**slfmade's 20 week lean bulk/cutting log**

[--->>405<<---]

Ive read (i think by lyle mcdonald) that if ur on stims dont go by ur heartrate at the time.. Go by the amt effort u normally put out .. The stims make heartrate false...

[slfmade]

Ive read (i think by lyle mcdonald) that if ur on stims dont go by ur heartrate at the time.. Go by the amt effort u normally put out .. The stims make heartrate false...

Hummm...That's interesting. Did he explain how that works?

[--->>405<<---]

U have the same info on ur laptop.. Or desktop .. I think its in stubborn fat solution.. Where hes talkn bout how cardio is rated based on perceived effort.. Stims create a false heartrate.. U should base ur cardio on perceived effort.. If that makes sense.. funny how much info i retained .. Usually my reading comprehension sucks!

[gonnagethuge]

Hey man good job.

I was wondering how the drop set and rest pause style workout is working out for you? how are you feeling with i health and recovery wise?

Do you use these techniques for just one set per workout? I've been reading a bit about this type of training and a bit unsure of the best approach. The thread that sgt linked earlier in your thread basically described every execise being worked in this manner 'twice' whereas i've read elsewhere that due to the intensity of these routines, only one work set per bodypart shold be worked in this manner.

I trained legs and shoulders like this recently and for the first time in my life i thought i was going to be sick. I did regular 3x12 style quats followed by leg press using drops sets then calf raises using drop sets. I then did shoulder press using drop sets followed by regular 3x8-10 lateral raises. i couldnt imagine adding any more working drop sets or even rest pause on top of this. I struggled to keep my protein shake down afterwards lol.

Despite all this, i feel that when optimised properly to suit, then this will be an amazing routine. The feeling was pretty incredible on shoulders particularly.

[slfmade]

Hey man good job.

I was wondering how the drop set and rest pause style workout is working out for you? how are you feeling with i health and recovery wise?

Do you use these techniques for just one set per workout? I've been reading a bit about this type of training and a bit unsure of the best approach. The thread that sgt linked earlier in your thread basically described every execise being worked in this manner 'twice' whereas i've read elsewhere that due to the intensity of these routines, only one work set per bodypart shold be worked in this manner.

I trained legs and shoulders like this recently and for the first time in my life i thought i was going to be sick. I did regular 3x12 style quats followed by leg press using drops sets then calf raises using drop sets. I then did shoulder press using drop sets followed by regular 3x8-10 lateral raises. i couldnt imagine adding any more working drop sets or even rest pause on top of this. I struggled to keep my protein shake down afterwards lol.

Despite all this, i feel that when optimised properly to suit, then this will be an amazing routine. The feeling was pretty incredible on shoulders particularly.

If you go back through the pages...you'll see my workout. I only do the dropsets and rest pause on compound movements only and only one per bodypart. So for instance my leg workout looks something like:

Leg Press- Warmup followed by dropset followed by 3 sets of rest pause. With the exception of the 10sec rest in between the rest pause group there should be no breaks.

Then I superset 3x10 of my isolation movements - Leg Ext, Leg Curls, Calf raises...............and that's it. Get in Get out

I've heard of people doing more than one dropset, forced negative, static pause, rest pause, basically HIT style, but I'm not ready for that yet. This is my first experience with HIT and you really wanta work yourself into it to avoid injury. IMO HIT training should not exceed 6-8 week at a time.

If I were you I would research all you can both here and elsewhere...watch the mike mentzer video's on youtube. Then put together a program that you think will work and we'll take a look at it.

Good Luck

[slfmade]

Excuse my posing in these pics. I have no idea how to do it correctly. I wanted to take these at the gym, but I started to think about how much of an idiot I would seem if I was doing it there (It's fine for the big guys, but I would've felt foolish) so I waited til I got home 20 min later and I lost the majority of my pump.

Still though...you can see that I've made impressive gains since the beginning of all this. Or at least I feel I have.

I still have some more definition I need to get in my arms, but I'm sure that will come as I continue to lose Body Fat. The shirt off pics will come this Sunday.


BSP1 by slfmade, on Flickr

BFP by slfmade, on Flickr

SBP1 by slfmade, on Flickr

[slfmade]

To put things a little more in perspective...

Here was where I was a little less than 10 weeks ago.

9199bb38c660696d595d_4 by slfmade, on Flickr

AND NOW


BSP1 by slfmade, on Flickr

[BrownGirl]

You look amazing honey!!

[bikeral]

Dude fantastic job. Keep logging results. I may need to ask you some training tips.

[Sgt. Hartman]

Great job man.

You're right on with your arms, get your body fat lower and as you get some separation your arms will actually appear bigger.

How much longer do you have til your deadline?

[slfmade]

Great job man.

You're right on with your arms, get your body fat lower and as you get some separation your arms will actually appear bigger.

How much longer do you have til your deadline?

8 weeks

[--->>405<<---]

lookn good slf.. can def see where the bulk added size

and im with u on the pics in the gym.. LOL... i take some but its always when im the only one in there..

[slfmade]

Just finished 50min fasted LIC Cardio.

So as I stated before I've got 8 weeks left on this cut. This week concluded my first two weeks of HIT Training. It seems either somebody told me, or I read somewhere, that you should not run HIT for longer than 6 weeks. If I just did 6 weeks that would leave me with 4 weeks left in my cut. What should I do then? OR....Can I do HIT for 8-10 weeks? I'm just trying to plan some things out because if 6 weeks is the max. I've only got 4 weeks left to figure something else out.

Thanks

[SexySweetheart]

Great pix ~ brave man
Compared to the pix you once posted on an older thread... the results are very visible! Most cert def. bulk added!

you must be very pleased! CONGRATS!!!

[slfmade]

Alright Picture Time!!! This is after the first 2 weeks of my cut. I started at 190lbs and now I'm at 176lbs. I still obviously have some fat to lose, but after only 2 weeks I can see a difference! What do you guys think? I didn't have enough time to do my measurements today so that'll have to come in another 2 weeks.


1st Cut Progress Pics by slfmade, on Flickr

[MickeyKnox]

for gawds sakes, shave the pit hair!

and yeah great job man! big improvements for sure bro!

[slfmade]

for gawds sakes, shave the pit hair!

and yeah great job man! big improvements for sure bro!

LOL - Nope...sorry. I'm from the south and my family would probably drag me behind the tractor if they saw me with shave pits.

[--->>405<<---]

^^ definite progress! U look leaner and bigger now good work bro..

[--->>405<<---]

Yeh i dont get the shaved pit thing?

[slfmade]

^^ definite progress! U look leaner and bigger now good work bro..

Thanks Man - We'll see what another 8 weeks can do. I'm a little worried though. You know the first week of this carb cycle I lost 12lbs. Most all water weight I'm sure. This last week I lost 2lbs. 2lbs sounds about right; however if I continue that pace for the next 8 weeks I'm gonna be 160lbs. I just wanta get rid of these damn love handles and a little fat off my arms, but I'm afraid now that It's gonna be that subborn fat that takes forever to lose and in turn I get to small.

I don't know. That cycle is getting more appealing by the day, but also less likely. I was hoping to go into the cycle in Nov at 180lbs 10% BF, but it's looking like that's not gonna happen because I'm gonna have to do another bulk. Maybe this summer I'll just try for a super lean bulk.

[slfmade]

Yeh i dont get the shaved pit thing?

You don't get why I don't, or you don't get why other people do?

[--->>405<<---]

LOL.. I dont get why other guys wanna shave their pits.. Although i shave my entire body other than so who am i to question lol..

A quickie for cutting stubborn fat cardio wise:

Sfp1.0
5min warm up
10-20min HIIT
20-40 min moderate (130-140bpm)
5 min cool down

Sfp2.0
5min warmup
10-20min hiit
20-40min moderate
10-20min hiit
5min cooldown

Hiit in beginning releases fat into bloodstream , moderate cardio burns it.. Simple but basic premise.. He suggests no more than 2times/week.. Said some special people mite get 3.. (this is the 2.0 im referring to) also wat im doing.. Im pussing out the new diet til post cruise.. I put on bThing suit today and i must say im lookn pretty dang good! Dont wanna screw it up

Will be doing it when i get back though..

[--->>405<<---]

Also i know u hate total body but i suggest u look towards the bottom of ultimate diet 2.0 at the "monday/tuesday" day1/day2 depletion workouts.. Ive learnd about doing them from gbrice and lyle recommends them in the first 2days of "low carb days" of the (or any i would guess) carb cycle..

Im gonna do them on thurs and fri of my current carb cycle and also combine the cardio along with prob 2days. Fasted cardio to try and ramp up this bf drop.. Mite be worth at least looking over .. Thought id tell u

[Sgt. Hartman]

Great job man, you're 3 or so pounds lighter than when you started but have added a significant amount of lbm and lost a good bit of fat.

You look bigger now than when you were 188. Compare the 188 pic to the 176 pic and tell me you disagree.

I don't think you need to look for ways to expedite fat loss right now. Just keep doing what you're doing and you can adjust if necessary, but for right now I think you're where you need to be.

Stop worrying so much, you have 8 weeks left and you don't have 16 more lbs of fat to lose so just keep monitoring your progress and you can make adjustments when necessary. But no need to adjust yet IMO.

[slfmade]

LOL.. I dont get why other guys wanna shave their pits.. Although i shave my entire body other than so who am i to question lol..

A quickie for cutting stubborn fat cardio wise:

Sfp1.0
5min warm up
10-20min HIIT
20-40 min moderate (130-140bpm)
5 min cool down

Sfp2.0
5min warmup
10-20min hiit
20-40min moderate
10-20min hiit
5min cooldown

Hiit in beginning releases fat into bloodstream , moderate cardio burns it.. Simple but basic premise.. He suggests no more than 2times/week.. Said some special people mite get 3.. (this is the 2.0 im referring to) also wat im doing.. Im pussing out the new diet til post cruise.. I put on bThing suit today and i must say im lookn pretty dang good! Dont wanna screw it up

Will be doing it when i get back though..

It sounds interesting. I'm gonna finish reading all of that soon. I've made the decision that I'm gonna stick to my current diet/training no matter what....UNLESS...I start to lose too much LBM. The way I see it is...how will I ever truly know how a program works (Good or Bad)if I don't see it through. I've gotta see results for myself. I will more than likely give this a go toward the end of the summer for my prime before cycle.

As you may or may not know...BrownGirl and I will be semi-retiring in a couple of months. We'll still have our furniture business, but with the exception a natural disaster it's gonna be pretty hands off. So to keep me busy doing something I love...I'm putting some serious thought into personal training and doing a fitness bootcamp when we move. I feel in order to be most productive, I need to know what different diet and training routines actually do...obviously it will be different for different people, but I really want to experiment with different things. So for now...I think it would be best to stick with what I have.

If the love handles aren't VERY close to being gone in 6 weeks I'll give the cardio routine you gave me a shot. I already bookmarked this page so I didn't have to search for it later. Thanks for the help

Also i know u hate total body but i suggest u look towards the bottom of ultimate diet 2.0 at the "monday/tuesday" day1/day2 depletion workouts.. Ive learnd about doing them from gbrice and lyle recommends them in the first 2days of "low carb days" of the (or any i would guess) carb cycle..

Im gonna do them on thurs and fri of my current carb cycle and also combine the cardio along with prob 2days. Fasted cardio to try and ramp up this bf drop.. Mite be worth at least looking over .. Thought id tell u

It's not that I hate total body routines...I'm just so burned out on them after doing the same thing 3/week for the last 8 weeks. I'm loving this HIT training, and I don't want to break away from it right now. I guess I could do HIT Mon-Wed, and do total body on Friday, but I would be concerned that this wouldn't be sufficent rest after the intensity I train with mon-wed. Since SGT...is the HIT expert on this thread maybe he can offer his input.

I will give this a go for sure when the time comes for my prime.

[slfmade]

Great job man, you're 3 or so pounds lighter than when you started but have added a significant amount of lbm and lost a good bit of fat.

You look bigger now than when you were 188. Compare the 188 pic to the 176 pic and tell me you disagree.

I don't think you need to look for ways to expedite fat loss right now. Just keep doing what you're doing and you can adjust if necessary, but for right now I think you're where you need to be.

Stop worrying so much, you have 8 weeks left and you don't have 16 more lbs of fat to lose so just keep monitoring your progress and you can make adjustments when necessary. But no need to adjust yet IMO.

Thanks SGT....I do see a significant difference between the 188 and 176 pics. My arms seem a lot bigger, but my pecs seem smaller. I guess that's due to some fat loss????? My pecs have always been very hard for me to grow in comparison to everything else. Which sucks because that's one of the most important things that I feel makes a good physique, Although I'm sure if my shoulders were lagging I would feel the same way about them. LOL

I know it's hard to guess, but if you had to, how close do you think I am to 10% right now? I also have a lot of pics of back double bi's. I just haven't posted them because it's embarassing. LOL I can email them to you if that would help?

[--->>405<<---]

^^ yeh man just so we're clear i wasnt suggesting u quit ur current program.. just thought id post what ive learned about depletion workouts and the 2 cardio routines so that if u felt so inclined u mite do some in addition to wat ur currently doing

the depletion is designed specifically do deplete muscle glycogen in order to make the low carb days more effective.. i forgot about ur HIT training and that def mite make it where u dont want to add a workout in on top.. for myself cuz my LBM is maintaining/increasing i am gonna add 2 depletion workouts in on low carb days and drop the arms/shoulders/abs cuz ill be doing them anyways as well as add 2 sfp cardio sessions to try and expedite fatloss.. if my LBM goes down ill re-evaluate

i wasnt suggesting to drop the HIT since we both have similar situations (goal dates) its prob a good idea to stay with what u know is working diet-wise as well which is why i decided to wait til post-cruise.. i def think the 2.0diet is worth trying though if for no other reason to get to experience a 6000cal 1250g carb refeed! LOL

[baseline_9]

Here is a good artice about mass gains... If you want more info check out his site.... Bodyrecomposition.com General Philosophies of Muscle Mass Gain.... Lyle McDonald

Because of the primary focus of my books and many of my article topics I tend to get tagged as the fat-loss guy more often than not; but nutrition and training for muscle gain is actually a primary interest of mine. Having worked with bodybuilders, powerlifters and other athletes over the years, figuring out how to put muscle mass on them (in terms of both training and nutrition) is obviously important.
In this article (which will actually form an introduction to a series of articles I’ll be doing over the next several weeks and months), I want to talk about some basic concepts related to mass gaining nutrition, primarily looking at some of the different philosophies of mass-gaining that are out there. As usually, I’ll look at each in my normal way, looking at the various pros and cons of each approach.
And, of course, I’ll give my own recommendations for what I think is actually optimal for most trainees under most circumstances. Please note my use of the word ‘most’ in that sentence; there are always exceptions, situations where I might do something different. Here I’m speaking more in generalities.

Old School Bulking/Cutting

In the olden days of bodybuilding, the standard approach to gaining muscle mass was to get big and fat in the off-season and this was called bulking. In modern terms this is generally referred to as GFH which stands for Get ****ing Huge
Both approaches revolve around the same concept: trainees train their balls off and eat as much as they can force down, gaining weight (and body fat) rapidly. In the old days, guys would then diet like maniacs and there are stories of guys bulking up to over 300 pounds before dropping to sub-200 pounds for their contest. Yes, insanity. Dieting is a little bit more sane now and it usually takes a good 6-12 months for the fat boys to get lean again.
I’d note that, to some degree, this idea still exists today among some professional bodybuilders. For example, here’s Lee Priest in the off-season and in competition condition.


There are also a good many stories of big strong powerlifters dieting down to seriously amazing bodybuilding levels of leanness and development. Dave Gulledge is a particularly good example, here’s pictures of him before leaning out and after.

So there’s clearly some merit to the ‘get big and strong and FAT’ approach to gaining muscle mass. When the trainee gets the fat off (which may take a year or more depending on the degree of fatness), assuming they don’t diet too badly and lose all the muscle, they often look absolutely amazing. It’s also a lot of fun to just eat and eat and eat and not care where the calories come from. Pizza, donuts, candy bars, whatever gets the calories down the pie-hole is good to go.
What isn’t usually talked about is the supporting ‘elements’ (read: drugs) that are involved here. Between increasing the amount of muscle mass gained while the folks in question get big and fat (and increasing the total amount of muscle that can be held) to sparing muscle loss while they diet off 150 pounds of lard, the drugs make a huge difference.

But the GFH approach to mass gain can backfire badly for naturals as there are biological limits to both the rate of muscle gain (per day or per week) as well as the maximum amount of muscle a natural lifter can carry. Simply, I don’t think this is generally ideal for the natural bodybuilder or athlete to gain muscle mass.
Athletes can’t usually afford to get that fat in the first place (performance suffers) and excess fat gain while gaining muscle mass for bodybuilders just means that much longer of a diet to get it back off. As mentioned above, and discussed below, given a maximum weekly rate of muscle gain, gaining weight at too fast a rate simply means that much more fat is being gained without increasing the rate of muscle mass gain.
Even for non-competitive bodybuilders, assuming the trainee is actually training for appearance reasons, getting excessively big and fat for part of the year really isn’t consistent with that goal. If you’re training for looks, ruining them by getting super fat just doesn’t make sense. That’s on top of other potential negatives of the GFH approach such as stretch marks and the potential to permanently increase the bodies set point (making it harder to get and stay lean when you diet back down).
I should note that, for very skinny folks or those looking for the most rapid rate of gain to reach their genetic limits, there is something to be said for the GFH philosophy. But, for most, I generally feel that the cons outweigh the pros and outside of a situation like a pro-football player or someone who just needed to get big and strong fast and didn’t care about the excess fat gain (or actually needed it to be competitive), I’d be unlikely to recommend this approach.

Lean Gaining

At the other extreme is the near obsession with lean-gaining, the idea being that folks are going to gain muscle mass without putting on an ounce of body-fat. Some supplements actually catered to this and the big fad in the 90′s were low-calorie mass gainers, products that claimed to magically put muscle on people without providing excess calories. And they did increase lean weight but only because they all contained creatine which increases lean body mass (via water retention) by several pounds. Thankfully, that fad has gone.
Lean gaining is usually based around insanely meticulous calorie and nutrient counting and timing, an obsession with clean eating, etc. without ever actually providing sufficient nutrients to grow at any meaningful rate. When you hear someone say that you can’t put on more than three pounds of muscle in a year, this is who you’re usually talking to: the guys who won’t allow even an ounce of fat gain. Or you’re talking to a natural bodybuilder who’s been at it for 10 years and is near his genetic limit. But it’s usually the lean-obsessed guys who aren’t gaining jack squat for muscle in a year.
The benefits of the lean-gaining approach, mind you, are that you get to look great year round; of course if your goal is contest bodybuilding (or sports), it also means literally no dieting time. If you model or make your living based on your physique, being able to do a photo shoot within a few weeks (or days) notice may be financially beneficial as well. This tends not to represent the majority of obsessives who try to use the lean-gaining approach.
The simple fact is that a bodybuilder who refuses to gain any fat and doesn’t put on any muscle between shows won’t be improving year to year. Unless they have perfect symmetry, size, shape, etc. their fear of body fat is preventing them from ever getting any better.
Athletes often have to add muscle mass (to improve strength, power or move up a weight class) and often don’t have very long to do it. Keeping calories too low year round hurts improvements in both mass and strength gains and even weight class athletes such as Olympic Lifters and Powerlifters usually train at a weight slightly higher than their weight class: this lets them eat more food, train more effectively and make faster gains; they can always drop weight and fat when needed.
The simple fact is that the body needs not only an appropriate training stimulus but also sufficient building blocks (protein, amino acids) AND sufficient dietary energy (calories) for maximal improvements. I discuss this in some detail in Calorie Partitioning Part 1 and Calorie Partitioning Part 2. Staying excessively lean (which means either doing tons of cardio, restricting calories, or both) isn’t consistent with the goal of trying to get stronger and more muscular for the most part.
Another drawback to the whole lean-gaining thing is that the meticulous attention to nutrition every day can drive people crazy. Of course, bodybuilders are usually a bit nutso anyhow and orthorexia is a very real eating-disorder. But worrying about every gram of everything that you eat every day of your life can drive some people insane (more insane); it also triggers some awesome binges when they lose control for even a second.
Before moving on, I would note that some lean gaining approaches, notably the mass variant of my own Ultimate Diet 2.0, as well as some of the intermittent fasting approaches (such as Martin Berkhan’s Lean Gains) take a more relaxed approach to the idea of gaining muscle mass while limiting fat gain. Rather than being based around keeping calories pretty low/controlled all the time, they are based around the short-term (1-3 days) alternation of low and high-calorie intakes.
The lowered calorie periods limit or reduce fat gains while the high-calorie periods support growth and gains. There’s more flexibility, trainees get some big-eating periods (helping to stave off insanity and binges) and there are other benefits of them for people who are determined to stay lean year round but want to actually gain some muscle mass. But these approaches are typically much different than the ‘typical’ approach to lean-gaining.
As well, for many they are simply not worth the time or energy investment and I want to describe what I feel is perhaps an ‘ideal’ approach to gaining mass (over the long-term) without either getting too fat or limiting gains by staying too lean.
Before getting to that, I need to discuss something that will not make a lot of readers happy.

How Fast Can You Actually Gain Muscle Mass?

We live in an instant gratification society and are constantly bombarded with amazing claims; while this is probably most true in the world of weight loss, it’s not much different when it comes to muscle gain.
Magazines advertise 20 pounds or rock hard muscle in a mere 8-10 weeks, a supplement promises 5 lbs of muscle in 3 days or whatever; all around we see claims of rapid gains in muscle mass. Sadly, this is all basically bullshit. Yeah, with glycogen loading or creatine you can increase lean body mass (not the same as muscle mass) fairly rapidly but beyond that, skeletal muscle actually grows fairly slowly.
How slowly?
On average, a natural male doing everything right will be doing very well to gain 1/2 of pound muscle per week. A female might gain half that or about 1/2 pound muscle every 2 weeks.
Let’s put that in perspective: over a full year of training, assuming the trainee is doing everything right, that’s 26 pounds of the good stuff for men (13 pounds for women). Which, if you think about it, actually isn’t that awful. It’s simply awful compared to what people think they are going to get based on the false promises in the magazines (or the claims of drug using bodybuilders).
That assumes that half-pound is gained week-in, week-out for the entire year. Oddly, and somewhat tangentially, it usually doesn’t work that way. Trainees may go a long time with no measurable gains and then wake up several pounds heavier seemingly overnight. I have no idea why, that’s just how it usually works.
I’d note that, under the right conditions (usually underweight high school kids), much faster rates of gain are often seen or reported. But these tend to be exceptions to the rule more than the norm and since I’m usually writing for the average male trainee who’s not 15 years old with raging hormones, I don’t consider those values very illustrative. And, occasionally, when the stars are right, and everything clicks, a true one pound per week of muscle mass gain may be seen for short periods. But again, that tends to be the exception.

Let me reiterate: the average male trainee is doing well to gain about 1/2 pound muscle per week, 2 pounds per month or about 24-26 pounds per year. I’d note that that will generally only happen in the first year of training and things slow down after that. A female may be gaining about half that much, 1 pound per month of actual muscle tissue or 10-12 pounds per year. I know it sucks but that’s reality.
I bring this up as it has some relevance to the weekly rate of weight gain that is acceptable for what I’m going to describe next.

A Happy Medium: Bulk a Little, Cut a Little

As many know, and altogether too many don’t know or realize, I’m usually a happy medium kind of guy. I find most extremist stances to be flawed and usually end up somewhere between the two in my recommendations; that’s on top of trying to look at the context of a given trainee’s situation. This is true for training, diet and most everything else you care to name. It’s certainly true for the topic of this article.
As noted above, there’s no doubt that gaining some fat will allow a faster rate of muscle gain. The drawback is that, gain too much fat and dieting time is extended and appearance suffers. And while staying lean is nice from an appearance standpoint, trying to stay too lean all the time tends to hurt mass and strength gains because the trainee simply can’t eat enough.
The solution of course is to simply alternate shorter periods of mass-gaining (let’s not use the term bulking since it seems to cause people so many mental problems) where the goal is maximal muscle gains while accepting small amounts of fat gain before dropping into a short dieting phase to strip off the fat without losing any of the muscle gain.
Please read the bold bits carefully, they are the key to all of this. What’s ideal for most situations in my experience is to try to maximize muscle gain (smart training, slight caloric surplus) by allowing a small amount of fat gain to occur. While this causes the trainee to get fatter (this should be done without getting outright FAT), this also maximizes the rate of muscle gain. While dieting, of course, the goal should always be to limit muscle mass losses (as outlined in pretty much any of my books). Done properly, alternating mass gain with proper dieting, the end result is more muscle mass.
This idea isn’t new mind you, and has probably been around for 30-40 years or more (McCallum wrote about it in The Keys to Progress and Dan Duchaine was an advocate of this approach). I simply happen to think it’s superior for most applications to either GFH or the ‘Gotta stay ripped year round crew’ for the average natural bodybuilder or athlete (or simply individuals interested in gaining muscle mass).
So let’s put some numbers and guidelines to this.

1. First and foremost, for reasons outlined in my article Initial Body Fat and Body Composition Changes, trainees should not be starting out their muscle gaining phase too fat. Males should be ~10-12% body fat before even considering going on any kind of ‘bulk’ (fatter trainees can usually gain some muscle while losing fat with a basic recomposition plan; this is beyond the scope of this article). For a female, this would be roughly equivalent to 19-24% body fat.
Bodybuilders with contest aspirations might even start out a little bit leaner, perhaps 8% for males and 17-20% for females; this is simply to facilitate getting into contest shape in less time. Any leaner than that and hormones and energy tend to suffer. And, yes, this means that many will have to diet first before they even consider putting on muscle. That’s life.

2. It would be ideal, if, after dieting, the trainee took two weeks at maintenance to stabilize at the new body fat level. The reasons for this are numerous but revolve around letting some of the hormonal adaptations to dieting normalize. I’ve written about this endlessly on the site and my full diet break concept is outlined in detail in both The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook and A Guide to Flexible Dieting. Briefly, take two weeks at roughly maintenance calories with at least 150 grams/day of carbohydrate.

3. Now you can start gaining weight. Assuming relative average partitioning (not superior or inferior), a weight gain of approximately one pound per week (of which half should be muscle) and half a pound per week for females (of which half should be muscle), or 4 and 2 pounds/month respectively should roughly maximize muscle gains without excessive fat gain. There will be some fat gain, of course, but, simply, any faster rate of weight gain (I’ve seen folks suggest 2-3 pounds per week) will only increase fat gain without increasing the rate of muscle mass gain.

4. When the trainee hits a body fat percentage of approximately 15% for men (24-27% for women), the mass gaining phase should end. How long this take will depend on the size of the person but realistically, a 170 pound male trainee with 10% body fat could gain 16 pounds (8 pounds fat, 8 pounds muscle) before hitting the 15% mark. At one pound per week, that’s 16 weeks of gaining. Which, I’d note should be broken up into at least two separate training blocks.
A female starting at 130 pounds and 19% body fat could realistically get to 154 pounds (12 pound fat/12 pounds lean) before hitting 24% body fat. For the female trainee, at one half-pound per week is nearly a year of training; again that would be broken up into distinct training phases.

5. After finishing the mass-gaining phase, a consolidation phase of two weeks (this used to be called a ‘hardening’ phase) where calories are brought back down to maintenance levels (and cardio, if not being done, is brought in) should occur before actively dieting.
Of course, the diet itself is a completely separate topic, some prefer to lose as slowly as they’ve gained, others are using the ideas in my Rapid Fat Loss Handbook to strip off the fat as rapidly as possible so that they can get back to gaining again. Both are valid and my article series on Fat Loss for Athletes is worth reading for more information.
Let me summarize the above a little more briefly: trainees should set a bottom and top-end for acceptable body fat levels. For males, 10-15% is a good range, for females 19-27% or so works. Diet down until you hit the low end, stabilize for two weeks, gain until you hit the high end, stabilize for two weeks, then diet back down while keeping the muscle. Over many months or a year of training, you should end up with more muscle than you started with which is the whole goal

[slfmade]

Thanks Base. I'll read this when I get home.

I've read the first paragraph about 12 times. LOL I'm at work and everytime I get started the phone rings or somebody walks through the door. I give up til I get home.

[Awesome_Archy]

LOL - Nope...sorry. I'm from the south and my family would probably drag me behind the tractor if they saw me with shave pits.

Agreed, I can admit to beating some since into a good friend who shaved his legs once.

[Sgt. Hartman]

Thanks SGT....I do see a significant difference between the 188 and 176 pics. My arms seem a lot bigger, but my pecs seem smaller. I guess that's due to some fat loss????? My pecs have always been very hard for me to grow in comparison to everything else. Which sucks because that's one of the most important things that I feel makes a good physique, Although I'm sure if my shoulders were lagging I would feel the same way about them. LOL

I know it's hard to guess, but if you had to, how close do you think I am to 10% right now? I also have a lot of pics of back double bi's. I just haven't posted them because it's embarassing. LOL I can email them to you if that would help?

You don't have anything to be embarrassed about but just pm them to me if you want. Pretty impossible to guess BF from that one pose.

[slfmade]

You don't have anything to be embarrassed about but just pm them to me if you want. Pretty impossible to guess BF from that one pose.

PM sent

[slfmade]

4. When the trainee hits a body fat percentage of approximately 15% for men (24-27% for women), the mass gaining phase should end. How long this take will depend on the size of the person but realistically, a 170 pound male trainee with 10% body fat could gain 16 pounds (8 pounds fat, 8 pounds muscle) before hitting the 15% mark. At one pound per week, that’s 16 weeks of gaining. Which, I’d note should be broken up into at least two separate training blocks.A female starting at 130 pounds and 19% body fat could realistically get to 154 pounds (12 pound fat/12 pounds lean) before hitting 24% body fat. For the female trainee, at one half-pound per week is nearly a year of training; again that would be broken up into distinct training phases.

Hey Base....What exactly does he mean by "two seperate training blocks" in the bold above. Does he mean to take a break after 8 weeks and then do 8 weeks again, or just change your workout routine after the first 8 weeks?

Thanks

[RaginCajun]

Great job man, you're 3 or so pounds lighter than when you started but have added a significant amount of lbm and lost a good bit of fat.

You look bigger now than when you were 188. Compare the 188 pic to the 176 pic and tell me you disagree.

I don't think you need to look for ways to expedite fat loss right now. Just keep doing what you're doing and you can adjust if necessary, but for right now I think you're where you need to be.

Stop worrying so much, you have 8 weeks left and you don't have 16 more lbs of fat to lose so just keep monitoring your progress and you can make adjustments when necessary. But no need to adjust yet IMO.

^^^^^this! you are making it happen and i agree with sgt and 405. 8 weeks is a long time so you go this!

[slfmade]

^^^^^this! you are making it happen and i agree with sgt and 405. 8 weeks is a long time so you go this!

Thanks RC- I appreciate all the support!

[slfmade]

I had a lot going at work this morning so I didn't have time to do my 50 min fasted cardio. I knew this going in so I just did 20 min HIIT instead.

Just got back from the gym a little while ago. Had chest today. I couldn't go up in weight but I increased my reps on everything....so baby steps. I'm looking forward to seeing where I'm at in another 2 weeks.

[--->>405<<---]

up in reps or weight is progress

[slfmade]

Yeah....I'm not complaining

[Back In Black]

I know I don't post here really but I do stop by regularly. Definite progress man. I recommend more of the same.

[slfmade]

I know I don't post here really but I do stop by regularly. Definite progress man. I recommend more of the same.

Well start posting more regularly then!!! lol....I value all the opinions I get. Any advice or help you ever have, feel free to post it up.

I wish more people would follow the logs. The more help the better.