Week 133 :: How Can One Maintain Their Physique?

[the_fake_webmaster]

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TOPIC: How Can One Maintain Their Physique?

For the week of: July 25th - July 31st
Tuesday @ Midnight Is The Final Cut (Mountain Time, US & Canada).

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There can come a time when you?ve worked so hard and accomplished so much that you are ready to lay back for a while. However, you still do not want to lose everything that you?ve worked so hard for.

How can one maintain their physique?

What is a good workout routine for maintenance?

What should one?s diet look like for maintenance?

Which supplements are good for maintenance?


BONUS QUESTION: Have you ever decided to maintain your physique or do you just keep setting newer goals? Do you think that you will someday just try to maintain what you?ve accomplished?

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[Maxima95]

This is my first submission! Enjoy!

[anonymous]

This is my first submission! Enjoy!

I share with you my latest experience.

I made a break from the gym for around 10 days.

Coming back to the gym a few days ago I was astonished to notice that I had lost around 10% or more of my strengh when lifting weights.

My diet was hoewer in check, taking supplements, among them Animal Pump and doing my jogging every day.

So it was quiet a bit disappointing to see how much I had lost.

And what I did is pretty similar to what you are advising!!! or am I wrong ? LOL

[Maxima95]

Did the strength come back after a few more days at the gym? If you were jogging every day and not really stimulating your muscles, you could have burnt some lean muscle.

I'm not really sure what to tell you, because me and other people I know have followed what I have advised and came back to the gym as strong, if not a bit stronger than when we left.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you flat out did something wrong, but I have seen this information put to use and for everyone I know it works. After all, I didn't make this stuff up in my head, it's just science.

[anonymous]

Did the strength come back after a few more days at the gym? If you were jogging every day and not really stimulating your muscles, you could have burnt some lean muscle.

.

I didn't go to the gym for 10 days so I didn't lift weights for 10 days. I took a 10 day break but still doing a 30 minute jogging on the beach every day.

What I report are only facts that could be analysed by science.

I guess that in 7 days of workout I will reach my previous fitness level in the gym.

But I am pretty sure that taking a break away from the gym leads to a loss of strengh. In your article, you include in your break a daily routine in the gym what I didn't do.

So my conlusions are that a break without a daily routine in the gym leads to a loss of strengh and whatever you eat you are unable to maintain your physique at all.

So it all depends on your objectives, a break with a daily routine in the gym or without. But the results in terms of fitness will be different whatsoever.

[Maxima95]

But I am pretty sure that taking a break away from the gym leads to a loss of strengh.

This could not be farther from the truth. It is actually favorable to take week long breaks after a few months of strenuous workouts at the gym. This gives time for your muscles to repair themselves and you almost always come back to the gym stronger than before.

In your article, you include in your break a daily routine in the gym what I didn't do.

Wrong. I said that if your schedule allows it, go in once, or if you feel up to it, twice a week for a quick full-body workout. I also said that if you didn't want to do that, do some simple exercises at home.

So my conlusions are that a break without a daily routine in the gym leads to a loss of strengh and whatever you eat you are unable to maintain your physique at all.

Again, this is wrong. With proper diet and exercise, your physique can be maintained.

[anonymous]

. With proper diet and exercise, your physique can be maintained.

Facts are that in my case a 10 day break following a proper regimen with supplements and doing a daily running led to a loss of strength of more than 10%.

The regimen I followed during the break and the supplements I took were the same as when doing my daily routine in the gym and making strength gains.

So in my case, a 10 day break with proper regimen, supplements and a daily running could not maintain physique.

In other words :

Fact #1: a 10 day break,
Fact #2: with proper regimen, diet and supplements (the same as the one that enabled me to post strength gains),
Fact #3: and a daily jogging;
Fact #4: resulted at the end of the break in a loss of strength which amounted to more than 10%.

Conclusion : logic implies that a 10 day break with jogging and proper diet could not maintain physique in my case.

[LaxPro]

here you go:

[anonymous]

here you go:

Good post man. Thanks for sharing your experience as a mass bodybuilder.

I used to train in a gym run by a mass bodybuilder in Thailand, a former Mr Universe year... I can imagine now what he was feeling.

[Rigit23]

Heres mine! Good Luck all!

[EZ-Bar]

Congratulations! You have done it. You have put in your time; put in every ounce of effort every workout, and it shows. You have earned your ideal body. You are finally happy with your physique, and now you just want to reap the rewards. You obviously don't just want to go out and lose those hard earned gains; no you want to start maintaining it, and that brings us to the next question? How in the hell do I maintain my hard, chiseled, awesome body without gaining or losing anything?

How can one maintain their physique?

Diet: Easily the most important thing to watch, and the thing that will keep you healthy and enjoying life. Fortunately this will be the first time since you started lifting seriously that you wont have to watch your diet like some crazy scientist; you can ease off and enjoy some food you weren't allowed to eat before. The first thing you need to find out is how many calories you need to eat in order to keep your weight and body fat the same without gaining or losing anything.

Exercise: Unfortunately you will not be able to push yourself like you have been as this will make you gain, which you don't want. This could be a good thing or bad thing depending on your mentality, but in general you want to get in the gym 2 days a week, and do a form of cardio 2-3 times a week.

What is a good workout routine for maintenance?

2 day workout: I would make one day upper body and one day lower body. Stick to the big three lifts (Squats, Deadlifts, Bench), and depending on if you start losing anything you can throw in some other lifts to bring it back up. I would keep the reps at around 8 for each compound exercise and 12 for ab/lower back exercises. My routine would look like this. Again for sanities sake on the warm ups lets say your lifting 300 pounds for 8 reps.

Day 1 (Monday) Upper:

Warm up on bench (very important)
50% of working set for 10 reps (150lbs)
70% 6 reps (210 lbs)
80% 3 reps (240 lbs)
90% 1 rep (270 lbs)

Working sets (weightXrepsXsets and I made up weights just as an example for military press)
300X8X3 Bench press (incline, flat, decline)
200x8x2 Military Press
225x8x3 Bent over rows
45x12x2 Hyper Extensions
45x12x2 Weighted Sit-ups

Day 2 Lower:

Same warm up, but for squats
300x8x3 Squats
350x8x2 Deadlifts
400x8x2 Calf Raises
250x8x1 RDL (Romanian Deadlifts)

You can do any type of cardio you like.


What is a good diet plan for maintenance?

This is very subjective, and depends on body type, age, weight, activity level etc. You will probably have to do some trial and error to see what works best for you, but here are some general guidelines. For the sake of sanity in these examples I am going to say you are thirty-five years old, and have reached your ideal body at 5'10" 220 pounds at 8% body fat, and are a moderately active person.

Ectomorph: So you burn fat easily, but have a hard time putting weight on. You can be a little more free about what you eat then the others and you want to eat a good 200 calories above your RMR (resting metabolic rate). So in this case you would be eating 3000 calories a day. While its not as important I would try to keep a 40%p/40%c/20% split. Obviously you can stray away from this a bit, but in general try to keep it around there.

Mesomorph: Ahh the middle man, and the ideal body type for putting on muscle and keeping off fat. If you are lucky to be a mesomorph I would keep the calories at around 2800 a day, and keep the 40/40/20. If you start putting on to much fat do a little more cardio, but we will go more in depth about that later.

Endomorph: With this body type your are going to have to be a little more careful about what you eat, because you put on fat pretty easily. So I might even stay 100 calories below your RMR just to make sure, so 2600 calories in this case. Still 40/40/20 though, and if you put on weight then do a bit more cardio, and drop that calories another 100.

Which supplements are good for maintenance?

Multivitamin - Very important for overall health.

BCAAs - I recommend Xtend or Purple Wraath, which will help you maintain the muscle after a party night or cardio.

Fish Oil - Keep the joints healthy and many other great benefits.

Whey Protein - After a nice day at the gym.


BONUS QUESTION: Have you ever decided to maintain your physique or do you just keep setting newer goals? Do you think that you will someday just try to maintain what you've accomplished?

I am a firm believer in constant improvement, which means I will always strive to be better in some way. When I hit my ideal weight I will work on my body fat, when I get my ideal body fat I will work on strength, and then maybe train my grip and I will continue to keep improving in some way down to the last thing. I might reach perfection someday, but I doubt it. I love lifting and love pushing myself so I don't know if I will every be satisfied enough to just maintain.

*edit* damn forgot about the time zone

[footballyears]

Good post man. Thanks for sharing your experience as a mass bodybuilder.

I used to train in a gym run by a mass bodybuilder in Thailand, a former Mr Universe year... I can imagine now what he was feeling.

looks good

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