demandmuscle’s BodyBlog

After competing in four shows this year, my body is really taking a toll. My bodyfat went down to about 2.8%, my strength is down around 25% across the board and my joints are feeling stressed to the point of pain. 

Off-Season is a bigger decision then people think. Most people look at it as a relax time, take a break, eat what you want. But in fact, the first three months of your off-season is when you can make the biggest gains in Lean Muscle. 

The decision you need to make is calories. You need to start at a very high calorie intake, but not to much and not to little. If you eat to much, you will gain weight to fast and find yourself cutting back later, which will stop your progress. If you are not eating enough calories, you will not utilize “hypertrophy” to the fullest, which will also slow your progress. The goal is to eat 200 to 300 a day more than you did last off-season. This will still encourage max muscle growth, but with hard work, will not go to fat storage. The big decision and overall influence on your growth is “How much calories (Muscle) are you willing to earn this year”. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.