If you're anything at all like most bodybuilders, your ultimate desire is a simple one: To have an impressive, muscular physique with razor-sharp definition and the envy of everyone around you. You want to be huge, and you want to be shredded.
You want to be huge, and you want to be shredded as well. Because of the strong desire for this "ideal body", most people eagerly dive into their programs headfirst. Everyone is motivated to bulk up, but at the same time are afraid of putting on excess body fat.
If you're going for a significant muscle gain as quickly as possible, you're always going to end up gaining body fat to go along with it.
This is simply the nature of the entire process and if you really want to travel a significant way in the "bulking" direction, you have to be willing to accept this.
The reason for this is because in order to gain muscle mass, you have to consume a surplus of calories to support the necessary protein synthesis. The difficulty is that there's no way to ensure that 100% of all these extra calories go towards muscle growth. Some of it will inevitably end up as stored body fat.
You first goal is for the most dramatic gain in the shortest time. To that end it's always better to focus first on muscle gain over a set period of time, followed by another period of time concentrating on losing the unwanted body fat.
Based on what we've covered so far, the goal of a bulking phase is simple: build as much muscle size as possible while minimizing body fat gains. Your goal during a bulking phase is never to LOSE body fat; it's only to gain as little as possible.
This can be accomplished in 3 main ways:
1) Use your caloric surplus wisely. A caloric surplus is when you gain more calories than you burn. This is required for muscle growth, but simply gorging on food without a plan or exercise will simply earn you more body fat.
The general rule of thumb for muscle gain is to take 15-20% more calories than you need to keep your weight. If you are already within this range, there's no need for you to add more.
2) Make good food choices. Most of your food intake should be in the form of high quality lean proteins, healthy/unsaturated fats and natural, high fiber carbohydrates.
Instead of thoughtlessly eating every food item at hand, be sure that you're primarily keeping to lean protein sources. It's also important to keep your blood sugar levels stable by choosing the right kinds of carbohydrates and avoiding large amounts of saturated fats.
3) Implement cardio sessions. While you don't have to push yourself too hard, having a few cardio sessions during the week is a good way to minimize fat gains during a bulking cycle.
Stick to exercises of 10-20 minutes of high intensity, as they have less likelihood of muscle loss compared to the longer forms.
Once you've gained an amount of muscle size that you're happy with (and this is totally up to the individual), you can then shift into a fat loss cycle and focus on stripping off body fat while maintaining muscle size.
Simply remember that while bulking up, gaining at least some body fat is unavoidable. With this in mind, the key to keeping body fat down is to minimize the gain rather than trying to avoid it altogether, which is impossible. Focusing first on bulking up and only then on fat loss is the way to gain muscle quickly and effectively. - 30414
You want to be huge, and you want to be shredded as well. Because of the strong desire for this "ideal body", most people eagerly dive into their programs headfirst. Everyone is motivated to bulk up, but at the same time are afraid of putting on excess body fat.
If you're going for a significant muscle gain as quickly as possible, you're always going to end up gaining body fat to go along with it.
This is simply the nature of the entire process and if you really want to travel a significant way in the "bulking" direction, you have to be willing to accept this.
The reason for this is because in order to gain muscle mass, you have to consume a surplus of calories to support the necessary protein synthesis. The difficulty is that there's no way to ensure that 100% of all these extra calories go towards muscle growth. Some of it will inevitably end up as stored body fat.
You first goal is for the most dramatic gain in the shortest time. To that end it's always better to focus first on muscle gain over a set period of time, followed by another period of time concentrating on losing the unwanted body fat.
Based on what we've covered so far, the goal of a bulking phase is simple: build as much muscle size as possible while minimizing body fat gains. Your goal during a bulking phase is never to LOSE body fat; it's only to gain as little as possible.
This can be accomplished in 3 main ways:
1) Use your caloric surplus wisely. A caloric surplus is when you gain more calories than you burn. This is required for muscle growth, but simply gorging on food without a plan or exercise will simply earn you more body fat.
The general rule of thumb for muscle gain is to take 15-20% more calories than you need to keep your weight. If you are already within this range, there's no need for you to add more.
2) Make good food choices. Most of your food intake should be in the form of high quality lean proteins, healthy/unsaturated fats and natural, high fiber carbohydrates.
Instead of thoughtlessly eating every food item at hand, be sure that you're primarily keeping to lean protein sources. It's also important to keep your blood sugar levels stable by choosing the right kinds of carbohydrates and avoiding large amounts of saturated fats.
3) Implement cardio sessions. While you don't have to push yourself too hard, having a few cardio sessions during the week is a good way to minimize fat gains during a bulking cycle.
Stick to exercises of 10-20 minutes of high intensity, as they have less likelihood of muscle loss compared to the longer forms.
Once you've gained an amount of muscle size that you're happy with (and this is totally up to the individual), you can then shift into a fat loss cycle and focus on stripping off body fat while maintaining muscle size.
Simply remember that while bulking up, gaining at least some body fat is unavoidable. With this in mind, the key to keeping body fat down is to minimize the gain rather than trying to avoid it altogether, which is impossible. Focusing first on bulking up and only then on fat loss is the way to gain muscle quickly and effectively. - 30414
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