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Just my .02 here but I’d combine your lower and quads days to essentially a lower pull day and lower push day. For example for your lower pull day… take 1 ham out, add a quad (probably leg ext), take 1 calf out. For your lower push day… take 1 quad out, add a ham (probably seated leg curls) , and add a calf. This will balance the lower workouts out tremendously, still gives you the frequency of hitting the muscle 2x a week but it’s done in a sustainable fashion. That is essentially how Bryce and Joe’s Upper/Lower 2.0 split is designed and I absolutely love it
Only other thing I would possibly recommend is adding another side delt raise on your other chest day so you are least hitting it 2x a week, but that’s just me because I think the delts need a bit more attentionThe biggest issue with doubling up on frequency is that you are almost always going to leave something out or not give as much attention to a certain area
Depending on what experience level you are at the upper/lower and full body programs are amazing because it gives you a little bit of everything. Keep in mind any specialization program is going to have the specialized body part in the routine more often than the rest… because well it’s specialized so you are giving it a bit more attention
The further along you get in experience the less you will have to push frequency. Example, if you have great arms but trying to get your quads up to speed. You would ideally “take a little away” from arms and put towards quads
Bryce and Joe do a MUCH BETTER job than I at explaining this. Looking forward to their response as well
Regular refeeds, I’d definitely still have your refeeds in that far out from comp.
Next option is a stretch and should only be used in certain cases… if you are confident you will be making weight and that’s no issue, take a week at maintenance cals. A week at maintenance cals could be the mental and physical refresh you need to push hard those last 5ish weeks.
Good luck in your comp, post pics if possible!Short answer, no. Eat what your body can handle, you can afford, and what will keep you nailing your prep diet.
Good luck in your prep and contest, if you think about it upload some pics of your contest!
Hey Kirt!
Love Bryce’s response! Ideally you want to hit that muscle group again when it is no longer sore and has recovered.For example if you did Monday Upper A, Tuesday Lower A. Wednesday rest. If your upper is still sore from Monday, take Thursday for another rest day and do Upper B Friday. No harm no foul and it will not hinder any progress.
As you already stated, as your body gets accustomed to the volume of the new program you will be a little less sore as you progress through the weeks.
Lastly, don’t forget to make sure you are doing the things that put your body in to a good point of recovery. Getting your 7-8 hours of sleep in, adequate quantity AND quality of nutrition, and also keeping normal life stressors to a minimum to the best of your abilities.
I did the Your Better Half 1.0 program twice, and am now doing the 2.0 version, I love the frequency/volume and have seen very solid progress throughout. Good luck and happy lifting!
My vote is cannonball delts or pec augmentation as you have already stated you feel like you need some more shoulder or chest focus. Keep in mind it’s important to take into consideration what program you will WANT to do and what you will stick to. Awesome work so far mate, keep it up!
Alextico,
My opinion is to follow the app and check in your weight every Sunday morning, or whatever weigh in time/day works for you as long as it’s consistent. Give the recommendations at least two weeks before making your changes. If you have maintained or gained weight, simply update the checkin weight and the app should lower your calories. Make small jumps, instead of 3000 however bring it down to 2900 and give that a go for a couple weeks.
Can confirm personally (although we are all different) that 2100 cals daily and training intensely 3 days a week would have a major negative impact on my training performance. Would I lose weight? Yes. But I would also lose much more muscle than I like. Currently I eat around 2600-2700 cals on gym days and 2400-2500 on off days. BF% is coming down very slowly but strength and performance in the gym is holding strong.
I’m 6’2” and BW is around the mid 280s btw
This was a random gym day when I was bulking …
Meal 1
8oz OJ
1 scoop greens powder
30mL coffee creamerMeal 2
70g blueberries
1 Greek yogurt
1.5oz almonds
250g rice
2.8oz 93/7 gbfMeal 3
50g whey shake
8oz cranberry pomegranate juice
1 bag of rice crisps (these are awesome)Meal 4
1oz almonds
70g blueberries
58g cream of rice
.5 oz peanut butter
25g whey powder in the cream of rice
2.5oz chickenGym
Meal 5
50g whey shake (post workout meal)
1 Rice crispy (post workout meal)
2 chocolate rice cakes
30 min later…
6oz chicken
350g rice
1oz peanut butter3100 cals
395c / 87f / 238pNormally was shooting for 3400-3500 on gym days so this day didn’t get quite as much protein in as I would have liked
Hello JayA,
Are you trying to bulk or cut on 3 meals a day? In my experience bulking can be be a challenge with 3 meals as a day as you would be looking at least 1000 cals a meal. However if you mean cutting that is much more manageable at 700-800 cals per meal
Would love to add a response here!
LJ,
Congrats on your weight loss, that’s amazing! I understand seeing the weight loss on the scale is important to keep you motivated too! My input here would really be to ask you if your mirror progress has still continued? Sometimes your weight loss may have slowed or even halted, but it is certainly possible you are still losing body fat, and perhaps adding some muscle at a very slow pace, at the exact same time. Essentially this would mean you will not see the scale move much at all.
Given your activity level I would also recommend upping your calories to 2500-2600 for a couple weeks and gauge progress from there.
For a reference I’m 6’2” and somewhere in the high 270s. I workout 4x a week and have 2 long cardio days built in on the last two workouts. I eat around 2500-2800 everyday except my long cardio days where I am easily in the low 3000s. Weight loss has slowed down, but body fat% is still going in a positive direction while performance and strength in the gym is slowly increasing as well.
Hope this helps! Keep grinding!
Why not drop to running ppl 5 days a week and reevaluate on recovery?
Personally I run ppl the standard 3 days a week because I am cutting. I do think I could run the ppl on 4 days a week, even in a calorie deficit, but I would really have to have everything dialed in in terms food quality and sleep to make sure I am recovering fully.
