Returned today to gym after a 10-day break with wife and kid.

Lazying around doing nothing and ate lots of chocolate! Visited Pearly Beach and a warm water Spa in the mountains – good family bonding time.

But back to business and now I start with my 3-month building phase.

Meaning, fewer reps per set (max 8) and fewer sets per session (max 16) and MUCH heavier weights (failure on 6-8th rep of each set).

This is my kind of food…I love the intensity of the building phase.

During it, I increase my daily calorie intake slightly but not with more than 15% – just to help the muscle growth a bit.

Otherwise I keep on eating very lean and very healthy with lots of raw veggies and some fruit and 10 glasses water per day.

I eat about 1g protein per kg bodyweight – it is less than most suggest, but I keep it rather low to keep pressure off the kidneys.

Here are a few pics I took upon returning to gym after the 10-day break (49 y/o…going on 50 now, eish!)

(Some damage as u can see from doing nothing for 10 days, less definition and hardness to the muscles but I should recover that within the next 2 weeks.)

The first two weeks went great with the growing phase.

On ALL my excercises my max weight has increased rather drastically. A proof that 3 months lighter weights with higher reps alternated with 3 months low reps heavy weights and short break in between really WORKS. It increase power drastically and allow tendons and joint enough time to heal and strengthen.

Here is a pic I took during week two of the building phase (10 Oct 2013):