One study found that consuming protein in moderate doses (20g every 3 hours) after a workout was more effective at stimulating MPS than larger or smaller, more frequent doses. Interestingly, supplementing with essential amino acids (EAAs) and carbohydrates between meals can provide an additional anabolic boost without interfering with the benefits of your main meals.

While the research is ongoing, especially regarding long-term effects on muscle mass, the current evidence suggests that consistent, well-timed protein intake throughout the day is key. For those looking to optimize muscle growth and recovery, aiming for balanced protein distribution with meals every 3-4 hours seems to be a practical approach.

Muscle Protein Balance & Resistance Exercise

• Without proper nutrition, resistance exercise alone leaves muscle protein balance in a negative state.

• Your muscles stay sensitive to protein and amino acids for up to 24 hours after a workout

Optimal Protein Intake Post-Exercise

• A protein dose of 20–40g (including 10–12g EAAs and 1–3g leucine) is ideal for stimulating muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and promoting a positive nitrogen balance.

• High-quality proteins rich in EAAs and leucine are key for maximizing MPS.

Pre-Exercise Nutrition Insights

• Combining amino acids with carbs before exercise may optimize MPS, although it doesn’t necessarily boost exercise performance.

• During endurance and resistance training, consuming carbs + protein/EAAs can support anabolic hormone balance, reduce muscle damage, and delay fatigue.

Post-Exercise Protein & Recovery

• Consuming protein post-exercise, especially with less-than-ideal carb intake (<1.2g/kg/day), can enhance muscle glycogen recovery and reduce muscle damage markers.

• Overall, total protein and calorie intake is crucial for positive training adaptations, with nutrient timing playing a lesser role in non-athletes.

Interested to know more? Reach out today, I’m happy to help.

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To build muscle effectively requires an understanding of biology and phsiology as well as nutrition. However, the way these fundamental principles fit into a phasic program that is achievable, drives performance, maintains health, and alters your body composition is unique for each individual.

Coaches with experience can provide the systems required to achieve success, and the best ones do this while ensuring the elements of that program are sustainable long-term.

My Philosophy

The fundamentals are to optimise and then maximise, always! Fats are kept to essential amounts only.

Optimize your protein to match your workload, and then maximise your carbohydrates to fascilitate performance, function, and repair.

Calorie Target

100% individual specific, and can range from anywhere between 50 to 300 calories in surplus each day.

While some body fat gain is inevitable, it should not be the primary goal.

I prefer a moderate surplus, achieved by alternating high and low-calorie days based on daily activity, ensuring a net weekly surplus.

Protein

1.5 to 3 grams/kg/day

Vegans on the higher end, while omnivores lower. Essential BCAAs are the goal, which veg do not have in high concentrations.

Match protein intake to LEAN muscle mass and output. Markers for effective protein intake is slight persistant DOMS. Too much protein is bad for kidneys.

Carbohydrates

3 to 9 grams/kg/day

This is manipulated to maintain weekly surplus and it is informed by output.

Effective carbohydrate intake leads to huge energy, consistent performance and recovery, drives biological processs involved in muscle growth and function, and healthy markers associated with health.

Fats

0.625 to 1 gram/kg/day

I encourage a combination of mono, poly, and saturated fats.

Fats are essential to health, but they are less so to performance. There is a threshold point where the benefit of intake is outweighed by the intake of carbohydrates. Do not be reckless.

Get a coach

You probably know a lot. But you won’t know as much as an expert in this field that does this for a living.

How this information fits into an achievable phasic model that drives performance, maintains health, and significantly changes body composition requires tailored understanding of biology and physiology.

Reach out today, I’m happy to help.

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Hypertrophy is an increase in muscle mass achieved through exercises like resistance and weight training. People pursue hypertrophy training to support their health goals, prevent injury, and improve appearance.

Macro vs micro

While macronutrients are the key focus for a lot of people, the micronutrients listed in the previous table are essential for muscle growth.

A deficiency in any one of these micronutrients significantly influences biological systems that govern muscle function, growth, and/or repair.

Micronutrient Intake

There are many reasons why people do not know their intake of these micronutrients:

• Lack of intake data tracking
• Inconsistencies in nutrient databases for common dietary tracking applications
• Unknown recommended dietary intake requirements for demographic group
• Biological availability or absorption

Calorie deficit

This is for everyone, but is of particular importance for women who chronically undereat. Smaller bodies = smaller calorie target = less opportunity for food/nutrients.

Achieving the recommended micronutrient intake requirements are extremely difficult for people who chronically eat low calories to attempt to maintain weight.

Strategy

People who want to achieve significant change need to look 2-years into the future. A phasic approach to nutrition moving between calorie surplus & deficit is essential to improve body composition.

Having access to the right tools helps massively too, if you would like some help contact me here.

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Who is CHO cycling for?

Carbohydrate cycling is a methodology I implement with almost all clients that are prepared to show careful consideration to their food intake.

Getting a system that works well for you requires time and testing. If you are prepared to commit and objectively appraise your progress, then this could be perfect for you.

How to do it effectively

Whether you are in a deficit or surplus, the execution is roughly the same. For high-exertion days, you increase carbohydrate intake (relative to the amount of lean muscle mass you have), and decrease it back to baseline for the low-intensity days.

Greater surplus? More high CHO days

Greater deficit? Less high CHO days

Specifics

Generally, you’ll measure the cycle by using the amount of grams of CHO with your body mass.

I generally don’t go above 7g/kg of body weight in carbs, but this is individual specific.

The thing I focus on is a 1-2g/kg increase from low to high day depending on the athlete (provided protein and fat are similar).

When you are ready to make a change contact me here.

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Movements

1. Heavy Press (Close grip)
2. Stretched Cable (Overhead)
3. Heavy Extension (Skullcrusher)

Why?

Heavy press – Achieves greatest peak torque which drives best adaptation response.

Stretched cable – Strength curve favors greatest toqure requirement while stretched.

Heavy extension – Strength curve favors greatest torque requirement while less stretched.

Triceps are involved in all chest pressing movements. There is no such thing as off-target volume, so equating total volume for triceps per week needs to include chest workouts. I don’t ever see a need to have more than 6 additional sets of Triceps if Chest workouts are sufficient.

If you are looking for profesisonal help with your program or assistance with movement, contact me here.

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My belief system is always to optimise training, nutrition, and lifestyle factors to optimise interventions so that a person can achieve a significant result, then maintain that result long-term with enjoyment and satisfaction as key markers of success.

The goldilocks zone

The point where body mass is decreasing (can be any amount per week) while markers of performance are increasing weekly, with an average 85% consistency across training, nutrition, and lifestyle variables.

Maximise nutrition & energy

Starvation does not promote performance nor the accumulation of muscle mass (inefficient tissue metabolically). Maximising nutrition and energy prolongs the time for meaningful response to interventions and time to plateau.

Carbohydrates are key

Once adequate protein intake is established, carbohydrates want to be as high as possible. Anyone that tells you that they are not meant to be has not coached regular people with regular genetics to become lean. Give the body the best macronutrient to consistenly perform to a high level

Variables to measure

• Body mass
• Training performance
• Visuals
• Dietary intake
• Enjoyment & satisfaction
• Stress
• Energy

Get a coach

A systems-based approach from a professional streamlines the process and provides a speedy level up! Contact me here when you are ready to make a change.

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The focus should always be on what you are doing most of the time. Recognising when you are going through certain phases is important to the long-term maintenance of health. Too often I engage with people who are overly negative and critical about their perceived ‘failings’ when they are a natural fluctuation in behaviour.

A strong mid-point of health bolstered by diet, movement, and other factors is always the goal. I have learned to enjoy the phases of imperfection, as it enables me to return to my mid point faster with less critical negative attachment to outcomes.

Remember, it’s about progress, not perfection. Embrace every phase and keep moving forward.

When you are ready to make a change, contact me here.

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Each person has their own lived experience with things they like and don’t like, which can be challenged when approaching a coach for the betterment of health.

My systems-based approach is heavily informed by the available literature, however my experience enables finesse in how I apply the evidence-base to an your situation.

Effective progressive overload can be achieved through numerous different variables (evidence), and a great coach connects and adjusts the right variables for you (evidence-informed).

When you understand what success looks like, align yourself with interventions that you enjoy, and review your short-term success in meaningful ways that are compounded long-term, you can achieve success.

When you are ready to make a change, contact me here.

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A significant result is going to be unique for each person, but could fall into a range of different yet interrelated outcomes including:

• Body recomposition (increasing the percentage of lean muscle mass)
• Improving athletic performance (endurance or strength)
• Improving biomarkers associated with physiological heath
• Decreasing body fat mass

A simple example could be increasing from 18 to 20 completed reps for a 100kg barbell squat over a two-week period.

By calculating volume (reps x weight) and comparing the two weeks, the individual has increased performance by ~11%, which is a significant result.

When you are ready to make a change, contact me here.

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While this might seem like it is difficult to achieve, the right interventions harmonize with your life and lifestyle where they become the norm.

This is why enjoyment and satisfaction are key markers to evaluate throughout the process.

The initiation of interventions with me are always done with the future in mind, as I understand the importance of achieving, maintaining, and then compounding significant change long-term.

When you are ready to make a change, contact me here.

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