat 1000 lbs, I started switching up the training protocols every 6-8 weeks. There is a school of thought that you should change your training when you hit a plateau but the switch-off method is designed to keep you from hitting a flat spot. If you've put on 10 lbs of muscle in a month your training is working for you, I'd stretch it out. If it starts to feel less productive follow your gut and shock your adaptive capacity. You sound like you're having a blast. It also sounds like you have your consistency in place. Keep us all posted on your progress. You're training is at a very high level and even people who aren't looking for the big bench and only the big drive have to be motivated by your progress! Vik
Vickie: The training is going fine and I am getting bigger and much stronger. There are a couple of other changes I have noticed. Straight after training when I have eaten I get very sleepy and want to go to bed. I feel a bit groggy the next morning. Also when I get hungry I get very hungry not like before almost like my body demands food. I HAVE to take some food out with me when I am playing golf . Otherwise I get a patch where my body feels like it has run out of fuel. I never had this before training. Is all this normal ?
Your body and your brain and your instincts are matched up again. When you train and have a highly effieient machine (your body) again, you have to maintain a higher quailiy fuel and this larger man power requires more fuel than a smaller engine. So, if you don't manage your calories within your meals and the frequency of your meals you will feel hungrier sooner than your previous, smaller engine signaled. I think you've seen on several threads that, depending on your training and your body composition, you should eat every three or four hours. The typical bodybuilder eats between 6 and 9 meals per day, some within the three hour framework if they are trying to maintain a large quantity of muscle, beyond what the body might more naturally develop and maintain in a highly physical lifestyle sans the measured lifting. So yes, more calories are necessary to maintain more healthy tissue. Many people will note the increased metabolism with the larger quantity of metabolically active tissue, tha'd be muscle, and it means basically the same thing with a little more science. If you don't eat enough, if you don't respond to your bodies request, demand even, for food you will begin to catabolize the hard earned muscle, that means your body will break down the muscle and convert it into fuel. So if you want to maintain your work and still take advantage of your metabolisms ability to burn more fat for fuel, eat plenty of high quality proteins, carbs, and fats int he right proportions frequently throughout the day. And that means on the golf course too.
Your post workout fatigue is tricky to answer because diet is influenced by your training, and most people don't train as hard as you are now. So . . . let me say first that all nutritional details must - and the more seriously you approach your objective the more true this is - be adapted to your present body composition, your objective, your taining, and don't forget about your lifestyle. In your case Hue, where we're talking about heavy training, building significant muscle size and anabolic friendly supplements the rules change significantly. The fatigue you feel immediately after your workout is an insulin reaction (rush if you will) that is created by such significant glucose (blood sugar) depletion during your workouts. In strength training the primary fuel for your efforts is the sugar in your blood. The body has a limited ability to store a back up, in the form of glycogen, in your muscles and liver. When you train very hard you use up the sugar available for even the work and the body, in it's infinite wisdom, recognizes your 'acquired' and consistent ability to use up it's resource and will begin to burn more fat in the fuel mix to keep you going, but this often just enables you to keep on going a little longer, and your mental tenacity increases and your supplements kick in and it is easy to get into a near hyperglycemic state which is just another way of saying low blood sugar. Now, you go eat a perfectly healthy lunch but your low blood sugar. [I'd like to leave out of thedetails of the insulin factor in this conversation for this post.] When your blood sugar get's really low and you eat carbohydrates that are whole and healthy and necessary, the body over reacts because of it's state of deprevation and sucks the carbohydrate sugars up so quickly it creates something much like a sugar crash. Have you ever have had a sugar crash?Or think of times you might have over eaten and you were sleepy, can you say Thanksgiving? Even though you didn't overeat after your workout, your body reacts much like you ate a heavy meal.
Best avoidance technique? Make sure your pre workout meal provided enough calories to support your work. When you're building you don't really want to get into lipogenesis, oops, too much fat burn. You want 100% support for your work. Within the first 45 minutes take in almost exclusively protein with the smallest amount of carbohydrate, unless you didn't pre-fuel well enough and then increase it slightly. Then at 45 min add on the rest of your carbs. I typically use a pure protein powder (that provides 50-75% of the protein for that meal) immediatly after workouts, then I can eat a little sooner caz my body isn't breaking down a piece of meat. So straight out of the gym with pure protein product in a shaker with water (the products blend much easier now) and then by 20 minutes I can start eating the rest of my lunch which will contain carbs, the rest of my protein in real food form and some good fat.
I recommend frequent meals (mini meal or three main meals and three snacks -- pick your language) to everyone of my clients. This type of nutritional complience isn't necessary for everyone, in fact not necessary for most people. Remember, it's all about your lifestyle. If you train hard your have to fuel deliberately. Everyone reading this site has a body that is continuously repleanishing itself. That means we are all growing new cells all the time. Just because you aren't growing in the same way as a child, your body is very busy maintaining itself through replacement. That takes nutrients and they are oxygen, water and food in that order. Keep the meals small, eat food in their most natural form possible, and enjoy great variety and frequency. It's so much more fun than three squares.
Vik
P.S. The suggestions I made to Hue require really specific proportions of fat, carbohydrates, and proteins.
Just to add to this nutrition-near-your-workout thing:
I usually take in some carbs along with my protein postworkout. Usually it's a half-cup of oats and a Nutri-Grain bar/granola bar. That way I get some good complex carbs (oats) and also something a little more simple (the bar).
So it breaks down to:
46g protein from powder
27g carbs from oats (also adds another 5g protein)
~25g carbs from granola bar
Anyhow, I've definitely seem some good results in the past couple months since I started really monitoring my diet and protein intake. I try to hit my bodyweight in grams of protein per day and I make sure to drink enough water so my body can handle that extra protein.
That's great Matt and yes I hope you read that your post workout meal should incorporate some carbs just a small amount initially and then make it up within the hour. Heavy training will allow absorption of higher quantities of protein. For the readers who are not training at this level please notice that Matt said he got HIS protein everyday. Your protein intake will be determined by your body composition (your lean mass ratio relative to your fat mass ratio), your workout load and your lifestyle. Make sure your calculations are right for you. Vik
Vickie: I seem to recover more quickly after the workouts more than I did and feel less sore than I did the day after. Is this normal or does it indicate that I should increase my workout load?
What you may be describing is your fitness level improving. Or you could need to raise your workout load. It is really one of those things you have to monitor all the time. The smarter you supplement, the more support your body has to recover, vitamin C is one of the best in theraputic doses. Stretching helps and just being able to oxygenate well will help. You may also be adjusting your lifestyle to the work. Maybe you are resting more or just better and deeper when you work. Have you reaised the resistence during this period of better recovery. I'm not a big lover of first day soreness or soreness that lasts more than two days. Extended and limiting soreness can easily indicate you are breaking down more muscle than you can rebuild. But if you're doing everything right and you're still growing and you don't have to suffer as much . . .Vik
Vickie: I have been training hard for about 10 weeks 3 times a week and hard workouts. I am just below my weight target level and seem to have plateaued weight wise. Is it a good idea to have a week off training to let the body settle and go at it again? Right now I feel a bit run down having put in a big effort. Also I will soon be ready for power training . Can you describe some power training routines?
Hue, I try to take off a week every six months. I am still very active but I don't go into the gym and I don't run or bike for exercise; again just activity.
The protocol for a power training routine is a bit beyond this forum. It should always be very personalized. There are plenty of books but I wouldn't ever plan a program without a lot of specific understanding of my physiological condition relative to my objectives no matter how long or short term. You might notice that everybody who has any training experience has a very specific opinion; I don't. I address everyone individually. This may be one of the reasons Lynn and I get along so well. While there are very specific protocols to golf, you are still working with a very non-specific physical and personal alignment.
If you would like to discuss this with me furher please feel free to p.m. me. Vik
I have had a couple of weeks off training . I had my family staying in England they came over as a big group from the States and Jamaica to watch Wimbledon . My body has had a chance to settle and I have played some golf. I am a LOT longer now and much more positive through the ball . No doubt about it at all. The weight training has helped . I am going to hit the weights next week to get a little bigger then start power training. I am quite excited about it as I can see the hard work has paid off and expect to see future gains for the work I am going to put in. I feel much better in general . The plan is to get a bit bigger, then switch the training to power training ( Vickie I will need some advice on this soon and I will take your offer and PM you on this) then switch to cardio fitness and flexibility training ( I have just got stretching Scientifically a guide to flexibility training by Thomas Kurz M.Sc. . Vickie what do you think of his methods)and then some kind of maintenance programme. Vickie: what do you think of that plan in general?
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