There’s a reason why bulking is one of the most popular muscle building strategies ever.
Simply put… it works. So, in this video,
we’ll break down what bulking is, when’s the best time do it, and how to bulk to make sure
you build muscle without adding too much fat. Hi, I’m PictureFit. I make health and fitness
videos to help you in all things health and fitness.
Bulking, in simple terms, is a dietary plan aimed to increase your bodyweight.
Which means I’ve been bulking for about 5 consecutive years. Totally intentional.
Bulking is arguably the most popular muscle building strategy because gaining
weight means eating more than your body needs, which means providing a consistent
surplus of nutrients to your muscles. In other words, to build new muscle,
you need to have new building blocks, ie nutrients, and bulking gives you that and more.
Of course, building muscle also indisputably requires stimulation, a funky physiological
way of saying, “you need to exercise.” Bulking plus exercise equals tighter
shirt sleeves. Let’s now jump
into when you should decide to bulk. Finding out when first requires that you make
sure that bulking is indeed what you want to do. Bulking is not meant for people that want to
build muscle while maintaining their current weight.That’s more so maintenance or recomp,
which a video about that will be linked below if you’re interested.
Also, bulking will not only increase muscle mass but because of the weight gaining nature of it,
it will increase your fat mass. If you want to avoid that, then bulking might not be for you.
However, there are ways to mitigate fat gain which we’ll cover later.
With knowing about the fat gain predicament, it’s clear that bulking becomes increasingly
relevant the less bodyfat you have. This is ideal in both a physique and
health standpoint. Muscle with less bodyfat is more visually pronounced
than higher bodyfat and excessively high bodyfat carries cardiometabolic risks.
With that said, a good time to start thinking about bulking is when you’re
lower than 15% and 22% bodyfat for males and females respectively.
Now, this isn’t a hard cap. If you have goals beyond just physical appearance,
like getting stronger, then bodyfat percentage might be a lower priority although, again,
it should be managed for your health. If your goal is mainly physique-oriented,
for anyone new to bulking, I would recommend you consider cutting or maintenance first if
you’re closer to that 15 and 22% bodyfat. Cutting and maintenance can help bring the
fat down while also in some cases still build muscle. If you do decide to bulk after a cut
or maintenance, then you have more to work with. Now for any reason you cannot get a good reading
of your bodyfat percentage, a somewhat decent alternative is using the listed categories
from calculating your body mass index. If your BMI falls into the first half
of the normal category or lower, then you can consider bulking.
Now BMI isn’t perfect, especially the more muscle you have, but for those just starting out,
BMI is better than nothing and does have a reasonable correlation to bodyfat percentage.
Of course, the not-so-great tool you can use is a mirror. Obviously,
there’s a lot of subjectivity here. However, if it is abundantly clear that you can benefit from
having more muscle and your bodyfat doesn’t appear to be an issue, then the mirror might
be enough. But do try to use the previous methods to quantify your opinion when you can.
Whatever tools you end up using, if you come to the careful concrete conclusion that it
is time for you to bulk, then let’s move on to the HOW TO and get things started.
As mentioned in the beginning, bulking will need to be paired with exercise to build muscle.
Now I won’t be diving heavily into exercise in this video and focus more on just bulking.
But, for the most part, you will follow the ever-popular training strategy known
as progressive overload, which is largely measured through increases in training volume.
Again, more links to everything will be provided below.
But to quickly echo what we know in the current science, for bulking,
you want to train about 3 to 5 times a week, target each muscle group 2 times a week, aim
for roughly 2 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 reps for each exercise, prioritize compound exercises, take each
set close to failure with occasionally reaching failure, and gradually increase volume over time.
Feel free to also look through the resources in the PictureFit community discord and ask
questions there if you need more help. But finally, the HOW TO of bulking.
The essential element of bulking is creating a calorie surplus.
The number of calories you consume must be consistently higher than
the number of calories you burn. The slightly tricky part is how
you achieve said calorie surplus. Yes, you can technically build
muscle simply by exercising and eating whatever you want and however much you
want as long as you’re in a surplus. However, you might put on weight too
quickly with this uncontrolled dirty type of bulking, which has the bigger consequence of
putting on more fat quickly. Instead of this, you want to
have some structure to your bulking. First and foremost, you need to get
enough protein, the nutrient that provides the building blocks for muscle growth.
Typically, you want to aim for about 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day.
A little bit more or less is fine as long as you are consistent. And your protein source doesn’t
really matter if you get close to this figure. However, you ideally want to eat mostly whole
foods but eating processed high-calorie foods for the sake of reaching your
calorie goals will be fine on occasion. Speaking of calorie goals, to avoid all
the dirtiness, try to maintain a 300 to 500-calorie daily surplus.
If you’ve never calculated your calories before, you can start with the calorie calculator linked
below, which will shoot out your maintenance calories and your goal will be to eat 300 to
500 calories above that figure. You can measure your food calories using one of
the many calorie-counting apps available. Again, this 300 to 500 range is not a hard
cap. You can eat more if you’re not putting on much muscle and less if you’re gaining fat too
quickly. Just keep in mind that more calories mean more fat and fewer calories mean less nutrients,
which potentially means less muscle. Adjust accordingly.
By following these specific steps, you end up with something known as lean bulking,
my bulking of choice when I finally decide to… intentionally bulk.
As far as when to stop bulking, remember that you want to avoid a high bodyfat percentage.
Around 22% and 28% bodyfat for males and females respectively is probably a good time to stop,
but once again, not a hard cap. You can end your bulk sooner,
especially if you’re satisfied with your muscle growth. Some even use strength goals to determine
a good time for them to change course. And of course, the courses to consider
coursing through after bulking will be maintenance or cutting.
And that’s it for bulking. I hope you found this video
helpful and I wish you the best in your bulking endeavors. Remember, any topics and strategies
mentioned in this video will be linked in the description. Check those out if you need it.
Other than that, If you enjoyed this video,
please give it a bulky thumbs up and share it with your muscle-loving friends.
Let me know what you think of the video in the comments and subscribe for more.
As always, thank you for watching and don’t forget to get your PROTEIN!