I am in the need of a little help. I am home for the summer from college and I am doing labor work at the Detroit Lions new stadium, Ford Field. I am working 7 days a week and sometimes up to 12 hours per day. I take my traing very serious, but my gym performance is taking a dump. I am 20 years and am currently at 5’8" 175 lbs and 13.5% bodyfat. My goal is to be lean for the summer without becoming scrawny i.e. losing to much of my hard earned muschle. I have been following Berardi’s winning formula, but am now having trouble completing this amount of exercise. I am in need of some training suggestions and diet as well. I would appreciate it very much. I am consuming 1.5 grams of protien per pound, the rest of my calories coming from carbs and some dietary fat, while I have been using the massive eating food combinations.
thanks again.
First off, you need to stop following Berardi’s Winning Formula recipe. It is a great program but is not suited for YOUR needs.
Back off any cardio or GPP work. The manual labor that you are doing will provide you with plenty of cardiovascular activity and an increased work capacity.
Also, you are going to have to significantly increase your calorie uptake. Follow Berardi's recommendations in Massive Eating Parts 1 and 2. Start with the recommended calculated calories and track your body comp changes to determine if you need to increase calories (losing lean body mass) or decrease calories (gaining fat). See my articles in issue 208 and 209 for how to track your body composition.
As for lifting, you are getting plenty of volume and endurance work while doing manual labor, so I would focus on strength and dynamic work. Focus on the big lifts like presses, rows, deads, squats, chins, olympic lifts and heavy ab work.
Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions.
Time to switch the program and avoid burnout. I’d go with a 5x5 program based on a 3 day split (4 big exercises per workout) with appropriate dietary adjustments. I’d go with a moderate diet (-500 below maintenance) unless using an anabolic agent. With the aid of an anabolic, you can cut calories to a greater degree and still retain lean mass (you’ll reach your goal quicker)…it’s an option, think about it. If you have the energy, throw in a couple of sprinting session in the mornings when you have time. If you want details on anything just let me know.
-JM
As far as a three day split, what would you recomend as far as breaking it into bodyparts? Also, I am firm believer in doing “big” lifts, but I need a break from deadlifts, because my lower back is killing me due to walking on cement (no give at all) all day plus I am always bending over to pick stuff up. Exercise suggestions???
You can find the whole workout on a thread entitled “Don Alessi’s Response to Meltdown on Low Carb Diets.” Just use the search engine, you can switch the deads with something else or skip them altogether. The post is about half-way down the thread…“Joel Marion to MB Eric.” Take care, let me know if you have any other questions.
-JM