Clean-Up Days vs. Build-Up Days (in physiology and life)

Over the past few years I’ve been trying to put on some additional muscle. Overall my progress has been slow. This is due to genetics, my inconsistent training, my distaste for eating large quantities of protein, and my age (though gaining muscle wasn’t much easier in my twenties).

There’s another factor though: supplementation. Many of the anti-aging and disease-preventing supplements I take boost AMPK and inhibit mTor. MTor is required for muscle growth, so inhibiting it on a daily basis isn’t helping me gain muscle tissue.

So going forward, I’m going to try to line everything up for more effective results, as follows:

Clean-up days

• caloric deficit and less protein intake
• shorter eating window/intermittent fasting
• supplements that boost AMPK, encourage autophagy, and inhibit mTor (antioxidants, pterostilbene, quercetin, etc.)
• less intense exercise (walking, stretching)

Build-Up Days

• caloric surplus and more protein intake
• larger eating window/more meals
• supplements that support protein synthesis (B-vitamins including niacin, zinc, etc.)
• more intense exercise (weights, sprints, sports, etc.)

It occurs to me that it may also make sense to organize my work and household in similar ways. Clean-up days might include actual cleaning, yardwork, organizing, Kon-Mari’ing, etc., while build-up days might include shopping, building stuff, etc.

In terms of writing and other creative work, build-up days would be more focused on generating new material, sketches, new ideas, while clean-up days would involve more editing, cutting, refining, etc.

I don’t know if the clean-up/build-up division will hold across all categories (health/household/creative work), though I suspect they might naturally coincide, at least to some extent. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Do you have similar systems?