Transcription
I've been bulking for this entire year straight, an actual proper bulk with optimized training and nutrition, and I've made the most gains that I've made in years. And in this video, I'm going to try to convince you to do the same.
If you clicked this video, I'm sure you're interested in building some more muscle, but maybe you're not sure if bulking is a good idea. You've probably heard that the heavy bulking that bodybuilders do is outdated "Bro Science," but a lot of people still do them.
"Three servings of Cheerios, let's pour on, I don't know, 3 cups of milk or so. So that puts me about 170g of carbs, 25g of protein, and about 25g of fat for this whole bowl."
Or you may have even heard that you don't need to bulk at all. You can just "main gain," meaning you maintain your weight while gaining muscle. Don't bulk, don't cut, main gain.
The reality is, old-school dirty bulks do build muscle, but they also have a problem. They cause way more fat gain than muscle gain. There are thousands of stories from people online who figured this out the hard way, and it's caused a lot of people to swing all the way back to the opposite end of the spectrum, never actually committing to a bulk and playing it safe with main gaining forever.
And sure, main gaining is possible, but it has a problem too. You'll never build as much muscle with main gaining as you will with a proper bulk.
So, in this video, I'm going to explain why bulking is most effective for building muscle. I'll show you the exact meals that I'm eating in my own bulk, and I'll teach you how to set up your own science-based bulking plan for maximum muscle gain and minimum fat gain.
I've been doing a proper bulk since January 1st, so just about a year. It's the first serious bulk I've done in a long time, and I've built a significant amount of muscle, measured by both DEXA and ultrasound. So that's this tiny little gap, that's fat, and then from here to here is all muscle. And did I mention that this is my weaker arm? And that I can't reveal exactly how much muscle I've gained yet because I'm the subject of a case study at McMaster University, but I'll say it's more than I expected. And I'll reveal the results of that study in the New Year.
If your main goal is to build muscle and you've never done a proper bulk before, I strongly encourage you to do what I did this year. I'm not the only one who's had success with bulking. Here are a few examples from some of my followers who've also done bulking the proper way. This is what you can expect when you actually commit to a bulk and do it right.
A bulk is when you eat more calories than you expend, putting your body in a caloric surplus. If you do this, you'll gain weight, and if you bulk the right way, that weight should mostly come from muscle instead of fat. A lot of people completely freestyle their bulk, gain a ton of fat, and end up giving bulking a worse rep than it actually deserves.
Now, at this point, you're probably wondering, "Why should I do a bulk anyway? Why not just recomp forever?" The answer is that you'll never build as much muscle through recomping as you will through proper bulking. You'll probably never reach your full muscular potential. That's because your body doesn't really care about building muscle. Your body cares about survival. And evolutionarily speaking, survival means not starving to death. So if your body doesn't have a surplus of calories, it'll use the limited energy available to do more important things, like making sure that your organs have enough glucose, empowering your immune system to fight off pathogens. Again, you can still build some muscle in a caloric deficit or at caloric maintenance, as long as you train hard. It just won't be as high on the priority list.
On the other hand, if you're in a caloric surplus, your body knows that starvation isn't a threat, and it can allocate more energy toward the less evolutionarily imminent process of getting more jacked. The research shows this as well. This study had one group of subjects main gain on about 2,200 calories per day, and another group bulk on about 4,300 calories per day. Both groups followed the same training plan for 8 weeks, and after 8 weeks, the bulking group gained significantly more fat-free mass. I found it super surprising that in this study, the bulking group actually didn't gain any fat either. It was basically all lean tissue that they gained, but that's probably because they were new lifters. When you look at studies on more experienced subjects, bulking still causes more muscle gain, but it also causes more fat gain. But again, there is a way to avoid that excess fat gain, and next, I'll explain exactly how to do that through your diet, training, cardio, and supplements.
How much fat you gain on your bulk mainly depends on how fast you gain weight. If you gain weight too quickly, the majority of that weight will be fat. Building muscle takes time, and you can't force-feed muscle growth. The general scientific consensus for lean bulking is to gain 1 to 2% of your body weight per month if you're a beginner, and 0.5 to 1% of your body weight per month if you're an intermediate to advanced lifter.
So, let's just say you've been training for 2 years and you weigh 170 pounds. That means you should gain about 1 to 2 pounds per month on your bulk. That's pretty slow. It means if you bulk for the entire year like I'm doing, you'd gain 12 to 24 pounds. If you're closer to being a beginner, it's definitely possible that 100% of your weight gained could be from lean mass, especially if you have good genetics. But if you've been training for a while and you're closer to your so-called natural muscular limit, half of it could be lean and the other half could be fat. In my opinion, that's okay though, because you've still made gains rather than just spinning your wheels, and you can always do a cut after your bulk is over to trim that fat off. As long as you cut relatively slowly, train smart, and eat enough protein, you should retain most of that new muscle that you added on your bulk.
So, to gain weight at the appropriate rate, how many calories should you eat? Well, you definitely shouldn't do the old-school dirty bulking approach where you just eat as much as humanly possible. These dirty bulks usually result in a massive caloric surplus, as much as 50 to 100% above maintenance. Without some serious anabolic assistance, that type of bulk will simply cause rapid fat gain. Instead, studies show that even a 5 to 10% caloric surplus is enough to give your body the resources that it needs to lay down new muscle tissue without ramming those extra calories into your fat stores.
I maintain my weight at around 2,800 calories per day. If I eat 2,800 calories, I don't gain weight and I don't lose weight. So when I bulk, I simply increase my calories by 5 to 10%, up to around 3,000 calories per day. Then I'll adjust those calories up or down depending on if I'm gaining too fast or too slow.
If you don't know your maintenance calories, you can simply multiply your body weight in pounds by 14 to 18, and that should get you in the right ballpark. Or you can screenshot the steps on screen to figure it out for yourself. Or better still, you can download the MacroFactor app for 2 weeks for free. Track your weight and what you eat for those two weeks, and the app will give you an extremely accurate number for your metabolic rate and your maintenance calories. The app will also update and adjust your calories throughout your bulk as your metabolism adapts, and it's the app that I've been using to run my own nutrition for this entire year. I'm a part owner and I help develop the app, so if you're interested, I'll have a little more info about that at the end.
Okay, so that's how you set your calories up, but you obviously shouldn't get all those calories from donuts and ice cream. You need to eat enough protein to lay down new muscle tissue. The best science shows that 0.7 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight is plenty when bulking. So I weigh 180 pounds, and I've been eating about 170 grams of protein per day on my bulk.
You also want to monitor your fat intake on your bulk. Too little dietary fat can lower testosterone, but too much fat can lead to excess fat gain. Despite what low-carb advocates say, dietary fat is much more easily stored as body fat than carbohydrate is. That's because fat is already fat, while carbs have to be converted to fat through a fairly arduous biochemical process before they can be stored as fat. So I'm not a fan of high-fat bulks or low-fat bulks. Ideally, 20 to 30% of your total calories should come from fat. Based on these numbers, going back to me in my 3,000 calorie bulk, I should eat between 65 and 100 grams of fat per day. I usually land around 80 grams per day. So this is my protein, this is my fat, and then I just fill in any remaining calories with carbs. Pretty easy.
Alright, and this is what a full day of bulking looks like for me. I usually wake up at around 7:30 AM, and I have an energy drink or a coffee. Coffee is probably the healthier option since it's packed with antioxidants and has a huge body of science showing health benefits. I think energy drinks are also okay in moderation. I'm not hungry when I first wake up, so I end up eating breakfast at around 10:00 AM, which is 1 cup of egg whites and one whole egg scrambled with one slice of turkey bacon, mushrooms, onions, and spinach. And I put 15 grams of shredded cheese on top of the eggs. And for carbs, I have 60 grams of oats with almond milk and 100 grams of blueberries. I also take most of my supplements with this meal, which I'll come back to in a minute. If it's a busy morning and I don't have time to cook, I'll just have a protein shake with some oats.
At 1:00 PM, I have my pre-workout meal, which is 100 grams of lean ground turkey, jasmine rice, Greek yogurt, shredded cheese, Sriracha, a kiwi, and 100 grams of blackberries. After this meal, I have a pre-workout supplement and then I train about an hour later. After training, I have a protein shake and a banana. And then in the evening, my diet becomes a lot more flexible. Some nights I'll order a pizza or a burrito, sometimes I get sushi or Thai food, but it's often chicken, potato, sour cream, and broccoli with a side of roasted sunflower seeds for healthy fats. Then before bed, it's Greek yogurt, honey, and peanut butter with a side of popcorn. If I have any calories left over, I usually have something sweet like some candy or chocolate. Again, when you track your macros, you can be a lot more flexible with the foods you eat, and you can even eat some junk food as long as it fits in your daily totals.
And remember, when you're bulking, you have a higher caloric intake than usual. That means you need to make sure that you're putting those calories to use in the gym. A lot of people make the awful mistake of slacking off with their training on their bulk, and I've done this in the past myself, but this is a surefire way to guarantee that you gain more fat than muscle. After all, it's your training that's going to trigger new muscle growth. As important as your diet is, your training is what will determine how much muscle you gain on your bulk, so you need to take it seriously.
If you're still in your first year of training, focus on the basics. Learn proper technique for the basic exercises and learn to push yourself hard with good form. Splits don't really matter at this point. Bro split, push/pull/legs, upper/lower, full body, they all work. Pick what you like, just try to be in the gym at least 3 days per week, with four to five gym days per week likely being most optimal.
If you're an intermediate, meaning you've been training hard for 1 to 3 years, you can start to add some more volume. As an intermediate, you should be doing more sets than you did as a beginner, but intensity is still the most important thing at this stage. You should be doing around 8 to 15 sets per muscle per week. Big complex muscles like the back seem to tolerate more volume, so you might want to do more sets for your back than you do for your chest. I'll put a table up here on screen from my upcoming book, "The Muscle Ladder," breaking down weekly set volumes that I recommend for each muscle at this stage. It might also be smart to ditch the bro split for one of the other options, since it'll help you avoid junk volume.
If you're an advanced trainee, meaning you've been training hard and smart for more than 3 years, you could consider running a specialization program for your bulk. This is when you increase your training volume for just one or two muscles at a time. For example, if you need to bring up your delts, you could add 20 to 40% more volume for your shoulders each week. So if you currently do 15 sets for your shoulders each week, increase that to 18 to 20 sets per week. This is also in things like length and partials, my reps, and advanced exercise techniques can help you eke out those extra marginal gains.
Should you do cardio on a bulk? I think for the most part, yes, you should. The idea that cardio kills your gains is based on outdated, low-quality science. Staying in good cardiovascular shape as you bulk is not only good for your health, it also helps you tolerate more volume. If your cardio sucks, you're really going to struggle through your leg days. You may not be able to get as many reps as you could have gotten if your conditioning was better, that's because your heart and lungs will give out before your legs do. That said, if you work a very active job, such as in construction or as a server, you may not need any extra cardio at all. But if you work a desk job, you probably should do some extra cardio. I personally do two or three moderate intensity cardio sessions per week by going for a brisk walk or playing some late basketball.
For supplements, I've talked about all the basic boring stuff in other videos, so I won't go into those details again here. The basic advice is to take 5 grams of creatine per day, use protein powder as you need it, and consider taking about 200 milligrams of caffeine before your workouts, as long as it doesn't mess with your sleep.
But on this bulk, there are a few other things that I've been taking. I take six fish oil capsules every morning, which gives me 2 grams of combined EPA and DHA. Eating more Omega-3s is one of the easiest things you can do to improve nearly every facet of your health, from your heart to inflammation to brain function and anxiety. I've also been taking a magnesium supplement before bed. Low magnesium is associated with low testosterone and poor sleep, two things that are very important for muscle gain. I also take a vitamin D supplement because I don't get a lot of sunlight. Low vitamin D is also linked with low testosterone, so if you aren't getting enough naturally, supplementation is an easy way to prevent your test levels from dropping. Other than that, I take a basic multivitamin in the morning with 600 milligrams of ashwagandha root, although I don't really feel like there's quite enough safety data on ashwagandha yet for me to recommend it broadly.
And if you guys want to optimize your bulk like I've done this year, I'd strongly recommend downloading MacroFactor. You can try it out for 2 weeks for free. If you use code JEFF when you download the app, it's the only app that uses science-based algorithms to figure out your exact metabolism and then it updates your nutrition each week, just like a coach would. It really is like having me as your own personal nutrition coach, but for a tiny fraction of the cost. It also comes with all kinds of amazing tracking tools, so you can monitor not only your calories and macros, but also every vitamin and mineral. That way, you can figure out what foods you need to eat more of and what foods you need to eat less of to improve your health. We just hit 200,000 active users, and we have an amazing engaged community on Facebook and Reddit that you can be a part of. If you have any questions about the app, you'll always get an answer there.
So, I'll put a link to the free trial in the description box down below, or you can scan this QR code over here next to my head and try it out for yourself. Don't forget to leave me a thumbs up if you enjoyed the video, subscribe if you haven't already, and I'll see you guys all here in the next one.