How to start off the metabolic flexibility approach

[Scott Stevenson]

My overall goal is to better my body composition and increase my athletisim. Been competing for about 7 years in bodybuilding so I really neglected my athleticism so I'm trying to get it back since I'm done with competing(for now at least. Maybe I'll do masters in a few years if I do come back)

Been playing sports for about 6 weeks now. I am losing weight on a ketogenic diet and love the benefits as far as over all health and how easy it is.

Im a big believe in setting specific goals. "Athleticism" really means nothing specific as far as a goal per se. (That word just refers generally to the set of qualities that athletes have, without specifying a sport per se.)

If you're trying to become a better basketball player or what have you, then training specifically for that / those sports is what I'd suggest. If you're just playing these sports (again), for the first time, you'll get better at them initially without doing any specific training.

So, the extent to which you get better at these sports would need to be something you'd set out specifically, ie.., at what level of performance you'd want to be playing. E.g. you might say that you want to be playing in X league and scoring at least 20pt / game.

Improve your body composition also is non-specific, as this could mean gaining muscle and/or losing fat and your'e not said how MUCH. Realistically, coming from a bodybuilding background, Id' not expect you to gain any more muscle when introducing all of these other activities, so holding on the muscle and losing body fat (still - how much?) would be the objective here.

But the reason I would like to change it is to try and get the best of both worlds is so that I can still perform well with weights and when I'm running. I noticed a dip in my explosiveness and I believe it's from the taking out carbs. I feel good when I'm just jogging and have a lot of energy from ketones but once I get to explosive movements like when I'm making quick cuts and when I'm exploding I feel weak after a while.

IMO, a ketogenic diet is NOT going to be the best for performance during high intensity sports, as you can tell already. You can lose body fat eating a higher carb diet (to support energy demands) that creates a slight caloric deficit.

How you program your weight training will depending upon the relative priority you place on holding on to muscle vs. getting better in these sports. If you're playing basketball 5 x / week and soccer 3x / week for 60-120min each, then weight training would ultimately have to be juggled around those activities, ideally at a different time of day, after which you have a prolonged recovery period. E.g., wt. training in the AM, big breakfast, etc. and then play sports at night.

I'd focus your weight training on heavy loading, too, to the extent that you can recover from this. This could be a very moderate volume.

If you're squatting 405 for a set of 8 right now, and have several other key lifts that you have done regularly, I'd do your best to hold on those lifts (load x reps) even if it means training them for just one all out set every 4-7 days. If, after 3 moths of this, you can still squat 405 for 6 reps and are nearly as strong on other "core" lifts, then you'll have likely held on to muscle mass quite well.

There are a ton of ways to program these sorts of things, but it will have to fit in with your schedule, rest days, own recovery abilities, relative priority as far as sports performance vs. muscle mass, etc. This is really akin to what sports teams do In vs. off-season in the weight room. Football, basketball, rugby, soccer, and other similar sports generally focus on maintaining the strength / size that was built in the off-season, without cutting into recovery from practices and games, in an effort to maintain the performance benefits that carry over from the weight training.

-S