Weight Maintenance and Strength Gain

[Charles Jenkins]

Robert,
I've read a good bit of your writing, and Jordan before you, and listened to your respective podcasts with Brett McKay, and one thing is still very unclear to me.

Y'all have both said repeatedly that you can't lose fat and gain muscle, but Jordan's To Be A Beast article gives base macros for "recomp," and you talk in the podcast about putting clients on a weight maintenance phase for a few months. I'm just not clear on exactly what's happening in that maintenance phase. What's going on there? Is it little mini cuts and bulks that just take a day or two each based on training stresses and time between meals? If you're gaining strength while maintaining weight, does that not necessarily mean that you're gaining muscle and losing fat? Answers I've seen before (not from you) to this type of question have been very hand-wavey.

Thanks in advance.

[Robert Santana]

Robert,
I've read a good bit of your writing, and Jordan before you, and listened to your respective podcasts with Brett McKay, and one thing is still very unclear to me.

Y'all have both said repeatedly that you can't lose fat and gain muscle, but Jordan's To Be A Beast article gives base macros for "recomp," and you talk in the podcast about putting clients on a weight maintenance phase for a few months. I'm just not clear on exactly what's happening in that maintenance phase. What's going on there? Is it little mini cuts and bulks that just take a day or two each based on training stresses and time between meals? If you're gaining strength while maintaining weight, does that not necessarily mean that you're gaining muscle and losing fat? Answers I've seen before (not from you) to this type of question have been very hand-wavey.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for your post buddy. So I think recomp is an impossible thing to measure first of all. All body composition methods have limitations and even if you were to do a whole body MRI you're still making assumptions about the density of each compartment. That being said, lets' get to your question. PRs are the single best predictor of muscle acquisition. The purpose of a maintenance phase is A) to prevent rapid weight gain after a cut and B) Provide you with adequate fuel during a period where you aren't lifting that heavy (starting a new program). Mass phases are best timed when you start approaching higher intensities/volume etc. The point is whether you are measuring 5 x 5, 10 x 10, or 1RM PRs, you must lift more to gain muscle mass. I find that far too many people worry too much about how much they weigh, how much weight they need to gain etc, when they need to pay more attention to their progress under the bar and use that as the gauge. The diet only works if you are driving progress under the bar. Lastly, and most important, I like maintenance phases because they take into account the fact that we don't gain muscle that rapidly when we are intermediate or advanced lifters. A generous gain in muscle mass for an early intermediate is ~5-10 lb per year. That's less than 1 lb per month. Now since with muscle comes an increase in water, blood volume, and glycogen, we can assume a 1 lb gain per month is fair. So I think when you try to maintain your weight and train hard you will naturally eat more as you get stronger and naturally gain weight over time at a much slower rate than an intentional rapid weight gain.

[Charles Jenkins]

Thanks for your post buddy. So I think recomp is an impossible thing to measure first of all. All body composition methods have limitations and even if you were to do a whole body MRI you're still making assumptions about the density of each compartment. That being said, lets' get to your question. PRs are the single best predictor of muscle acquisition. The purpose of a maintenance phase is A) to prevent rapid weight gain after a cut and B) Provide you with adequate fuel during a period where you aren't lifting that heavy (starting a new program). Mass phases are best timed when you start approaching higher intensities/volume etc. The point is whether you are measuring 5 x 5, 10 x 10, or 1RM PRs, you must lift more to gain muscle mass. I find that far too many people worry too much about how much they weigh, how much weight they need to gain etc, when they need to pay more attention to their progress under the bar and use that as the gauge. The diet only works if you are driving progress under the bar. Lastly, and most important, I like maintenance phases because they take into account the fact that we don't gain muscle that rapidly when we are intermediate or advanced lifters. A generous gain in muscle mass for an early intermediate is ~5-10 lb per year. That's less than 1 lb per month. Now since with muscle comes an increase in water, blood volume, and glycogen, we can assume a 1 lb gain per month is fair. So I think when you try to maintain your weight and train hard you will naturally eat more as you get stronger and naturally gain weight over time at a much slower rate than an intentional rapid weight gain.

So I suppose the point of a maintenance phase (seems like a better term than recomp) is to gain weight slowly to allow weight to progress. In other words, it's a slow, small bulk?

[Robert Santana]

So I suppose the point of a maintenance phase (seems like a better term than recomp) is to gain weight slowly to allow weight to progress. In other words, it's a slow, small bulk?

In a nutshell yes. A simple way to approach this is: if you are hitting PRs don't worry about gaining weight. If you aren't gain a couple lbs and see what that does. It really doesn't take much weight gain to see progress when you are an intermediate/advanced lifter.

[Charles Jenkins]

Thanks for the help!

[Robert Santana]

Thanks for the help!

You are welcome!

[Thedep66]

You are welcome!

. Wow..thank you. That is the best answer I have heard yet. Clears up a cloudy topic. Interesting. 1 lb a month. Makes me feel better about my gains!!

[Robert Santana]

. Wow..thank you. That is the best answer I have heard yet. Clears up a cloudy topic. Interesting. 1 lb a month. Makes me feel better about my gains!!

You are very welcome buddy. Glad I can be of assistance!