I'm in the process of planning my new routine that I will start in the middle of June after I return from a week at the beach. I plan to go completely off plan that week and live and eat however I want, so I will be ready to go back to my low carb lifestyle when I get back. No, Ive never had a problem going off plan and coming back, so thats not an issue.

Here is the deal, Ive been doing low carb and CKD for many months now, and I am sure I need to cycle away and try something else. Ive been scheming and planning, and I think I know what I want to do. At least give it a try.

Currently in my CKD lifestyle I have awesome workouts early in the week, but by Thursday they don't account for much. I LOVE the weekend refeed, but all of my gains and losses have stalled, no stronger, no lighter in weight. Time to change.

First of all, I am staying low carb (just seems to work for me), just not 0 carb. Not even close. Im going to start around 80 gm a day, and see how that works. My main interest will be in the timing of the carbs more than the amount. I will still be going to the gym 4 days a week, thats just part of my life.

Breakfast and lunch will still be near 0 carb meals, protein and plenty of fat. Reasoning behind that is I know I'm not going to burn a lot of calories at my work, which is primarily a desk style job. Being that my blood sugar should be low in the morning, I really don't want to boost it at all and give myself the sleepies. 1.5 hours (more or less) before workout I will take in some complex carbs and protein, along with a little fat. On the way to the gym another 25-30 grams of simple sugar to ramp me up some more. Shortly after the gym, 40 grams of protein mixed with 10 gms each of simple and complex carbs. Before bed some more protein, no carbs. Hopefully you can see my goal is to have as much energy as possible for each and every workout, but not to take in carbs that aren't directly beneficial in terms of tearing down or building muscle. Please, I don't want to get in an argument about using ketones to do this, I'm just trying something new.

I am in a quandary about the weekend. I know this diet is most likely going to keep me out of ketosis, so I'm not sure a normal refeed on the weekend will be practical or beneficial. I do think my workouts will keep my blood sugar levels consistently low, thus maybe the insulin spike after the Friday workout would be practical as long as I accompany it with plenty of protein. Then eat normal low-carb the rest of the weekend, once again, just not no-carb.

Anybody got suggestions or other ideas? Please take into account I am a regular 4 day a week weightlifter and I do 30 minutes of cardio a day, no more. Also I view my diet and exercise as experiments in lifestyle, so I will try almost anything (as a matter of fact, Im thinking about trying BODYOPUS one of these days).

Feedback PLEASE?!

DUH! I forgot to state my objective.

Get stronger, leaner, and more defined. The scales are irrelevant.

My understanding is that the refeeds are more about upregulating metabolism from dieting than anything else. So, the question is, will you be eating less than your maintenance calorie level while doing this? I'd say that if you are going to eat maintenance calories everyday, then you don't need (or want) the refeed, too many calories. If you plan a small caloric deficit each day, then you've got the room to have a refeed each week and doing it will help prevent the metabolic decrease from that deficit.

I'd say given that you tossed "leaner" into your stated goal, you still feel you have some fat to lose. If you like the refeed, I'd keep it, just decreasing calories on your weekdays a bit to try to strip a bit of fat mass. Then hopefully the refeeds and higher cals/carbs around your workouts help build muscle at the same time.

Then again, I've also read that you can't lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, so maybe I'm spouting off total baloney!

I'd say your plan is worth a shot though, since you are already stalled out on progress from CKD. Good luck!

Here's an idea. Train in cycles. Four to six weeks on, one to two weeks off. Progress the load from one workout to the next throughout the cycle. Use your 15RM for your first workout (or your first week's workouts) in the cycle let's say and use your 5RM for your last workout (or your last week's workouts). Figure a regular progression between your first workout's load and your last workout's load i.e. 15RM-12RM-10RM-8RM-5RM. etc. You can progress the load more finely too using % of RM for that week i.e. 80%15RM-90%15RM-100%15RM, etc. After the cycle, take a break i.e. do nothing. Repeat. On the next cycle, add or try to add 5%-10% of your previous cycle's RMs to all your lifts.

Do full body each workout. Train every other day or three days a week. Do a minimum number of reps per workout like 15 or something. But figure you must do the reps in the next workout so don't do so many that you burn out before the week is done. Do the reps as you see fit i.e. cluster, Max-Stim, continuous, etc. As for rep speed, that's for you to figure out according to what kind of strength you want. I think that power is most important and that's developed with high speed training, not slow speed or static holds or stuff like that. Slow speed is good for technical training though. But suit yourself, that's not for me to decide.


If you know HST ( http://www.hypertrophyspecific.com/ ), that's where I got this from.

First of all, thank you both! One of you hit the areas I wasnt thinking about in diet, the other reminded me of my worst habit in relation to working out.

First. The plan is to eat at maintenance level, which in and of itself will be a new thing for me. I have been eating below for so long its gonna be like a feast! The real difference here will be the timing of nutrients, I hope that I can get it down to a real workable, productive model. Yes, I still have this belly I want to get rid of (although I will accept a smaller version than a six pack) but my legs and arms are getting pretty lean. I dont have anywhere near the fat to lose I once did, but another 2-3% would be icing on the cake. To be honest, If I can stay this lean and get stronger, I wouldn't be disappointed.

BTW, I definitely haven't gotten stronger on CKD, but I lost 35 lbs of MOSTLY fat and maintained a lot of my muscle. Looking back, I'm not what I was strength wise, but I'm not that far off.

And secondly, the good old pyramid! Guilty as charged on the "Find something you like and stick with it" subject. Been doing the same thing way too long. I vary it a bit, day to day, but not nearly enough. I am going to have to make a chart forecasting the PLAN and stick to it. I did switch to full body workouts a few months ago and I like them very much, but I really NEED to go 2 days on, one day off, 2 days on, 2 days off. Mentally it keeps me focused and in the game (in diet and exercise).

Right now I have a bum shoulder Ive been nursing along since January along with bone spurs that are here to stay in my elbows, so slow, controlled movements cause me the least pain and allow me to perform the most work. Im probably going to have to stick with that, at least for upper body movements. Still, I agree varying the movements as much as possible is key.

Anybody else???

Have you heard of the Waterbury Summer Project? It is an 8 weeks program of progressive difficuilty, designed to get you ripped, whilst increasing muscle and strength. I am doing it myself, not so much for fat loss, as for the challenge. When I go back to personal training, I do not want to dish-out anything that I am not willing and capable to do myself. It does include alot of dumbell work for chest and shoulders, as well as some power moves. Just listen to your body. You should know the difference between workout/good pain and injury/bad pain.
There is a reccomended diet that goes along with it, T-Dawg. It is moderate carb (60g on non-training days and 100g on training days, with most of the carbs taken before, during and after your workout) and high protein (1.5g per lb of total body weight.)
Check it out here!

Wow. I just read through that and it looks BRUTAL. With a bit of tweaking to work around this problem rotator cuff Ive developed it seems like something I could attempt. Its times like this I really wish I had my workout partner back. I felt really strong yesterday and was hitting some weights I hadnt touched in awhile. I ended up stopping short of what I could do simply for lack of a spotter. Im not about to strand myself with 300 lbs and nowhere to put it.