The 4-Hour Body_ An Uncommon Guide to Ra - Timothy Ferriss [92]
To maintain this rate of progress for even two months, you will need to eat like it’s your job. Add shakes or milk if whole food is too difficult.
WHAT IF I MISS A WORKOUT DUE TO TRAVEL?
It is better to take an additional one to three days off than to half-ass a workout with different equipment that makes it impossible to determine progress or proper weights when you return. There is nothing to be lost by an additional one to three days of rest.
The other solution is to always use free weights with standard Olympic barbells, as these will be universal and comparable between facilities. Free-weight options are outlined in the preceding chapter.
WHAT IF I DON’T MAKE THE TARGET NUMBER OF REPETITIONS?
This means one of two things: either you didn’t stimulate growth mechanisms (insufficient failure during the last workout), or you haven’t recovered (insufficient rest/food).
If you miss your target by more than one repetition on the first exercise of a given workout, go home, take the next day off, then repeat the workout.
Let’s say you’re scheduled for workout A on a Monday. The first exercise is close-grip pull-downs, and your target number of repetitions is a minimum of seven. If you complete six good repetitions or more, complete the entire workout. If you don’t complete six repetitions for pull-downs, do NOT proceed to the shoulder press.
Instead, pick up your gym bag and go home. Rest Tuesday, ensure proper nutrient intake by eating a ton, and come in Wednesday prepared to crush both exercises and proceed as planned.
If you fail before the requisite number of reps, do not—as many people do—decrease the weight and do another set (called a “drop-down” or “break-down” set). Do nothing but leave. If you haven’t recovered, you haven’t recovered. Continuing can easily stagnate you for two weeks or more.
Cutting a workout short takes tremendous self-control and runs counter to gym culture.
Be smart and opt for a 48-hour reboot instead of a two-week or three- week reboot.
Last but not least, if you abandon a workout because you miss a set, add another recovery day between all workouts moving forward. In effect, you’re just accelerating the planned decrease in frequency. There is very little downside to doing this. Twenty-four hours of additional time cannot hurt you, but underrecovering will screw up the entire process.
HOW MANY CALORIES SHOULD I CONSUME?
If you fail to gain weight after adding milk and shakes, chances are that you have a medical condition. It shouldn’t be necessary to count calories, and I never have.
There is one exception.
If you believe you’re doing everything right and still aren’t adding pounds, confirm that you aren’t vastly overestimating your food intake and hence undereating. Count calories and weigh food for a 24-hour period.
For recording like this, I use the Escali food scale, which allows me to input the code for a food, provided in an included manual, to determine the protein, carbohydrate, and fat breakdown.
Ensure that you are eating 20 calories per pound of lean bodyweight for 10 pounds more than your current lean bodyweight. Note that this is not necessarily your ultimate target weight (assuming you want to gain more than 10 pounds). Adjust this target number on a weekly basis.
Let’s say you are 160 pounds lean bodyweight (determined by body composition testing) and want to have 180 pounds of lean mass. You would check your diet to ensure that you are consuming 170 × 20 = 3,400 calories. This is the absolute rock-bottom minimum and also applies to non-workout days.
All that said, remember: you shouldn’t have to count calories.
Keep it simple and you will gain. If the number on the scale isn’t getting bigger, eat more.
BUT WHAT ABOUT CARDIO?
Think you need to hit the stationary bike or run to maintain or improve aerobic capacity? This isn’t always the case. Doug McGuff MD explains:
If you are intent on improving your aerobic capacity, it’s important to understand that your aerobic system performs at its highest when recovering from lactic acidosis. After your high-intensity