How Body Building Will Help You And Hurt You Part 2: Bulking
The word Bulk almost rhymes with Hulk too much so we fear it or misuse it.
You could fall into 2 categories of thinking of this word:
You don’t think it’s for you at all because you want to look lean and toned.
You’re excited to bulk because it’s GAINZ and you can eat more.
Both terrible mindsets.
We all should consider how to grow muscle – but intentionally and slow.
Want to be tone? Want a better metabolism? Well, the muscle needs to grow to show tone and to improve your metabolic rate because the muscle is the engine.
Want to get size? Well just carelessly “bulking” can lead to more fat mass gained rather than lean mass (muscle) and so you’re possibly making your yo-yo lifestyle even bigger.
There is something vital to bulking for body building but there’s something so destructive about it if it’s not done appropriately and with intent.
Let’s define “bulking” a little more clearly to explain what it is and why it’s done in body building.
Bulking
The idea of bulking is done so body builders or physique competitors can put on muscle mass after their competition and bring up the specific areas of muscle that they want to, so they have a well-balanced and appropriate proportion to what the judges see compared to the other contestants.
During the bulking phase, the body needs VOLUME more than anything. So, a body builder would want to be spending a lot of time in the gym. The most beneficial thing for muscle size is volume of sets near failure per week, so this requires a lot of work and a lot of soreness.
As the volume is increased, the calories must increase as well. The only time a person is likely to increase muscle size in a calorie deficit (less than calorie output) is if they are new to training and protein intake. After that, the process of doing both fat loss and muscle gain is extremely unlikely. So, a person wants to be in a calorie surplus (more calories than output) because muscle is a very tough thing to grow.
Based on those two concepts, to properly execute “bulking” a person would want to train as much as they can (without overtraining) and eat a lot (over their normal calories).
How this can hurt you
The term “bulking” has lost its value through my experience so this maybe a bit skewed, but I’ve also heard this story a few times. There is a the “clean bulk” and the “dirty bulk.” You can imagine the difference; I heard a someone else say a great definition of dirty bulking
“Bulking is your god given right to not give a shit about calories, eat what you want when you want, because you know you’re not going to have to take your shirt off in public anytime soon.” This isn’t everyone’s approach of course, but it is deep down many people’s attitudes.
Naturally we have these ebbs and flows to our food intake due to life and culture but when we give ourselves an intent and permission to eat whatever we want “because we’re building muscle”, this creates positive value to overeating. This is how you develop a poor relationship with food. Especially because you may “cut” later, and these two differences get bigger and bigger. The lower the cut, the bigger the bulk, because you just miss that feeling of stuffing your face so much. “But it’s okay! I’m bulking bro!” No, you’re bingeing.
If it’s not your sport, you’re sore 6-7 days a week, and it hurts to get out of your chair, why the hell are you doing this? “I’m getting gains!” Well, I won’t argue there is an adaptation that will likely add size, but at what cost?
Look, if you’re competing then hell yeah! Work your ass off! But if you’re not and you are still doing ridiculous volume, then don’t complain about your shoulder to me because you’re lifting too much too often and it’s way too tight. Also don’t complain to your boss at work because you can’t bend down to pick up a pen due to how bad of a leg day you had.
You still need to live your life and do your job. There are ways to gain muscle with less of a risk of injury and ridiculous volume. It’s slow and it’s steady but it works, and you can enjoy the process while showing up for work feeling great. You don’t need to risk over training!
How it helps you
Again, body builders are F’n brilliant when it comes to muscle physiology. There are so many techniques and strategies around muscle hypertrophy that they discovered through hours at the gym. They’ve learned how to advance their technique through their own practical experience in the gym without doing any scientific trial and error. The thing about these body building tactics are that they work a good portion of the time! Not all the time certainly but for most of the ideas, they are ahead of the science by decades because they practice it. Great ideas, like rest pause sets, drops sets, pre-exhaust sets are amazing tools that were discovered through experience before science was even trying to do it (I recommend you look those up).
Everyone wants to be toned right? This is so when you reduce body fat, you have muscle that still shows through. The idea of physique changed after the body building era where both men AND women were showing some muscle and we admired it. This made us appreciate that a muscle gaining phase is helpful.
Want to keep your metabolism going as you age? Or even when you’re in a calorie deficit? Again, muscle gaining phases help this. The muscle you have is the engine you’re running.
To bring this blog and last one together a bit, remember what your goal is; sustainability and real life.
Your life isn’t that of a body builder’s. That’s 100% okay. You shouldn’t want it. It’s crazy.
This doesn’t mean you can’t have a better fitness and physique. I just recommend that you consider the rate you achieve that physique and that the tools you use to do it aren’t the same as a body builders.
Do some fat loss phases, at modest rates, with diets you enjoy and exercise you will sustain after. Then go through muscle building phases to improve metabolism or bring up muscles that you want size in, but again do it modestly!
Remember that you need to consider who you want to be, not who you want to look like. Imagine a day in the life of your future self. What are they eating? How are they training? This future you needs to do it every day all the same, so choose the path you intend on staying on.
In you want more guidance on discovering that path, please don’t hesitate to reach out for a call.
I believe in showing people how to discover this exact thing. I’m not making you live my lifestyle and my diet plan. I want to show you how to find your best life and your ideal food.
Book a call today!