In response to a comment from Teralee about the fears of gaining fat along with muscle in the off-season, a fear many of us have, I have only this to say:
Making lean muscle gains in the off-season is hard, PATIENT work. There is a HUGE myth in the body-building community that you just have to eat and eat and eat in order to build muscle. A lot of coaches will take athletes straight from the competitive season, when they are really carb sensitive and their metabolism has konked out after months of dieting, and just start making them hit ridiculous numbers in terms of fat, protein and carb intake. People simply balloon up in a matter if weeks, and lose all definition, as well as self-esteem. When people just start overeating, they put on a lot of excess fat that they will only end up having to burn off for the show season. Not only that, but you totally change your hormonal profile, and instead of becoming a strong, muscle-gaining machine, you are more like a pillsbury dough-girl waddling around the gym hating the feeling of your thighs rubbing together or the dreaded bra bulge. Not Necessary!!! Yes, it takes some effort to get your body back up to prime metabolic rate, where you are able to burn through twice the calories you were eating at competition time, but it is worth it. It took me about 4 weeks to get myself to that state. I am able to see my ab wall and some quad separation. I get a terrific “pump” at the gym, (I literally swell up after a few sets, with striation and vascularity), I have a feeling of invincibility facing those weights, I dominate the movements, and almost every workout at least 2 or more exercises I am able to jump up in either weights, or for smaller muscle groups, more reps! I used to be able to do 3 sets of 10 chin-ups. by the end of show season I was down to 3 sets of 5. Now I’m back up to 3 sets of 7 and in a month I am convinced I will be surpass my previous numbers. NOTHING beats that combined feeling of getting stronger, dominating your training sessions, and seeing some beautiful muscle development at the same time.
The key is finding out what body fat percentage works for your body to get into a more anabolic state and when you reach that point, just eat to feed muscle growth and train properly. I slowly introduced more carbs daily, keeping most of my starch consumption to breakfast and post-workout meals. If I really couldn’t eat all my meals, I never forced it. I took my body back up to full calories slowly, and I still have a little ways to go. I am short one meal/per day right now, but I know I’ll get there in another couple of weeks. Patience!
Also, you have to have a solid mix of strength days mixed in with hypertrophic days so that you are seeing some significant strength gains in the gym. In order to grow, you have to keep pushing your limits and stacking on the weight. After so much dieting, (I was dieting for 4 months this summer) you will of course lose a lot of strength. You will have to get that back up if you want to see growth from your hypertrophic sessions. That means lifting in the 5 x 5 set/rep range for your bigger muscle groups. For instance, right now I am focusing on classics like squats and the leg press in this range, and every week I stack on more weight. Same with back exercises. Next month will be totally different. You have to switch it up. Rep range, static holds, rep rhythm, whatever it takes to hit those muscle fibers, (slow and fast) to encourage full, optimal growth. I finish off my leg day with drop sets on the leg extension machine. With my dead-lifts, I am doing a mix of rep rhythm to help development in glutes and especially the tie-in of my hamstring into my glutes. Shaping your body like this is a lot of fun, as well as a challenge. The great thing about staying relatively lean, (10 – 12 % BF), is that you will more clearly see how your muscles are responding. Instead of blindly guessing at your balance and symmetry, it will be pretty damn clear throughout the growing phase.
Mind you, I am probably only aiming to put on about 3 or 4 lbs at the most. Just finishing off some “weaker” areas when I’m dieting down, so I don’t look small onstage. If you are trying to put on a lot of weight, say 20 or more lbs, you might have to follow a different protocol, but for us bikini and fitness models, you really DON’T have to get fat in order to get a little bigger…
xo
