Settling in for a long winter of muscle building

[SarahPT]

I have lost a lot of the muscle I built last winter. It's been pointed out to me that I look much less muscular. It's partly my fault. I didn't do a good job with nutrition on our long hikes and on those hot days when I was active but didn't feel like eating. I worked hard for that muscle and I'm not happy that I lost somuch. I'm going to try to build it all back, and then some! And next year I vow to do better with nutrition so I don't lose so much over the summer.

I'm going to keep in more cardio than I have before int he winter because I also don't want to lose all my endurance. That means I'll have to eat lots.

So, here's my schedule:
Monday: Cardio
Tuesday: Full body weights
Wednesyda: cardio
Thursday: full body weights
Friday: cardio
Saturday: rest
Sunday: full body weights

For cardio I am tentatively planning 1 run of 6-8 miles a week, one short fast run of 2-3 miles a week, and one other cardio session. That will be snowshoeing (if we get any snow this year!), a walk, or elliptical if the weather is bad. The running may be replaced by elliptical when the weather is real bad as well. And on occasion I may skip the cardio and do some yoga.

Here's the plan for my weight sessions:

Sunday and Thursday I will be doing 2 sets each of the following:
Close grip pull ups
Underhand barbell rows
Bench press
Behind the neck press
Squats
Sumo straight leg deads
Weighted calf raises
Weighted crunches

Tuesday I will be doing 2 sets each of the following:
Lying underhand barbell rows
Barbell pull overs
Clean and press
Close grip bench press
Leg extensions
Good mornings
Donkey squats
Wood chop

This program will be 5 weeks. My reps will look like this:
week 1:10 reps
Week 2: 10 reps
Week 3: 5 reps
Week 4: 15 reps
Week 5: 5 reps

I'll be trying to make increases in weight used as often as I safely can. I'm going to start creatine up as well. Lee and I will be doing the exact same workouts, which will be cool.

Nutrition
I won't be tracking cals/macros closely. I'm just going to ball park it. But here's what I'm shooting for:
2400 cals a day
350 carbs
160 protein
40 fat
Some treats are fine, as long as I'm getting lots and lots of good foods in there. I'll adjust this depending on my results.

[SarahPT]

Ok, I've done 2 workouts so far, Thursday and Sunday. It's going well. Thursday I was sooooo sore afterwards. I hadn't done weights for 12 days, so it felt great! : Today I made some nice weight increases.

I'm doing well with eating lots of good foods and sleeping plenty. Tomorrow I want to go for a nice jog in the woods if the weather is decent. We've had nothing but rain lately.

[.V.]

Oh goody, another big eater. We'll try to spend the winter growing together, me trying to reclaim muscle and cardiovascular fitness, and you trying to reclaim muscle and keep cardiovascular fitness.

Good luck to you in attaining your goal.

[laura817]

Hey Sarah - Winter is the perfect time to add some muscle that you lost. Good luck on the new workout!

[Maxgain]

Subscribing as always interested in bulking progress.
How much lean mass are you aiming toi achieve and how lean are you going to stay during it??

[SarahPT]

Nov 11
Hi there! Well, I would like to gain 4-5 pounds of muscle. I'm not too worried about how lean I will stay. With my tiny physique I can't get fat no matter what. Winter In Maine, we're all under layers of clothes anyway. Any fat I gain will be lost in the spring. :

Thursday started week 2 and I feel as if I have gained a bit of muscle already. I accidentally deleted my "start" pics. That is so irritating! So, I won't have a real good comparison when I'm done. Oh well. I've been making some good increases on the weights.

I've developed some pretty bad sciatica. I can't run. I can use the elliptical and walk. I'm really disapointed that I can't keep up some running right now. It doesn't hurt at all from doing weights, thank goodness.

Rest day today. Tomorrow I'll do weights, then work on building walls in my gym/office. That will be a second workout!

[totalchaos]

Me trying to burn fat and build muscle symoltaneously, and you building muscle and retaining cardiovascular fitness.

[laura817]

Hey Sarah, I am sorry to hear about your injury. Hopefully, it won't hender your cardiovascular fitness and your endurance too much.

[SarahPT]

Thanks everyone. The sciatica seems to be a bit better. I hesitate to say it, a bit afraid those horrible pains will return. It still hurts, but mostly late in the day and it's not as bad.

Im going to actually try to jog oday. Wish me luck on that. :

I finished the first 2 weeks of the program, which were the 10 reps weeks. Definately feel I did well. I started the 5 rep week Thursday. The first workout felt crappy! Not sure why. I did a fair amount of weight. I't just didn't feel like I did anything. I'll just focus on tomorrow's workout going better.

Eating is oing pretty well. I'm hitting it at slightly lower protein/higher fat than I want, but I'm still working on it.

[laura817]

Good luck Sarah on the jogging!

How have you been tracking your muscle gain?

[SarahPT]

Nov 23
Hi Laura! I was tracking by pictures, but I accidentally deleted my before pics. That is so irritating! I don't do measurements because I don't believe they are accurate. It's so hard to measure the exact same spot within a 16th of an inch...being off a tiny bit makes a difference. Because of my IBS my weight fluctuates as much as 6 pounds per day, so I can't go by weight at all. I'm just judging by looking int eh mirror at this point and by comments my trianing partner makes. He says he can see a real difference in my lats. :

I am pleased to say that I think my sciatica is pretty much gone. At least for now. I jogged last saturday, Monday and today. Saturday and Monday I had very mild pain, today NONE. Yeah!

This week starts the high rep week. Then another 5 rep week and this program is done! I will take after pics, even though I don't have a comparison.

[SarahPT]

I forgot. I wanted to post a link to my profile up on bodybuildingmecca.

http://http://bodybuildingmecca.com/gallery/main.php
Scroll down to Sarah Brown.

[Maxgain]

not working for me

[SarahPT]

Oh darn. I'll try to re post it. Thanks for letting me know.

[SarahPT]

http://bodybuildingmecca.com/gallery/main.php

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