Nutrition for Steady State Cycle for Hypertrophy

[wingspan]

Hi All

I'm new to posting on this forum but I've been lurking for quite a while and just toying with some gymnastic moves, not altogether successfully but I'm getting there. Big thanks to everyone for the advice posted I've found it really useful in my training.

Anyway I've finally got the BtGB book for xmas and have started my first steady state cycle, for my next cycle I'll be looking to put on a fair bit of muscle. Just Fao I'm 6ft 4in (194cm) and weigh 85kg (185lbs), I eat mostly paleo and get a gram of protein per body weight daily,I train 4 times a week static holds and full body basic strength at each workout. I've been on the this SSC for 6 weeks and I've upped my caloric intake a bit and consequently put on a kilo in weight (muscle). Next cycle I'd like to up my calories significantly and see if I can slap on a bit more muscle.

Now here's my question. I'm concerned that as the intensity of the training decreases toward the end of the cycle instead of putting on muscle I'll just be adding fat. So should I cycle my eating ie high calorie at the beginning of the cycle then maintenance calories for the end of the cycle? Or is it important to keeping eating a lot even during the under load phase?

I've had a pretty good search around and found nothing that covers this exactly, apologies if I have inadvertently covered old ground.

If anyone has experience or thoughts about this I'd love to hear it.

Thanks for a great resource and happy training.

[Neal Winkler]

Muscle still grows during lighter phases of training. Hypertrophy is a long-term remodeling process in which you can experience lag time between the stimulus (heavy training) and the response (hypertrophy).

[Joshua Naterman]

That's a good question. Usually the best thing to do is to add 200-300 more calories per day, as a daily average. Obviously some days you'll be hungrier than others, but over a 7 day period it should average out to 200-300 more calories per day than what you eat that lets you perform well without gaining weight. More than that will increase the likelihood that you'll put on unnecessary fat, and that seems to not be what you want!

I'd definitely add more protein and more monounsaturated fats, and if you need carbs those too, but focus on the protein and the fats unless you're super low/no carb or something, because that's a terrible idea.

You may also want to consider splitting your full body basic strength into two different workouts at least, so you're working different things on different days, like splitting your horizontal pushes and pulls from your vertical pushes and pulls, or doing push pull and legs/core on separate days so that you get some recovery time in-between workouts. When you're looking to grow bigger and stronger, but especially bigger, rest tends to be your friend. You can't grow bigger until you're healed up, and you can't heal properly if you're beating on the same muscles muscles 4 times a week and working hard each time, much less grow new tissue. That may be an issue right there. The statics aren't as big a deal, statics require less recovery than dynamic work unless you're doing huge volume.

Steady state doesn't necessarily mean that every workout is identical, just that your effort level is the same each time you perform a given exercise. Also, the steady state tends to work better for the statics than it does for most dynamic work.

Also, what triangle says is very important to understand. It takes 2 weeks for new muscle tissue to be synthesized. So whatever new muscle your body grows in response to today's workout will take two weeks to fully form, assuming you keep convincing your body that you need it by maintaining your schedule. That's why the rest is so important. The body will tear down new proteins that are not functioning to repair old proteins that ARE functioning. Your hard work won't result in new muscle tissue if you work so hard and so often that your body tears down the new tissue to use as repairs on the old stuff you already have.

[Richard Duelley]

Listen to all the above, rest is your friend. I only started gaining mass at a decent pace AFTER I pulled back my workouts. Still high intensity but just less frequency and I strictly stick to my heavy, light, medium 3 days a week schedule for my upper body and the other two days I run and do leg work. Every 4th week is all light work and this light week has been really helpful. The more I rest the bigger I get, 7 pounds and counting

[wingspan]

Cheers for the responses guys.

Triangle- I thought that might be the case but wasn't sure about the dynamics within a steady state programme. Cheers fella.

Slizzardman - Cool, I'll try eating 1400-2100 extra a week and see how my body responds. I definitely do not want to add fat, it's such a drag to lose and a bit of muscle usual goes south with it!

Nifty - I workout 4 times a week but not always with great intensity. for example my false grip is bloody awful and I can just about perform false grip rows with feet on the floor. This is my pulling movement for that day which is obviously not very taxing for anything but my grip. Next day I'll perform L-sit chins which kill me! I must admit I have made zero progress with training handstands four times a week so I will definitely cut these back. Other than that I feel fairly fresh.

Cheers for all your responses guys much obliged. I'll definitely consider cutting back to three days training for my next cycle and see how I go.

[sasquatch]

Wow, we are super close to the same size. Im 6 4 and a half and weigh 184. I have nothing useful to add to the topic though, just that.

[wingspan]

Ah Sasquatcha my twin!

You must be pretty long and lean too then, I have outrageously long skinny legs but with big feet hanging of the end like a pendulum! How're finding the levers? I'm still at a very basic level and whenever I have little play and try to stick my legs out further my core is crushed. Gonna start working Body levers next cycle. I can do negs in good form so I'll take it from there. Seeing Slizzardman do lever pulls gives me hope tho I'm gonna need a daffy load more muscle on my shoulders!

Btw I've taken on board what you guys have said and I'll definitely gonna cut back down to 3 days a week. Even tho I'm coping ok with it, the truth is I'm probably only training this much cos I'm bored. My girlfriend and I have just relocated to Australia and I can't find any work so in between sending of CV's and begging people for jobs I train. Glad my girlfriend's gainfully employed. :shock:

I'll up my caloric intake for the whole cycle and see how that goes, either adding or subtracting more calories for the cycle after that depending on the the amount and type of weight gain.

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers

[Longshanks]

Ive been in the same boat, trying to get the most hypertrophy out of this training. I've been doing just the static stuff and I've put on quite a bit since I started although admittedly a little has gone on my gut. I think just static work must not burn very many calories compared to dynamic work. I'm not to worried though, I've always been naturally ectomorphic and I'm sure once I start back MMA'ing this summer (once I'm 100% my injuries have gone for good) I'm sure it'll fall off quickly enough. The other guys are right on the money about recovery time as well. Sometimes I only get 5 days training in a fortnight and I feel a lot better recovered and stronger those days.

As an extra, I found creatine seemed to supplement my training well. I've only been using it for the first month of each cycle though. ZMA is quite good before bed as well if you don't sleeping like the dead.

[wingspan]

I used to train BJJ but haven't for quite a while now. When things pick up and I've got some dough coming in I'd like to start up again. In the meantime free home training remains the way forward for me!

I'm looking to put on 10 kilos of lean muscle, this should fill out my frame pretty well and lay a foundation for decent strength gains. I'm assuming this is a reasonable target with good nutrition and sensible training.

Out of interest I was gonna aim for a kilo a month to avoid fat gain. Is this about right or could I afford to aim for a bit more? I'm fairly patient so building the mass over the course of a year is fine.

I've had a tendency in the past to train by long slow distance running anything up to half marathon and not really concentrate on strength training just high rep body weight stuff. So I've cut out the running and now just do gymnastic work. I'm really interested to see how my body responds to this new (for me) type of training, especially at 35 years of age.

[Longshanks]

Well Ive put on about 14pounds since I started 4 months ago but I's say at least half of that was fat. I put 3/4 an inch on my arms and an inch on my thighs which don't seem any fatter (by pinch test) but I have put an inch on my waist that obviously is fat. But then that's just because I used to burn that many calories fighting 3-4 times a week that I've never really counted calories. I just try and make sure I get plenty of protein.

If you're starting strength training in your thirties I'd advise you to take warm-ups and stretching very seriously to avoid injury. I think Bruce Lee once said the older you get the more stretching you should do.

[wingspan]

I warm up pretty well especially my shoulders and hips and I stretch throughout and after I workout.

I'm one of these strange people who actually likes stretching!

I do manual work so I can't afford to loss work thru injury.

[sasquatch]

wingspan, I would quote you, but I don't know how to do that on this phone. in my back lever the farthest I've got is a five second straddle, after I got that I moved and didn't have anywhere to hang my rings so I stopped training until recently, now I can only do a short advanced tuck back lever. I've made a good amount of progress on front lever recently though, I can do a single leg front lever for ten seconds each leg.

[wingspan]

Nice work Sas, that gives me something to aim at over the coming months.

My training situation isn't ideal. I training with my rings hanging in a door way. I'm practically as tall as the door way, when I dip deep my knees touch the floor and when I turn my rings out in support they hit the frame which is off putting to say the least and I have to duck my head!

Hopefully my work situation will pick up soon and we can get a house with a garage, then I can train without a care in the world!