alright hi everbody John Meadows here so
what do we do now we're in a tough
situation all of a sudden is same boat
around the world how do we maintain our
muscle so I know some of you work really
hard you worked really hard to build
your muscle and you'll Ajith Amelie just
want to know how how what can you do to
keep it so let's talk about this from a
couple of different perspectives let's
start off first of all from people who
who can't train at all the only thing
they can do really is just some
calisthenics
they have no equipment so let's start
there so let's talk about in terms of
food how are you going to eat if you
can't train at all or just do
calisthenics there's some things that
I've talked about in the past that are
now gonna start to change a little bit
for this group and we'll get into that
but first of all let's just talk about
the amount of calories you eat so if you
think about what when we talk about
being in a caloric surplus or Klerk
deficit there's really like three
factors that go into that
so if you're trying to figure out kind
of what what you need to do to stay at
baseline we've talked about BMR you know
your basal metabolic rate that's just
what it takes to keep the lights on
that's maybe sixty five seventy maybe
seventy five percent of your calories
then you've got energy expenditure
that's your exercise your cardio like
how many calories are you burning then
we have meat we've talked about that
before and other in other videos
non-exercise activity thermogenesis
something like that and that's kind of
what are you doing in between exercising
you know are you move around or you just
laying around watching Netflix what have
you then you've got this thermic effect
of food protein is creates a little bit
more of calorie burn than other foods so
think about that if you have a busy job
where you're out moving around so first
of all your needs gonna go way down or
if you're like me and this is where I'm
really struggling out right now I'm
having a hard time waking up on my
normal time I normally get up at 7:30
today I got up at 9:00
I don't like that there's two hours
where I was just sleeping so it's good
to get some rest but my need is going
down so what it took to keep you kind of
at your baseline before and what it
takes to keep you there now has went
down so let's say it took you I'm just
making these numbers up 2700 calories to
stay where you were
when you were working you were training
so now how many calories you think it's
gonna take you it's gonna be a lower
number right so your meat went down your
exercise and energy expenditure there
went down now you're not training really
hard course you do calisthenics that's
only gonna do so much so the amount of
calories that you consume has to go down
it doesn't mean you're going into a
deficit it just means that the
maintenance level that you need is lower
so if you continue to eat the way you
were eating before you're probably want
to start to getting body fat is my point
so you have to lower now how do you do
that well I still think you got to keep
your protein decent to protect muscle I
think really low protein really low
protein could have an adverse effect on
keeping your muscles so keep your
protein high you know maybe point eight
grams per pound that's still pretty high
for someone who's not working really
hard so if you weighed 200 pounds that's
160 grams of protein that's actually a
pretty high amount of protein for
someone who's not training hard but your
count your carbs are probably gonna go
pretty far down too because I've talked
about before how much I love carbs are
easily usable source of fuel great
source of fuel but how much fuel do you
really need to watch netflix for 2-3
hours a day you don't need a lot right
so your carbs are probably gonna go down
and you always want to keep your
essential fatty acids in there your EF
phase you know probably 0.25 to 0.4
grams per pound is right in the ballpark
so you're gonna have to shift your
calories down you're gonna want to keep
your protein still pretty high now if
you want to continue to eat more carbs
then you can lower your protein some
because you've probably heard this since
you're in high school carbohydrates do
spare protein so there are gonna be some
dietary changes that you need to make
alright now I always like to talk I
always like to talk about natural versus
enhanced I do want to throw this out
there if your enhanced you don't need to
be a Nance
when you're not training to just do
calisthenics so if you're one of those
guys bring it way down there are
absolutely no benefit the crank I'm
doing a bunch of stuff when you can't
even use it properly if you do that
you're not a really smart person all
right now let's talk about training okay
from a perspective of let's say you have
I've been putting these videos up this
week well various banned workouts
now those workouts can actually have
some intensity to them so this is going
to give you a better chance to maintain
your muscle because you're simply
loading it better I put some examples
out there for instance the Bulgarian
split squat with the band very very
difficult a lot of people messaged me
and said man I got sore from that so you
may not be able to hammer your muscles
with just simple band workouts like you
can in the gym but that doesn't mean
they still can't be pretty effective
they can certainly be effective enough
to keep most your muscle so how hard do
those workouts need to be well I always
like to just go back to basics basic
physiology for a muscle to have to grow
or to adapt or to maintain you need to
put mechanical tension on it that's kind
of the basic premise and that's kind of
the basic principle behind progressive
overload you have to create mechanical
tension so how does that what does that
look like you know does that mean six
reps doesn't mean 20 reps well from the
work of Brad Schoenfeld many others but
brad has talked about this a lot rep
ranges can vary as long as you're taking
those higher up stats closer to failure
so if you're doing heavier sets you know
the six seven eight reps we know that
that weight is heavy enough to give you
a lot of activation and then stimulation
too and then if you're getting close to
failure you're exhausting muscle fibers
but let's say the bands aren't strong
enough and you have to do 1520 reps well
this is a situation where some like
Brad's work is really cool what's really
valuable because now we know that oh you
can still get benefits from doing those
high reps but you need to take them
closer to failure because again that's
going to give you higher it's going to
give you higher activation but as muscle
fibers fatigue more muscle fibers are
called in to help produce force
so what I'm saying is on the ban
training you can still get good
mechanical attention you just have to
come close to failure and the beauty is
now you're not at this risk of injury
like you might be under a heavy barbell
so let's say you're doing a barbell
bench press you know going real heavy or
going close to failure might be at a
risk therefore you know tearing a PEC
well you can go a lot of harder with
bands so we've removed a lot of that
risk so now you can feel a little bit
more confident and you can really push
yourself and that you're not going to
pop something so that's the beauty this
so there is there is absolutely
opportunity for you to maintain a lot of
your muscle mass with the band training
particularly some of those workouts I
put up so training that's a nice thing
now let's also talk about again natural
versus enhanced now since you're not
using these loads of real heavy centric
loads you know all the different angles
that you're using in the gym with
barbells and dumbbells now I think as a
an enhanced athlete now your training
has to shift more toward what a natural
athlete would do natural athletes if you
remember they benefit a little bit more
from a little higher frequency but a
little lower volume they don't have the
capacity to grow from the extra help but
now you can't Hammer eight sets you know
four sets a leg presses force that's a
hack squats four sets of pendulum squats
drop sets on a leg curl you're not doing
that you enhance folks so you're doing a
little bit more basic work with bands so
now you aren't taxing your recovery even
though you we can recover more you're
not taxing it as much so now you have to
now you have to also do more frequency
maybe you stimulate something everyday
maybe you do it every other day with a
band but one thing's for sure you're
going to have to use a little bit more
frequency okay so the enhanced trainings
don't look more like natural natural
training so that means higher
frequencies either every touching
something every day or every other day I
personally like upper body and lower
body in a situation like this so or you
could do like I did in my band you could
break it up we did push-pull legs and
you could just do no days off or if you
want to get really crazy you could do
two of them one day a push/pull one day
push in the morning pull and evening and
then legs next day and then you could
rotate like that so there's a lot of
different things you can do the main
point is train with more frequency hello
my name is Alexander medicine today I'm
going to be doing whip to green triangle
[Music]
okay now for those of you who are able
to train with bands and train with some
intensity let's talk about food so I
mentioned that for the folks that aren't
really able to train or just do
calisthenics they're calorie needs and
are going there to maintain their won't
drop your I want you to try as best you
can to actually keep your calories up I
want you probably around probably want
to still be around maintenance I don't
want you below maintenance because one
thing is for sure if you start dropping
below maintenance and you get to a
deficit look it's already hard to keep
your muscle when you do that now without
the weights it's gonna be even harder so
the last thing you want to do is go into
a deficit so I would try to actually
even get into a little bit of a surplus
might taking a little bit more of
experimenting with that again we want
higher levels of protein so point a to
one gram per pound I think is a nice
number for those of you that are
enhanced I normally say 1 grams probably
not maybe 1.25 now you can probably
shift back to that point eight to one
that the natural folks are using maybe
just a little bit higher but you need to
be in a surplus so what about things
like neutering time and carbs they're
not important for those of you doing
calisthenics doesn't matter I'd rather
you just sip water you don't need to
drink in it you don't need to care about
Perry workout nutrition but if you're
able to make the band workouts really
hard like I'm like I'm thinking you can
there probably is still some benefit to
some nutrient timing I don't think it's
as beneficial is again like if you're
hammering four sets of leg presses the
knack squats and pendulum squats if
you're doing something hard like that
that's where the value nutrient timing
really skyrockets so a little bit more
of a moderate approach now maybe 10 20
grams of carbs late rain you know five
six grams of aminos it's probably gonna
be plenty late rain so a little
different approach there and then the
basic start of saying you still gotta
get your EF phase in probably 0.25 to
0.4 grams per pound but the clear thing
that the difference is here is you
can't get into a deficit you got to make
sure you're in a surplus now there's
another thing I want to mention too so
what about the style how you eat for
those who aren't able to train I
actually like the old-school way that we
are our forefathers kind of ate and
that's three meals a day breakfast lunch
and dinner
I actually really like that approach I
think one of the things that will get
you if you're not careful it's snacking
so if you're sitting around watching
Netflix and you're like me and you're
like for instance salt and vinegar
potato chips or maybe you're like me and
you like peanut butter M&Ms for example
it's easy to sit there and snack and
snack and snap boom 600 calories just
like that so you've gotta really be
careful with your snacking so for those
of you are able to Train I would still
advise you know maybe maybe four meals
and some snacks but just be careful with
your snacking again if you're gonna be
at home you're not moving a lot that is
one of the number one things where
people I think any body fat and they
think well I'm only eating two or three
times a day I'm gonna deficit how am i
gaining weight well if you really look
at what they're doing many of the times
are actually not a deficit they're in a
surplus from their snacking
so snacking is something that's really
really really gonna be key managing that
wire in this time so I mentioned if you
are training pretty hard with bands that
I want you to keep your calories oh well
it's probably a good idea to do some
cardio too and so there's a couple
reasons why you got the basic reasons
why just moving staying healthy one of
the things that we're hearing now in
certain states as a stay inside they are
okay with you going out and doing walks
taking walks though for examples not
lecturing like groups of 20 doing a
group walk or group jog but I think it's
important to get out of the house take a
walk get out in the Sun if there is
sunlight where you're at but that's
gonna do a couple things it's gonna help
your mental health and get out there you
can walk around you can just maybe think
maybe think positive is breathe clean
air so that's one benefit but the air
benefit is
is if you're creating a little bit more
energy expenditure and a grandness not a
ton of calories but at least will allow
you to or encourage you to eat more to
keep your calories up because again to
maintain your muscle you'll want to keep
calories up and everything is hey let's
say you're not trying to maintain your
muscle maybe you're just trying to burn
more body fat maybe that's your goal
well then you're certainly gonna want to
do some cardio to exercise if you're not
doing any weights so that's gonna be
your only way to get energy expenditure
so you're gonna have to control your
diet you're gonna have to do more cardio
than so I think it's wise no matter what
group you're in probably do some cardio
now the amount you do want to vary but I
do think it's a good idea to do some
cardio if for nothing else for mental
health because right now listen for a
lot of us training it's not just about
building muscles it's it's an outlet for
us it's a way to deal with stress it's
just something that makes us feel better
and if you don't have that you can go
kind of crazy I know when I don't train
I feel I get started getting a little
crazy so it feels good at least if you
get out and exercise it'll help you from
that just from a mental health
perspective I want to leave you with one
more thing so what about just using this
is time off okay
when I was competing when I first
started competing I used to take a week
off after every show and then at some
point I realized nothing really changes
after a week you get a little bit of a
break but if you jump right back in the
gym you go hard or even if you just get
right back in the gym I don't know that
you still got enough rest so then it
became two weeks then eventually I got
to where I was taking three weeks off
when I quit training and what happened
was almost always the same after the
first weekend looking different the
second week I started to look a little
softer and flatter and the third week I
was noticeably softer and flatter but
then once I went back on the gym the
next two two weeks boom everything came
back so what I'm telling you is it's
also a viable approach to just not
trained to just use it as a rest if
you've been training you know my last
contest was in 2017 and I actually
really haven't taken a true week off
since then because that training per
show
usually what encouraged me to take a
week off so listen if you're one of
those people that if you have to sit
there think about paying when's the last
time I took a week off this might be a
good good time for you to take a week
off you're not gonna lose all your
muscle yes the muscle make it flat or
make it a little bit softer but that
will turn right back around when you get
back into the gym hopefully in three or
four weeks let's see how this plays out
but so I also wanted to mention that too
if you just want to use this as a rest
period that's also a viable option all
right now if you haven't been training
and you're just going to add more to it
that's not going to do any good but I
know there's a lot of you taking people
to watch this channel that you like to
train really really hard if you didn't
you wouldn't watch this channel so
that's another viable option too so I
hope this helps hope it gives you just
some different thoughts when you're
training and how to eat and this these
really crazy times we're living in thank
you very much for listening remember we
all got to stick together thanks and
we'll see you next time