Loosing weight and toning up is by no means an easy feat. But one of the hardest things I have seen girls trying to achieve is actually adding on muscle, or anything for that matter, sometimes even a little fat (yes-yes I know you going whatever!) I am not talking about those genetic little mesomorphic freaks that just look a weight and grow, I am referring to the small ectomorph individuals that no matter how much they eat, or how much they lift, they just don’t seem to grow. The struggle for them is as frustrating and demotivating as it is for those individuals trying to shed a couple of kg’s.
My client Lollie (in the photos) has been with me exactly a year. And just looking back at her fitness journey with me, made me realise just how hard it has been for her and other ladies like her. We started at 55kg, and the heaviest we have been able to push her weight has been 58kg. Imagine you could only loose 3kg in 12 months, would be pretty demotivating right? Exactly the same on the flip side.
This is just a brief overview of what we did.
Absolute perseverance and consistency. You just have to keep going and pushing until the results starts showing.
- Nutrition
You have to eat, and eat more then what you use to. Now I am not talking about pigging out on junk food, that will just make you skinny fat! Wholesome, clean food. Lean proteins like chicken, lean steak and mince (I actually got Lollie to eat a steak after 2 years…) salmon, good quality carbohydrates (oats, quinoa, sweet potato, basmati rice) fats (almond butter, avocado, coconut oil) a couple of apples and bananas here and there.
In the process of eating so much food, even the healthy kind, your body-fat will probably start creeping up a little as well. This is absolutely normal, collateral damage. We gradually increased her calories every week until we saw the body-fat going up, then we stop for a little or drop down again, and as the body adapts, pushed the calories again, we were cruising around 2900 calories at one time, with body fat around 17%, decent ratio.
Don’t just focus on pre and post workout meals, fuel your body from the moment you wake up until you go to bed. It goes hand in with the next point.
- Training.
If you are not going to eat properly, your gym sessions will be futile to muscle growth! We focussed on doing compound movements, in other words, good old bodybuilding training. You need to lift HEAVY (without giving yourself a hernia!) rep range between 6 - 10, longer rest periods. And zip, zero, zilch cardio. We started adding some cardio in in closer to competition time.
- Supplementation
Our basic supplementation was whey protein post workout, casein before bed, l-glutamine, BCAA, Vit C, Omega 3 and creatine.
And lastly but by no means the least. Adequate sleep and hydration. I will touch on these separately soon as I believe their importance are very much overlooked.
