Let us review the changes I have made in my training and diet, which have led to what I believe are improved performance and results.
The most significant change is dietary. After determining I was ass backwards on the timing of my food, I adopted a circadian timed feeding strategy, eating my largest meal at sunrise (or thereabouts) and eating progressively smaller meals, eating my final meal two hours or so before going to bed. I also switched to a high carbohydrate, low fat diet after many years of doing the exact opposite, and increased my protein intake. I am fairly convinced that while carbohydrates don’t specifically build muscle, they do improve the muscle building process indirectly, by providing plenty of easily accessible glycogen for rapid ATP replenishment while training, allowing one to train harder and with more volume before becoming fatigued. More volume equals more stimulus to grow more muscle.
When it comes to training, the most significant change was also circadian, moving my training to the early afternoon (around 3:00 PM most days) vs. early morning. Additionally, I have refocused my efforts on improving my rating of perceived exertion and pushing myself harder in each set to actually get closer to a 9 on the RPE scale. I think I was stopping my sets well short of a 9 and erroneously calling it a 9. As a result, I am doing more repetitions with the same weights I’ve previously used.
I’ve added some additional supplements, and take them diligently. The complete list:
- Caffiene
- Nicotine
- Creatine
- Beta Alanine
- D-Aspartic Acid
- L-Carintine
- HMB
- EFA
- Multi Vitamin
- D3
- B Complex
- K
- Calcium
- Ashwaghanda
- Dopa Mucuna
- Zinc
- Magnesium
- Melatonin
The combo platter of diet, training and supplementation have me firing on all cylinders and making progress on my lifts and my body composition. Experimentation is a wonderful thing to spend one’s time on.
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