Yo, what’s going on guys?
Troy here with Muscle Tactics, and I want to dive into the best way to get abs using
the clean bulk method.
So, it’s wintertime right now in California that’s why I’m standing here on the beach
in a long-sleeve shirt.
It’s actually pretty chilly here in the wintertime in southern California.
And I know you guys are hitting the weights hard.
You’re putting a lot of food in your system.
You’re trying to aggressively bulk.
You want to pack on the most amount of lean muscle mass possible over these winter months.
And, you know, there’s a really strategic way to go about it and there’s a really
bad way to go about it.
And I know so many guys that go about bulking and they do a quote unquote, you know, like
dirty bulk, where they go in the gym and they just, you know, they lift some compound, compound
weights.
They hit the bench-press, the dead lift, the squat.
They’re doing the right thing at the gym and then with their nutrition and they’re
eating, they’re eating so much junk.
So they’re just eating a surplus of calories and ice-cream and cookies and pizza, you know,
late night Papa John’s delivery.
All that good stuff.
And then they think, you know, they’re going to snap their fingers and spring and summer
time rolls around and they’re going to be able to get abs, but it doesn’t work like
that.
If you want abs in the spring and summertime you have to have a clean bulking approach
to packing on the maximum amount of lean muscle mass.
And this doesn’t mean you have to have 100% clean diet, but you have to eat clean most
of the time.
So I want a dive into my clean bulk blueprint and this is the best way to get abs in the
spring and summertime and even maintain abs during a bulking season, but especially when
you want to cut down.
You want to get ripped for the spring and summer time.
This approach will get you shredded really quickly.
So you have to keep in mind it takes 3,500 calories to burn one pound of fat.
So if you’re putting on ten pounds of fat during, you know, your bulking season that
is a lot of calories to burn off to get those abs in the spring and the summertime, so that
is 35,000 calories.
You have to go on a 35,000 calorie deficit to lose ten pounds of fat.
And I know a lot of guys who are going on these dirty bulks, who are gaining ten to
twenty pounds of fat over the course of two or three months.
So, you have to understand that if you go on that big of a calorie deficit all of the
sudden you’re going to lose muscle mass, so if you try to lose weight too quickly after
your bulk, you’re going to start to lose muscle mass.
So it’s a good rule of thumb that you really can only lose one pound of fat at the maximum
while maintaining all of your lean muscle mass.
So, just a super important thing to keep in mind and I really hope you guys follow this
clean bulk because this is going to form the blueprint to any kind of like aggressive,
bulking state where gaining lean muscle mass really quickly followed by a time where you
want to get ripped.
So this is the perfect bulk and cut strategy.
Really the only way to bulk and cut is a clean bulk, so first of all we have to understand
how many calories we’re consuming on a clean bulk.
And for me at least, with, you know, how my body and my metabolism is set up, I do body
weight times 17.
So, you know, I’m about 200 pounds right now.
I will do my body weight times 17.
And this is the amount of calories that it takes to have about a 500 calorie surplus
during my bulk.
So you figure out your maintenance level and most guys maintenance level is their body
weight times 15.
So, my bulking, my bulking calorie intake is my body weight times 17.
And another thing you want to set up is you want to have your macros set up strategically.
I do about 1.25 grams of protein per pound of body weight, so I’ll be consuming anywhere
between 225 and 275 grams of protein on my clean bulk.
And then my carbohydrates will be my body weight times two.
So carbohydrates are so crucial when it comes to bulking up and gaining lean muscle mass
really quick, so I’ll do about 400 grams of carbohydrates during my clean bulk.
And then the rest of my calories are all going to come from fat.
So real easy, just kind of crunch those numbers.
Figure out how many proteins, carbs and healthy fats you need to bulk.
And now the timing of everything is so crucial.
When I’m really bulking and I’m hitting my compound exercises.
I’m doing, you know, 8 to 10 sets of squats, and deadlifts, and bench-press every single
workout; I want to have a lot of calories post workouts.
That’s where the majority of my carbohydrates will come.
I do a lot of calories, or a lot of carbohydrates I should say, pre-workout about an hour and
a half to two hours before to give my body the maximum amount of energy so I can hit
those compound exercises hard.
I can attack the weight room with the maximum amount of energy.
Refill my muscle glycogen.
Just have my body operating like a machine.
And then right after, immediately after I work out, I want to hit that post-workout
insulin slide.
Hit that anabolic window.
So you want a lot of you calories coming right after you work out from your carbohydrates
because insulin is highly anabolic post-workouts, you want to feed your body.
You know, refill that muscle glycogen.
Prepare your body for the upcoming day’s workout.
So the most important thing that you have to consider when you’re doing a clean bulk
is the hormonal responses to the foods that you’re putting in your body.
So you have to understand, if you eat a bunch of really bad carbohydrates late at night,
that is going to shut off your HGH secretion because insulin and human growth hormone cannot
coexist simultaneously.
So you have to understand that although, you know, I know a lot of you guys are following
the If it Fits Your Macros diet, but you have to understand how your body works a little
bit too.
So for me personally, I know that when I stay away from carbohydrates late at night, I stick
with, you know, healthy fats and lean proteins, even when I’m eating a surplus of calories,
I don’t seem to pack on too many pounds of body fat.
So number one, you just have to understand don’t eat carbs late at night.
You know, keep your HGH levels high because HGH levels pertain to maximum fat burning
and are really crucial for building muscle mass and increasing strength.
So the most important thing I do during my clean bulk is I try to tailor 80 to 90 percent
of my daily carbohydrates with breakfast, pre-workout and post-workout meals.
So if you can follow that blueprint, you guys are going to have some amazing success.
Another thing that I do, obviously, you know, you’re bulking, you want to have a little
bit of fun with it, so I will do a couple cheat meals throughout the week.
I’ll do a mid, a mid-week cheat meal, maybe on like a Tuesday or a Wednesday and then
on the weekend I’ll have another cheat meal.
So I try to keep my cheat meals like mid-afternoon, earlier in the day, just so I don’t spike
my insulin too close to bedtime.
And I’m able to, it’s not going to screw up my workouts.
I notice sometimes, for instance, one time I had like a bunch of frozen yogurt right
before I worked out, about an hour before I worked out, and I noticed like I just crashed
so hard.
All that sugar just kind of made me crash and I had a really ineffective workout.
So one little trick that I started doing is if I, I tend to work out earlier in the day.
I usually go in the morning or mid-afternoon.
And I will have my high-sugar cheat meal right after I work out, so that kind of kills two
birds with one stone.
So, you know, you get your post-workout insulin spike and then you refill your muscle glycogen
and you’re also killing that sweet tooth.
So one of my favorite things to do is I’ll just do a bunch of like fat-free frozen yogurt.
I’ll go to, you know, Yogurtland or any of my favorite, you know, fat-free frozen
yogurt places and I’ll just load up on the yogurt post-workout.
I don’t really care about how many carbs are coming from it because my body actually
needs it.
So, if you just follow that blueprint and you just have your cheat meals a couple times
maybe mid-week, maybe later in the, later in the week on the weekends, you guys are
going to have some amazing success.
So many amazing things happen in your body when you do high-intensity interval training.
So your body becomes literally a fat-burning machine following the workout.
Your metabolism is increased 24 to 48 hours following a high-intensity interval training
session.
So high-intensity interval training will make you really sore.
So I tend to do it, I’ll space it three to four days apart and I’ll do it two times
a week when I’m on my clean bulk.
And I will simply do 8 to 10 sprint intervals.
So this is something as simple as sprinting at maximum speed for anywhere between 10 and
20 seconds, resting 30 to 40 seconds, and repeating this 10 times.
So, you know, especially being a naturally skinny guy, if you do too much cardio, this
is actually a catabolic activity.
So this is going to cause you to lose muscle mass.
High-intensity interval training is an anaerobic activity.
It’s maximizing your anabolic threshold.
All these amazing hormonal benefits are happening.
So I don’t care what your body type is, but especially if you’re a naturally skinny
guy high-intensity interval training is the best thing that you can do to get ripped,
build muscle, and just increase your fat-burning, you know, capabilities all day long.
Especially when you’re on a clean bulk, you’re already on a 500 calorie surplus;
high-intensity interval training is going to be crucial if you want to get shredded
for spring and summertime.
So that is a really easy to follow, clean bulk blueprint.
If you guys just follow, you know, the basis of this, you know, stick to clean foods 80
to 90 percent of the time.
You’re hitting your compound exercises hard.
You’re not eating sugar late at night.
You’re doing all that good stuff.
You guys should be able to stay ripped, maintain six-pack abs during your bulking season and
get absolutely shredded for spring
and summertime.