How to adjust templates

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

I’m 35, 6’3", ~200 lbs, ~14% body fat; I have been lifting for ~5 years, using your templates ~3-4 years.
5 years ago I was about 165 lbs.

I’ve been running the Strength III, PB II, Hypertrophy II, and maybe an endurance template over the last 1-2 years, and other similar older templates consistently for a few years more.
I’ve added a bunch of muscle mass and weight to lifts.

Question:
Specifically, I would like to know how you would recommend adjusting your templates to achieve these goals concurrently:

  1. increase or at least maintain muscle mass/muscular appearance in upper body (totally open to bigger arms/chest/back/shoulders)
  2. decrease muscle mass/appearance in lower body (smaller thighs and butt - wife is not a huge fan / favorite jeans are just too tight)

I currently eat for maintenance (2500-3000 cals(?)), my weight’s been the same for about 2 years, but I think muscle size has increased over that amount of time.

2

Colin,

Thanks for the post and I hope all is well. There’s nothing that I would adjust about the templates to facilitate these goals specifically, as these are mostly related to dietary structure. If you want to get smaller, reducing calories would be the idea. If you want to gain upper body mass, I’d be looking towards a calorie surplus.

I don’t actually think you want to reduce muscle mass, but if you did, you could stop doing lower body exercises. It won’t work very well provided you’re still active, but you may notice some changes.

-Jordan

3

I was assuming this goal could be achieved with something like:
-do less squats and deadlifts
-do more upper body
-more strength focused lower body
-more hypertrophy focused upper body
but you don’t think that would do it?

4

I think that adding more upper body volume may increase muscle mass provided it’s supported by dietary changes. That said, dietary changes alone may do it too. The rest of the changes you suggested are unlikely to help from a muscle mass reduction standpoint in the lower body. Strength training still increases muscle mass, ya know?

5

I think I understand, so provided calories stays the same, very little exercise is required to maintain muscle mass? So if I really want to decrease size, I would decrease calories.

And if I want to increase upper body size, definitely more calories are needed and possibly more volume will help.

Doing both simultaneously may not work.

6

Correct, though YMMV.