A Collection of Thoughts: Achieving My Goals

When I wrote a previous article, I had asked clients for any feedback or future blog post requests. One client asked me what changes I was planning on making to achieve my goals. To recap, in the previous post I had wrote: "Confession; I had been simply training to "stay in shape" for awhile. Now, with my SMART goal in mind, I have something specific - recreating a picture, measurable - I know that to recreate that picture I need to increase muscle mass throughout much of this year likely to over 200 pounds and then starting early 2022 to begin a serious fat loss diet, achievable - had I thought of this goal in January of 2022, I wouldn't have time, but being only April of 2021 and having done it before, I know I can achieve this, relevant - this goal is relevant to my health and my aspirations as a personal trainer, time-bound - I put a cap on this goal of no later than June 1st, 2022." In light of her question, what changes do I plan on making? That's a huge question! And as I began to collect my thoughts I realized it would be a lengthy blog post with several tangents, but hopefully it will touch on some ideas or topics which will be interesting or will be of value to my readers. First, I wrote that I needed to increase muscle mass throughout much, if not all of 2021, likely to a body weight of over 200 pounds. That particular number is a rough target based on previous attempts I have made to gain muscle mass. It is the highest that I have achieved and I don't think my body comfortably goes much higher without excessive fat gain. (Note: It is always wise to learn from the mistakes of others, and there have been many people I respect who have commented on the idea that most bodies have a comfortable range of body weights and trying to push outside of that range likely leads to pudge, not muscle) Remember, simply gaining weight is not the goal. The goal is to gain muscle while not putting on too much fat. Too much excess fat simply makes my job that much harder when it comes time to get lean. To increase muscle mass, you need two main things:

1) Enough calories

2) Enough of a stimulus during weight training sessions.

Question is, how much is "enough"? For both categories, calories and weight training stimulus, it's relative.

Tangent #1 - Everyone's Metabolism is Different - There is no one size fits all caloric prescription! Regarding calories, no one should ever say to you (or me) eat "X" amount of calories to lose weight or "Y" amount of calories to gain weight. Why? Because everyone's metabolism is different and it also fluctuates/adjusts as you make changes to your diet and exercise regime. Thus, even if "Y" is enough for me to gain weight now, it likely won't be enough to gain weight a few months in the future. Try to track with this hypothetical scenario. One individual, we'll call him Bob, may be eating 1750 calories and gaining weight while another, we'll call Joe, could be eating 3500 calories and losing weight. So if you hear someone say eat 3000 calories to gain and 2000 to lose (for example), you can see how this would be problematic. Since Bob is eating 1750 and gaining weight, why would he bump up to 3000? He will just feel extremely bloated and gain way too much extra fat. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Joe is losing weight on 3500 calories, so how could he magically gain on 3000? Answer: he can't, he'd probably need 4000+. On the opposite side of the spectrum in our hypothetical scenario, regarding losing weight, since Job is losing at 3500 why would he drop it to 2000? He will slow his metabolism more than necessary and shorten the amount of time he could spend losing fat before he hits a wall and stalls out. And if Bob wanted to lose weight, 2000 certainly doesn't help him since he's GAINING weight at 1750. He would need to increase activity and possibly bump down to 1500 to begin to lose weight. I hope you found that helpful. I write all of that to say, personally, I would need to eat more than I am currently eating since my current diet has been stable and so has my bodyweight. And since I typically get enough protein daily, it basically involves increasing carbohydrates via increased rice and oats.

Tangent #2 - Stimulus Addiction & Deload, aka Time Off! Regarding the weight training stimulus, I already had a good stimulus in the gym, but there's a problem. Your body adapts to any stimuli. With weight training, this is why I always seek progression with my clients. You cannot repeat the exact same workouts with the exact same repetitions and weights week after week. You need to make progress in some fashion, something I wrote about here: Common Fitness Mistake #5: No Progression You simply will not respond to that stimuli any longer. Remember the first workout you did and how sore it left you? Imagine doing that same exact workout two years down the road, it would probably feel like a warm up because your body has made adaptations via increased muscle mass and strength. So what's the solution? Increase the stimuli right? Well, yes and no, you can increase it to a point, but each workout also generates fatigue. Eventually, you reach a point where your workout becomes so draining that you are not recovering from it. It provided a stimulus for you to improve, but your body didn't have the ability to repair and improve before you were back in the gym tearing it down again. And common sense would tell us that you cannot add weight to the bar every workout or we would all be lifting 1000+ pounds in all of our exercises. And you cannot add so many sets to the workout until you are spending your entire day in the gym! That's obviously nonsense. What do you do? You have to rest.

Note: As a personal trainer, I rarely have to plan a rest with clients for several reasons. One, life often gets in the way and two, I only see many of them once or twice per week. There is simply no danger of training them to the point of not being able to recover. Myself on the other hand? I train 6 days per week on my lunch break. Nothing gets in the way of my training. I always have a lunch break and I always have access to a gym. Sure, I plan my training intelligently, but I am only human. Like everyone else, I often spend more time on activities I enjoy, in this case, certain exercises. Over time, I may make certain adjustments, adding a set here or there, and suddenly, my body tells me that I am doing too much. I have to put on the breaks. It's hard to be honest. It's a bit of an addiction. However, I know, based on science and based on the anecdotal evidence of numerous successful athletes, bodybuilders and trainers, that a week or two away from the gym prepares you for more fruitful training by re-sensitizing you to the stimuli of weight training. Not to mention, it's nice to take a small break from eating tons of food as well. What I just wrote bears repeating for some individuals. A week or two away from the gym (or at least taking your training down to about 50% of the volume and intensity of what you are accustomed to) will benefit you. Many people get scared of losing their "gains". You won't, at least not in any meaningful way. You may feel a bit less strong after a week or two off but you will quickly regain any lost strength. You muscles may feel smaller but that is not because your muscles atrophied. It takes longer than a week or two for atrophy to set in. Your muscles are smaller for two main reasons. One, any localized swelling has gone down. Remember, training actually causes damage to muscle tissue. Two, your muscles contain glycogen which also attracts water into the cell. When you are not training, your muscles may not be storing as much glycogen (the training uses glycogen but also provides the signal for your body to store more) and therefore muscles will likely look smaller and flatter. As I wrote above, to increase muscle mass, you need two main things: 1) Enough calories and 2) Enough of stimulus during weight training sessions. To make my training as effective as possible, I took one full week off from training and during the 2nd week I reduced all muscle groups to about 4 total sets per week. (4 sets per muscle group per week is about the minimum needed to maintain current muscular size). This is commonly called a deload. There are many strategies regarding how to deload, but the idea is the same, to allow your body and mind to recover so when you come back to regular training you are fired up and ready to go! It worked like a charm. I experienced all the usual mental issues of feeling too small and weak, but I had to remind myself that the science and anecdotal evidence both support that fact that I am actually setting myself up for success by taking the time off. As I work on gaining muscle, I will reassess from time to time if I have reached a point where I need to take another deload to keep my body on track for success. Before I get back on track, I was excited when I read this article over at T-Nation, by an author and trainer I respect, writing about this concept of stimulus addition. I had already written this part of the article and it aligned with his thoughts very well. I would encourage you to read it.

How to Reload for Dramatic New Gains | T NATION I would encourage you to read it. But if you do not, I will include a quote which I thought drove the point home:

"You can either be addicted to training or addicted to gaining. Being addicted to training...prevents you from using strategies that would allow you...to reach your potential." ---- As I write this, it is late May and I weigh about 188 pounds in the morning. I will aim to add about 0.5 pounds per week at least through the end of the year. If I can stay consistent with that objective, it would put me at around 202 pounds moving into 2022. I will weigh myself daily, not to be neurotic, but simply to have a weekly average. If the average is going down, I will increase carbs preferentially around the workout (i.e. in my workout shake and my post workout meal) by around 500 calories. If the average is staying the same, I will reassess in another week. If it is still the same, I will add around 250 calories. If the average moves up by 0.5 or more, no changes to the diet. Not rocket science by any means. It is simply making adjustments to my caloric intake as my metabolism adjusts as well. Meaning, if I am eating 2500 calories now and it's working to gain muscle, it probably won't be working 4 weeks from now because my metabolism will speed up. So I try 2750 and when that stops working, 3000. Last time I seriously tried to gain weight, I ended up at nearly 6000 calories! Hopefully, you can see why I get so frustrated at one size fits all meal plans or caloric recommendations. When I began dieting for fat loss to compete in a bodybuilding show, I started my diet at around 4500 calories. That would cause many individuals to gain tons of fat and have massive digestive discomfort. But for me, it was the right amount to lose about 1 to 2 pounds per week.

Tangent #3 - The metabolism is incredibly adaptable! "Hold on" you may be saying. If my metabolism kept adjusting until I was eating 6000 calories, how do people get fat? Won't their metabolism simply adjust to their new caloric intake? Yes, within reason but it takes time. When I increased my calories it was gradual. I purposefully aimed to only have a small surplus. However, when people overeat, it is often haphazard and not planned and it results in a much larger surplus and thus before the metabolism can begin to adjust there has been unwanted weigh gain. Unfortunately, the metabolism will also adjust to lower intakes as well. Meaning that overtime, your fat loss efforts will slow down. For perpetual dieters, this is bad news. Eventually, you will get to a point where your maintenance level calories feel very minimal. This minimal caloric intake will leave you feeling less than satisfied at best and often hungry and irritable at worst. What happens then? You overeat and gain weight and start to diet even harder and further lower your metabolism. You must give your body a break. Noticing a theme? Giving your body a break occasionally is good and this includes from very restrictive dieting. In order to improve your metabolism, you must try something like what I was doing but without the goal of actually gaining weight (although you may slightly). You must try to VERY gradually add calories to your diet to slowly stoke your metabolic fire. ---- Sometime in early 2022, I would begin a serious fat loss diet. I don't have an exact date because I want to achieve my biggest physique yet before I start the fat loss phase. Deep down, I don't want to simply recreate a similar photo as my website banner, I would love to be able to improve upon the photo. To show that simply being in your 40s is no excuse to not be in great shape.

Tangent #4 - Parkour and the Value of Good Coaching! In fact, that's part of what keeps me doing parkour (if you are not familiar, there will be another video below). If I am honest, sometimes I question why I do it, especially when I am particularly sore after a hard session of training parkour. Or when life gets busy and have not been able to make it to parkour training, I ask myself, "Do I really want to do it?" After all, it's fun, but it's also risky. If I screw up a backflip, I could not only hurt myself to the point of missing time in the gym, but I could also run up a large medical bill. But I love it, I truly do. When I am performing parkour, I feel great, both in terms of what I am accomplishing and in terms of the workout I am giving my body. It becomes a matter of training smart enough to do it safely and continue to inspire others that even at age 42, you can learn new and difficult tricks! How do I train smart? I work with incredible coaches who keep me safe and push me to try new things that are within my grasp. I could have never done a back flip on my own. I realize other people have done it without coaching, but not me. I was past my mid 30s when I first learned. The coaches at Steel City Parkour gave me the instruction and encouragement I needed to succeed. I previously vlogged about it here:

Once I achieve the size I desire and likely no later than the end of February 2022, I will start my fat loss diet. Whatever caloric level I finish my muscle gaining phase will be decreased by about 1000. That is because my muscle gaining diet is assuming a 250 to 500 calorie surplus to be gaining weight. Therefore, to make sure I am losing weight, I want around a 500 calorie deficit. I picked the end of February as the latest I can start because I put a cap on this goal of no later than June 1st, 2022. That gives me three full months to diet; March, April, and May. When I did my bodybuilding show, I dieted a bit longer than that and honestly, in retrospect, it was too long. I looked ready for my show several weeks early. Luckily, since this goal is purely for myself and there is no scheduled bodybuilding show, if I do feel a bit behind on the look I am shooting for, I can extend that date past June 1st slightly. I have that luxury. I don't want to have to do that, but I can if needed. March 1 to June 1 is just over 13 weeks. The first week of any diet will typically see rapid weight loss (notice I didn't say fat) due to water loss as you decrease carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are stored in your body and muscles as glycogen and glycogen stores water along with it. Naturally, water loss will occur when you begin a fat loss phase. It will continue as well, but the first week is the most dramatic. I can expect to lose 4 to 5 pounds the first week. After that I would likely shoot for between 1 to 2 pounds of mostly (hopefully) fat loss per week. Likely closer to 2 pounds in the early stages and then slowing down to 1 pound per week in the later stages. I would keep up the fat loss in a similar (but reversed) method as I kept up the weight gain. By assessing my weekly weight average each week. If no progress has occurred, I would increase activity slightly. If I have actually gained weight, I would increase activity slightly and decrease calories by roughly 250. If I am making adequate progress, no changes would be made. At this rate, I hope to average 1.5 pounds per week for 12 weeks, coupled with the initial 5 pound drop, I would assume I would lose around 23 pounds. From a starting weight of 202, that would take me down to 179. Will my actual numbers be anywhere near that? Hard to say, but those would be my targets as of now. I know previously when I was getting into the low 180's with my bodyweight I was pretty shredded, except for my legs. My legs were lean but not bodybuilding competition lean. They took a bit more time to lean out. I am not as concerned about the legs being shredded, but that is something I can reassess later.

Final Thoughts - Bumps in the Road There you go, a rough outline of how I plan to achieve my goal. Will there be bumps on the road along the way? Absolutely. And it is important to anticipate the type of bumps you may experience. By anticipating them you can develop strategies for how to deal with them when the occur...because they will occur. Further, having anticipated your bumps, you will be less frustrated and thrown off course when they do occur. Half of this battle is mental for sure! My bumps will likely be different than the bumps you, the reader, will experience. I am very lucky that my job allows me regular time to eat. I realize one of the bumps that many people experience when trying to achieve a certain fitness goal is not being able to eat what or when they want. For that reason, when I discuss nutrition with a client, I often talk about the value quick/portable protein or cooking enough for leftovers. Portable protein that doesn't require refrigeration is super convenient for those times when you are hard pressed. Tuna pouches and pre-made protein shakes come to mind. However, for me, I have a desk job and a mini-fridge right near by. Thus, I always have the time and ability to eat a healthy meal. Others may experience missed workouts due to time constraints or lack of home gym equipment. To those individuals, I counsel the value of even spending 10 to 15 minutes using your body weight to provide a great workout. Ever spent 10 to 15 minutes alternating between squats, pushups (a suitable variation for your strength level) and an abdominal exercise? I guarantee you will be pleasantly surprised at the muscle pump and elevated heart rate you will achieve. Actually, you may be cursing me if you give it all you got because it will be very challenging! I don't hesitate to say that everyone can find 10 to 15 minutes of free time to use their own body in the comfort and privacy of their home to get a great workout. If you don't believe me, then use your phone to get a weekly or daily "screen time" report generated. You may be frightened to find out how you are spending your time and the "screen time" report will likely make you aware of how you could make changes. My bumps won't be missed workouts or meals. Mine will be over-use injuries from pushing too hard and dietary frustration from feeling bloated. I can avoid the over-use injuries with two simple steps. First, listening to my body. Our bodies will tell us when it's had too much and needs a rest, we just need to listen. Second, by simply reminding myself that the deload I just completed left me feeling refreshed and ready to train hard again. I didn't lose muscle from a few days away from the gym. (Very short tangent #5 - Reminding yourself of past successful strategies is huge. This is why keeping some type of workout journal is so helpful. I had a client track his mood before and after being on the row machine. He found that nearly 100% of the time even though he was not in the mood to exercise beforehand, he felt great afterward!) The bloating, on the other hand, is a bit harder to deal with. Eating tons of food can simply be uncomfortable. Keep in mind, I care about my insides as well, so a calorie is not a calorie. I could drink 16 ounces of a sugary drink and have 200+ calories that require almost no digestion. But I know that's not healthy. Therefore, I choose to eat eggs, chicken, lean beef, potatoes, rice, oats, vegetables, fruit, nuts, etc. These foods take much longer to digest than a sugary beverage and these foods take up space in your stomach for awhile. 200 calories of healthy food is going to be in my stomach digesting much longer than a soda! And that means sometimes I am starting my next meal and not really feeling that hungry. Since I am desiring to gain muscle, I must get the food in to help ensure I am in a slight surplus. If I ate small every time I was bloated I would barely eat enough to maintain my bodyweight. As I said, this "bump in the road" is a bit harder to deal with. It will likely mean pushing through the discomfort and allowing myself one day per week where I really back off and eat less. Not so much less that I sacrifice the effort I made the previous 6 days to gain weight, but enough to give my stomach and mind a break. I have employed this method previously with decent success. I can review my weekly weight average and compare it to how uncomfortable I have felt. If the average has gone up and I am fairly uncomfortable, I can take a bit more of a break with eating that day. It will be a case by case and week to week decision. Are there any other bumps I can foresee? Not truly. I have been living this lifestyle for years and the two I mentioned are the most common. It was helpful to me to write this out because I had been forgetting about the solutions to my most common bumps in the road. My answer recently had been to just keep pushing through pain in the gym and pain in my stomach, lol. But thanks to the client who asked me to write this, I am reminded that I have options. Sometimes Dory's advice to just keep swimming is NOT the right thing to do.

Define your goals, make intelligent plans to achieve them, prepare for the worst and enjoy the process. Happy training everyone!