On your journey to your best body possible, bouncing back and forth between bulking & cutting phases is absolutely ESSENTIAL to avoid spinning your wheels!
Can you make progress (I.e build muscle & lose fat) WITHOUT purposefully pushing your bodyweight up (bulking) some of the time and purposefully dropping bodyweight (cutting) other times?
YES!
You most certainly CAN make SOME progress this way.
But...aren't you reading this because you want your BEST BODY POSSIBLE???
If you're okay settling for "a little bit better than you are right now" then go ahead and hang at maintenance calories and do the whole "recomp" thing.
But, if you want to dramatically overhaul your physique and really build the body of your dreams, brace yourself for the constant bulking/cutting cycles.
WHEN TO CUT
Let me make this as simple as possible for you...
If you do NOT have a fairly visible set of Abs, you should cut.
WHEN TO BULK
If you DO have a fairly (or even HIGHLY) visible set of Abs, you should bulk.
PROVIDING A FRAME OF REFERENCE
Please see attached photos at the bottom of this page.
WHEN TO MAINTAIN
Maintain when:
- You are burned out (this shouldn't be very often, stop making excuses)
- Life is making it difficult to bulk/cut (this shouldn't be very often, stop making excuses)
- You are quite satisfied with your physique and would like to dedicate the time & energy you've been devoting to progressing in the gym toward some other worthy endeavor
Can you make progress (I.e build muscle & lose fat) WITHOUT purposefully pushing your bodyweight up (bulking) some of the time and purposefully dropping bodyweight (cutting) other times?
YES!
You most certainly CAN make SOME progress this way.
But...aren't you reading this because you want your BEST BODY POSSIBLE???
If you're okay settling for "a little bit better than you are right now" then go ahead and hang at maintenance calories and do the whole "recomp" thing.
But, if you want to dramatically overhaul your physique and really build the body of your dreams, brace yourself for the constant bulking/cutting cycles.
WHEN TO CUT
Let me make this as simple as possible for you...
If you do NOT have a fairly visible set of Abs, you should cut.
WHEN TO BULK
If you DO have a fairly (or even HIGHLY) visible set of Abs, you should bulk.
PROVIDING A FRAME OF REFERENCE
Please see attached photos at the bottom of this page.
WHEN TO MAINTAIN
Maintain when:
- You are burned out (this shouldn't be very often, stop making excuses)
- Life is making it difficult to bulk/cut (this shouldn't be very often, stop making excuses)
- You are quite satisfied with your physique and would like to dedicate the time & energy you've been devoting to progressing in the gym toward some other worthy endeavor
This is what I look like RIGHT when I'm about to begin bulking
(I.e this is the LEANEST I get) |
This is what I look like RIGHT when I'm about to begin cutting
(I.e this is the FATTEST I get) |
