Physique Revision – Part One

1.

Today I want to talk about accomplishing the impossible: concurrent fat-loss and muscle-gain. There’s plenty of debate in the industry as to how fast this feat can be done and to what degree the body can vacillate between an anabolic (muscle-gaining) and a catabolic (fat-losing) state where the trainee continues to see progress. Certain strategies – intermittent fasting comes to mind – try to do this on a short, arguably daily time-line, while others like Lyle’s Ultimate Diet 2.0 push the time-line out to a week.  Alan Aragon’s culking method is probably the least aggressive of the aforementioned, making its manipulations to a multi-week or monthly basis with moderate daily undulations of caloric intake.

Alan’s philosophy bears most similarity to mine. In true guru fashion, I’ve adopted my own unique fitness nomenclature: physique revision. I like its connotations and they just happen to fit my philosophical habituations. Physique refers specifically to the form or structure of the body; in essence, its make-up. This is perfect as it encompasses not just the physical appearance of the body but its content of both fat and muscle. Second, revision implies a transmutation of state, an improvement on a previous version. Explicit in revision is the root vision, which immediately conjures up thoughts of accomplishment, of dreams, goals, and forward movement.

In my experience, getting clients comfortable with their ideal physique is at least half the battle. To achieve that ideal physique I instill a self-confidence, an unshakable belief in them that inspires adoption of the lifestyle and habits of those whose bodies are truly exceptionable. To get there, we focus on daily victories, necessitating a long, slow, and mediated approach. It’s not particularly exciting, but in truth, dieting or physique revision shouldn’t be. No more a surprise than brushing your teeth in the morning.

As Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditations, “Always have clear in your mind that ‘the grass is not greener’ elsewhere, and how everything is the same here as on the top of the mountain.”  Chronic dieters and fitness obsessive compulsive would do well to take this quote to heart as getting that six-pack is not nearly the rush one would expect.  That said, I feel our purpose here is to educate ourselves, to infuse our bodies, minds, and souls with knowledge and experience. Challenging ourselves, pushing the boundaries and asking “What is my limit?” may be the best form of education available to us. In The Magic of Thinking Big, David J. Schwartz writes “[g]oals are as essential to success as air is to life.” By surrendering your heart and mind to a goal, you receive in turn physical power and energy that, without agency, innervates the fabric of your day to day life, compelling you to succeed not just in the endeavor of the moment, but any endeavor you can fathom. Success begets success.

Thus, I argue for a mediated strategy toward physique revision which can provide these wanted daily successes. The temptation after a brutal stint of dieting or bulking or what have you is to immediately revert to old habits and destroy any progress made. Thus I condemn aggressive bulking or cutting unless the client and circumstances demand it. Without reprogramming the subconscious through a series of productive inputs the entrenched practices remain and success is fleeting. Contrast this with a physique revision strategy that, rather than relying on dramatic improvements to the tune of say a 10% improvement in your physique each week, asks for maybe just a 5% improvement. Or even better, a 2.5% improvement.

Let that gel in your mind.

Now it’s time to make this philosophy a reality.

2.

To begin you’re going to need an objective portrait of where you are right now. I suggest taking three photos of your half-naked physique – a front, profile, and rear shot. Photos humble even the leanest among us. This is your starting point and from here you need to make a decision. Either focus on an increase in muscle mass with some fat-loss, or focus on fat-loss with some potential muscle-gain. Next, you need to find out how many calories you should be eating. The way I prefer to do this is to figure out the maintenance caloric intake of your ideal physique. The revisioning magic happens by combining a detailed approach that is at the same time expansive as it is intensive. By undulating calories on a daily basis you can make a positive impact on your partitioning ratio. Then, through slight adjustments  on a longer time-line we can prevent plateaus and continue to progress. Let’s address, then, the latter.

Taking a broader view of our plans, you’re going to have to modify your approach and adjust calories based on the feedback you’re receiving every two weeks. The body is a multi-faceted system that, while in the long-term is surprisingly linear, needs a gentle touch in the short-term to forestall overtraining and plateaus. Beyond intra-week variations in caloric intake, recalculations based on direct feedback from your plan will guide adjustments. I encourage small modifications incorporated on a bi-weekly basis. Let’s presume you’re trying to lose fat with potential muscle gain. Here’s what I do with my clients if they’re not seeing the results they want:

1. Ensure exercise volume has reached five hours per week with the incorporation of an intelligent resistance training program. Ensure diet adherence is at 85-90%.
2. Evaluate recovery. Is the trainee complaining of lack of energy? How is the client coping with dietary intake? Are there excessive cheat meals or dietary transgressions? If results are poor, incorporate additional recovery measures including supplementation for sleep and relaxation alongside low-intensity rejuvenation techniques.
3. After improving recovery, check for body composition improvements. If no improvement, incorporate two thirty-minute low-intensity cardiovascular sessions, increasing exercise output by one hour per week.
4. If fat-loss does not improve, reduce weekly average caloric intake by 250kcal, mostly from dietary carbohydrate. Monitor strength levels. If strength levels remain elevated and recovery is not impinged, continue.

Based on this feedback, I run through the above in order until we see the results we want. I cap exercise volume at 10-12 hours per week and will make dietary adjustments once that volume is reached. I save high-intensity interval type work for last. I address why in the homework section of numeral three of this article. In part two I’ll cover in brief strategies to see consistent improvement in muscle-gain oriented plans.

3.

So here’s your homework until next time.

• Take three photos of yourself. Front, profile, and rear. Yeah, the results may be ugly, but you have to know where you are now before you plan out where you want to be. I like clients to evaluate mostly by the mirror and the “Do these jeans fit?” method. Feel free to take a weight measurement and girth measurement – waistline for guys or thighs for women, wherever the fat tends to go.
• Take a three day dietary record and record everything that goes into your mouth. Make them representative days, so if you tend to eat a lot more on Fridays or weekends, record at least one of those days. This may be difficult if you like to get trashed with the boys, or lighten the wallets of bros who want to “buy you a drank.” Tally up your calories and macronutrients.
• Check to see how many total hours of exercise you’re doing per week. Make sure it’s at least four hours of resistance training and build up from there. Beware throwing in excessive amounts of high-intensity activity. I’ve seen trainees destroy themselves with too much interval training. For more info on proper resistance training, take a look at Reverse Pyramid Training – Part One and Reverse Pyramid Training – Part Two for some ideas. There are plenty of good resources out there. If you need some help, send me an e-mail at ryan.zielonka@gmail.com.

In the follow-up article we’ll incorporate these results into the basic outline of a training and nutrition program that embodies the principles of physique revision. Until then, for the guys keep it bro, girls keep it bra.

Tagged as: fat loss, lifestyle, muscle gain, Nutrition, Philosophy, physique revision, Psychology, training