Typically, between winter and summer, I go through what I call a two- to six-pack rotation. In the winter, my goal is to gain weight, allowing my body fat to increase slightly to a two-pack status. As spring arrives, I tighten up my diet, and my midsection responds with a four-pack look.
By summer, I shift to body composition training with full-body routines and one to two interval sessions per week—usually a mix of medicine ball training and sprinting. At this point, I’m sporting a six-pack. Then, as autumn rolls in, I drop the intervals and return to body part splits, increasing muscle size and strength while settling back to a four-pack.
Once winter hits, I focus on heavy strength training and increase my food intake. This usually means more saturated fats with each meal—things like organic butter, heavy whipping cream, or coconut oil. Of course, my carb intake rises, especially around the holidays.
My average weight sits at 200 pounds, fluctuating between 195 in the summer and 205 in the winter. I don’t feel comfortable outside of that 10-pound range, as I’ve mentioned before (see my article The Power Rack and The Power Pill).
So Why Am I Stuck at 200 Pounds?
Here we are, deep into winter—Thursday, February 6, 2014—and I should be five pounds heavier. But I’m not. I’m weighing in at exactly 200 pounds, and trust me, it’s not for a lack of eating!
So what’s different this year?
One simple answer: the weather.
Forget the bone-chilling cold that’s been causing these things called “frost quakes” in the middle of the night—explosions that sound like a bomb going off outside your house. They don’t exactly make for a restful sleep.
Forget the ice storm that had me spending half my holidays chipping away at the ice rink that formed around my house. That left me with some wicked blisters on my palms.
The real reason I haven’t been able to gain weight? Snow. Lots of it.
The Impact of Endless Snow Shoveling
I’ve been constantly shoveling this winter. Just last weekend, I was out three times clearing snow, and then again three more times yesterday. That’s six training sessions in less than a week—not even counting my strength work. And with more snow in the forecast, this cycle isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
And we’re not talking about a dusting of snow here—we’re talking about serious dumps, the kind that turn shoveling into a full-blown high-intensity interval workout.
It’s funny because most of my neighbors are out there with snow blowers. One even came over and asked how my back was handling all the shoveling. I told him, my back is fine—I was repping out 405-pound deadlifts the day before! It’s my arms that are taking a beating.
It’s tough to recover from workouts when you’re adding hundreds of extra repetitions between them. The way I’ve managed this is by reducing training volume but maintaining intensity. Fewer sets, but heavier loads. And surprisingly, I’ve actually made some solid strength gains during this period.
Why Not Just Hire Someone?
I know what you’re thinking—why not just hire someone to clear the snow?
Well, we did. And they did a terrible job.
When you’re running a business out of your home, the job needs to be done right and on time. The last guys we hired failed on both counts, so I took over. To be honest, I kind of enjoy it—just not when the snow banks are taller than me. That’s a bit excessive.
The Takeaway
If your goal is to gain quality weight, you need to eliminate all unnecessary physical activity. That means:
- No cardio
- No intervals
- No sports
- And definitely no shoveling snow multiple times a week
Instead, focus on the big three: eat, train, and recover. Nothing more. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate soon and tip the scale in my favor!
