Recomposition possible without specific lifting program?

RadishEater

I have seen advice given on how to do recomposition when at your maintenance weight using progressive lifting/weight programs.

However at the moment, I do spinning 2x a week, horse riding 3x a week (at an varying intensity level but definitely works muscles), Barre 1x+ elliptical, and a free weights class 1x that changes exercises every week.

Is it possible that I could recomposition my body without a strict program but with my diverse weekly exercise activities? I'm rather fond of all of them and don't have time to really add a program additionally.

I'm new at maintenance and just started reading about recomp, so any advice is welcome.

PAV8888

Hey: I am not an expert by any stretch of a pretty stretchy imagination.

Here is the thing. Are you pushing yourself further and further with all this? Are you building muscles? Why do professional athletes resort to dedicated strength and conditioning exercises in their off-seasons in order to improve? I mean you probably won't get much more competitive than pro sports, so these guys are probably giving it their all during their season... right? Yet they make their "strength" and "conditioning" gains in their off seasons.

So my short answer is that slow as recomposition may already be, any attempt to do recomposition that doesn't include a dedicated strength component will be even slower.

This doesn't make doing things you like the wrong choice.

Any exercise you DO wins 100x over the exercise you did not do because it was too much of a drag.

sijomial

Depends!
An awful lot depends on where you are starting from. To force adaptation you need to challenge yourself above your current capabilities. The lower your current capabilities then the smaller that stimulus for change has to be to cause your body to need to change.

Some examples of non-strength training / sub-optimal "training":

• I spent 3 months on crutches and my traps and triceps grew enormously although walking on crutches (stumping?) a mile a day isn't anyone's idea of a structured weight program. But after 3 months they weren't going to grow any more unless I carried on eating like a heffalump!
• When I learned to walk again my severely wasted quads grew 3" just from walking and lots of stairs. But once walking and stairs became normal it took a lot of strength work in the gym to regrow the remaining 2".
• When I started cycling seriously I added muscle strength and size to my legs fairly rapidly, five years on that progress is going to be glacial. A hint of increased definition rather than seeing a jump on the tape measure.

Everything you do has an impact on your body, some slow and slight, some less slow and with a greater potential range but you do need to be pushing your capabilities.
Are you increasing the resistance when you are Spinning and using the elliptical?
Are your weights going up when your do your free weights class?

Another "depends" is your priorities. Enjoyment of your routine versus recomp as a standalone goal.

Personally I went for enjoyment of my exercise and incidental recomp as a result of my performance improvements (gym strength and cycling).