Thesis
Notes about my diet and training from the last four years of learning how to lift and diet properly.
Lifitng
I started going to the gym in 2021 when I was 18 years old. Over the last five years I’ve figured out a lot about what works and what doesn’t work for me. I haven’t lifted consistency until about eight months ago, and since I started lifting consistenly my strength/size has blown up exponentially.
I started lifting with the StrongLifts 5x5 and did that for quite a while. I think this program is ideal for beginners as it focuses on building a strong base for strength/bodybuilding and also helps your body acclimate to lifting and being under stress. After that I switched to a PPL-style (Push/Pull/Legs) split for several years, but definitely felt that my progress stagnated for a while after that. Yes, this could possibly be related to hitting the post-newbie gains phase at the same time, but I also think I was simply overworking my body as I was lifting six days per week, with one day of rest.
Recently, I’ve been using a Lower split which has been ideal for me. I prioritize different muscle groups for each day of the upper and lower split. This has been ideal because my compound lifts such as squat, deadlift, and bench press still are getting performed multiple times per week, but my smaller isolation exercises are done in a way which gives my muscles plenty of time to rest. The Upper/Lower split is also ideal since it’s only lifting 4-days per week for an hour each workout, which makes it much easier to slip into my busy school/work schedule.
Diet
Maintaining an ideal diet has become one of the most important contributors to how I feel overall. I don’t eat out that much anymore because I can’t stomach all the hyper-processed foods in many restaurants/areas, and prefer cooking at home to save money. A majority of my nutrition comes from whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and meat. I try to avoid all processed sugars and a lot of carbohydrates, as I have a sugar sensitivity (which I discovered after performing an experiment where i wore a continuous glucose monitor and discovered a correlation between my sugar intake and how I felt both physically and mentally).
Caffine intake is another major aspect of my life, as since I have Bipolar disorder I have to heavily monitor how much caffeine I take in during the day. I typically aim to consume less than 120mg of caffine per day (about two shots of espresso’s worth) and try to get my caffine intake from either black coffee or espresso. I avoid energy drinks as much as possible, because of the additional chemicals and supplementation that are inside those beverages.
My current supplement stack is a daily multivitamin, creatine, and protein powder, however I am currently exploring additional supplementation relating to hormone regulation such as zync.