End of Phase 3/Start of Phase 4

Was going to do this strength phase for 5 weeks: 1 week to test my maxes on a few lifts, then four weeks of training to increase them. But I've done 4 weeks so far and have had enough - lately I've felt like my upper body is shrinking. Rob did my skinfold measurements this morning. In four weeks my fat mass has dropped 700g (yay for consistent eating!), but my lean mass has also dropped 200g (boo!). So am going to go back to hypertrophy training on Monday.

I will be going from doing heavy weights every third day (2-4 reps per set with 3-minute rests between sets) to doing medium weights four times a week (4-12 reps per set with most exercises paired into opposing muscle group supersets).

HIIT will stay the same at two sessions a week for now (though I will switch from sprints to stairs or cycling).

Food will stay the same for weights, HIIT and rest days, though I will be doing more weights days per week so will be getting more carbs/cals per week. This, along with my increased strength, should see me put that muscle back on and add some more.

Since I will be training more frequently, I am taking the fenugreek drink and banaba out (keeping r-ALA though). Am changing fish oil from Bioceuticals Ultraclean to Biotest Flameout (love these).

Hopefully fat mass will keep moving downwards with the increase in training frequency and decrease in rest between sets. But will measure again in two weeks and reassess from there.

Ready to Go Again

Went away for New Year's Eve and had such a relaxing time we stayed for most of the week. There was no internet access, hence the lack of posting. Am back now and have just had my bodyfat measurements done. I last had them done 8 weeks ago, at the start of my preparatory phase (phase 1). I did that for about four weeks, then launched into four weeks of training to gain muscle (phase 2). My measurements today show that I have put on 3.8kg in 8 weeks: 1.75kg of lean mass and 2.05kg of fat. I'm stoked with the amount of muscle gain. I would have preferred not to have gained so much fat, but I haven't been following my eating plan with 90% compliance, so it's not really surprising. I'm doing very little in the way of cardio at the moment (two 15-minute HIIT sessions a week) as I don't put on muscle when I do a lot of cardio, so I really need to keep my diet pretty clean to minimise fat gain. My goal from here on in is to follow my plan 90% of the time. It's a measurable goal that I can track here on my blog. Phase 3 of training starts tomorrow, and I'm going to be working on increasing my strength so I can lift more to gain more muscle. Can't wait!