Born with Right Side Spasticity, Thomas was able to overcome and build muscle evenly throughout his body with the help and guidance of his Thesis Personal Trainer.
Spasticity is a condition where muscles are tightened due to prolonged involuntary muscle contraction. This causes inhibited muscle growth and lack of protein synthesis in muscle cells, which further results in overall weakened muscles.
Thomas’s Spasticity has made the right side of his body less developed muscularly than his left. But with a wedding coming up in only 9 months, and feeling like he was plateauing on his own, Thomas turned to Thesis Personal Training to help him achieve his fitness goals.
Thomas’s Starting Body Composition – October 2023
Starting Body Fat %: 20.7%
Weight of Left Arm: 7.12 lbs
Weight of Right Arm: 6.08 lbs
Weight of Left Leg: 19.64 lbs
Weight of Right Leg: 18.72 lbs
Starting total Muscle Mass: 69.7 lbs
Thomas’s Current Body Composition – April 2024 (6 month check in)
Ending Body Fat %: 12.6
Weight of Left Arm: 7.58lbs
Weight of Right Arm: 6.44lbs
Weight of Left Leg: 20.57 lbs
Weight of Right Leg: 19.25 lbs
Ending Muscle Mass: 72.8 lbs
With the help of his Trainer, Nate, Thomas was able to decrease his body fat by 39% while increasing his muscle mass by 5%.
Thomas’s Training Routine
Phase 1:
Strength Training – three days per week
Bi-lateral training to lose bodyfat and begin to increase baseline strength. Exercises included -
1. Hack Squat
2. Back Extension
3. Chest Press
4. Leg Curls
5. Lat Pull Down
6. Bicep Curl
7. Triceps Extension
8. Prone Lat Raise
Cardio – two to three days a week
Thomas was training for 5K races, so his cardio included 3 mile runs with 15 minute core burnout following. Core work includes crunches and timed planks.
Recovery – one day per week
One yoga class weekly
Phase 2:
Strength Training – three days per week
Continue to build bi-lateral strength adding in isolations, tempo and negatives while increasing cardio duration by 50%.
Cardio – two to three days a week
3-5 miles per run with 15 minute core burnout following. Core work includes crunches and timed planks.
Recovery – one day per week
One yoga class weekly
Phase 3:
Strength Training – three days per week
Unilateral work with weight determined based off the right side (weaker side) to get similar muscle development.
Exercises Include -
1. Single Arm Row
2. Single Arm Lat Pull Down
3. Split Squat (single leg)
4. Bicep Curl (single arm)
5. Triceps Press (single arm)
6. Continued lower body bilateral work
Cardio – two to three days a week
After success at his 5K races, Thomas decided to train for a half marathon. His cardio therefore consisted of runsranging from 3 to 7 miles, two to three times per week.
Recovery – one day per week
One yoga class weekly
Thomas’s Nutrition Plan
Thomas was already leading a relatively healthy lifestyle and diet. He decided to seek personal training guidance when he reached a plateau, felt as though he was struggling to gain muscle mass on his own, and was no longer seeing change on the scale at home.
Some of the smaller changes Thomas’s Trainer, Nate, made included increasing his protein intake and limiting his snacking throughout the day.
His trainer’s main guidance was to stick to whole, unprocessed foods and continue to fuel his body with as much clean protein as possible – this would help him feel fuller, longer, and to avoid his snacking habit while in the office.
