I follow a periodised routine where a mesocyclo (block of training) lasts between 4-6 weeks and I take a deload week between mesocycles.
I'm a big believer in Renaissance Periodisation's [0] approach of starting a training block at the minimum effective volume (MEV) and building up volume throughout the mesocyclone till you reach your maximum recoverable volume (MRV).
By the end of a mesocycle I'm pretty close to overreaching and it's time for a deload to drop fatigue and restart the training process.
I won't share the specific details of my program since that was designed by my coach (I highly recommend getting one), but I can share the overall structure:
- Day 1: Legs
- Day 2: Pull
- Day 3: Push
- Day 4: rest day
- Day 5: Legs
- Day 6: Pull + Push
Even though I said legs, push, and pull, that's just the focus of my sessions. It doesn't mean I only train those body parts or movement patterns.
For example, today was my first pull day of the week and while my primary exercises were for the back, I also did hammer curls, calf raises, and cable crunches.
== Diet
I pretty much just stick to whole foods and reserve some of my calories for junk food. I got quite the sweet tooth so I eat some kind of chocolate/cookies pretty much every day (less often when I am dieting down though)
I'm on a massing phase (i.e., bulk) right now and I am eating at around 2700 kcal per day.
Here's what I ate today for example (I vary the foods, but the structure is the same):
-- Pre-training
One scoop of athletic greens with water
200ml of soy milk + 30g of whey or just a protein bar (generally Grenade's white chocolate flavour)
1 cup of coffee
-- Post-training ("breakfast")
20g of dark chocolate
70g blueberries
250g of skyr
1 plain bagel (I'm weird, but I really enjoy this)
1 cup of coffee
-- Mid-morning snack
60g of cocoa pops (my junk food for the day)
-- Lunch
1 flatbread wrap with: 15g mayo, 80g 97% lean beef, 1 whole tomato, red onion, pickled jalapeños, and rockets
1 banana
-- Afternoon snack
1 bagel with: 40g of peanut butter, 40g of jam, 1 banana
-- Dinner
Same as lunch
== Other stuff
I usually avoid drinking my calories, but every now and then I enjoy having a beer so I just adjust my food intake for the day to account for that. Not a big deal since I can't really handle more than a pint anyways :P
When I have some kind of social event, it's usually in the evening. If I know I won't have much control over what I eat, I tend to do a protein "fast" (mostly eat protein-rich foods) throughout the day prior to the event so I have extra calories to spend there.
I average around 12,000 steps each day. I get those steps mostly from walking to and from the gym and doing errands or walking to work. I keep track of the number of steps on a spreadsheet so I can refer to it in the future.
I also weigh myself every day and keep track of the measurements in the same spreadsheet. It's pretty handy to see what level of activity and food intake I need to reach to lose weight, for example. I can just look up what I did last time and just follow that.
