Retaining Muscle

Clubber Lang

hi there seems to be a lot of knowledgable people out there and i was wonderin if you could help me??? I play Gaelic football and as everyone probably already knows the training is fairly intense we generally train tuesdays and friday with a match on saturday or sunday depending on the time of the year. Anyway the problem i have each year is retaining weight or more importantly muscle. I currently weigh 14st 7lbs but i can lose a stone or more in the seven to eight months leading up to championship. Worrinly my bodyfat mesurement is generally the same which would appear to me to mean i lose muscle as well as fat. I also tend not to be able to lift as much weight in the gym. I try to get in 3weights workouts a week as well as my football training but tend to give leg workouts a miss apart from an odd week as my legs dont seem to recover quick enough for matches. I THINK my diet is fairly good with around 200g or more of protein everyday. has anyone any advice?

Dragan

When are you eating your protein? Sure, you can eat loads, but if you are still leaving big gaps in the timing then you body is getting the amino acids it needs from your muscle, plain and simple.

Also, how many calories are you eating a day??? If you doing a lot of cardio then you need a lot of carbs to maintain bodyweight.

Clubber Lang

my usual diet would be: 7.15am porridge with milk and more often than not a banana and a protein shake (usually i use a ltre of milk with enough being used to wet the porridge and the rest used in the shake, i use of scoop of pro x). 10.30am 2slices of bread and 100g of processed! turkey or chicken. 2.00pm 1 yogurt and 100g chicken fillet on a bread roll or sandwiche usually with lettuce,mayo and cheese. 4.30pm protein shake (1 scoop, pint of milk.) 6.30pm 150g of pasta and a tin of john west tuna with pasta sauce. 9.30pm protein shake or just pint of milk. on gym days i'd take a protein shake about an hour to an hour and a half before i'd go to gym and straight away after finishing, with a banana before and after training too. i've started takin creatine for last two months and take this before and after training on training days or in the morning if i'm not training.

Dragan

Well done, you have a nice layout for your diet there!

I would simply say up your calories dude.

I used to play and train GAA so i know it's **** hard to get through, i reckon it has to be a maintanence level issue.

Clubber Lang

what do you mean by maintanenace level issue, is that not eating enough calories and when you say add more calories what would i add to my diet to give me the extra calories?

Dragan

Thats exactly it! Just up your portions by about 10% i would say, that way you know that all the extra calories are from good sources, and on a daily basis the extra will be just enough to keep what you have but not add excess ( i.e fat )

Clubber Lang

Thanks for your advice.

tribulus

id have to echo dragans advice, a good friend of mine plays senior gaelic, he's only 19 and during preseason training the team does ridiculous amounts of sprinting, running, spinning etc. The last two years of this he's lost from 4-7 lbs :eek:

I've had to beat it into him that he needs to eat more - lots more, this year he's maintained the same weight - so far!!

Seriously though keep increasing portion sizes until you can maintain the same weight (assuming you're not adding fat)

good luck

Transform

Final point - you should only be doing one maybe two weight sessions max per week during your season (off season 3-4 weight sessions). Keep it light and only maintenance work as it takes more to recover from the weights than it does from an aerobic session.

Stretch lots more of that gives you more time.

Had to really cut back on the weights when training for marathon last year yet felt better and lighter running at 12st 4lbs rather than my normal 13st so judge it on how you move and feel

celt2005

A Chairde,


Have,nt read much of this mail, but Protein quality is essential , I noticed you are using a poor quality protein supplement (PRO-X) , maybe use something like ON Pro Whey , Micelleular Matrix etc...

Protein needs to be a part of all meals, eat 6 times a day, every three hours, last meal Casein / Egg Protein 3 scoops (67 Gms) as you do not want to go into calorific deficit while asleep, maybe some magnesium or ZMA as well.


Other reasons for losing muscle definition are too much aerobic training, and overtraining.

Dragan

celt2005 wrote:

I noticed you are using a poor quality protein supplement (PRO-X) , maybe use something like ON Pro Whey , Micelleular Matrix etc...

Sorry but i would have to disagree with that one. I have been using Pro-X for over a year now and have found it to be very good.

Then again, each to there own.

Flex

Clubber Lang wrote:

my usual diet would be: 7.15am porridge with milk and more often than not a banana and a protein shake (usually i use a ltre of milk with enough being used to wet the porridge and the rest used in the shake, i use of scoop of pro x). 10.30am 2slices of bread and 100g of processed! turkey or chicken. 2.00pm 1 yogurt and 100g chicken fillet on a bread roll or sandwiche usually with lettuce,mayo and cheese. 4.30pm protein shake (1 scoop, pint of milk.) 6.30pm 150g of pasta and a tin of john west tuna with pasta sauce. 9.30pm protein shake or just pint of milk. on gym days i'd take a protein shake about an hour to an hour and a half before i'd go to gym and straight away after finishing, with a banana before and after training too. i've started takin creatine for last two months and take this before and after training on training days or in the morning if i'm not training.

Eat some vegetables aswel

Clubber Lang

do yo recommend weight gainers like mass x from pro x? i read alot of bad press about them but reading the nutritional information they seem to be high in carbohydrates, does anyone think this might be good after a workout maybe gym work but after a football training session in particular