matteo on Nostr: If you’re someone who wants to get in great shape, just know that once you lock in ...
If you’re someone who wants to get in great shape, just know that once you lock in and have a plan it is so surprisingly easy. If I can do this, anyone can 💪
*This post is a composition of knowledge I’ve gained from working with a top tier fitness coach. I paid, so you don’t have to.
I’ll share the steps and recipe that I’ve followed over the past 6 months to build muscle and drop 45lb while working a physical labour job, maintaining a social life, having a healthy relationship & running a business. This is going to be pretty extensive, so buckle up!
Mindset - You have to really want it, and you have to be willing to change your habits. This change is gradual, this change follows action. That being said- if you want it, take a step forward.
Time - You have to understand your time preference. From experience, short term thinking is a losing duel in this arena. You can make life changing progress within a couple months, but the goal is to stay in the best shape possible, which is an endless goal. This is very doable and the next steps pave the path for it.
Training - Key in on training sustainability and efficiency. I personally do not spend more than 3.5 hours at the gym per week. I prefer to focus on recovery because both my full time job and side hustle/business are currently labour intensive.
Finding Maintenance - This step should be an ongoing step, from the beginning of your journey- find a rough estimate for your maintenance calories (using this calculator https://www.calculator.net/tdee-calculator.html ), shoot for that amount of calories daily and track how your body weight responds meticulously. Finding maintenance- this will likely take around 2 months. Knowing your maintenance gives you your home base. We’ll get back to nutrition in a bit.
*Note: Contrary to popular belief, you can, and do, build muscle at maintenance as long as your muscles have adequate stimuli and recovery. This makes maintenance all the more important.
My Training Protocol:
The minimum effective dose for muscular maintenance is only 1 set to failure per week, per muscle group this is a crutch if you ever have an off week- which we all do once in a while. For growth you only need to aim for 2 sets. That being said, an upper/lower split 2x per week or a full body split 3x per week or EOD seems to be a sweet spot.
- I train full body 3 times per week
- Per session, I roughly do 1 exercise per muscle group, per plane (Ie. 1 set of pec flies, 1 set of chest press)
- 1-2 warm up sets at 1-3 reps to feel the weight.
- I push to land at failure between 4-8 reps on all working sets
- 3 Minute breaks going into the working set
- If you have a lagging muscle group, feel free to add 1 set to that exercise per session
Here’s my routine that gets repeated and stays unchanged. I don’t change it because the goal is ALWAYS to progress in the chosen exercises session after session- either with reps or weight. This is the feedback we want & need to see.
1. Chest press machine
2. Pec fly
3. Reverse pec fly
4. Deep shoulder press machine
5. Kelso shrugs
6. Wide grip lat pulldown
7. Unilateral neutral grip row
8. Unilateral cable pushdowns (tricep)
9. Unilateral dumbbell preacher curls
10. Leg press calf raise
11. Single leg leg press
12. Quad extension
13. Hamstring curl
8000 Steps daily
My coach also happens to be a web developer and has an app that is the equivalent of MyFitnessPal except it’s for tracking exercise progression. It’s extremely useful for compiling workouts and following progress. It’s called ‘Tracked - Strength Training’
https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/tracked-strength-training/id6450913418
Diet Protocol:
This is the part where most of us slip up, that is completely fine. To avoid slip up’s our best option is to simplify the approach.
Our aim is to track maintenance for longer periods of time because lifestyle creeps in- sometimes we splurge on weekends or enjoy a few drinks.
If you’re at 2500 calories a day, let’s say you go out to drink twice per month and your weight stays the same, this means your actual maintenance is likely 2650 or 2700, but your lifestyle allows for 2500 daily, so eat at 2500 daily. This creates flexibility and doesn’t feel so restrictive. Your averages prove this theory and you can easily go into a meaningful weight loss phase by knowing your actual maintenance, once again without having to give up your social life.
The downside to this is that it takes time to find that sweet spot- once you do however, you can have both. Understanding this, let’s proceed.
We’re going to follow these principles to keep things simple.
1. Find and maintain maintenance to start
2. Hit 1 gram of protein per body weight
3. Carb + protein based meals are eaten around exercise windows, or periods of laborious work. Ex.) Before and after the gym
4. Fat + protein based meals are eaten at all other times. Ex.) breakfast and nightly snack (if you eat breakfast)
5. Carbs kept on the lower end on off days
6. Micronutrients - Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium are the big ones that I lean on.
Get comfortable with this approach while training, and when it’s time to shed the pounds, drop your maintenance by 5000 calories, bring steps up from 8000 to10,000 per day and just stay consistent.
That’s literally it.
Once weight loss has slowed, (usually about the 2-3 month mark) feel free to add 2, 20 minute light cardio sessions per week, I prefer elliptical because it’s very low impact.
Track your body weight as feedback, but stay more focused on how you look, and how you feel.
To come off, taper off of cardio, bring steps back down to 8000 if need be, give it a month and then hop back into finding your new maintenance at your new body weight, when you’re happy or when you need it.
Repeat as needed
If you made it this far, I commend you, you deserve to change your life and I hope that this post can help you. Just remember that these steps don’t take place over night.
Only focus on what you can control today & take action. Sprinkle the rest in over the duration of your journey.
Play the long game, it’s far more rewarding and I think everyone on Nostr understands this.
DMs are open to questions 🤙
*This post is a composition of knowledge I’ve gained from working with a top tier fitness coach. I paid, so you don’t have to.
I’ll share the steps and recipe that I’ve followed over the past 6 months to build muscle and drop 45lb while working a physical labour job, maintaining a social life, having a healthy relationship & running a business. This is going to be pretty extensive, so buckle up!
Mindset - You have to really want it, and you have to be willing to change your habits. This change is gradual, this change follows action. That being said- if you want it, take a step forward.
Time - You have to understand your time preference. From experience, short term thinking is a losing duel in this arena. You can make life changing progress within a couple months, but the goal is to stay in the best shape possible, which is an endless goal. This is very doable and the next steps pave the path for it.
Training - Key in on training sustainability and efficiency. I personally do not spend more than 3.5 hours at the gym per week. I prefer to focus on recovery because both my full time job and side hustle/business are currently labour intensive.
Finding Maintenance - This step should be an ongoing step, from the beginning of your journey- find a rough estimate for your maintenance calories (using this calculator https://www.calculator.net/tdee-calculator.html ), shoot for that amount of calories daily and track how your body weight responds meticulously. Finding maintenance- this will likely take around 2 months. Knowing your maintenance gives you your home base. We’ll get back to nutrition in a bit.
*Note: Contrary to popular belief, you can, and do, build muscle at maintenance as long as your muscles have adequate stimuli and recovery. This makes maintenance all the more important.
My Training Protocol:
The minimum effective dose for muscular maintenance is only 1 set to failure per week, per muscle group this is a crutch if you ever have an off week- which we all do once in a while. For growth you only need to aim for 2 sets. That being said, an upper/lower split 2x per week or a full body split 3x per week or EOD seems to be a sweet spot.
- I train full body 3 times per week
- Per session, I roughly do 1 exercise per muscle group, per plane (Ie. 1 set of pec flies, 1 set of chest press)
- 1-2 warm up sets at 1-3 reps to feel the weight.
- I push to land at failure between 4-8 reps on all working sets
- 3 Minute breaks going into the working set
- If you have a lagging muscle group, feel free to add 1 set to that exercise per session
Here’s my routine that gets repeated and stays unchanged. I don’t change it because the goal is ALWAYS to progress in the chosen exercises session after session- either with reps or weight. This is the feedback we want & need to see.
1. Chest press machine
2. Pec fly
3. Reverse pec fly
4. Deep shoulder press machine
5. Kelso shrugs
6. Wide grip lat pulldown
7. Unilateral neutral grip row
8. Unilateral cable pushdowns (tricep)
9. Unilateral dumbbell preacher curls
10. Leg press calf raise
11. Single leg leg press
12. Quad extension
13. Hamstring curl
8000 Steps daily
My coach also happens to be a web developer and has an app that is the equivalent of MyFitnessPal except it’s for tracking exercise progression. It’s extremely useful for compiling workouts and following progress. It’s called ‘Tracked - Strength Training’
https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/tracked-strength-training/id6450913418
Diet Protocol:
This is the part where most of us slip up, that is completely fine. To avoid slip up’s our best option is to simplify the approach.
Our aim is to track maintenance for longer periods of time because lifestyle creeps in- sometimes we splurge on weekends or enjoy a few drinks.
If you’re at 2500 calories a day, let’s say you go out to drink twice per month and your weight stays the same, this means your actual maintenance is likely 2650 or 2700, but your lifestyle allows for 2500 daily, so eat at 2500 daily. This creates flexibility and doesn’t feel so restrictive. Your averages prove this theory and you can easily go into a meaningful weight loss phase by knowing your actual maintenance, once again without having to give up your social life.
The downside to this is that it takes time to find that sweet spot- once you do however, you can have both. Understanding this, let’s proceed.
We’re going to follow these principles to keep things simple.
1. Find and maintain maintenance to start
2. Hit 1 gram of protein per body weight
3. Carb + protein based meals are eaten around exercise windows, or periods of laborious work. Ex.) Before and after the gym
4. Fat + protein based meals are eaten at all other times. Ex.) breakfast and nightly snack (if you eat breakfast)
5. Carbs kept on the lower end on off days
6. Micronutrients - Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium are the big ones that I lean on.
Get comfortable with this approach while training, and when it’s time to shed the pounds, drop your maintenance by 5000 calories, bring steps up from 8000 to10,000 per day and just stay consistent.
That’s literally it.
Once weight loss has slowed, (usually about the 2-3 month mark) feel free to add 2, 20 minute light cardio sessions per week, I prefer elliptical because it’s very low impact.
Track your body weight as feedback, but stay more focused on how you look, and how you feel.
To come off, taper off of cardio, bring steps back down to 8000 if need be, give it a month and then hop back into finding your new maintenance at your new body weight, when you’re happy or when you need it.
Repeat as needed
If you made it this far, I commend you, you deserve to change your life and I hope that this post can help you. Just remember that these steps don’t take place over night.
Only focus on what you can control today & take action. Sprinkle the rest in over the duration of your journey.
Play the long game, it’s far more rewarding and I think everyone on Nostr understands this.
DMs are open to questions 🤙