I’ve gained a substantial amount of muscle mass so far in GPP, up from 88kg @ 6’1 to 92kg at 9-10% BF. However I feel it is negatively affecting my sprint training in the following ways:
1.Endurance has taken a huge hit
2.Sore shins and ankles: I feel the rapid gain in weight has left my joints unprepared when doing plyos and speed work.
Diet is about 3-4 meals/day. I stopped using protein shakes a few weeks ago to cut back on calories. I’ve also stopped doing upper body weights.
What would be the best plan of action to slowly shed this weight?
I was thinking of cutting all weights to 1-3 reps, however is it too early in the GPP to be doing this?
this is exactly the argument against squatting. Increased mass hurts endurance. Once you’re into SPP, the excess weight ie:fat will drop and your conditioning will improve. I say no reason to worry now. At all. Just be conscious of what is going on obviously.
As long as body fat is low theres probably no worries with a little added muscle. Especially in the leg area. Spp tends to specialize and refine bodyweight.
Thanks for the replies.
Guess the right thing is to let the SPP take care of it and not worry about it.
Lifes tough enough without having to worry about stuff like this!
No worries. Just don’t drop protein shakes. Just eat the majority of carbs around training and only proteins and fat in the evening before going to bed.
Squats are not responsible for gaining mass, diet is. If you don’t consume more calories than you burn, you don’t gain weight. I would, as you suggested, drop reps to 3-4 and do a little max strength work along with some explosive RFD work (jump squats). I would do no further hypertrophy work, but work hard to maintain the strength and improve RFD.
Sure. But the weight/mass gained in the legs is definitely related to “squats”. I agree with the max reps suggestion. – But just for clarification, you are suggesting max effort reps(3-4)- can i ask why?
presumed answer: because reps in the 5-12 range are for hypertrophy ie: weight/mass gain.
(Sport scientist Robert Roman has written extensively on the training of competitive lifters and he concluded that the most successful weightlifters tend to do most of their sets in the 3RM to 4RM range. This observation was echoed by Canadian weightlifting coach Pierre Roy, who believes that the average rep range for athletes should be 3. The take home point is that if an athlete does singles or doubles for too long, he will stagnate. This, of course, is especially true for athletes who seek hypertrophy).