Summer training program vs winter training program, aka periodisation

So now that Summer is official over (although isn't it nice and sunny out there today?) it's time to start thinking about how to modify your training program for the Autumn & Winter period. If you've followed my blogs for a while you'll know I cut back as far as possible on calories, did more cardio and switched to a Metabolic Resistance type of training program for the Spring, and stayed on relatively low calories through the Summer while beginning my Progressive Power program.

It's pretty much standard practice to cut back in the warmer months for obvious reasons. You want to be nice and lean for hitting the beach or the pool. In the cooler months though it's time to up the calories and try to put on some muscle. Of course that's followed once again by cutting back to strip off any extra fat you've gained in the process, but the end result being that you're still lean and mean + a bit bigger next summer.

So as of today I am on a 3000 calorie vegetarian body building diet, in fact the exact same diet as is included in my Progressive Power For Vegetarians package on my website. I'll be sticking with the Progressive Power program for rest of March at the least, to really maximise my strength gains before moving on to a new program in April looking at maximum muscle hypertrophy.

This summer I was definitely in the best, most lean shape of my adult life... and this year I want to be my biggest AND also most lean.