build.
Natacha Océane
Approved by Renee McGregor
Contents
nutrition
5 - Before we !art
7 - Metabolism & our goals
13 - Eating for muscle gain
19 - How the journey typically looks
23 - Nutrition for these 12 weeks
33- Losing fat after building muscle
34 - If you’re under-eating
43 - Approved by Renee
44 - References
2
Contents
Training
49 - How to use the training guide
53 - Re! days
54 - If you’re ju! beginning
56 - Injuries
57 - Once you’ve finished
60 - Hit me up!
3
nutrition
Before
we !art
Hey my friends! I’m so excited for us to get started with the next 12 weeks of BUILD.! ❤
The goal of BUILD. is to develop a well-rounded foundation of muscle, so you’re feeling strong
and so your metabolism is all fired up, while also blending in functional and strength training
throughout so you stay feeling super athletic and ready for any kind of fitness challenge.
I’ve mentioned how I neglected the functional side of training while I prioritised building
muscle, and I definitely noticed that I was slower and less athletic when I came back to
functional training and sports.
BUILD. is designed to take you through the journey I would have gone through if I could start
again now, knowing what I’ve learnt over the last couple of years. It’s also the approach I
take now when I go through phases of focusing on building muscle, and I can confirm it’s
exactly what I was after! 🤗
These 12 weeks aren’t designed to necessarily take you to the end of your muscle building
journey, but hopefully the information here will set you up for success for the entire journey! I
focussed on building muscle for around 18 months and it totally changed my relationship with
training, how I ate, how I felt and what my body is capable of. It made a world of difference
for me and hopefully it can do the same for you 🌎
All the information in this programme, for both training and nutrition, is based on current
leading scientific research into health, nutrition and physical exercise.
That’s why it’s always a big highlight of all the work I do when I get to work with Renee
McGregor, who’s a world-leading specialist dietitian, and who has approved this guide. Her
achievements are more impressive than I could ever do justice and include working with
British Olympic athletes over the last two Olympic cycles (more on page 29!)
We’re building our bodies, our power, and our metabolisms. This isn’t a time for reducing and
being less, but for being and doing more. I can’t wait for what we’re about to build 💪
5
Before
we !art
P.S.You‘re a bada# 😍
Building extra muscle will bring you so many
benefits. Not only will you become and feel
stronger, but it’ll shape your body and it’ll work
wonders for your metabolism, which we’ll talk about
in this guide.
This is a journey though and the more commitment
and focus on the end goal, the better the outcome.
There might be a little fat gain and there may be
moments you’re not in love with how your body is
changing temporarily. I went through that for a
couple of months but I focussed my energy on how
I was becoming capable of so much more and how
I was building something greater than however I felt
in the moment.
Just remember, how you look is the least interesting
thing about you, and we’re investing in ourselves for
the long-term (:
💛
6
Metabolism
& our goals
our goals
Like I’ve mentioned, BUILD. is designed to
give you the tools to build muscle, shape your
body and create an athletic foundation that
you can rely on whatever kind of physical
challenge you take on. The 12 weeks of
training will drive that change, but how you
eat will determine if you fully unlock the
benefits of the workouts!
A stronger, more athletic body will take more
energy to fuel, both during a workout and in
general life outside of training. We’re about to
get into the science of all the adaptations
your body will make, which will increase your
metabolism.
7
Metabolism
& our goals
how metabolism works
Our metabolism is basically all of the chemical processes occurring in our
bodies. In the context that we talk about in health and fitness, we’re referring to
all of the energy required to maintain full bodily function: that covers everything
that’s observable like moving around and working out, as well as things like
brain and vital organ function, thermoregulation and a crazy number of
biochemical processes we never even think about.
So, all of the energy we’re using makes up our Total Daily Energy Expenditure
(TDEE) - the sum of all the calories burned through a day - and can be broken
down into four main categories. We typically measure energy in kilocalories
(kcals) and just call them ‘calories’.
TDEE = BMR + PA + NEAT + TEF
Total Daily Energy
Expenditure
Basal
Metabolic Rate
Physical
Activity
Non-Exercise
Activity
Thermogenesis
Thermic Effect
of Food
A body with more muscle will use up more energy across all of the categories
in TDEE. For example, clinical trials have demonstrated that a 10% change in
bodyweight is typically associated with a 20-25% change in daily expenditure.
8
Metabolism
& our goals
There’s a huge amount of mechanisms taking place to increase the energy we
need as we build more muscle, so we’ll go into talking about each component of
TDEE and the key changes that’ll happen for each 😊
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR): the energy burnt throughout the day to keep
our bodies functioning at complete rest (excluding any digestion). Even at rest,
temperature regulation, blood circulation, breathing, cell growth and countless
more processes are still happening. BMR makes up 60-70% of TDEE on an
“average” day.
High quality studies have repeatedly demonstrated that muscle is highly
metabolically active, with more chemical reactions taking place within these cells
than within fat cells. This helps explain why men tend to have higher metabolic
rates than women, and why metabolic rates usually fall as you age. Increasing
muscle mass with the different styles of resistance training in BUILD. means your
body will be burning more at rest.
Research into how much extra energy muscle requires at complete rest has
suggested it’s around 13kcals per kg muscle per day. As an example, I’ve
personally put on around 10kg of muscle over the last 2 years and fit into the
same clothes, so there’s roughly an extra 130 calories my body would use up
every day if I was to lie in bed and do absolutely nothing (not even digest food).
In addition, there’s research suggesting that BMR adapts beyond this rate as
predicted by changes in metabolic mass, but we won’t go into it too deep!
9
Metabolism
& our goals
People coming from a background of highly restrictive eating, which may have caused
their body to adapt by slowing some bodily functions (lowered immunity, loss of period
etc. - see pg.34-42) would also have additional potential for their BMR to increase as
these functions are restored.
Thermic Effect of Physical Activity (PA): the energy you burn through working
out (often called ‘structured’ activity) and in recovery afterwards. Of course it hugely
varies based on how you exercise, but typically on days where we workout we’re
probably expending 15-30% of our energy on PA.
There are three main mechanisms that can increase our calories burnt from PA when
we build muscle. Firstly, since muscle is so dense (it occupies a small amount of space
for it’s weight) it’s likely to increase your bodyweight without really changing your dress
size. This extra weight means that any activity where bodyweight contributes to the
resistance (like running, push ups, plyo exercises, squatting, a lot of HIIT and lots more)
will burn more calories.
Plus, building more muscle and incorporating strength training like we are doing in
BUILD. should help you increase the amount of weight you can lift. Getting stronger is
another way to increase energy expenditure without even realising it, since moving
more weight requires more energy without increasing perceived intensity (so it doesn’t
feel like you’re working any harder!)
The third mechanism relates to muscle recovery. There’s emerging research showing
that higher fat free mass (lean body mass) increases the energy required to recover
after a workout, so that’s like a free extra energy burn as you build that 💪 💪 💪
10
Metabolism
& our goals
Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT): the ‘unstructured’
portion of energy we burn through movement. It doesn’t include working out,
but it’s basically everything else. So that’s fidgeting, moving around at work,
climbing the stairs, house cleaning, cooking, and talking with friends etc. So
together, NEAT + PA covers all the movement we do. NEAT is usually the
toughest one to estimate an average for because there’s such huge variation
in how active people’s lives are: the typical range often cited is 20-40% of
TDEE, but it can be as low as 5% and as high as 50%.
At a higher bodyweight, any of these movements will take a little extra energy
to complete: NEAT been shown to rise steadily in response to lean
bodyweight increases in multiple studies (with a magnitude around 10
additional kcals / kg of lean body mass / day).
Plus, eating more calories overall to help you build muscle will affect
involuntary movements (like fidgeting more) and also subconscious decision
making like choosing to take the stairs or clean the house instead of choosing
to preserve energy and take it easy. So typically people move more and burn
more than usual when in a caloric surplus.
11
Metabolism
& our goals
Thermic Effect of Food (TEF): the energy required to ingest, absorb,
metabolise and store nutrients from the food we eat. Around 10% of TDEE is
spent on TEF, but this is affected by the macronutrient composition of the diet.
As you build your body and it takes more energy to fuel, a portion of that extra
food is being spent on just digesting the extra!
As we build more muscle, our body spends more energy naturally through all
of these mechanisms. Individually they might not make a huge difference to our
lives, but all of them together is definitely enough to create a noticeable
change in our energy requirements.
Continual, steady increases in food intake will therefore be the key to continual
progress. Giving yourself a comfortable surplus, where there’s enough extra
energy left over once your body is done spending extra on these mechanisms
will be the key to your body’s development and getting the most out of the
hard work you’ll put in with BUILD. 🤗
12
Eating for muscle
Gain
Next up, we’re going to talk about some key principles of
nutrition, and the approach we recommend on these 12
weeks.
Before we go into any details, I just want to take a minute
to say that food is so much more than the numbers we
can track in mobile apps or a calorie / macro profile. It
helps us grow, perform, stay healthy and have energy
(and brings so much joy! 😍 )
I’ve also added in some personal tips which made a huge
difference for me!
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Eating for muscle
Gain
macronutrients
Carbohydrate
Carbohydrate breaks down into glucose to provide the main energy source for our
brain, central nervous system and physical activity. Fibre is also a form of nondigestible carbohydrate and helps keep you satisfied after a meal and also helps
keep a healthy gut
Many carb sources are packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, making
them super important for overall health 🍎 🍌 In addition, as carbs are converted to
glycogen and stored in our muscles, they are a crucial source of energy so if we
want to keep training properly and reap the rewards from it, we need to keep that
carbohydrate intake high! Studies have shown that low intakes of carbs (<3g/kg
bodyweight) are often linked with reduced performance and training intensity, a
depressed immune system and altered Thyroid function causing potentially longterm effects on hormonal, bone and cardiovascular health.
In particular for BUILD., carbs are crucial for our production of oestrogen, which is
key for the production of growth hormone required for building muscle 💪
Also, as I touched on in my Fasted Cardio - Science Explained video, body
composition and performance aren’t shown to improve through training in a fasted
state, so we recommend training with BUILD. after at least one balanced, carb
inclusive meal in the day.
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Eating for muscle
Gain
Protein
Protein is an essential part of our diet (fun fact: I was studying
protein structure in my
PhD research 🤓 ). When it’s
digested, it’s broken down into amino acids that go into the
repair, recovery, and growth of your muscles but are also
important for many other functions in our bodies. Given that
you’ll be pushing yourself throughout this 12 week period,
making sure that you have protein available for recovery
and repair is super important! Plus, during the resistance
workouts, there’ll be protein breakdown taking place and our
goal is to keep a steady flow of amino acids available so
our body doesn’t start to break down muscle.
A good target is to be aiming for 0.3g-0.4g/kg bodyweight
around 4 times per day, so around 1.2-1.6g/kg bodyweight
total. The only time you might need more than that is if you’re
new to training, where you might need 1.8g/kg bodyweight
for the first 12 weeks. And if you train late in the afternoon, it
might be worth scheduling one of these protein hits before
bed to help with recovery. More on this later!
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Eating for muscle
Gain
Fat
Fat makes up our cell membranes and protects our organs. Fat also
helps the body to absorb vitamins A, D, E and K which are useful for
lots of important functions (: Unsaturated fats (like those from olive oil,
fish oil and avocados) are more beneficial from a health perspective
compared to saturated fats found in meat and butter (and therefore
cake!) as they don’t have the same link with heart disease.
As a general guideline, around 1-1.2g/kg of bodyweight, with most of
this coming from unsaturated fat, is a healthy target for exercising
adults.
If hitting a slight caloric surplus is a bit of a challenge at first,
incorporating more fats can be a helpful way to do this as fat is more
energy dense than other macros. So for example, adding some olive
oil to a salad and/or nut butters to porridge and oatcakes can help
increase the caloric content of your food without adding much volume.
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Eating for muscle
Gain
Here are some example food sources for each macronutrient:
Carbohydrate
•
Wholegrain &
cereals (bread,
wheat, rice,
barley, oats,
buckwheat,
quinoa)
Protein
Fat
Fish
•
Plant/seed oils
Meat
•
Nuts
•
Eggs
•
Avocados
•
Dairy (e.g. greek
yoghurt)
•
Oily fish
•
•
Including oily fish
Including red meat
•
Vegetables
•
Fruit
•
Quorn
•
Pulses (beans,
lentils, chickpeas
etc.)
•
Tofu (Vegan)
•
Seitan (Vegan)
•
Soya (Vegan)
•
Pulses (Vegan)
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Including nut butters
Eating for muscle
Gain
micronutrients
Micronutrients refer to the vitamins, minerals, electrolytes and trace elements
that are important for enzyme function and the processing of carbohydrates,
fats and protein. We can’t make these little winners 🥇 on our own though, so
we need most of these to come from our diet. And the good news is that if you
eat a well-balanced and varied diet, you’ll be able to get these micronutrients
in without needing to take extra supplements (#studentlifeapproved)
supplements
I personally don’t take any supplements as I feel I get everything I need from
my diet to support my training. If you are considering taking your training to a
professional standard or are concerned about a specific deficiency, then you
might find it useful talking about your nutrition and any possible
supplementation with a dietitian 👍
If that’s not you, don’t feel like supplements are necessary to build muscle.
There’s a lot of highly effective marketing, but a rounded diet of healthy
portions should be able to cover your micro and macro needs ✨
Two exceptions that are worth highlighting are Vitamins D and Vitamin B12. Our
bodies make vitamin D from sunlight, so it may be helpful to add
supplementation if you live in a country with low levels of sunlight (like me!) or if
you are not exposed to it much in general. Vitamin B12 comes from animal
sources, and as it’s important for numerous reasons, it’s supplementation is
highly recommended for vegans 💪
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How the journey
typically looks
Building some muscle can be such a positive, empowering change to make.
Like every change worth making, it takes time and the journey isn’t a
perfectly straight line.
Along the way, it’s typical to gain a little bit of fat alongside the muscle. This is
because it’s pretty much impossible to know your exact TDEE and energy
requirements for building muscle and then provide this with your food intake.
My best advice for dealing with this is to take the pressure off yourself and
remember that you’re building towards something much bigger than what’s
happening right now. It’s an investment in you and it’s totally worth making.
Plus, if looking lean is the end goal you’re after, just remember that this initial
phase will make it easier to lose fat down the line since your TDEE will be nice
and high from the extra muscle you’ve built! So for now, your body will be
wanting to adapt in response to these BUILD. workouts and I really
recommend making it a priority to give it the energy it needs to do that so
you’re not working hard for very little change ☺
One last thing: the true amount of fat gain will typically be less than it looks.
With muscle building workouts, there’ll be a fair amount of inflammation, which
can often be associated with fluid retention and the appearance of looking
bloated. Sometimes, as your body is recovering, it might stay bloated for a
few days after your last workout. It’s super common for that to create the
impression that there’s more fat gain than there really is, and if you were to
take 2-3 days off from training you’ll watch your body get rid of these
responses and be able to see how there’s probably less fat gain than you
might have thought!
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Eating for muscle
Gain
Tips to help you along
Here are a few things that I’ve learnt that hopefully can help along the
way!
•
Eat for strong workouts 💪 If you feel strong when it comes to
workout time, then most likely you’re eating well for your training and
goal. Keep an eye out for signs of fatigue or not feeling strong enough
to progress, as these can often be down to not giving your body the
energy it needs to recover and develop. Don’t worry too much if it’s a
temporary thing, but look out for if it starts to last over a week or 2
•
Don’t restrict any food types 🙅 Including a little bit of everything
can make the process much more enjoyable and effective when you’re
thinking about long-term results. All food is good, it’s just good for
different reasons ❤ I eat cake, chocolate, burgers and more as part of
my regular diet - just remember to prioritise those micronutrient rich
foods and your body (and you!) will be happy 😁
•
Rest up 😴 This one’s not about food, but building muscle is more than
just eating and training. Sleep deprivation can impair muscle growth
because our Growth Hormone (hGH) peaks during the deepest part of
our sleep. hGH has many functions including muscle protein synthesis
(building muscle), bone growth, and blood glucose regulation. Sleep
deprivation can also lead to increased fat gain because it causes
hormone changes that make you feel extra hungry and less satisfied. So
make sure to put those PJs on and get those hours in!
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Eating for muscle
Gain
How to measure progre#
A common instinct can be to go right for the scales, which can be helpful
but it might not be the best way to track what’s really happening 💪
With time, we have been conditioned to think of increased bodyweight
negatively. That’s usually because, without being specific as to what we’re
talking about, we’ve been getting it confused with body fat. Even widely
commonly used indicators like BMI don’t make this super important
distinction.
On my journey, I’ve gained around 10kg in bodyweight (roughly,
fluctuations are normal) and I still wear the same dress size! Since muscle
is so dense, it can just confuse things on the scales. You can weigh more
and yet be smaller and leaner if you go on a journey of building muscle
and following it up with losing fat in a healthy, metabolism-focussed way.
That’s why, when I can, I use indicators that are less vague, and don’t
come with negative associations.
Here’s what I find a lot more useful instead :)
•
Tracking your training progress: I recommend this as your go-to
measure for progress. Pick a few core moves like squats, deadlifts, lunges or
pull-ups and keep little notes of how you’re moving more weight doing
them, or how you’re able to hit extra reps! We’ll be doing them often
enough for you to notice changes when they happen and the app allows
you to track your progress as you go along so it should be easy enough 🙏
It’s super empowering to watch yourself become stronger 💪
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Eating for muscle
Gain
How to measure progre#
•
Taking progress pics: This can help you see how your
body has changed over time, maybe even in relaxed and
flexed positions so you can visualise things even better!
One thing: definitely don’t put too much pressure on this
over 12 weeks. Like we talked about in ‘How the journey
typically looks’, there’ll be bloating, muscle + joint
inflammation and pumps (increased blood flow) which can
make it look like there’s been some extra fat gain but don’t
let this throw you off!
Remember that slow, steady progress is great and to give
your body time to stabilise and adjust after any changes ❤
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nutrition for
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12 weeks
Great ! How do I get !arted ?!
Next, we’re going to get into the each of the steps which make up the
approach we recommend. Since the approach is all about steadily increasing
food intake over time, explaining each step using calorie measurements is the
easiest way to demonstrate what we’re going for. This doesn’t mean you have
to track your food intake though: if you don’t feel comfortable with it or if you
just don’t want to, that’s 100% fine. Just focus on understanding the general
process we’re after in the next few pages 🙏
Step 1:
Figure out your current caloric intake
Take 2-3 days before starting the programme to track your usual food intake.
This will help determine the amount of calories you eat before starting these
workouts.
•
Quick tip! It’s super important that you eat just as normal in these 2-3
baseline days. If you don’t track your food intake normally, spend these
couple of days with MyFitnessPal. It will be super easy to change eating
habits now you’re tracking (as you become more conscious of what you eat)
and we don’t want that, so try measuring everything you normally eat,
make a note of it and only input it into MyFitnessPal before bed
˝
If you’ve been tracking your food intake prior to starting this programme, there’s
no need to perform this step. Instead, work out your recent average food intake
over the last couple of weeks and we’ll use this as your starting point 🏁
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nutrition for
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Step 2:
Figure out which group you’re in
This next step will depend on your starting point 👆
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
You were previously targeting muscle growth and you
were eating a caloric surplus.
You’ve been pretty stable for a while, not intentionally
eating in a caloric surplus or deficit
You’ve been going after fat loss with a light-moderate
deficit (up to a 15% calorie deficit)
Group 4
You’ve been on a moderate-heavy cut and reduced your
calories by over 15% of your starting maintenance. You
may have a history of restrictive eating but haven’t
noticed any signs of Relative Energy Deficiency Syndrome
(RED-S). Please see page x to confirm.
Group 5
You’ve been severely restricting your calories for a long
time and suspect you might have RED-S (please see page
pg.35-42 to confirm).
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nutrition for
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Step 3:
Calculate your TDEE
This should help you workout roughly how much energy you’ll be burning
on BUILD. Once we know this number, we can then keep you in a slight
surplus to allow you to build your body and we’ll also know how much of
a gap there is compared to what you were eating before.
Please note that this is a good estimate as a starting point but it’s really
important to assess how your training is going and how you feel as you
progress through BUILD. in case you need to adjust your calories later.
OK! So lets do some maths (I know you want to 😉 6 )
We’re going to use the Harris Benedict Formula:
FEMALE TDEE = 1.6 x (655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age)
MALE TDEE= 1.6 x (66 + (13.7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age)
Don’t be afraid if these estimates seem higher than what you’re used to.
They factor in the intensity of this programme and the level of recovery
and repair that goes alongside it.
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nutrition for
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Step 4:
Finding your recommended BUILD. calorie target
For all groups, we’re aiming to get to a 5-15% surplus above the TDEE
calculated in Step 3. If you’re slightly newer to resistance training, 10-15% may
be the way to go, and if you’re an experienced lifter 5-10% may be more
suitable. This number is your recommended BUILD. calorie target.
Here’s an example:
Lisa is 22 years old, weighs 55kg (121 pounds) and she’s 162cm
Her TDEE on BUILD. will be roughly
FEMALE TDEE = 1.6 x (655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) - (4.7 x age)
Lisa’s TDEE
= 1.6 x (655 + (9.6 x 55kg) + (1.8 x 162) - (4.7 x 22)
= 1.6 x (655 + 528 + 292 - 103)
= 2,195 calories
She has been resistance training for nearly a year, so she’ll go for a 10% surplus: her
recommended BUILD. calorie target she’ll be working towards is around 2,410 calories.
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nutrition for
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Step 5:
Adjusting your intake to your new recommended BUILD. calorie target
Groups
1+2+3
If your recommended BUILD. target is less than 400kcal
away from your starting point, you can adjust straight away if
you like. If it’s more than 400kcal away, I’d suggest starting
with a 200kcal move towards the target, and then a further
200kcal every 2-3 weeks.
• If you haven’t been working out recently and want to
slowly ease into the BUILD. workouts (say 2-3 per week)
then ease into the calorie surplus a little slower.
The spe ed at which you increase towards your
recommended BUILD. target should depend on how you feel.
Group
4
• If you haven’t noticed any signs of fatigue, slow recovery
or weakness in training, it may be best to increase your
intake at a speed of 100-150kcals every 2-3 weeks for
the first 6 weeks and then step it up to 200kcal every
2-3 weeks.
Z
• If you have noticed any of these signs, I recommend that
you increase your intake faster, similar to groups 1,2 & 3
straight away. Ideally, we’d like to prioritise giving your
body the energy it’s asking for so that there aren’t health
Group
5
Depending on your starting point, the key outcome is to restore
your energy and weight before starting BUILD. Until your body is
hormonally regulated, you will not see any body composition
improvements and training will just add further stress, causing
your body to preserve energy and fat. Prioritise your health and
seek advice as suggested on pg. 35-42 ❤
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Step 6:
If you’re not sure what kind of macro breakdown feels best for you, here’s our
suggested place to start ☺
Protein: 15%
Carbs: 50-60%
Fat: 25-30%
If we know that protein and carbohydrate are around 4 calories/gram and fat is
around 9 calories/gram, then it should be pretty straight forward to convert these
percentages into an approximate number of grams for each macro.
For example, Lisa’s 2,410 calorie BUILD. target would break down into around:
Protein: 360kcal would be roughly 90g protein
Carbohydrate: 1,200 -1,440kcal would be roughly 300-360g carbohydrate
Fat: 600 - 720kcal would be roughly 65-80g fat
Each of the macros are so, so important to giving your best, maintaining a healthy
hormone profile and taking advantage of these workouts in the long term. The split
above is just a guideline and will need tweaking to fit into your target calorie intake
and to find a breakdown that makes you feel your best.
I really recommend keeping each change quite small and giving it at least 1-2
weeks to assess how it works for you. 💪 🙌
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Adju!ing once you’ve hit your recommended intake:
The more in tune you stay with your body, the better. Once you’ve reached
your recommended calorie intake give it a few weeks to understand how the
programme is making you feel ☺
For example, if you’re finding the workouts tough, with high intensity and
frequent hunger cues, don’t be scared to add in an extra snack or increase
your portion sizes at meal times! These guidelines are a helpful place to start,
but your body is unique and adjusting the macro split or the total food intake
to what makes you feel strong is exactly what we’d suggest!
Big signs to look for that it may be time to give your body a little extra food
intake include:
• constant tiredness or hunger
• feeling weak or low energy during training
• difficulty focussing
After week 8 is a great time to reflect on how things are going :) By now, I
would hope to see signs of extra strength and some muscle coming through!
We’re not after drastic changes but you should have been able to up your
weights maybe a couple of times by this point (: If this isn’t the case then try to
slightly increase your calories but also look at your lifestyle too. Maybe you’re
not sleeping enough, not taking those rest days seriously enough, or stress
from work / life is holding back your focus. Just being aware and looking for
what might be holding you back is huge in helping you find solutions (:
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12 weeks
If you don’t want to track your food:
It’s totally fine if you don’t want to track and you shouldn’t
force yourself to start if you don’t think it’s for you ❤
Hopefully at this point you have a good understanding of
the principles, a general idea of what we are trying to
achieve, and how your body will be adapting along the
way. My advice is to just be as inclusive as you can with
your diet, remembering that all of the macros have a role
to play, and to keep listening to what makes you feel
ready to workout and strong when you do!
This is the approach I take myself, and I think it can totally
work. Just take note of how your body feels and look for
signs that it might be asking for a little extra energy when
you’re working out. There’s no point in working hard and
not giving your body what it needs to make the change
you’re after!
30
nutrition for
these
12 weeks
A !ep-by-!ep example:
Clara hasn’t tracked much in the past, so for Step 1 she lives life as normal, notes
down everything she ate and tracks it in MyFitnessPal at night for a couple of days:
her average intake is 1,800 calories.
She was previously on a slight cut but didn’t reduce her calories much so for Step
2 , Clara put herself in group 3. She then goes onto calculating her TDEE with
BUILD. as shown in Step 3: she’ll be burning around 2,250 calories with these
workouts. It seems a bit high for her but her training prior to this consisted of 3 x 45
minute moderate jogs a week and only 1-2 resistance sessions, so the intensity was
pretty different!
She has done a fair bit of resistance training and built some muscle in the past, so as
a more experienced lifter she goes for a 5% surplus in Step 4: her target is around
2,360kcal. That’s 560 calories from her starting point, so in week 1 Clara moves to
2,000 calories before moving to 2,200 after week 3 and then 2,360 after week 5.
At that point, she’ll stick to 2,360 for a few weeks to get a sense of how her body is
responding and how she feels. Along the way, through all the calorie changes, she
used the suggested macro breakdown in Step 6 to easily translate her changing
calories into rough macro splits.
In week 9, exam season kicks off and Clara can already tell the extra stress and
time commitment might make it hard to stick to the full BUILD. programme. She takes
a step back and just sticks to 1-2 workouts each week as a break from work and
lets her calories slowly settle a little lower to allow for the reduced PA energy she
needs.
When she finishes her exams, she resumes her training and continues increasing her
calories back to the recommended BUILD. calorie target.
31
nutrition for
these
12 weeks
Sample menu:
Let’s make up an example of an individual day of food! 😊
So, Clara’s put herself in group 3 and decided to aim for ~2,360 calories.
She’s aiming for a 2,200-2,500 kcal window and even going a little under or a little
over those numbers now and then really doesn’t matter.
Working out after college and before dinner, a perfect meal plan sets her up with
carbohydrates for lunch a few hours ahead of her training so she can really workout
with intensity.
Here’s an example of what she might eat one day:
Breakfast
Lunch
Carbs
Protein
Fat
Calories
Omelette with a bowl of fruit & yoghurt: 3 eggs, cherry
tomatoes, handful spinach, 1 cup full fat yoghurt,
1 apple, 1tbsp oats, handful berries
72g
30g
20g
608
Sweet potato curry: 180g sweet potato, 3 large red
peppers, 1/2 can chopped tomatoes, 2tbsp tomato
puree, 1/2 onion, 100g broccoli, 0.5tbsp olive oil, 1
garlic clove, veg stock cube, 80g basmati rice (when
uncooked), 3 tbsp greek yoghurt
124g
18g
13g
672
Chocolate milk smoothie: 250ml soya milk, 1tsp cocoa,
1tsp sugar, 1 banana
33g
9g
5g
205
Chicken avocado wrap: 1 large tortilla wrap, 125g
cooked chicken, medium avocado, 80g cherry
tomatoes, handful lettuce, 150g red pepper, 0.5tbsp
mayo
57g
35g
30g
642
Carrots and hummus: 1/2 cup hummus, 1.5 cups carrots
26g
6g
5g
195
312g
95g
73g
2,322
BUILD. workout
Snack 1
Dinner
Snack 2
Totals
32
Losing fat after
building muscle
So that’s it for the nutrition approach. For some of you, BUILD.
might have been about increasing your muscle a little before
losing some fat and for others, this won’t be the end of your
muscle building journey.
Either way, if you switch up your goals to focus on fat loss down
the line, it will be super beneficial to protect the lean mass
you’ve built here 💪
Quick, dramatic reductions in caloric intake won’t keep your
metabolism high and preserve the muscle you’ve worked hard
to build. Instead, they’re likely to reverse all of the mechanisms
that have increased your energy expenditure on this journey.
There’s strong research behind a steadier approach, built
around smart training sessions targeted at increased energy
spend through PA rather than heavy food reductions which are
repeatedly shown to lower muscle mass. This was why Renee
and I built CUT. and then CUT. Reload after seeing the amazing
success of the first guide 🤗
The strength and the amazing foundation you have worked
hard to build deserves to be protected! ❤
33
Red-s
Spo$ing if you’ve been
Under-eating
34
If you’re
under-eating
The belief that you’ll continuously lose fat if you eat less and train more is a
common misconception. Our bodies are super complex and finely tuned, constantly
adapting to work at their best. A complicated system of hormonal and
biochemical processes, all working together, is in place to keep us fully functioning
💪 but disrupt one, and there’ll be effects on the others.
Before starting the approach in this programme, I can’t explain how important it is
to be honest about where you currently are. If you’re already underweight, or if
your relationship with food and body image isn’t in the right place, the 12 week
guide is not suitable for you and may be detrimental to your long-term health. It’s
so important to first address these areas before following a programme like this,
which is unlikely to bring results in these circumstances anyway!
How do you know if this is you?
These questions should help you identify if a different approach at first would be
right for you:
1) Do you eliminate entire food groups in an attempt to be “clean” or have the “perfect”
diet?
2) Do you feel anxiety over how food is prepared?
3) Do you avoid eating food bought or prepared by others?
4) Do you fear eating away from home?
5) Do you avoid social events involving food for fear of not sticking to your diet?
6) Do you think critically of others who have a more relaxed approach to eating / their
body?
7) Do you spend more time and money on meal planning and making food choices than
you would like or feels necessary?
8) Have your periods become lighter, more erratic or stopped completely?
35
If you’re
under-eating
9) Have you noticed an increase in digestive issues such as bloating, alternative
constipation and diarrhoea?
10) Do you ever have feelings of guilt or shame when you’re not able to stick to your
diet?
11) Do you feel fulfilled or good about eating “healthily” while losing interest in other
activities?
12) Do you feel you need to exercise daily to justify eating?
13) Have you noticed feelings of worsening low mood, irrational thoughts and anxiety?
14) Does your bodyweight define how you’re able to accept and love yourself?
15) Do you weigh yourself daily or even several times a day?
16) Do you feel constantly cold or struggle to concentrate?
17) Is your sleep quantity or quality poor?
If you answered yes to 1 or 2 of these, it’s worth staying aware and mindful of
that. If you relate to 5 or more, we strongly recommend that you first reach out
for professional medical input ❤
If you’re advised to work a little with practitioners in either nutrition or
psychology, making sure they have the right qualifications to give you the
support you deserve is so important:
•
For nutrition: only work with registered dietitians, which do not include
personal trainers or nutritional therapists. Registered nutritionists are great
but aren’t qualified to work with clinical eating disorders.
•
For psychological support: there’s lots of evidence that the most suitable help
includes behavioural therapy and NLP, so looking for experience in these is a
great start!
36
If you’re
under-eating
Some of the consequences of under-eating
Restrictive eating might feel like the right thing to do and to stick
with, but if it’s taken too far, it can have a number of
consequences on short- and long-term health, including:
•
Menstruation: loss of periods (amenorrhea) is most commonly
caused by not having enough energy. Skipping just 3 periods in
a row can be enough to start damaging bone health and
increase osteoporosis risk.
•
Heart health: low oestrogen levels lead to increased
cholesterol production
•
Fatigue: increased risk of injury or illness
•
Depression: vitamin and nutrition deficiency has been shown
to increase risks of anxiety / depression, while carbs are key to
producing serotonin which helps us feel at ease mentally. Undereating can also decrease levels of oestrogen responsible for
serotonin uptake in the brain, and this can further lower our
mood.
•
Digestion: digestion is considered non-essential, so it slows
leading to constipation/bloating. This can be misinterpreted as
IBS but it’s actually delayed gastric emptying.
It’s important to realise that you don’t have to be underweight to
experience these consequences. Even at normal weight, you might
not have sufficient energy to allow for normal biological processes.
37
If you’re
under-eating
Am I ready for the BUILD. 12 week programme?
The definition of being underweight in adults over 18 years old is having a BMI
below 18.5. BMI has had a lot of bad press for not being strictly accurate, but
it’s a useful tool towards the lower end of the scale.
Eating disorder specialists recommend that anybody with a BMI under 17.5
does not exercise at all, and that those with a BMI under 16 do not drive or
go to work. For BUILD., we strongly recommend that anyone with a BMI under
18.5 does not follow the 12-week programme until they are no longer
underweight and have had a natural*, consistent menstrual cycle for at least 6
months.
*not regulated by the pill - this only disguises a lack of period and shouldn’t be used as a
substitute to create an artificial period.
In addition, if your BMI is above 18.5 but you’ve missed 3+ consecutive periods
or your cycle is irregular we also advise that you don’t train with BUILD. until
you’ve had a natural, consistent menstrual cycle for at least 6 months. A lack
of a regular menstrual cycle is a sign that your body isn’t functioning fully at the
moment as the threat of starvation has caused it to stop processes considered
non-essential for survival (reproduction is one of those).
When your body is ready to change as intended in the guide, BUILD. will be
here for you ❤ 😘
38
If you’re
under-eating
Relative Energy Deficiency Syndrome:
In sport, low availability of energy relative to what your body needs to perform at the
levels you’re demanding and still function fully is called Relative Energy Deficiency
Syndrome (RED-S).
RED-S can be intentional or unintentional, but either way, being consistently short on
energy has the same impact on our bodies. The possible areas affected by RED-S are
shown below:
Gastrointestinal
(digestion)
Immunological
Menstrual
function
Cardiovascular
Triad
Psychological
Growth &
Development
Relative Energy
Deficiency
Syndrome
Bone health
Endocrine
(hormones)
Metabolic
Hematological
(blood health)
For more information on RED-S, check out: www.health4performance.co.uk
39
If you’re
under-eating
Unintentional RED-S
In unintentional RED-S, people aren’t aware of their energy
(usually carb!) needs or overestimate their intake, which can
happen when we factor in total activity levels eg. an active job
or a cycle commute to work.
Intentional RED-S is more complex and typically comes from
being highly ambitious, self-critical or anxiety. It is sometimes
thought of as an eating disorder within in sport. There’s often a
strong feeling of nothing ever being enough - weight not being
low enough, training not being hard enough etc. A common
pattern is for people to follow whatever is trending in nutrition
such as low carb / high fat, “clean eating” and avoiding sugar or
gluten🙅
One deceiving component of RED-S is that restricting food intake
while increasing exercise to lose fat or improve health often brings
those results in the short-term. Performance can improve and fat
can be lost in those first few months, creating a belief in the
approach.
When things then start to slow down and don’t work later on, it
becomes a matter of thinking you’re not working hard enough or
being strict enough. Trying to come away from intentional RED-S
often leads to anxiety, especially as stopping training for a while
is highly recommended.
40
If you’re
under-eating
Intentional RED-S
Often, a typical thought cycle of someone with intentional RED-S looks like:
I don’t feel like I’m doing my best
I want to join in but how can
they eat that stuff?
Everyone else is happy and
enjoying life
Do they not realise they’ll feel
good if they eat clean?
Why can’t I be as perfect as
them?
I don’t understand how my
friends go out and eat pizza do they not know it’s bad for
them?
If I cut out xxx, I’ll be
healthier, have more
energy and more fun!
Nothing has changed - I’m not being
strict enough!
41
If you’re
under-eating
In both intentional and unintentional RED-S, seeking out advice on the
appropriate levels of complex carbs, recovery options, foods for bone health;
essential fats for hormone recovery and micros for metabolism regulation are so
important 🙌 🔑
If you’re under-weight, weight restoration is usually crucial to help restore the
full set of biological processes in our bodies. Support from a specialist Dietitian
or clinical psychologist can make all the difference in changing beliefs around
food, body composition and performance.
Restoring your body back to health takes time, especially with elements like
regaining a period, and how long varies for everyone. For some women,
returning to a healthier weight will do the trick whereas others need to think
about dietary composition, nutrition timing around training etc
If you’ve had issues with bone health, menstruation will need to return before
any of the damage can be reversed - studies have shown that bone health
recovers significantly only when vitamin D is combined with healthy oestrogen
levels.
If you have any concerns after reading this section, we really recommend you
seek advice as soon as possible 💕 A general medical doctor is a great place
to start, and you can ask for a blood test looking at certain biomarkers. A great
set to consider are:
TSH, free T3, LH, FSH, testosterone / oestrogen, prolactin, vitamin D, iron, folate, vitamin B12,
ALT and corrected calcium
You have all our love and support - Renee and I both know you can do it 💌
42
Approved by Renee
Renee McGregor BSc (hons) PGDIP (DIET) PGCERT(sportsnutr) RD SENr
Renee is a leading Performance and Eating
Disorder Specialist Dietitian with 20 years’
experience working in clinical and
performance nutrition with Olympic (London
2 012 ) , Pa ra l y m p i c ( R i o 2 016 ) a n d
Commonwealth (Queensland 2018) athletes.
She works with individuals, athletes of all
levels and ages, coaches and sport science
teams to provide nutritional strategies to
enhance sports performance and manage
eating disorders.
At the moment, she’s working with a number of national governing bodies
including Scottish Gymnastics, the GB 24 Hour Running Squad and The England
Ballet company. She’s also the best selling author of the books Training Food,
Fast Fuel and Orthorexia: When Healthy Eating Goes Bad.
Recently, she co-founded #TRAINBRAVE, a campaign raising the awareness of
eating disorders in sport, providing resources and practical strategies to reduce
their prevalence. Renee also sees on the REDS advisory board for The British
Association of Sports and Exercise Science (BASES) and sits on the International
Task Force for Orthorexia.
She writes for many national publications and is often asked to comment in the
national press, regularly contributing to TV and radio, including News Night and
BBC 5 Live.
For more information on her amazing work and books, which I can’t recommend
enough, go to www.reneemcgregor.com
43
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47
training
how to use the
Training guide
Firstly, BUILD. is meant to be used in a
way that fits your schedule. We don’t
want to be dramatically changing your
lifestyle and your schedule: you’ll stick with
BUILD. much more easily if you make
changes that you need to make BUILD.
suit your life better ☺ If that means
dropping to 3 or 4 workouts per week,
or skipping the last couple of exercises in
each workout to make them a little
shorter, prioritise making BUILD. fit your
lifestyle and you’ll do great!
49
how to use the
Training guide
Re! times
The goal of rest periods is to give you at least the minimum amount of time
required for you to be able to hit the next set with great form. This will usually
vary depending on the style of exercise that you’re doing. For the three
workout styles in BUILD., I usually suggest:
• Hypertrophy and functional exercises: exercises with over 5 reps in
a set, with a steady, controlled movement
• Recommended rest time: around 60-90s
• Strength exercises: exercises with 5 reps or fewer, with a steady,
controlled movement (the 3x5 sets on Strength days)
• Recommended rest time: 180-240s
• Explosive power exercises: exercises focussed on putting out strength
at speed, that aren’t so focussed on steady and controlled movements
e.g. box jumps, ball slams and a unilateral straight arm snatch
• Recommended rest time: 120-180s
Don’t be afraid to take longer if a set has put you really out of breath:
great form is always the goal. At the same time, if you feel ready to go in
less time than the rest times above, maybe think about increasing the weight
if you can! 💪 💪
50
how to use the
Training guide
Picking your weight
This will depend a little bit based on the style of exercise, just like it did for rest
times above. These are the guidelines I like to keep in mind:
• Hypertrophy and functional exercises: exercises with over 5 reps in a
set, with a steady, controlled movement
• Recommended weight: the weight that puts you 1-3 reps away from failure at
the end of every set is great. If you feel like the weight you’ve picked is a little
light, slow down even more! 🐢
• Strength exercises: exercises with 5 reps or fewer, with a steady,
controlled movement (the 3x5 sets on Strength days)
• Recommended weight: time to really push your limits :) We want to pick the
heaviest weight you could complete the set at with great form. If that means
experimenting a little separate to the BUILD. workout to learn what this is, go for
it!
• Explosive power exercises: exercises focussed on putting out strength at
speed, that aren’t so focussed on steady and controlled movements e.g. box
jumps, ball slams and a unilateral straight arm snatch
• Recommended weight: lots of these just use your bodyweight, but for the
explosive exercises that do incorporate a dumbbell / kettlebell etc, go for a
balanced weight which you feel you can really control throughout. The challenge
here comes from you exploding quickly and smoothly, not from heavy weights.
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How to use the
Training guide
Warming up:
People have different preferences for warming up, which is great! I recommend going
for whatever makes you feel warm, loose and ready to go! I personally like to do
some dynamic stretching (stretching and moving to prepare the muscles I’ll be using in
the workout) for 10 minutes before working out. Around 10 minutes of warm-up
before these BUILD. workouts is perfect. If you’re after a little more info about
different warm-up styles, check out my video called ‘Warm-up Science Explained’ 🤸
Progre#ions:
There really aren’t many exercises that require progressions in BUILD., but for those
that do (like pull-ups and dips), there are easer versions included in the video to help
if you need them 😊 Just let the video play in the app to find a progression at a
level that gives you a good challenge. If you’re using the progressions, the best way
to advance is to work on the hardest one you can do but also try out the next one.
In case you don’t have any of the equipment:
Gyms really vary in the equipment they have. I’ve done my best to make sure that all
the moves in this guide suit any kind of gym. But if there’s something that you don’t
have access to, just swap it with a version that’s similar and copy the same set / rep
breakdown as in the guide. So for example, if your gym doesn’t have a barbell for
barbell rows, you can try on a smith machine, or use dumbbell rows.
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rest days
Rest days are genuinely just as important to overall progress as training
days. I really recommend being strict on keeping to the two rest days
ever week, and eating roughly the same as usual on these days so your
body can actually do what it’s supposed to: recover. The idea is that this
day can make the other five way more effective if you really take
advantage of them!
I personally do very little physically on my rest days, and try to focus on
enjoying the other things that make me happy like spending more time
with family and friends because the complete mental break really helps
too (:
However you’re spending them, just remember to take rest days seriously!
5 great workouts will be much more effective than 6 or 7 good ones. The
quality of training sessions will always fall if you’re overtraining, even if you
don’t notice it.
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If you’re just
Beginning
I clearly remember being a beginner to the gym as if it were couple of weeks
ago! If that’s you, go through the first week of the guide testing out all the
moves. Being new to a gym can feel daunting, so just familiarise yourself with all
the equipment, understand the moves and take time to read up on or talk to a
gym instructor about the form of exercises you’re not sure about. Focusing on
technique throughout your training, especially at the start, will help avoid injuries
and will develop your strength, coordination and functionality more efficiently.
Honestly, from experience, relearning a move down the line is much harder
than learning it right in the first place!
Also, spend the first week writing down all the weights you are using for the
different moves so that you can easily find your weights when you go back the AFLETE app makes it easy for you to do this 👍 I didn’t do this when I first
started and I used to spend a good 30mins each workout just thinking about
what weight I should be on, so I’ve already made that mistake for you!
Once you’ve practised with the guide a little using really light weights, feel free
to actually kick off the programme again (repeating the weeks you did in
practice), but this time actually using the weight that works for you.
Each time you get to a new move you haven’t seen before, again just spend
that first time getting used to the technique before doing it for sets and reps 🙏
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If you’re just
Beginning
Squa$ing & deadlifts:
These are extremely effective compound exercises that practically use all the
muscles in your body. They are key foundational move for so many reasons, and
doing them well definitely takes time! I spent my first three or four weeks of
squatting literally just working on my flexibility in the gym and before bed, getting
really comfortable sitting in a deep frog squat for a few seconds. Only on my fourth
or so week did I actually start adding a small amount of weight. Mobility is
important for allowing your body to move the right way, and it’ll take a little time to
develop.
That’s pretty true of training in general. There’s a little bit of foundational work that
goes in to understanding the movement of each exercise to get tension through the
right angles, but taking a few easy weeks up front is honestly so worth it!
Building your confidence at the gym:
If you feel uncomfortable at all being in a gym, just remember that you’re there to
do such an amazing thing for yourself and that every single person – even Usain
Bolt or Serena Williams – was a complete beginner at one point and made their
many mistakes along the way! I still make them too, and that’s because I’m still
learning which is the most important part! As long as you’re being careful to keep
yourself safe, there’s honestly absolutely nothing at all to worry about! ❤
It’s amazing that you’ve started and I’m so excited for everything ahead of you!
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Injuries
If you suspect you have any kind of injury, I always recommend seeing a
qualified practitioner before anything else. Even if it’s a small niggle, don’t
stress at all about taking some time to recover and continue with this
programme when your body is ready so that you can keep the sessions
intense as intended 🔥
I’ve pushed myself through workouts with small injuries out of fear that I’ll
lose my progress, and the setback of having a worse injury has always
been bigger than if I’d slowed down for a moment to let my body recover.
If you’d like to stay active through your injury, try using machines for a while
to keep your muscles engaged while protecting yourself from further injury.
Active recovery can also be really helpful for the injury as light stretching
and very light exercise can increase blood flow to the area which can
improve the rate of recovery. Again, if you want to give this a go, I’d
recommend clearing this with your doctor first.
If you have any issues with the impact of some of the plyometric exercises
(e.g. jumping squats, box jumps), a really great way to mimic this style of
training is to perform similar, no-impact exercises but using speed variations
to replicate the explosiveness. For example, to get a similar outcome to a
box jump, you can try squatting with a light weight, but performing the
negative of the motion very slowly (2-5 seconds), and then exploding up
and performing the concentric (lifting) part of the exercise as quickly as you
can.
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Once you’ve
Finished
Wherever you’re going next, these are the steps I like to think through when
I’m building my own plan.
1. Define the goals you’re working towards: whether it’s strength,
explosiveness, muscle building, calisthenics, fat loss or whatever you’d
like - even if it’s a mix
2. Identify which workout styles work best for the goals you’ve
set: most workout styles will be useful for making progress across a
number of goals, but will generally be best for a particular target
•
e.g.1: hypertrophy training for muscle building to shape your body and
increasing your metabolism to make you leaner in a sustainable way
•
e.g.2: plyometric for improving speed and explosiveness and reducing fat
on a relatively efficient but more short-term basis
3. Design your workout split: firstly, split your muscle groups or
training style across days to best serve your goal. After a rest day, I like
to put my most intense and important session for whatever my goal is.
Another tip is to try to give each muscle at least 48 hours between
muscle building sessions, so you can help recovery and be primed for
those workouts.
In terms of overall volume, from experience and from working with
successful athletes, 4-5 intense sessions is the maximum to shoot for.
Trying to go beyond this runs a high risk of lowering the intensity of all
sessions - fewer great sessions will cause your body to adapt more than
more average ones!
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Once you’ve
Finished
Making the workout split sustainable by building it around your lifestyle was a
big lesson for me. I realised that the physical goals I was chasing will take time
to achieve, and I can only keep going for long enough if I make my workout
splits fit in with else. For example, if you have two particularly busy days where
you just can’t workout, don’t worry about it. Feel free to take the two full days
as rest and bear that in mind with the other five days, rather than trying to
force fit a programme into your life.
4. Creating your individual workout: this will take trial and error, and will
also be massively influenced by what your goals are, but there are a few key
tips I really believe in which have helped me across all the workout styles I’ve
tried:
• Within a workout, start with the exercise that is the most important to driving towards
your goal. Generally, this will be the most difficult move, and is usually compound, but
it may not be. After, try to keep key moves quite early into the workout as a general
rule of thumb.
•
Swap between muscles / muscle groups every 1 – 2 exercises to avoid burnout,
unless you’re training in a style where that is the goal like hypertrophy. You’ll see in this
guide, on upper body days, I try to move from ‘pull movements’ to ‘push movements’ a
couple of times through the workouts generally (some days, not doing this is
intentional for other reasons).
•
Including 1 – 2 exercises each workout which are slightly less intense, maybe because
they use smaller muscle groups or because they are more skill based, can be really
helpful for getting the most out of your intense exercises. You can mix these in, maybe
ahead of a difficult plyometric or compound move, to give you a few minutes to
recuperate and moderate your heart rate before you push yourself again.
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Once you’ve
Finished
•
Generally, in terms of the overall structure of the workouts, I personally
think that 40 – 75 minutes is the window for training duration for the styles
of training incorporated here. That will definitely be person dependent, so
this is just from my experience. The rest periods I mention above in ‘How to
Use this Guide’ are those that I’d recommend generally, but again feel
free to adapt to whatever makes you feel ready to go while really
challenging you.
•
Lastly, mixing up the number of exercises across your workouts can also be
a helpful tool. Some days, I’ll spend almost the entire session really
focussing on squats or other foundational moves. Other days, I’ll pack in a
massive number of different exercises and just keep working through them
all.
5. Set yourself up to enjoy your training: this isn’t really the same
type of tactic as the other four, but it might be the most important
one on the list. I’ve trained for a whole number of reasons over the
last few years, and I really have learnt that nothing is more important
than finding and listening to what you’re in love with doing.
I honestly believe it’s the absolute key to feeling happy and healthy
overall, which is the best goal I could ever try to workout for. And the
funny thing about just listening to what I wanted to do, even if it
meant weird workouts with five different training styles included, was
that it made my performance probably the best it’s ever been.
Exercising with love and because you’re excited to shape or teach
yourself really will make all the difference.
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Hit me up!
Thank you so much
again for buying this
guide, I really hope you
find BUILD. helpful and
feel free to tag me in
your training photos! I’d
love to see your
progress over time!!
natacha.oceane
Natacha Océane
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