How I Plan to Build Muscle & Shed Fat Over the Next 10 Weeks

Happy Monday!

Since Twitter and Substack are still at war, and I can’t embed tweets, I’m changing the format for the Monday edition.

It’ll be a quick dose edition, with the more flushed-out letters still happening on Thursdays.

For now, Mondays are going to consist of a

• Quote

• Health/Fitness Tip

• An Idea

Today at a glance:

• A quick and easy way to supercharge your nutrition.

• How to stop tricking yourself into procrastinating on your goals

• Intro to the 10-week Body Recomposition Challenge I’ll be documenting

Quote:

Health Tip

Want a quick and easy way to supercharge your diet?

Use ginger and garlic.

It’s easy to add ginger and garlic to a ton of meals, and these 2 foods pack a serious punch.

Garlic contains a compound called allicin.

Allicin is released when you cut or crush garlic; this is why it’s suggested to let garlic sit for a few minutes after you dice it up.

Allicin can boost the immune system, supports cardiovascular health, and is anti-inflammatory.

Garlic is also a source of magnesium and vitamin b6, and it happens to be delicious.

Ginger is more of an acquired taste.

The main active compound in ginger is gingerol.

Ginger is thought to be beneficial for gut health, reducing inflammation, improving blood sugar, and possibly lowering cholesterol.

Adding garlic and ginger to nearly any stir fry or rice + protein bowl is an easy way to give your nutrition a boost.

Idea

You can’t outsource change

Something I’ve run into both in my behavior and in observing others is the tendency to outsource change to a more convenient time.

A time when you feel like it.

You might pick a massive time frame for your weight loss plan so you can put off making the behavior change required to get there.

Whether we’re talking about fitness or any other domain of life, this thinking is flawed.

Things don’t get any easier in the future; you use this logic to justify not taking the necessary action.

Results come from consistently practicing the habits that produce the outcome you want.

There is no starting tomorrow or next week.

We just use that bullshit to put off making the hard decision now.

I used to tell myself I’d have “one last cheat day.”

The only thing that counts is resisting unhelpful behavior in the present moment.

“One more” and “I’ll start tomorrow” are simply ways of tapping out without facing it.

Change doesn’t get easier.

If something is hard now, it’s gonna stay hard.

The only way to make it less hard is to take it on now.

You can’t outsource discipline to the future.

You can’t outsource change.

10-Week Recomposition Challenge

I’m turning 32 years old in exactly ten weeks, and as a birthday present to myself, I want to get into the best shape I’ve ever been in.

My goal is to beat my best from last summer.

I’ll be attempting to do a body recomposition: where you build muscle and lose fat at the same time.

I’m starting at ~180 pounds, and I’m expecting to lose between 5 - 10 pounds. The focus isn’t strictly on weight loss since I’m hoping to be able to add some size as well.

This is my competition:

And this is my starting point:

Body Recomposition Guidelines

Here’s my strategy:

Subtle Calorie Deficit

If you’re planning to build muscle and lose fat at the same time (and you’re not brand new to the gym), it’s crucial that you have enough energy to train hard enough to stimulate muscle growth.

Training in a calorie deficit is not ideal. When recomping, you want the deficit to be more minor, somewhere between 5-15%.

I’m going to start my calories around 2600 per day, and I’ll see what the mirror and the scale report.

I won’t go below 2300 at the very lowest, though.

Mucho Protein

Protein is always important.

But it’s EXTRA important when you’re recomping.

I’ll be getting anywhere from 200 - 250g of protein per day.

Yes, that’s more than 1g per pound of body weight. Consider the extra as insurance protein.

Curious about how I can get that much protein in while sticking to relatively low calories?

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter, and read these updates & engage in the chat!

A Hypertrophy-focused training plan

Strength, power, and hypertrophy are all trained slightly differently.

It’s important to choose a program that emphasizes muscle hypertrophy over anything else if you’re attempting to recomp.

This means:

• Between 10-20 sets per week per muscle group

• Sets should be between 6-20 reps

• Sets should be taken close to muscular failure

• Train each muscle min 2x per week

• Increase the work by 5% each week by adding more reps, load, or sets

I’m following a program by Canadian bodybuilder and powerlifter Jeff Nippard.

I’ve been a fan of Jeffs for a while, and while I’ve looked at his programming for inspiration, I’ve never fully run one before.

I picked up his 4-day Full body Hypertrophy Split a few months back, and this is the perfect time to run it.

Full-body splits have been gaining in popularity, and I’m excited to give it a try.

Sleep and Recovery

I’ll be focusing on as much sleep as I can humanly get during the next ten weeks.

This can be a challenge because I work at a startup, have a coaching & content creation side hustle, am getting married, and have training to do.

But it’s something that needs to happen.

I bought a Whoop recently, so I’ll be relying on that for my recovery data.

I’ll try to give myself an 8-hour window each night.

Cardio

I’m reading Never Finished by David Goggins right now.

Consuming content from Goggins always makes me want to start running.

But aside from the odd recovery run, I’ll rely on low-impact cardio for the next ten weeks.

Recomping is hard enough on the body’s ability to recover already, I don’t need to add more stress to the equation.

My main form of cardio will be walking.

I’ll get 10 - 15k steps every day.

I’ll also use the incline treadmill + elliptical machine.

I’ll be doing updates every week in the Monday version, and I’m also going to be documenting everything on Instagram.

I’m opening up Substack chat. I’ll answer any questions about training/diet/ and the recomposition process during this time.

I’d like to encourage anyone who wants to lose ~10 pounds by summer to join me.

Follow along, get inspired, ask me any questions you might have, and even share your own progress results!

This will be my last diet for a while — I’m done with bulking and cutting.

From here on out, I want to focus on athletic performance and building muscle & strength.

When I did a diet last summer in preparation for a photoshoot, I took things a bit too far. I didn’t end up in a great spot, and I rebounded a bit.

I haven’t felt up to snapping back into diet mode with the toll that took on my mental and physical health until now, but I feel ready and pumped for this challenge!

I’m going to get to my “forever spot” — where I’m eating enough to feel good, happy with my level of leanness, and enjoying my training.

I won’t be taking things as far as I did last summer, and I’m hoping to increase my size and strength instead of losing any.

So if you want to follow along, keep an eye out for updates, follow me on Instagram, and participate in the chat.

I will answer every question I get.

The chat is a conversation space in the Substack app that I set up exclusively for my subscribers — kind of like a group chat or live hangout.

I’ll post short prompts & progress updates, and you’re welcome to jump into the discussion.

To join our chat, you’ll need to download the Substack app, now available for both iOS and Android. 

Chats are sent via the app, not email, so turn on push notifications so you don’t miss conversation as it happens.

When you’re ready, here’s how you can work with me.

I want to help you ditch confusing diets and workout programs and help you achieve your fitness goals in a way that works for you.

If you’re tired of spinning your tires, failing to get results, and wondering what you’re doing wrong, apply for 1-1 coaching now.

Results are guaranteed.

You’ll hit your goals, or I’ll work with you for free until you do.

-Colin “I’m going to beat the me from last year LFGGGGG” Matson