I'd suggest picking up some Italian food tastes, simple, quick, and easy to balance. Not as quick as grabbing something ready to eat admittedly. But lets face it, a well balanced meal can be knocked up in less than 20 minutes if you keep it simple. Shame there's 20 minutes of washing up afterwards!
If you are looking for some in depth info I'd recommend Matt Fitzgeralds 'Racing Weight', stacks of info. Possibly too much but there's enough info that you can scan through to get the ball rolling.
A banana and a glass of milk would also work well!Originally Posted by that_fjell_guy
Thanks for your replies, well most of them anyway. Not sure what a 'gregory' is. I do follow a pretty good veg diet and try to pack in a variety of protein sources like pulses, eggs and dairy. I was thinking of supplements as I had noticed that my climbing had got a bit worse recently and I have had a couple of races where I haven't performed as well as I'd hoped-not that I'm at the front end of anything. I was wondering whether to spend some time trying to develop better leg strength by way of gym work etc and had read that to develop better muscle I should up my protein intake. I also thought about 'bulking up' a bit as I'm pretty lanky-6.2 and 11.5 stone. That said, I don't want to end up like arnie. I suppose it's a fine line really. I have tried to increase weight before but it just seems to go on as fat around my waist.
Gregory Peck. Neck. Sorry. Just being me usual facetious self. Actually don't eat meat meself but quite a lot of fish. Good luck with it.
Neilly, the friend that I mentioned did bulk up noticeably from using shakes but not to an extreme and it was not just due to the supplements. He also changed his diet a bit and started eating more low fat but high protein things including making smoothies using quark, fruit and the protein shake and it seems to have worked. My main problem is that I'm not a big fan of dairy products such as quark, yoghurt, milk etc (and they don't like me much!) and I rarely eat them. I like cheese but that's pretty high in fat. I've got plans to try and up my leg strength with more hill cycling and strength training but so far the plan is in my head...could do to make it a reality!
Cheers Shaunaneto. I do tend to stray towards Italian cooking cum Chinese/Indian. Maybe I do get enough protien from my diet. Who knows? I used to make my own 'shakes' using milk, two eggs and several scoops of dried milk (Marvel!!). It was lovely slightly chilled! But really the protien probably works out cheaper! I'll have a look at the 'required reading list!'
Cheers again.
it would be helpful to define the 'improvement' you are looking for.
faster? leaner?
Basically stronger on climbs. I know that to get faster I need to do more speed work, to get more endurance I need to do more long stuff etc. I try to do a speed session on treadmill once a week and try to get in a two hour hill run each week. I do about 2000m of climbing a week and do all my running off road in the hills around Skye. I feel I've been stuck for the last few years and my times are starting to get slower. I've always been fairly average and am a middle of the packer. I suppose I was hoping that there was some kind of magic pill I could take so I didn't have to A do more training or B accept I'm past it-I'm 42.
Everyone has plateau's etc. Leg strength and endurance is the key. I use a cross-trainer a fair bit and definately think that it has boosted my climbing performance. But really, no secret pill, just getting out up hills I guess. I know I sometimes think I'm not improving but sometimes I reckon I just need to be more confident at pushing on in races, so thats my plan!! Get down Glen Brittle three times up Scurr Dearg!! :thumbup:
At 42 you aren't going to end up like arnie. If you want to bulk up you have to accept that you will gain fat at the same time. If you can't deal with that then bulking isn't an option. Apparently the fat gain can be limited by intermittent fasting - not something I've tried myself but I know people who have with good results.
Not sure what you mean by better muscle, but to gain more muscle you will have to eat more protein, and probably a lot more calories than you do now.
As far as gaining muscle do the 5 basic compound exercises into your programme which are bench, press, row (power cleans are better, but they are technically more difficult to perform), deadlift and squat.
Check out Mark Rippetoe's starting strength programme for a good guide.
Whats also worth remembering is that bigger muscle doesn't always mean stronger.
Last edited by The devil's own; 18-07-2012 at 10:50 PM.
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