I know, I know. Most of you are probably in a position where you are wondering what even happened to the summer. Thankfully, while I enjoy the summer, I'm not someone who gets too caught up worrying about the time of year. However, I do know that some people genuinely live for the summer. The time abroad makes the rest of the year worth living, and you probably missed out on that this year. Pretty shit, I get it.
As you transition into the Winter, there are probably a couple of unique factors that make this year different:
- You probably haven't been training as much over the last 6 months vs 6 months prior.
- Your leisure activities / hobbies / social events are probably more limited than they would normally be.
With this in mind, now is a great time for many of you to knuckle down and really commit to a muscle and/or strength focused phase. Most of us have no holidays coming up, and we may even be locked down again in a couple of months (let's hope not), so spending time building up muscle and strength right now is a pretty good idea [if it aligns with your goals].
If that is on your mind, then our main piece of advice would be to focus on squeezing what you can from your training, while appreciating that you are probably more sensitive to adaptations after months of lower training volume/intensity. Rather than going crazy on a super high-volume programme, start conservatively (maybe 10-15 sets per body part per week, assuming you have been training for a couple of years), track your strength/performance, and add more
volume as necessary as you move from one 4-8 week block to the next (e.g. +2-3 sets per body part of emphasis, especially if you are not very fatigued and feel you could handle more).
Similarly, when it comes to committing to weight gain, set some specific targets. We rarely recommend aiming for >1.5% bodyweight gain per month, and most people will be in a pretty sound place if they are in that range of 0.5-1.5% weight gain per month. The earlier you are in your career, the closer to the top end of that range you can afford to go, but we generally recommend ~1% for most clients, maybe a little less for women, but the evidence we have suggests that women tend to gain muscle and strength at a similar relative rate to men (and hence % recommendations are similar).
Anyway, I hope that gives you a little inspiration to go on and gain some muscle and strength this winter. You don't have to, of course, but if you need any further tips to get on that path, just ask us.
Enjoy!
- Gary
