Jack faced an interesting challenge with his health & fitness training. Because he was highly experienced and adept at cardiovascular training, with a combined cycling and running weekly mile count that would make most people’s eyes water. The challenge we faced was that despite being highly active and experienced with exercise, all of his training was skewed in favour of cardio training.
Jack wanted to increase his strength and muscle size, particularly in the upper body. So we brought Jack’s calories up to approximately 2600, representing about a 20% surplus on his TDEE, which is the amount of calories he would typically burn as part of his general activities.
We introduced regular strength training, at first with total body workouts, and then gradually increased the volume and began to target specific muscle groups as Jack became more conditioned to resistance training. This was all done while keenly monitoring fatigue, hunger and performance in his cardiovascular pursuits.
Jack achieved a more athletic aesthetic and also got some bloodwork done over the course of our initial 6 months working together in my online fitness program, Jack achieved a 20% reduction in his cholesterol levels and a whopping 60% increase in his testosterone levels.
Which I think is a testament to Jack’s willingness not to look at exercise in isolation. We built a healthy nutrient-dense meal plan and established some important lifestyle habits that played a big role in Jack’s success. Interestingly Jack’s higher testosterone level will make it easier to gain and maintain muscle mass creating a virtuous cycle of progress and results.
If you would like to discuss setting up a similar training regime to Jack, let’s schedule a consultation call
