-: So before we can answer the question
of how many calories and what macros or micros
do I need for an individual stimulus,
there're a few questions that we have to answer first.
One of those being what the goal
of that stimulus is.
Now I know that a training stimulus
has a desired physiological outcome,
but the question is
why are you doing it?
What are the short and long-term goals?
So not the physiological goal per se,
yes, that in context,
but we have to look at now,
those external goals
of like, alright,
is my overall goal fat loss,
muscle gain, strength,
performance, some combination of thereof?
So that I understand what I'm trying to accomplish here
in the short-term and also in the long-term
so I have some context for this.
Because that's gonna affect where this fits
in terms of calories and certain macronutrients.
So take for instance,
that you're using a hypertrophy program
within a long-term goal of body composition.
So you've periodized out
and you're putting in an
attention-based hypertrophy program in there, right?
Now maybe you're using this as a deload
coming off a very metabolic style program
and so you're switching to something
that's going to be lower rep
and longer rest periods
and you're looking to utilize that protein synthesis
that you're stimulating
as a way of expending some extra energy,
consuming calories at rest,
burning more fat
to help you recomp, if you will.
That's very different than doing a hypertrophy program
in the context of a long-term hypertrophy goal
where your goal is I'm doing that same program
but with the goal of maximum anabolism
and protein synthesis as the goal.
One is I'm using this for the benefits
that come physiologically
so in the body comp perspective,
you can use a hypertrophy program
and you can reap the benefits
of some increased protein synthesis
both from a calorie expenditure and fat burning aspect
because that stuff requires fuel, remember?
In order to run protein synthesis
we have to be burning fuel,
so it increases our calorie expenditure at rest
and if we've done our due diligence
in terms of increasing mitochondrial efficiency
and the ability to mobilize and utilize fat,
well then guess what?
I'm gonna use a lot of fat
to fuel that protein synthesis.
But I don't necessarily need to be
in the same calorie surplus
that I would need to be
if my goal was really maximal hypertrophy, right?
Versus I'm taking advantage of hypertrophy
in the context of a body composition program.
So that's gonna affect where your calories
and where your macronutrients fit.
Right?
What is my goal overall?
Is it more muscle mass,
is it more fat loss,
is it a performance-based goal?
Both short-term and long-term
you have to look at those things in context
and what I wanna tell you guys
is that don't try and please too many goals.
Right?
So when you're looking at what you're trying to accomplish,
especially short-term,
have a very specific primary goal.
Your decision making will be much easier
if you don't get greedy
and you really put one goal above all others.
Right?
Now long-term you could have somebody that comes in
and they want to accomplish multiple goals
but there's still gonna be a priority.
So somebody can come in
and they're looking for a transformation
that is going to be a net of muscle gain and fat loss,
but you are not going to approach each individual program
that you make as a combination
of muscle gain and fat loss.
There are times when you can achieve some of that,
like the instance I just shared
with the hypertrophy program
within there where we're getting a recomp.
But if that's all you do is try and multitask
you will never get the best results
because you will never be really pushing
maximal fat loss or maximal muscle gain.
So between that
I wanna build muscle and I wanna lose fat,
one of those things has to prioritize out
in the long-term,
and they definitely have to prioritize out in the short-term
in terms of this is the thing
that I'm focusing on most.
And therefore the volume that I use in my stimulus,
the degree of intensity of that stimulus
and the nutrition that is gonna
accompany that stimulus
is going to be in the context of that short-term pool.
And that's going to affect how many carbohydrates,
how much protein and how much calories
that I utilize with this goal.
Because also the training is going to shift
in terms of, you know,
volume or maybe degree of intensity
of that stimulus
and the length of which I do that stimulus.
How many weeks do I do it?
Like obviously, if I'm focusing on maximal hypertrophy,
I am going to spend a lot more time
doing hypertrophy programs
within my long macro cycle.
Right?
If I have six months to work with,
there is going to be more
hypertrophy programs in that
than somebody with a dedicated hypertrophy goal
than there is for somebody with a body composition goal.
Alright?
And the nutritional component with those
is going to vary as well.
So first have a goal
short-term, long-term
and make sure you prioritize a primary goal.
Next, it's kind of a continuation,
so you have that training stimulus that you've chose.
Right?
It's a trainable stimulus for then
but you have to look at it now in terms of
okay, of the stimulus, based off of their training age
and what they've done before the way they're coming in,
within that stimulus,
where am I in terms of volume?
Because there's gonna be a range of volume
that you can apply each of these
not just stimulus,
but different systems of training.
So I'm gonna give you guys
some examples of systems of training.
I'm gonna do a whole other
basically a whole other course,
that just covers a gazillion different training systems
and shows you the ranges of volume
for those particular things
and how by just adjusting the reps,
they can become different stimuli.
So lot's of information coming in on that.
But in the context of what you need to look at here,
is you just need to be able to take
the volume of context.
Right?
Because you can be doing an AMPA stimulus,
that doesn't necessarily mean
that it's x amount of calories,
x amount of macros
because, well, of that AMPA stimulus,
are you choosing a higher or lower volume method?
Is it a more intense method?
So there's a difference between
doing sets of six on incomplete rest
versus sets of 10.
Right?
Or a higher number of sets of six
versus a lower number of sets of 10.
Right, but those are still,
depending on the individual
and the quality that you're going for,
those are still AMPA based stimulus
but they're gonna be slightly different demanding
in terms of calories and macronutrients.
So volume is gonna make things go up.
Right?
So if it's a carbohydrate demanding program
and you add more volume,
it's gonna take more carbs and consequently
more calories usually as well.
Right?
And then the context portion that I have on here,
that is going with the goal.
Right?
So where is this fitting in terms of the goal?
But also where does it fit
in between of what were you doing before
and what are you going to afterwards?
So let's take for example
an AMPK based stimulus
where we're focusing on nutrient partitioning.
Now I can use an AMPK based method
to deplete glycogen
because it burns through glucose
better than any other training method
with the least amount of consequence
in terms of inflammation or whatever mechanical damage.
So I could use it to deplete
or I could use it to jack glycogen levels up.
The difference there being
what am I doing nutritionally?
Now obviously if I use it to deplete,
whatever I'm doing following that
cannot demand high glycogen levels.
Right?
But if I'm using it
and I'm using it to fill up glycogen levels,
then whatever I'm doing next
has the opportunity to take advantage
of very full glycogen levels.
So, we've talked about this earlier in the course,
having full glycogen levels
gives you a greater tolerance to volume.
Right?
It improves the intensity of contraction
so that makes it a very good place to be
if you're going into a hypertrophy program
that's either high volume or high intensity
or a neurological based program.
So you have to look at the context of,
okay, I'm going into this phase.
How long am I going into it?
Where am I coming from and where am I going to?
How do I want to use this?
I'm getting this physiological response
and I'm gonna add this nutrition to it.
Right?
But I have options there, right?
A stimulus doesn't necessarily only have one outcome.
It may have a stress and an adaptation
that come along with it,
but you can manipulate what the actual
net result of all of that is
with the nutrition sometimes,
especially when it comes to these metabolic based goals.
Right?
So there's a difference between
doing a systemic based protocol from a body comp perspective
versus a conditioning perspective.
Right?
There's a difference between
doing an oxidative method
for just simply improving mitochondrial efficiency
as a prequel to going into a hypertrophy program
versus doing it for fat loss.
Right?
So what am I doing?
Am I doing this and my goal is
to do it for several weeks?
Or am I doing it for a very short period of time?
Am I trying to potentiate something else?
Or is this the thing that everything else
is trying to potentiate?
So you have to take all of that stuff into context.
Right?
How can I use this stimulus and this nutrition
most optimally where I'm at now
because of what I was doing before,
and how can I use it to potentiate
what I'm doing next if that is the goal, right?
But you may not be worried about
potentiating what's next
if everything else in all of your other programs
are focused on potentiating this quality.
So, for instance,
if you're focused on body comp
you're gonna use neurological training
and you're gonna use hypertrophy training
to potentiate your metabolic training.
If you're doing hypertrophy training,
you're gonna use neurological training
and metabolic training to potentiate hypertrophy training.
So you're not necessarily worried about
your hypertrophy training
improving the metabolic,
you're mostly worried about the metabolic
improving the hypertrophy
in that latter scenario.
So you have to take all of that stuff into context
and we will start to break down some examples of this
for these individual phases.
Obviously there's an infinite number of scenarios,
so the most important thing is that
you guys understand the logic here
and then you can start making decisions.
And while it seems like a lot,
if you narrow the goal down,
it ends up being a lot easier.
Because you're like
okay, I'm trying to do this
and it's really simple.
If I was trying to do that calorie smart?
Is it more or less carbs?
Okay it becomes very, very simple
when you are clear on the goal,
like most things in life.
Okay so that's with the goals
and the training stimulus.
If we move down to our third bullet here,
what are my current psychological settings?
So obviously there can be limitations
from a digestive perspective
or a tolerance to certain foods
or whatever it may be.
You know, a schedule perspective,
how many meals somebody can get in,
etc., etc., etc.
So you have to look at what your actual options are
from a physiological and a lifestyle aspect
in terms of what you can get in from food.
Because you'll have certain people
that well, in order to maintain quality of sleep,
they need x amount of carbohydrates
or they need this type of carbohydrate
or they need this amount of calories or whatnot.
So there becomes recovery limitations and stuff like that
based off of the individual person.
And so that's the steps that we'll dig deep into
in the trainability assessment-based course
is kind of figuring out those nuances
and how they go up and down.
We'll talk about how those things are gonna impact it
because we can do that here
without actually doing the assessment
because we can say
so this person has good digestion, bad digestion.
How would I move that?
But we'll actually go through the assessment process
in course three.
So really, you have those three things.
The goal in short and long,
the stimulus, taking into account volume in context,
and then the individual.
And so what you're gonna have
is you're gonna have a range
for overall calories,
the amount of macronutrients and micronutrients
that are needed.
Right?
And so you this range that you can work in.
And then you're gonna look at
okay, based on my goal,
where do I fit in this range?
Right?
Based off of my training stimulus,
where do I fit in this range?
Based off of the individual,
where do I fit in this range, right?
So you could have goal says go up,
training stimulus says go up,
individual goes down
and so you're gonna be a little more up than down.
Right?
You could have goal says down,
stimulus says up,
and individual physiological settings say down or whatever,
well you're net effect is gonna be towards the bottom
but not all.
But if all three say up,
well guess what?
You're gonna be at the top range
of calories and macronutrients for that
particular stimulant.
If they're all three saying down,
well then there you go.
Right?
You could have something that seems relevant.
So a lot of times you'll have
the psychological settings say everything's clear,
this person can go either direction.
And then so I'm basing the discission
off of the goal and the context
of the training or the volume.
So really it's about looking at the range
that I'm gonna give you for these individual stimuli,
and then deciding where you want to put somebody
within that range.
And then the guesswork is over at that point in time.
Then it's all about evaluating the program
and then understanding if you need
to go up or down from there.
But if you're within the range,
and you at least erred in the right direction,
you're gonna be doing so good
in terms of performance and recovery
with that alone.
I mean pretty much if you just put somebody
in the training stimulus
and you get in the ballpark of the nutrition
you're already doing like a thousand percent better
than what most people are doing right now.
So you're gonna be really surprised
at how easy this stuff becomes
if you are precise with your goal
and then you just look at that
as this is simple.
Right?
Here's the range that I have to work in.
Right?
Let's use my brain,
let's look at what my options are,
let's look at what I'm trying to accomplish
with the goal and the program
and figure out where do I want to push this.
Right?
The assessment part and then we get that
last bit of the picture
and then you have that third variable to figure out.
Okay, where do I need to go with this?
But you're aiming at a much,
well it's a smaller target
because the range is getting smaller,
but it's a easier target to hit
once you have that range
and you start to narrow down your goal
and then you get better at programming,
and then the assessment stuff comes in,
it becomes very easy.
Right?
You just have to give it a little bit of thought
but then that, boom,
decision making becomes easy.
Alright, without further ado,
let's roll into these stimuli.