In this second blog post of the series, I will discuss the following strategies:
- Weight-gaining (as in mass building) .
- Getting ripped (as in losing body fat while maintaining muscle mass).
- Long-term vs Short-term strategies.
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Background
Bodybuilding usually comprises of the following two basic stages: Bulking, and Cutting. The exact duration of each stage depends on the specific needs of the person, and as such, will vary from individual to individual.
Bulking usually refers to the stage where one aims to gain as much muscle mass as possible while gaining minimal; body fat. The idea is to increase the overall mass of the body considerably beyond one’s target body mass, so that during the Cutting stage, the final body mass can be brought to around the initial target mass. For instance, a person who currently weighs, say, 65Kg might have a target of around 80Kg at a specific percentage of body fat. I personally do not believe in the body fat nonsense since it is hardly an accurate parameter, but especially because what matters in the end is the visual appeal of the body. One’s eyes are the best judge of where the body is at! So, during the bulking phase, the said person might eventually go to around 90Kg of body mass by the end of the phase. This is important since during the bulking phase, one will inevitably gain a substantial amount of body fat in addition to pure muscle mass.
Cutting refers to the stage after the Bulking stage, where the idea is to get rid of the excess fat gained during Bulking whilst maintaining as much of the muscle mass as possible. This ensures that the muscles appear more prominent and striated due to the reduced body fat around them (sub-cutaneous fat). An important point to discuss here is the difference between sub-cutaneous fat and visceral fat. Sub-cutaneous fat refers to the fat lodged between the skin and the muscles whereas visceral fat is the fat that is found around the internal organs, i.e., between the muscles and the surface of the internal organs. During Cutting, the aim is to reduce sub-cutaneous fat to the maximum possible extent. Unfortunately, we do not have much control over visceral fat. While visceral fat does not detract from the visual aspect of the muscles, it can be detrimental to overall health is present in large quantities. This is the reason why body fat calculation is complete bullshit – they cannot measure visceral fat. Proper diet can mitigate the problem of visceral fat to a certain extent if one is careful with one’s diet, especially during the Bulking phase. So during this phase, the aforementioned person will aim to drop from 90Kg to his target mass of around 80Kg. The aim is to ensure that the 10Kg lost during this phase is primarily sub-cutaneous fat.
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Weight-gaining / Bulking Stage Strategy
As mentioned before, the length of this stage will depend on multiple factors – the current conditioning of the person, his overall target, and his diet patterns. Overall, the common idea is to gain as much muscle mass as possible with minimal fat gain. For a person in moderate conditioning (low to medium body fat content), I would recommend setting a Bulking phase of around 3-6 months (ideally the latter). If a person has considerable body fat content, I would suggest that he reduce his fat content first by starting off with the Cutting phase instead. Remember: Bulking and Cutting always cycle together in alternate stages/phases.
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Diet:
The person should eat around 3-4 small or mid-sized meals per day. A lot of people count calories, but I prefer to count the protein content instead. This makes the job much easier, and ensures similar (if not better) results. Meals should be roughly in this proportion: 40% protein, 40% carbohydrates, and 20% good fats. I will cover the diet aspect in a separate detailed blog post. I would recommend pushing the simple carbohydrates (rice, breads, etc) toward the first half of the day while consuming complex carbohydrates (vegetables) in the second half of the day. In addition to these 3-4 meals, he should also consume his protein shakes.
The rule of thumb is to consume around 1.5g-2.0g of protein per pound of body mass. That is, if a person wants to have an ideal weight of around 80Kg, that would translate to around 240g of protein per day. I would suggest consuming 100g of this from protein shakes, while obtaining the remaining 140g from meat. That should translate to, say, one protein shake of 400g in the morning, and 60g of protein shake post workout. The reason for this division of protein consumption is the fact that the body cannot absorb more than around 50g of protein at a sitting. We compensate for the body’s less-than-perfect protein absorption rate by consuming slightly more post-workout since this is the most crucial time for protein intake for the body.
All in all, one has to remember a simple fact – to gain muscle mass, you have to consume more calories than you expend during the day. You cannot grow if there is a calorific deficiency – it’s just plain common sense. The idea is to make sure that most of those calories come from protein than the other macro nutrients. The workout provides that very stimulus – it creates a severe protein deficiency in the body. This ensures that the body can consume more protein and thereby grow more muscle mass than under normal circumstances.
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Supplementation:
I would recommend 100% Whey Isolate protein supplements, multi-vitamins, and Creatine Monohydrate. I will cover these supplements in a later blog post, but at this stage, I would like to emphasize one important bit – never scrimp on supplements. Usually, the more expensive the better. Also, always check the contents of the supplement scrupulously. You might be getting more sugar, saturated fat, cholesterol, or Sodium than you bargained for.
100% Whey Isolate is the bread-and-butter of the amateur bodybuilder’s supplementation. This is the fastest absorbing protein that money can buy! Forget all those people who imagine protein is all the same. Absolute bullshit. The most crucial part of the workout is the period after the workout (I would say 20 mins). You must feed your body the protein it craves during this window. Whey Isolate works extremely quickly and gets digested well within the 20 mins post-workout period. Normal meat protein will take up to an hour or more to get digested, and so it is practically useless for post-workout.
Creatine Monohydrate has a mixed reputation in the bodybuilding world. In my experience though, it is extremely useful. Go for a good brand, forget any other creatine apart from Monohydrate, forget the “loading phase” bullshit, take around 5g pre-workout, and 5g post-workout (mixed with your protein shake). Make sure that if you do take Creatine, you drink at least 2-3l of water spread out over the day. Your kidneys will thank you for it. Creatine is amazing because it gives the required energy for the workout. And you will get a pump like you never have in your life!
Multi-vitamins are useful in many subtle ways. A lot of people think that they don’t work because they cannot see any obvious results of taking multi-vitamins. However, they are crucial to bodybuilding. They help repair your body, give you essential nutrients especially when you are on a strict diet (and surprisingly, even otherwise), they facilitate the body’s ability to absorb and use the nutrients from your food and supplementation. I suggest going for a very good brand (you can get the same combination much much cheaper by buying separate pills from the pharmacy, but I suggest that you leave that to the professional bodybuilders), and consuming 2-3 caplets/tablets/capsules per day, or as recommended on the cover.
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Workout:
The workout regimen can be arranged in the following cyclic pattern: Chest, Back, Shoulders and Neck, Arms, and Legs. That makes for a 5 day workout routine. The most important thing to remember during Bulking is to aim for muscle hypertrophy and strength-building. To this end, the workouts should comprise primarily of free weights (dumbells, barbells, kettlebells, etc.) rather than machines.
Also, the idea if to workout with as heavy a weight as possible. I would suggest 6-8 different exercises per body part, and 4 sets per exercise. Try to aim to 6-8 reps during strength-building, and 8-12 reps during mass-building (hypertrophy). The important part to remember is that the rep count should be the guide for the weight used – you should not be able to physically do more than a couple of reps beyond the 6-8 or 8-12 rep count for the given set. To make better sense of it, remember, for instance, that you can start off the first set with 12 reps, the second set with 10 reps, the third with 8 reps, and the fourth with 8 reps.
Aim for around 1 minute rest between exercises. In between sets, you should aim for a rest period equivalent to that of the set itself. For instance, if a set takes 15 seconds to complete, rest for 15 seconds before the next set. Here is where having a partner becomes advantageous – you can basically rest while your partner is doing his set, and vice-versa. Finally, try to mix it up with a burn-set routine every few weeks. The importance of this cannot be overstated. More details in the blog post on workouts.
(Note: I am not a big fan of cardio personally, but if I had to choose, I would suggest HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) cardio to LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) cardio. That is to say, I would rather do 6-8 minutes of high intensity sprints on the treadmill (or a full body workout of similar duration) rather than spend 40-60 minutes trundling on the treadmill. Swimming, hiking in a hilly terrain, rock-climbing etc. are all good cardio workouts too. Cardio is recommended once or twice per week during Bulking phase, just to keep the body fat gains under control.)
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Getting ripped/Cutting phase Strategy
The Cutting phase immediately follows the Bulking phase. Again, as in the case of the Bulking phase, the duration of this phase depends on multiple factors. A good rule of thumb is to have the Cutting phase to be around a third of the duration of the Bulking phase. For instance, if the Bulking phase is 3 months, the Cutting phase can be around a month or less. If the Bulking phase is chosen to be 6 months, I would recommend keeping the Cutting phase at around 1.5 months to 2 months at most.
How conditioned you want to get dictates the length of the Cutting phase. This is especially germane to the discussion since you will not gain any muscle mass during Cutting. Your primary aim is to get rid of the excess fat gained during Bulking, while maintaining as much of the lean muscle mass as possible. The only reason why the muscles appear more prominent and shapely, and more striated is the fact that the overlying layers of sub-cutaneous fat are being rid off during this phase. This is the crucial phase for getting that six-pack that everybody is after! The general pattern of the Cutting phase is broken down into the following sections, just as in the case of the Bulking phase:
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Diet:
A good diet is absolutely vital during this phase, even more so than the Bulking phase. While you can get away with a few slippages in your diet during bulking, you cannot afford the same during the Cutting phase. The interesting bit about diet during the Cutting phase is that you can choose a radical approach (low/no carb) or a conservative approach (medium to low carb intake).
If you go for the low/no carb approach (arguably the best results that you can get), make sure that you drink plenty of water, and perhaps some yoghurt, to ensure that your stomach does not too acidic. This can lead to digestive system problems later on, so be careful right from the onset. Eat around 3-4 meals as before, with smaller portions. Keep your protein intake the same (using the 1.5g to 2g per pound of body weight calculation). The logical bit here is that to lose weight (fat in this case), your net calorific input (food/supplementation) should be lower than your calorific output (in the form of your workouts). The idea is to ensure that most of the weight loss is due to fat, and a minimal amount due to muscle mass. And again, as in the case of Bulking, your workouts will create that calorific deficiency. Now, in this specific diet, you eschew carbohydrates completely, and consume a minimal amount of good fats(required for testosterone production, and thereby body fat burning). A sample breakdown per meal could be: 70%-90% protein, 0%-20% complex carbohydrates, and 10% good fats. Eating at least 4 meals per day will further boost your metabolism and help burn further body fat.
The medium to low carb approach follows much of the same rules as the low/no carb approach, except that the breakdown of each meal might look something like this: 60%-70% protein, 10%-20% complex carbohydrates, and 10% good fats. This approach is recommended for the novice bodybuilder. In both approaches, target for 2-3l of water spread out over the day.
(Note: Be prepared for a massive drop in energy levels during this phase due to the lower intake of carbohydrates. This is normal, and to be expected. Your body usually gets used to it within a couple of weeks.)
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Supplementation:
Supplementation remains more or less the same as during the Bulking phase. Again, aim to consume around 40% of your protein intake from 100% Whey isolates, and the remaining from lean meats. Continue with Creatine Monohydrate for the first few weeks of Cutting, and then eliminate it completely for the last couple of weeks or so. This is important since Creatine does tend to give a bit of bloat to the body, and you don’t want that if you are aiming for a six-pack, do you? Continue with multi-vitamins as before, and this phase requires this even more than the Bulking phase.
(Note: For fitness models, if they have a photo shoot coming up, they follow an interesting strategy. They follow all the rules mentioned above, and in addition, a week before the photo shoot, they drop water consumption down to a couple of cups a day. The logic behind this is that when a person is imbibing 2-3l of water a day, his body figures that it does not need to retain much water, and thus leads to frequent trips to the toilet. By the time the person has cut off the supply of water to just a couple of cups a day, the body is still in the same mode, and keep water from the body at the same rate as before. This leads to super-striated muscles, and the typical Health Magazine cover look with extreme shredding.)
Finally, one additional supplement that can be considered during the Cutting phase is Amino acids, or BCAAs (Branch Chained Amino acids). These are present in minute quantities in normal Whey Isolates, but the main difference is that these are the fastest absorbing proteins, even more so than 100% Whey Isolate. Additionally, they have the added benefit of creating dense, lean muscle. My personal experience has been quite positive, and I would suggest taking them immediately post-workout (usually you just need 2-5g of it), and then consuming the Whey Isolate after 15 minutes or so (well within the 20 minute post-workout window).
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Workout:
The exercise regimen remains more or less the same as during the Bulking phase with some major differences:
- Use more machines (Smith machine, cables etc.) during this time rather than free weights.
- Have around 8 exercises per body part.
- Target around 4 sets per exercise, 12-15 reps at moderate weight.
- Plan for a fifth set (a burn set) with 15-20 reps at light weight (you can use the same weight as the first set).
- You can mix it up with supersets (combination of two body parts), reverse-pyramid (reducing the weight, upping the reps) etc.
- Aim for around 45 seconds break between exercises. This should be fine since only moderate weights are used.
(Note: Cardio takes a more important role during this time than in the Bulking phase. Even so, I would recommend 3-4 sessions of cardio per week at most, and then completely stopping it in the last week of Cutting. Also, remember to separate the cardio and weight-training sessions by a minimum of 4-6 hours. This is absolutely vital in ensuring minimal loss of muscle mass. I will discuss on the best time and form of cardio when I discuss the actual workouts in a later post.)
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Long-term vs Short-term Strategies
Personally, I believe that weight-training in any form is a life-changing and life-long process. The aim is to gain esthetic appeal while attaining, and maintaining good health throughout. A long-term strategy is best suited for this, and is also helpful in getting used to the whole weight-training, dieting,, and supplementation regimen. To that end, I would recommend following a 6 month Bulking phase, followed by a 1.5 month Cutting phase, and then cycling it all over again. I don’t believe in any “maintenance phase”, and I would club that with the Bulking phase itself. Professional bodybuilders do have an off-season where they may allow themselves to get out of shape. For amateur bodybuilders, this is an absolute waste of time and effort.
Some people would, however, like to see some results in a relatively short time. Perhaps to get ready for the beach, a photo shoot, or a sports event etc. There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach, even though it is clearly inferior to the long-term strategy approach. In fact, this can even be incorporated into the long-term strategy without any substantial conflict of interests. Most fitness models do follow this approach since they have to be ready and ripped for a photo shoot any time during the year. What this approach does require, however, is that the person be in relatively good shape (medium to low body fat, a little bit of weight-training history), and also a massive desire for the short-term goal. I would recommend following a 2-3 month Bulking phase (if needed), followed by a month of Cutting (definitely needed). All other parameters and rules remain the same for both.
So, that’s it for general weight-training strategies. In the next blog post, I will discuss the various forms of available supplements, how to choose the right ones, their role in weight-training, and how to properly use them for maximum benefits, whatever your personal weight-training goal might be.
Timmy Jose Technologist by profession. Raconteur by evolution. Humanist by belief. Pioneer by inclination. Free by choice.
My Personal Journey in Fitness 
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