What's going on Nation? And welcome to bench break episode eight are you bulking or just fat? Now
This video came about because I feel like the term bulking is being used and abused and it's throwing a lot of people off
Now what is bulking actually mean bulking is that period of time that you take to focus on building
Muscle you're not getting ready for a show not getting ready for a special event and summer is a long time away
Now what is bulking turn into it's basically turned into a term that's thrown around by people
So they can justify going out eating as much food as possible gaining tons of fat and then they make themselves believe
That gaining all this weight is helping them with their overall goal and it's gonna help them with their gains now as a natural athlete
You couldn't be more wrong. Now. Let's talk about how much muscle you can realistically put on as a natural athlete
So no drugs. I like to reference this chart right here. It's from Lyle McDonald's website
a very credible source if you take a look over here
We have some numbers from year 1 to year 4
Now on year 1 you're looking to gain about 20 to 25 pounds of muscle and keep in mind that these numbers are based on
The fact that you're doing everything
right
So your training spot on and your meal plan spot on so 20 to 25 pounds of muscle year 1 that's gonna be your best
Year on year 2 you look at the gain about 10 to 12 pounds of muscle on
year 3 about 5 to 6 pounds of muscle and on year 4 and every year after that you're given be gaining about 2 to
3 pounds of muscle a year now that might seem discouraging to you
But if you look at the overall picture here, you've gained 40 to 50 pounds of muscle in those four years
Which is a lot and as a natural athlete your frame can only handle so much muscle mass
Now if you're a female watching this video, you can basically just take these numbers and you can cut them in half
but now what I want to do is I want to talk about
Unnecessary bulking. Alright a term. I like to called
Uncontrollable bulking and I'm gonna take an athlete who say who's on their second year of training. So now your second year of training
You're looking to gain 10 to 12 pounds of muscle. That's gonna be your max for the year as a natural athlete
let's say you gained 30 pounds this year on that second year and
Let's say you're on the low end and only ten of that was muscle
So now you have this
20 pounds of fat that now you have to get rid of if you want to shred and look your best during your cutting season
Now what's gonna happen
first of all when you gain excess body fat like this well for one thing it's gonna slow down your natural testosterone production now,
It's not gonna slow it down massively
You're not gonna notice like any muscle gain at all, obviously
but it is gonna slow it down a bit and what happens when it does slow down is
your
Metabolism is gonna slow down and it is gonna hold your muscle production a bit if you want to learn more about testosterone
How to optimize your T levels I have a video right here that you can check it out that goes over all this now
Let's talk about what also happens. Now You have those 20 pounds of fat
Well, obviously your goal right now is to get rid of it
So now you're cutting you're trying to get rid of the fat as fast as you can but it never really goes away
Do you want to know why because once you've gained a fat cell, it's there forever
And the only thing that's gonna happen is it's gonna shrink so you're gonna might lose the majority of that fat
Don't get me wrong, but there's always gonna be a little left over because fat cells do not go away now
Let's say you go on to year 3 on year 3 do the same thing and you gain 30 pounds now
Obviously you've gained more fat and then when you go into your cutting season
You're gonna try to cut as much as you can again, but now what's gonna happen?
You're not gonna lose all of that fat either and what's gonna happen to those fat cells that aren't going to go away
They're gonna pile on top of the fat cells you gained last year
So now what's happening as a natural athlete you're gonna have a harder time cutting year after year if you're always doing these uncontrollable
Bulking now if you're on drugs
You don't really care because the drugs would take care of everything
But if you're a natural athlete and you want to maximize your gains
You need to really watch what you're doing and what you're doing to your body
Now if you're a natural athlete doing all this stuff, I know it's a term I've used a lot
I'm trying to really drill this home with you guys
If you want to get rid of those fat cells
There's only one way you really can do it and it's with a tube and it's called liposuction
So let's talk about proper bulking or what I like to call lean gains
Now don't get me wrong bulking is something that is desirable when it comes to your workout routine
There's gonna be a specific point of time where you want to make gains and gain muscle and you will put on a little bit
Of excess body fat but what is proper bulking well proper blocking is is when you're eating in a calorie surplus
But you're still staying within the proper ratios of protein carbs and fat now
If you don't know what those ratios should be for you. I have a video right here
you can check out it's called how to build a meal plan and I go through step by step for you to figure out your
Exact amount for protein carbs and fat for you to reach your goals
Now, let's talk about pro athletes now
I know pro athletes that are natural who aren't natural but at the end of the day
They're all doing the same thing and they're eating good wholesome foods
Even when they're bulking because when they're bulking they're not trying to gain excess body fat
They're trying to gain muscle and they're obviously eating more calories to stay within the proper ratios
But they're not showing up with pizza and hot dogs and pop-tarts. No, it's other kind of junk food that fills their macros
They're showing up with things like chicken or fish or steamed vegetables or sweet potatoes white rice brown rice good
Wholesome foods and if you're not eating good wholesome foods
You're not getting the vitamins and minerals and fiber and all you have a good stuff that comes with them in order for your body
To actually function properly and make the most out of gaining muscle. It's just not going to happen
Another frame of reference I like to look at is competitors getting ready for a show even when there's six to eight weeks out
They're still looking pretty good and not only gonna utilize that six to eight weeks to get as lean as they possibly can to look
Show ready and that's kind of how I live my life
I always like to look like I'm pretty close to being at my absolute best because obviously I'm gonna try to bulk
I'm gonna try to gain muscle and when I do that, I'm gonna gain a little bit of body fat
But I know in my head I'm in that four plus category
Okay, I'm only gaining two to three pounds of muscles a year naturally
so at 173 pounds
There's absolutely no reason for me to bulk up to
190 just to gain that 2 to 3 pounds of muscle that I know I can achieve this year
So if your bulk is causing you to hold excess body fat, I'm sorry to say it
But you're not bulking you're just fat
The last topic I want to talk to you guys about is if it fits your macros or flexible dieting
And for those of you who follow me on Instagram, you know that I follow this method of eating
I just had McDonald's yesterday on an airplane on my way home
You know
I don't want you guys
Obsessing over calories and obsessing over proper ratios of protein carbs and fat
And if you want to have that cupcake every once in a while
you're craving some sweets just have it but make sure it's a
Minority of the time the majority of the time you guys should be eating
Wholesome foods because those are the foods that are going to contain the vital
Micronutrients your which is your vitamins and minerals that are necessary for the majority of the processes that are happening in your body
One of those major processes being a transportation and absorption of your macronutrients
So if you're spending all day eating that precious protein to maximize your muscle gains, but you're getting it from junk food
You're not going to maximize your gains because you don't have the micronutrients and you system that you need in order to do so
The overall goal of this video wasn't to judge anyone or criticise anyone it was to teach
So now if you're in your third year of lifting you're gonna know that you're only gonna gain about five to six pounds of muscle
That year as a natural athlete
So you're not gonna go out and gain 30 pounds because you know the majority of it's gonna be fat
Unfortunately, there's a lot of misinformation out there that say you can eat whatever you want as long as it fills your macros and bulking
Is okay gain all kinds of fat you'll just lose it when you're in the cutting season, and that's just not true
And I know at the end of the day you guys gonna go out do whatever you want
But at least now hopefully with the information in this video, you'll go out and make educated decisions
If you'd like to discuss this topic more you can join the community and I in the forum section over here on Scotthermanfitness.com
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More good stuff coming soon. See you guys
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