Mass Made Simple Lite

[vgpedlr]

Not much activity around these parts. But, for what it's worth, I will toss out my little experiment that I'm currently engaged in. While endurance sports are my passion, I do enjoy strength training, and it does value for endurance. I was leery of doing much gym work, worried that it would interfere with aerobic development a la Maffetone. Last fall I eased back into the gym experimented and built a little base strength. I've been heavily influenced by this guy Dan John. I became intrigued by his Mass Made Simple program. It is similar to really old school (read: pre-steroid) training programs that built tons of muscle and strength. I'm not os interested in mass, but these programs are based on high rep, heavy squats. Sounds like fighting up a steep technical climb on the MTB. So I gave it a go and lasted four weeks until I picked up a bug. Fell off the wagon, then switched to maintenance later in the spring. Definitely helped my riding as I had greater torque.

So I've spent the last couple months rebuilding my strength base following some of Dan John's ideas and riding whenever. Now, I've hung up the wheels for a few weeks to just blast away in the gym to see how much strength I can build before I start aerobic base training in January.

Periodically people have questions here about putting on muscle mass. I'm no expert, but this guy Dan John has some great ideas. So for those interested, here goes:

Dan John
I've read most of his books,Mass Made Simple was the start.
I haven't had the strength base for that program, and was trying to figure out how to scale it down. Fortunately folks on his forum had already asked, and he delivered:
Mass Made Simple Lite
I'm wrapping up week 2. A little sore, but so far, so good.

I've read most of his books and many articles. A gold mine, and he's funny too.

So for those looking to get bigger, something to think about.

[vgpedlr]

Just finished the program and a one week break for a road trip. Last year I tried and got derailed toward the end. Didn't get bigger necessarily, but I wasn't really trying. I was also experimenting with logging all food a la Josh Hillis with the CRON-O-Meter, so I wasn't really eating in a way to gain much weight. I wanted to get stronger, and take a break from the bike. It worked. I liked the program's focus on simple barbell training and loaded carries. I like squatting. Last year the time spent on the program definitely increased my torque on the MTB up those big CO climbs. I added in a short run on non lifting days and some 45 min walks most days to help keep aerobic function and help with recovery. I did some light KB swings as well, until my back got a little grumpy, and I wanted to save it for the squats.

Changing the program for two consecutive 40 day programs, one gym based, and one for road tripping.