[_trackno5]

I’m a bodybuilder.

I train 5x per week, generally around 5.30am so I can get it done before work starts. It serves as a backbone for my day and I appreciate that no matter what happens, what I do at the gym is entirely under my control and I enjoy having that to fallback on when things are messy in life.

Health wise the benefits are obvious, but I appreciate the discipline and need to create abstract goals for the future and stick to them. Bodybuilding also taught me adaptability: conditions are not always ideal and you need to make do with what you have to get the stimuli you need. It also teaches you that sometimes the best action is no action (i.e. get some rest)

[re]

Can I ask what you mean when you describe yourself as "a bodybuilder"? Does this mean that you participate in amateur/professional bodybuilding competitions?

[_trackno5]

Yeah, I compete in bodybuilding shows.

My end goal is to get a WNBF pro card by the time I’m 40. I’m 29 right now, so got plenty of shows to come :)

[uptownfunk]

Wow cool. Mind sharing more info about your program / diet?

[_trackno5]

Sure, anything specific you wanna know?

== Training

I follow a periodised routine where a mesocyclo (block of training) lasts between 4-6 weeks and I take a deload week between mesocycles.

I'm a big believer in Renaissance Periodisation's [0] approach of starting a training block at the minimum effective volume (MEV) and building up volume throughout the mesocyclone till you reach your maximum recoverable volume (MRV).

By the end of a mesocycle I'm pretty close to overreaching and it's time for a deload to drop fatigue and restart the training process.

I won't share the specific details of my program since that was designed by my coach (I highly recommend getting one), but I can share the overall structure:

- Day 1: Legs

- Day 2: Pull

- Day 3: Push

- Day 4: rest day

- Day 5: Legs

- Day 6: Pull + Push

Even though I said legs, push, and pull, that's just the focus of my sessions. It doesn't mean I only train those body parts or movement patterns.

For example, today was my first pull day of the week and while my primary exercises were for the back, I also did hammer curls, calf raises, and cable crunches.

== Diet

I pretty much just stick to whole foods and reserve some of my calories for junk food. I got quite the sweet tooth so I eat some kind of chocolate/cookies pretty much every day (less often when I am dieting down though)

I'm on a massing phase (i.e., bulk) right now and I am eating at around 2700 kcal per day.

Here's what I ate today for example (I vary the foods, but the structure is the same):

-- Pre-training

One scoop of athletic greens with water

200ml of soy milk + 30g of whey or just a protein bar (generally Grenade's white chocolate flavour)

1 cup of coffee

-- Post-training ("breakfast")

20g of dark chocolate

70g blueberries

250g of skyr

1 plain bagel (I'm weird, but I really enjoy this)

1 cup of coffee

-- Mid-morning snack

60g of cocoa pops (my junk food for the day)

-- Lunch

1 flatbread wrap with: 15g mayo, 80g 97% lean beef, 1 whole tomato, red onion, pickled jalapeños, and rockets

1 banana

-- Afternoon snack

1 bagel with: 40g of peanut butter, 40g of jam, 1 banana

-- Dinner

Same as lunch

== Other stuff

I usually avoid drinking my calories, but every now and then I enjoy having a beer so I just adjust my food intake for the day to account for that. Not a big deal since I can't really handle more than a pint anyways :P

When I have some kind of social event, it's usually in the evening. If I know I won't have much control over what I eat, I tend to do a protein "fast" (mostly eat protein-rich foods) throughout the day prior to the event so I have extra calories to spend there.

I average around 12,000 steps each day. I get those steps mostly from walking to and from the gym and doing errands or walking to work. I keep track of the number of steps on a spreadsheet so I can refer to it in the future.

I also weigh myself every day and keep track of the measurements in the same spreadsheet. It's pretty handy to see what level of activity and food intake I need to reach to lose weight, for example. I can just look up what I did last time and just follow that.

[0] https://rpstrength.com/training-volume-landmarks-muscle-grow...