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    How do you begin to set up a diet?

    How do you begin to set up a diet?

    A 500 Calorie per day deficit will give you 1lb of weight loss per week mathematically (assuming your metabolism is perfectly constant every day).
    A 1000 Calorie daily deficit will give you a 2lb weekly weight loss (again, assuming perfectly constant metabolism).

    You can assume that you burn somehwere between 200-800 Calories while training. If you’re a freak that squats 600lbs for sets of 10 all day long, it might be higher…but to keep it simple, let’s say you average 500 calories per day training.

    So, let’s do some math:
    Training day bmr:
    3800 Calories
    Off day bmr:
    3300 Calories

    Assuming you train 5x a week that gives us a weekly Calorie total of:
    25,600 Calories
    To drop 2lb of fat per week we need:
    18,600 Calories

    BUT--how can you make sure the lost Calories come from FAT and not MUSCLE?  That is where proper macronutrient partitioning comes into play.  

    Let’s cut 1100 calories from four your Weight training days and 1300 Calories from your off days
    That gives us:
    Med day: 2600 Calories
    Low day: 2000 Calories
    That gives us 14,400 Calories over 6 days, leaving us with one high day of:
    High day: 4200 Calories

    To hit those numbers with a carb cycling approach you get a rough macro breakdown of:
    Med day:
    275g protein
    250g carbs
    50g fat
    *When you include incidental calories from fat in your protein sources, etc that will give you around 2800 total calories

    Low day:
    300g protein
    50g carbs
    50g fat
    *with incidentals, this puts you around 2,000 Calories

    High day:
    200g protein
    800g carbs
    0g fat (no added fat)
    *with incidentals, this puts you around 4,200 Calories

    Now–this is the easy part. The hard part is knowing what ADJUSTMENTS to make to this diet when your metabolism changes, when fat burners are added, when cardio amount/intensity changes, and when your body flattens out and creates an environment where muscle loss can occur from the deficit instead of fat loss. That’s where hiring a <a href="https://stevekuclo.com/pages/training-plans">professional diet coach comes into play!</a>

    Row to Grow!

    Row to Grow!

    4 weeks out is an exciting time of prep. Im really starting to see changes from diet/training and my strength is still up. Ive been at the 4 week out point in the past where I just feel flat and depleted and my strength is gone but I am really pushing through my workouts, getting stronger as my prep progresses. I have always had the mind set when I prep that I CAN GROW during my prep. Even though my calories low; I am eating perfect, training hard, doing cardio and turning my body into a fine tuned machine. Its all about your mind set. 

    What I wanted to demonstrate in the photo of me rowing is the form and technique used in one arm row. Making sure you get full extension on the bottom of the movement without causing to much rotation in your core. Use your mind muscle connection to pull from you elbow and focus on your lat pulling the weight vs your bicep. Use a weight that you can squeeze on the peak of the contraction and not just swing. Doing this will definitely help your back to grow and work the right muscles! 

    If you need a custom tailored training program or diet make sure you check out my plans that are available for you . 

    Allmax/Muscle & Strength video shoot

    Allmax/Muscle & Strength video shoot

    Hey Everyone! I hope your week was ultra productive . An action packed week in Dallas being 4.5 weeks out of the Arnold and filming a lifestyle/prep series with Muscle & Strength. It was a few 12+ hour days but we were able to capture some of the rawest real life pre-contest footage out there. I really enjoy being able to share this journey with you all. I personally have a contest coach and would be a stress ball if I didn't have one. Its important you work with someone you trust and we are offering contest coaching on the site. If you are interested please email : train@stevekuclo.com  

    With the Arnold right around the corner it is time to really grind out the rest of the prep to prepare for one of the best Arnold Classic's in history!

    Training a Movement vs Training a Muscle

    Training a Movement vs Training a Muscle

    You ever notice how much different bodybuilders and powerlifters look?  Even the powerlifters that are lean have a very different look than bodybuilders.  As a general rule, powerlifters tend to have very large chests and backs, with (relatively) lacking extremities (arms and legs). 
    Why is that?

    In my opinion it comes down to the important differentiation between training for a movement and training a muscle.  When training a movement, all you’re worried about is lifting more weight in that movement—regardless of what muscles get worked.  When training a muscle, you use the movement to place stress on the muscle being worked. 
    But, if we know that heavy weights and progressive overload build larger muscles, then why aren’t powerlifters winning Mr. Olympia? 
    That’s because of the natural of which muscles are most mechanically advantageous in a particular movement. 

    Take the bench press for example:
    The bench press involves the chest, anterior deltoids, and triceps as primary movers.  The largest and most powerful of those three muscles is the pectorals.  In this case, performing the bench press with the sole intent of moving the most amount of weight possible is, by default, going to place the largest workload on the pecs. 
    Certainly workload is distributed to the shoulders, triceps, and even other assisting muscles like those of the upper back and even the legs when incorporating leg drive—but if you want to move the most weight in that movement, the largest load will be placed on the largest most mechanically advantageous muscle group—the pecs. 
    This is why an instance of training a movement (bench press) builds large pec muscles—utilizing any other muscle as prime mover will result in less maximum weight being lifted. 

    Now, let’s look at the deadlift:
    Any form of deadlift that uses maximum weight lifted will place the heaviest workload on the erectors and trapezius.  Certainly other muscle groups come into play in a deadlift (hamstrings, glutes, other muscles of the back, and many other supporting muscles), but since the erectors and traps are both larger and in a more mechanically advantageous position to be prime movers in the deadlift, placing any other muscle as prime mover will result in less weight being lifted. 
    You can try to make the hamstrings a prime mover—and there are variations of the deadlift that allow this (RDLs, stiff leg deadlits, etc), but you will never find a world record deadlift done in the form of an RDL….and the reason is the muscles that are prime movers in that movement are not the ones that allow the most weight to be lifted from the floor to a standing position. 
    This is another instance where training a movement (deadlift) builds large erectors and traps—because utilizing any other muscle as prime mover will result in less maximum weight being lifted. 

    Now, let’s look at the squat:
    Clearly the squat is a leg movement, and many bodybuilding leg routines treat it as main component and quadricep movement.  However—let’s look at the form of squat required to place maximum stress on the quadriceps.  This form will typically be with the bar high on the traps, with a relatively close stance, and with knees traveling forward over the toes.  Now—when training a movement where the goal is to move the maximum weight from standing, to hips parallel with the knees, and back to standing, the form that allows the most weight to be lifted in this movement is one where the largest muscles are placed in the most mechanically advantageous position.  In this case—due to the large number of muscles activated in the squat, the most mechanically advantageous position is one where multiple large muscles are co-prime movers.  That is, the glutes, quads, hamstrings, erectors, adductors, and other supporting muscles are positioned such that the workload is spread as evenly as possible across the multiple large muscles (primarily a relatively proportional distribution between the quads, glutes, and adductors).  In this case, training a movement (squats) does not produce the largest quadriceps—because the form that allows the most weight to be lifted in that movement spreads a large percentage of workload from the quads and onto the glutes, adductors, and supporting muscles. 


    This is where progressive overload becomes muddled and distorted by many trainees.  When the focus of progressive overload is placed solely on the amount of weight lifted in a movement, rather than progressively overloading the workload on a particular muscle, there are some movements where getting stronger will directly correlate to greater workload on the intended muscle….and some movements where getting stronger in a movement will actually DECREASE the workload on the intended muscle.  The difference in body types between bodybuilders and powerlifters is a prime example of this case.   

    We will cover more on the topic of progressive overload and “power bodybuilding” in future blog posts.

    How do you set up a diet for fat loss?

    How do you set up a diet for fat loss?

    A 500 Calorie per day deficit will give you 1lb of weight loss per week mathematically (assuming your metabolism is perfectly constant every day).
    A 1000 Calorie daily deficit will give you a 2lb weekly weight loss (again, assuming perfectly constant metabolism).

    You can assume that you burn somehwere between 200-800 Calories while training. If you’re a freak that squats 600lbs for sets of 10 all day long, it might be higher…but to keep it simple, let’s say you average 500 calories per day training.

    So, let’s do some math:
    Training day bmr:
    3800 Calories
    Off day bmr:
    3300 Calories

    Assuming you train 5x a week that gives us a weekly Calorie total of:
    25,600 Calories
    To drop 2lb of fat per week we need:
    18,600 Calories

    BUT--how can you make sure the lost Calories come from FAT and not MUSCLE?  That is where proper macronutrient partitioning with a professional diet plan comes into play!