A question of strength When and how often should you change your training sessions?

Q: How often do I need to change my training sessions?

A: This is a good, but somewhat complex question. Changing your workouts can mean different things for different people. Are we talking about completely new exercises and methods or are we talking about simply changing a few elements like the number of reps per set or the tempo used?

I plan small changes on a weekly basis. My clients rarely repeat the same week of training. We add or remove sets, we change the repetition schemes or change the tempo a little. But within a training phase this happens without changing the exercises or the training zone.

For example, we can change the set/repetition scheme in the following way:

• Week 1: 8/6/4/8/6/4
• Week 2: 7/5/3/7/5/3
• Week 3: 6/4/2/6/4/2
• Week 4: 5/3/1/5/3/1

Or we can change how the repetitions are performed:

• Week 1: 3 sets of 6 repetitions with 5 seconds hold in the position with the most tension
• Week 2: 3 sets of 6 repetitions with a 6-second eccentric/negative phase
• Week 3: 3 sets of 6 repetitions with a 3-second hold in the position of greatest tension
• Week 4: 3 sets of 6 normal repetitions

Or we can add intensification methods:

• Week 1: 3 sets of 8-10 repetitions, until 1-2 repetitions before reaching muscle failure
• Week 2: 3 sets of 8-10 repetitions until muscle failure
• Week 3: 3 sets of 8-10 repetitions until muscle failure, 15 seconds rest, then as many extra repetitions as possible (rest/pause)
• Week 4: 2 sets of 8-10 repetitions to muscle failure, 15 seconds rest, then as many extra repetitions as possible (rest/pause), then hold in the position with the strongest tension for as long as possible

On the other hand, if we are talking about changing the entire training program, every 3 to 4 weeks works best for most people. However, that doesn't mean you have to change everything.

For example, let's say you use a 5/3/1 plan. Each training phase lasts 4 weeks (5-3-1-unload)

After the unload, you start a new phase with the big basic exercises, but with adapted weights. And you continue with this until death do us part.

Personally, I would plan changes in the supporting exercises for each new phase. In other words, you keep the four basic exercises of the 5/3/1 plan, but change the supporting exercises every 4 weeks.

I believe that the longer you use a particular workout, the less effective it becomes. For this reason, I plan a few elements of change each week. However, changing exercises too often can also limit your gains because you never become efficient at one exercise. To keep it simple, you can change some of your exercises every 3 to 4 weeks and the way you perform your sets and reps from week to week.

Muscle growth during a keto diet

Q: I've been on a keto diet for 8 weeks and have lost fat. But now I would like to build muscle. Can I do this while on a keto diet?

A: It depends on how much time you have. If you eat enough protein and maintain a calorie surplus, then you can build some muscle while on a keto diet.

However, several things make a keto diet inefficient for maximum muscle gain. First, let's look at the positives of a keto diet when it comes to building muscle.

The benefits of a keto diet

Adequate protein intake

Many would say that a true keto diet is not high in protein. A lot of people are on a very low-carb diet but not really in a state of ketosis because they are consuming too much protein, which is converted to glucose.

But a keto diet usually provides sufficient amounts of protein to support muscle growth and help stimulate protein synthesis. This is especially true if you are in a calorie surplus.

It is possible to consume enough calories

Even if you don't need to be in a calorie surplus to build muscle, it makes the process easier and faster. And it is quite possible to maintain a calorie surplus while following a keto diet. Ultimately, it has a high energy density (it provides a lot of calories per gram).

Good hormonal support

Diets that are low in fat usually lead to lower testosterone (and estrogen) levels. This obviously won't be a problem on a keto diet, as it provides more than enough fat for sex hormone production. However, if your body already has enough fatty acids to support hormone production, then eating more fat will not lead to an equivalent increase in testosterone levels.

Increased dopamine and adrenaline levels

A keto diet tends to result in higher dopamine and adrenaline levels than a diet that provides more carbohydrates. This is partly due to the higher protein intake necessary to produce both of these neurotransmitters, but also due to the higher cortisol levels associated with a keto diet.

Cortisol increases the conversion of noradrenaline into adrenaline. The more cortisol you have, the higher your adrenaline levels will be. A keto diet leads to higher cortisol levels (all else being equal) because one of the main functions of cortisol is to mobilize stored glycogen and break down muscles into amino acids (to be able to make glucose from them) when blood sugar levels are low.

Since blood sugar levels will be lower during a keto diet, cortisol levels will be higher. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why a lot of people (initially) have more energy on a keto diet: more adrenaline. This adrenaline can help you train harder, which helps stimulate more muscle growth. But, as we'll see in a moment, this comes at a price.

The disadvantages of keto

Here's what makes a keto diet suboptimal for building muscle:

Lower IGF-1 levels

Insulin promotes the production of IGF-1 via the liver (for optimal IGF-1 production you need growth hormone and insulin). IGF-1 is the most anabolic hormone in the body. When you follow a keto diet, insulin secretion is so low that this automatically leads to lower IGF-1 levels, reducing the stimulation of protein synthesis.

Less mTOR activation

mTOR is an enzyme involved in cellular growth, including muscle growth. The more it is activated, the higher the rate of protein synthesis can be and the more growth you can stimulate. mTOR is activated by mechanical factors (stretching a muscle fibre while it produces a lot of tension), but nutrition also has an influence.

In particular, insulin and certain amino acids such as leucine and glycine can increase mTOR activation. Even if you can consume these amino acids on a keto diet, you won't really get much insulin, so your mTOR activation won't be as strong as it could be.

However, lower IGF-1 and mTOR levels are also a positive aspect of this diet when it comes to potentially slowing down aging and even slowing down the growth of cancer cells. They're just not optimal for muscle growth.

Less insulin

Insulin is often seen as the bad guy when it comes to body composition, but that's not the truth. If you want to maximize your muscle growth, insulin can be a reliable ally as it increases nutrient uptake (including protein) by the muscles, increases the rate of protein synthesis and reduces protein breakdown. On a keto diet, however, your insulin secretion is lower due to the low carbohydrate intake.

More cortisol

All else being equal, you will have a higher cortisol release on a keto diet than on a higher carbohydrate diet. The reason for this? One of the main functions of cortisol is to help the body raise blood sugar levels when they are too low.

Keto advocates like to talk about glucagon as the hormone that brings your blood sugar levels up when they're too low, because glucagon doesn't have the bad reputation of cortisol. In reality, however, the two work together. Cortisol is the primary "breakdown" hormone because it breaks down stored energy when it's needed.

You may need mobilized energy either because you are in a calorie deficit or because your blood sugar levels are low (this can be the case even if you are in a calorie surplus - especially on a low-carb diet).

Because you're not eating as many carbohydrates on a keto diet, your body has to rely on stored glycogen or amino acids to regulate your blood sugar levels. This will lead to higher cortisol levels. And obviously, it's not great for muscle growth if your body has to break down muscle tissue into its amino acids to maintain stable blood sugar levels.

Peripheral insulin resistance

This is something I've noticed in bodybuilders. When they spend a lot of time preparing for their competition on a low carbohydrate diet, the pre-competition carbohydrate replenishment (to fill up the muscles with more glycogen to make them appear bigger) just hasn't worked.

It seems like the muscles stay flat and these bodybuilders just bulk up. Through an investigation into this phenomenon, I have found that a low-carb diet or a keto diet leads to peripheral insulin resistance to protect the body from hypoglycemia (low blood sugar levels).

If you don't eat a lot of carbohydrates, your blood sugar levels will tend to be low. If blood sugar levels are too low, this is dangerous. One adaptation to a very low carbohydrate intake is to make the muscles resistant to insulin. This means that the muscles stop responding to insulin.

When your body releases insulin during a keto diet (even if you eat protein, your body responds by releasing insulin), the glucose in your blood will tend to stay there instead of being transported to the muscles, reducing the risk of hypoglycemia. This peripheral insulin resistance makes it hard to benefit from a carbohydrate load and will also make it harder to get amino acids into the muscles, making muscle growth difficult.

Poorer training performance

A pure strength training session (low reps, long rests between sets) won't be as affected by a keto diet - at least not on the energy front. But there may be a loss of strength due to reduced passive stability.

Heavy training does not rely on glucose for energy. It primarily uses phosphagens. As we've already seen, a keto diet tends to be high in creatine due to mostly high meat consumption.

However, traditional hypertrophy training (higher reps, longer time under tension, shorter rest intervals, more volume) will definitely work better if the body can use glucose for energy.

Yes, ketones can also work, but they are less efficient than glucose for this type of training. If your workout involves more volume and longer sets (anything from 20 to 120 seconds per set or more), then a keto diet will affect your performance). Note: Your exercise performance may initially increase due to higher adrenaline levels. This may compensate to some extent for the less efficient energy supply. But this will not last long, as you will soon see.

Stronger training burnout

I've already explained how a keto diet leads to higher adrenaline levels. This can be cool at first as it gives you the illusion of more energy, drive and motivation. However, it comes with a risk: downregulation of beta-adrenergic receptors.

If adrenaline levels are elevated too much or for too long, beta-adrenergic receptors can quickly become desensitized, making you less responsive and less responsive to adrenaline. And if you reach a point where the downregulation is too pronounced, you will begin to suffer from the following:

• A decrease in muscle strength and speed
• Poorer muscle tone
• A decrease in coordination
• A decrease in endurance due to a weaker contraction force potential of the heart
• A decrease in motivation, drive and energy
• A decrease in mental sharpness

This is what I call exercise burnout and with a keto diet the risk of this occurring is greater due to the higher adrenaline and cortisol release.

In addition, it becomes harder to "calm down" or shut down the brain after a training session if you follow a keto diet. This is because carbohydrates are very effective at lowering adrenaline and cortisol levels by increasing blood sugar levels. Post-workout carbohydrates can help you lower post-workout cortisol and adrenaline levels. However, you obviously won't achieve this on a keto diet.

Less passive stability

Normally, the tissue around a joint generates pressure on the joint and this pressure helps to stabilize the joint. Muscle volumization is one of the main elements of passive stabilization. When you fill up your muscles as much as possible with water and/or carbohydrates, they expand and put more pressure on the neighboring joints.

Glycogen and water are the two main elements involved in muscle volumization. However, both will decrease during a keto diet. In general, a keto diet can lead to loss of strength, which is especially true for pushing exercises that involve the shoulder joint. As the shoulder joint is the most unstable joint in the body, it has the greatest risk of performance loss due to less stability.

Can you prevent this from happening? Sure you can. If you do a lot of exercises to increase the active stability of your shoulders and if you consume large amounts of electrolytes to prevent water loss. Also, consuming creatine will help as it can volumize the muscle cells.

So you can build muscle on a keto diet, but it's not ideal. I would at least consume some carbs around training to achieve more IGF-1 and greater mTOR activation (and lower cortisol levels).

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-62

By Christian Thibaudeau