Chris J Jay |
In either case you must shift your workout strategy to focus on muscle retention. You must be emotionally ready to lose a few pounds once you shift
into maintenance mode. It's natural for your body to lose some strength and size because your workout routine and diet will also change as you move your body into muscle preservation.
Now, don't panic. If you follow what I tell you in this article you won't lose half the muscle you've gained. But, if you've gained 10-20 pounds of solid muscle naturally, be emotionally prepared to lose about 20% of it when you shift your body into muscle retention mode. You will still look fantastic.
Your workout routine will need to change to help you maintain muscle. Your focus should be on 8-10 repetitions per set, but the weight should be moderate, not moderately heavy. So, what does moderate weight mean? It means you should be able to fully complete all 10 reps without too much struggle, but enough struggle to feel a little burn. This is very hard to explain in words, but you will know the feeling when you feel it.
When you no longer want to gain muscle, you should have a good sense of your body and how it feels under physical stress. You should know when your muscles are fatigued. You should still feel a good pump, without taking your muscles to failure. Your goal is to give your new muscles a reason to stick around. The reason why your body gained muscle in the first place was because you placed unusually stress on your muscles on a regular basis, and the body responded naturally be increasing in size. Now, you must still give your body a reason to hold onto muscle because you still have a workout program that puts moderate resistance on your muscles.
Your next non nonsense muscle building tip is your diet. You still need to eat plenty of complete proteins from meats, fish and chicken. You really need that protein now that your body has shifted into muscle retention mode. Don't skimp on the protein at all. You don't need to eat as many meals and you can even cut out a meal, but make sure you get 1.2 - 1.6 of your body weight in grams of protein.
Your body still needs protein to feed the muscle you have. If you deprive your body of protein, you will lose a good amount of muscle fast. Use a good quality whey protein powder daily and drink plenty of water. Your muscles also need lots of water to survive.
Sleep should be your next focus. Surprisingly, your body won't need the same 8-9 hours of sleep to maintain muscle they way it did to gain muscle. You still need the recovery, but your body will now recover faster because your body will not be stressed to the same degree.
Shifting your body into muscle retention mode requires a different focus in your workout and diet. These no nonsense muscle building tips should help you make that transition from muscle building to muscle retention without you losing too much muscle in the process. Keep up the good work.
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