How Nutrition Drives Training

As I have written about before, I began my training life in a little gym in Clarksville, TN. The training for men was the same here as it was in most commercial facilities during that time, and probably is now. Monday was International Chest Day, International Back Day on Tuesday, and shoulders and legs were on Wednesday.  Strangely, we had very little time for legs, but we always agreed to double up next week to catch up… we never did.  The last couple of days were curls for the girls and triceps day.  This is the basic template with some slight variations.  Women -- very few trained at our gym -- tended to do legs and Stairmaster on Monday, same on Tuesday, same on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Occasionally some “arm stuff” would be lightly sprinkled in, but not so much as to get big and bulky (I hate that phrase). 

On to the actual topic, eating.  Since it was all about seeing the head of the deltoid, and catching a couple of abs sticking out, calories were limited and either fat or carbs were limited (this argument for another day).  This kind of mid-set, love it or hate it, stuck with me for quite some time.  Let’s be honest, everybody likes to look good on the beach, so vanity abound everybody!!!  Once I started really trying to get strong, squat 2, 3, or 4 times a week, I fell apart.  I could not recover from the training.  I felt achy, tired, slow and all this at the age of 38.  It didn’t make sense to me.  I decided that I was going to forget the abs, the deltoids, and buy some bigger pants.  I upped my calories from probably 2000 per day to what I am guessing is about 3500 to 4000.  I squat heavy three times per week, snatch and clean and jerk heavy a couple times as well, and what do you know, I recover.  My numbers have gone up by a large percentage and so has my weight.  I started at about 170lbs (77kg) and I am now up 12lbs to the middle of the 85kg weight class with some room to go.  I owe all of this to throwing some extra coconut milk in, potatoes, protein powder, and whole milk… not all together.  Let me be clear about this though.  I am pretty religious about my sleep, which is THE first step.  I am in bed by 10 and up by 6 or 7 every day.  The next step -- no matter your goals -- is diet.  The final one is training.  It seems like for me, that the increase in calories has allowed me to move on to the better training.  So whether you are a weightlifter, a bodybuilder, or just someone wanting to lose a few pounds, get the essentials in line.  1.  Sleep, 2. Nutrition, 3. Training.  This is the order.  You can fool it for a while, but not for too long.  Trust me, it wasn’t until I got sleep and diet aligned that my training was able to move in a better direction.