lIn this thread I will tell you why almost every advice you were even given by someone in the gym is redundant and what actually works. Sorry for formatting I’m lazy asf
I’m talking in this thread about natural guys ONLY!!!
the 3 most popular advices I heard people on social media, in the gym, outside the gym etc give are so popular you probably do it on a daily basis:
Tell me if I forgot anything else that’s redundant plz.
1. Bulking
2. Losing muscle while cutting is normal
3. You should prioritize protein
1.Bulking :
Yes, bulking as a natural guy is one if NOT the most retarded thing someone in the fitness industry can do, and the worst part is that most lifters don’t even know that, in this thread I will give thoroughly about bulking and why it’s 100% vaulted.
I will make a few sections so you will beter understand
I’m talking in this thread about natural guys ONLY!!!
the 3 most popular advices I heard people on social media, in the gym, outside the gym etc give are so popular you probably do it on a daily basis:
Tell me if I forgot anything else that’s redundant plz.
1. Bulking
2. Losing muscle while cutting is normal
3. You should prioritize protein
1.Bulking :
Yes, bulking as a natural guy is one if NOT the most retarded thing someone in the fitness industry can do, and the worst part is that most lifters don’t even know that, in this thread I will give thoroughly about bulking and why it’s 100% vaulted.
I will make a few sections so you will beter understand
- Why Bulking is vaulted and why the idea to bulk is redundant
- What actually creates stimulus
- When you SHOULD bulk?
- TLDR
Why bulking is vaulted and why the idea to bulk is redundant
I’m sure you already heard that stupid phrase of “pick up the fork if you want more muscle mass”, which is true to an extent but being in a calorie surplus does NOT, and I will say again does NOT cause more muscle growth in any case (except for specific one that I will mention later).
Ever wondered why the bulk/cut cycle became popular ever since the roids became more popular as well in the body building industry ?
The idea of the bulk is to eat in a calorie surplus (between 250 to even 1,000 in some stupid cases) to give you more “energy”. the idea of eating more for more energy is definitely true, but you definitely do NOT need a surplus to have a better performance at the gym.
So, why bulking is vaulted exactly? Simple-
muscle gain is an not energy-dependent process, it’s a stimulus dependent process. muscles does require a bit energy but that amount is low, the higher end estimates that the maximum surplus you should reach for is 100-200 per day.
There is no biological mechanism that turns extra calories into muscle mass, and myofibrillar muscle protein synthesis won’t increase just because you’re in a surplus. You really think that if you ate that extra pack of Oreos you will get more muscle mass? Are you hearing yourself?
Anything beyond 100-200 calorie surplus will only result in more fat not more muscle mass and energy (100-200 surplus is also redundant but not as risky for your body fat as more than it does, also on paper you won’t actually reach 100-200 surplus you will probably eat less than that so you’re fine). The amount of fat gain you will gain in comparison to the muscle mass will get is crazy since you won’t get anymore muscle mass and only fat. so in the long term this will only hinder your progress in the gym not accelerate it since you will also spend another few months in a calorie deficit which makes you a bit more vulnerable to atrophy. So for exchange of no benefit in terms of muscle growth, the surplus will lead you to being in a calorie deficit during which you will get muscle slower.
Ever wondered why the bulk/cut cycle became popular ever since the roids became more popular as well in the body building industry ?
The idea of the bulk is to eat in a calorie surplus (between 250 to even 1,000 in some stupid cases) to give you more “energy”. the idea of eating more for more energy is definitely true, but you definitely do NOT need a surplus to have a better performance at the gym.
So, why bulking is vaulted exactly? Simple-
muscle gain is an not energy-dependent process, it’s a stimulus dependent process. muscles does require a bit energy but that amount is low, the higher end estimates that the maximum surplus you should reach for is 100-200 per day.
There is no biological mechanism that turns extra calories into muscle mass, and myofibrillar muscle protein synthesis won’t increase just because you’re in a surplus. You really think that if you ate that extra pack of Oreos you will get more muscle mass? Are you hearing yourself?
Anything beyond 100-200 calorie surplus will only result in more fat not more muscle mass and energy (100-200 surplus is also redundant but not as risky for your body fat as more than it does, also on paper you won’t actually reach 100-200 surplus you will probably eat less than that so you’re fine). The amount of fat gain you will gain in comparison to the muscle mass will get is crazy since you won’t get anymore muscle mass and only fat. so in the long term this will only hinder your progress in the gym not accelerate it since you will also spend another few months in a calorie deficit which makes you a bit more vulnerable to atrophy. So for exchange of no benefit in terms of muscle growth, the surplus will lead you to being in a calorie deficit during which you will get muscle slower.
the simplest thing ever- Mechanical Tension is the ONLY thing that will make your muscles hypertrophy.
For those who don’t know why machanical tendon is, it’s simply the pulling force your muscle fibers experience during slow
contractions. As velocity decreases, fiber force increases. (Inverse relationship).
During slow velocity contraction speeds, fibers has the most action-myosin crrosbridges- basically the most amount of force.
The force velocity curve:
So how does MT create hypertrophy - it’s basically the stimulus that tells your body to add contractile tissue, mechanoreceptors within the muscle fibers detect MT, causing a series of signals that ultimately produce growth by increasing protein synthesis rate.
Heavier weight ≠ more mechanical tension btw, MT only exists on the force velocity curve, load doesn’t matter as long as contraction speed is slow. I’m not saying you shouldn’t lift heavier loads, heavier loads are helpful for other reasons. Mechanical tension and motor unit recruitment are 2. Different things.
For example, if I press a barbell with 5 kg each side (so 30 kg in total) but in slow velocity, will it create high fiber force ? The answer is yes since there is a slow contraction velocity. Don’t confuse MT with MUR.
So to clarify, you won’t grow if you only do slow contractions with light loads, This will only stimulate the active fibers, which will not be enough for growth because you are so low in the motor unit pool due to low effort.
BTW, micro tears do NOT mean more muscle gain it’s actually the opposite.
For those who don’t know why machanical tendon is, it’s simply the pulling force your muscle fibers experience during slow
contractions. As velocity decreases, fiber force increases. (Inverse relationship).
During slow velocity contraction speeds, fibers has the most action-myosin crrosbridges- basically the most amount of force.
The force velocity curve:
Heavier weight ≠ more mechanical tension btw, MT only exists on the force velocity curve, load doesn’t matter as long as contraction speed is slow. I’m not saying you shouldn’t lift heavier loads, heavier loads are helpful for other reasons. Mechanical tension and motor unit recruitment are 2. Different things.
For example, if I press a barbell with 5 kg each side (so 30 kg in total) but in slow velocity, will it create high fiber force ? The answer is yes since there is a slow contraction velocity. Don’t confuse MT with MUR.
So to clarify, you won’t grow if you only do slow contractions with light loads, This will only stimulate the active fibers, which will not be enough for growth because you are so low in the motor unit pool due to low effort.
BTW, micro tears do NOT mean more muscle gain it’s actually the opposite.
so now that we covered what actually creates stimulus and why bulking is vaulted, let’s talk about when you DO need to bulk.
Let’s keep it simple- you should bulk only when you’re either starting the gym as an underweight guy (below 17 BMI) or as an enhanced guy, why?
As a skinny guy (below 17 BMI), you are in a state where you don’t function well because your calories are so low so you don’t have energy, which will hinder your progress like CRAZY. Imagine training on 1 hour of sleep, that’s how it basically feels…
As an enhanced guy, literally everything you do will make your muscles grow like crazy, but when bulking you can basically make those extra 250-600 calories of surplus efficient for muscle mass because your MPS is elevated 24/7, I won’t get to it too much since I’m talking mainly about naturals here, but you get the point.
Let’s keep it simple- you should bulk only when you’re either starting the gym as an underweight guy (below 17 BMI) or as an enhanced guy, why?
As a skinny guy (below 17 BMI), you are in a state where you don’t function well because your calories are so low so you don’t have energy, which will hinder your progress like CRAZY. Imagine training on 1 hour of sleep, that’s how it basically feels…
As an enhanced guy, literally everything you do will make your muscles grow like crazy, but when bulking you can basically make those extra 250-600 calories of surplus efficient for muscle mass because your MPS is elevated 24/7, I won’t get to it too much since I’m talking mainly about naturals here, but you get the point.
Muscle growth is driven by training stimulus (mechanical tension), not by eating in a large calorie surplus. Extra calories don’t directly increase muscle protein synthesis. After a small surplus (~100–200 kcal at most), additional calories mainly increase fat gain.
It goes in this order:
1.Large bulks unnecessary fat gain
2. longer cutting phases
3. slower overall progress.
You should only intentionally bulk if:
You’re underweight (very low BMI) and lacking energy and/or whenYou’re using anabolic drugs, where elevated muscle protein synthesis makes larger surpluses more effective.For most natural lifters I would advocate training hard, recover well, and eat around maintenance or a very small surplus/deficit depending on your goals.
It goes in this order:
1.Large bulks unnecessary fat gain
2. longer cutting phases
3. slower overall progress.
You should only intentionally bulk if:
You’re underweight (very low BMI) and lacking energy and/or whenYou’re using anabolic drugs, where elevated muscle protein synthesis makes larger surpluses more effective.For most natural lifters I would advocate training hard, recover well, and eat around maintenance or a very small surplus/deficit depending on your goals.
2.losing muscle while cutting is normal:
I guess you heard this sentence at least a couple times in your training lifespan and it’s actually not that redundant, but people actually treat it as a binary state, as you will will lose muscle mass on a cut 100% without looking at the objective. While losing muscle on a deficit is actually easier than when at maintenance, it doesn’t mean losing muscle mass is something you don’t need to worry about.
To clarify again, I’m taking about natural lifters (obviously). Some mistakes new lifters have is that they think they lost a lot of muscle in their cut while they just didn’t have any significant muscle to begin with, so if you’re not a new lifter you SHOULD worry about losing muscle in a cut.
I will make a few sections so you will understand it better:
- Why losing muscle, strength in a cut is not normal and shouldn’t be something that is obvious to you.
- How to properly programm your cutting phase
- TL;DR
Why losing muscle, strength in a cut is not normal and shouldn’t be something that is obvious for you
How to properly programm your cutting phase:
TL;DR:
3. Prioritizing protein
Prioritizing protein as a natty gotta be the worst brainwashed thing after religion.
I will make three sections:
losing muscle and strength in a cut is something that is very easy to do and very easy to avoid as well as long as you program your diet and cardio better.
Losing muscle and strength on a cut probably means you’re either going for more than 700 calorie deficit Which is a lot or not getting enough carbs (yes carbs are that important). For knowing how to cut properly you need to find your tdee (look in google), it’s never too realistic but it can give you a good idea of how many calories you should eat daily (I will talk about it more throughly the next section).
As long as your calories are not at the floor and you’re taking your preworkout carbs you WONT lose strength and muscle.
Losing muscle and strength on a cut probably means you’re either going for more than 700 calorie deficit Which is a lot or not getting enough carbs (yes carbs are that important). For knowing how to cut properly you need to find your tdee (look in google), it’s never too realistic but it can give you a good idea of how many calories you should eat daily (I will talk about it more throughly the next section).
As long as your calories are not at the floor and you’re taking your preworkout carbs you WONT lose strength and muscle.
Ts is literally the easiest thing ever, all you need to do is to :
1. find your TDEE (go to google search) and then fill your stats. I will give you an idea of how it should be after you fill your stats -
After you found your calorie maintenance (it’s never accurate remember) you will need to remove calories by how fast you want it, for example doing a 600 deficit will result in you eating roughly 2,000 calories which is a moderate cut, by then just experiment what’s best for you etc etc.
2. Do cardio, cardio is not just running or doing HIIT, it’s also doing bunch of steps daily and being on the stair master. So for example I do 15,000 steps minimum daily and it’s easy asf tbh, I counted it and every 10 minutes I walk 750-900 steps ish.
3. COUNT YOUR CALORIES, it should be fucking obvious, right? You should know what you’re getting in your body and what are the macros, kinda reasonable right?
4. Carbs>protein, I will talk about this more throughly in the next main section but you need to understand going over 30% of protein from your calories is just redundant.
Less protein, more carbs, especially before a workout. Leave room for carbs
1. find your TDEE (go to google search) and then fill your stats. I will give you an idea of how it should be after you fill your stats -
After you found your calorie maintenance (it’s never accurate remember) you will need to remove calories by how fast you want it, for example doing a 600 deficit will result in you eating roughly 2,000 calories which is a moderate cut, by then just experiment what’s best for you etc etc.
2. Do cardio, cardio is not just running or doing HIIT, it’s also doing bunch of steps daily and being on the stair master. So for example I do 15,000 steps minimum daily and it’s easy asf tbh, I counted it and every 10 minutes I walk 750-900 steps ish.
3. COUNT YOUR CALORIES, it should be fucking obvious, right? You should know what you’re getting in your body and what are the macros, kinda reasonable right?
4. Carbs>protein, I will talk about this more throughly in the next main section but you need to understand going over 30% of protein from your calories is just redundant.
Less protein, more carbs, especially before a workout. Leave room for carbs
Losing muscle and strength on a cut shouldn’t just be something you accept. Most of the time it happens because you’re cutting way too hard or you dropped carbs too low and now your workouts suck.
If you’re in a crazy deficit, yeah, your lifts are going to go down. A cut doesn’t need to be extreme. Just find roughly where your maintenance is and eat a few hundred calories below that. Don’t eat too less. Move more during the day. And actually track what you eat so you’re not guessing.
Keep protein moderate, but don’t go so high. Carbs are your best friend . If your workouts stay strong and you’re not starving yourself, you shouldn’t be watching your muscle atrophy.
If you’re in a crazy deficit, yeah, your lifts are going to go down. A cut doesn’t need to be extreme. Just find roughly where your maintenance is and eat a few hundred calories below that. Don’t eat too less. Move more during the day. And actually track what you eat so you’re not guessing.
Keep protein moderate, but don’t go so high. Carbs are your best friend . If your workouts stay strong and you’re not starving yourself, you shouldn’t be watching your muscle atrophy.
3. Prioritizing protein
Prioritizing protein as a natty gotta be the worst brainwashed thing after religion.
I will make three sections:
- Why prioritizing protein is vaulted
- Why carbs>protein
- TL;DR
Why prioritizing protein is vaulted :
No, more protein≠faster muscle gain and more muscle gain.
Why is that?
Your body has a plateau for how much protein it can absorb, for 99.9999% of people eating more than 140 grams of of protein (considering they’re natural) will only give them useless calories that they could instead exchange with carbs (which is FAR more beneficial for muscle mass). Your MPS has a certain point (plateau) where after specific amount of protein is absorbed, it won’t contribute to anything except for MAYBE, just maybe some energy which carbs are better for anyway. So once you hit that plateau it doesn’t cause further hypertrophy, you’re just eating pointless calories atp.
People overrate protein SO FUCKING MUCH.
You need to eat your minimum effective dose of protein and leave the rest of your calories for carbs which are FAR MORE IMPORTANT FOR BUILDING MUSCLE, so stop overeating protein and torturing yourself and start eating more carbs.
Why is that?
Your body has a plateau for how much protein it can absorb, for 99.9999% of people eating more than 140 grams of of protein (considering they’re natural) will only give them useless calories that they could instead exchange with carbs (which is FAR more beneficial for muscle mass). Your MPS has a certain point (plateau) where after specific amount of protein is absorbed, it won’t contribute to anything except for MAYBE, just maybe some energy which carbs are better for anyway. So once you hit that plateau it doesn’t cause further hypertrophy, you’re just eating pointless calories atp.
People overrate protein SO FUCKING MUCH.
You need to eat your minimum effective dose of protein and leave the rest of your calories for carbs which are FAR MORE IMPORTANT FOR BUILDING MUSCLE, so stop overeating protein and torturing yourself and start eating more carbs.
so why? Stimulus happens in the gym, so you need to maximize that to have the best stimulus you can achieve while you’re in the gym, so how do you maximize that? It’s simple- YOU PRIORITIZE CARBS. Also, don’t you find it easier to eat carbs then to force feed yourself with breast chicken ? So how do you carb max? Your macros should be 50-60% of carbs and the rest are protein and fat. Just eating carbs through the day is not enough tho, to fully maximize your workout, you will need to have 2/3 phases of carbs absorption:
1. pre workout carbs which will help around 60-80 g of carbs (don’t do 1g of carb per kg plz), that will give you fuel for the workout
2. but that’s not enough if your workout is more than 1 hour and 30 minutes
then you will need to also add intra workout carbs (IWC) which will give you fuel for THE WHOLE workout. I would opt for absorbing them 10 minutes before halfway the workout ( for example if your workout is 2 hours, absorb them when you reach 50 minutes), and it HAS to be fast digesting carbs (low GI, low fat) so gummies imo is the best but rice cakes is good too just eat what ever Is more comfortable for you.
3.And lastly, your post workout carbs (PWC), this is not mandatory but it’s better especially for people who run a high frequency program since it will reduce the post workout fatigue which will eventually let you push yourself harder in the gym the next session, I would opt for 40-50 g of carbs.
1. pre workout carbs which will help around 60-80 g of carbs (don’t do 1g of carb per kg plz), that will give you fuel for the workout
2. but that’s not enough if your workout is more than 1 hour and 30 minutes
then you will need to also add intra workout carbs (IWC) which will give you fuel for THE WHOLE workout. I would opt for absorbing them 10 minutes before halfway the workout ( for example if your workout is 2 hours, absorb them when you reach 50 minutes), and it HAS to be fast digesting carbs (low GI, low fat) so gummies imo is the best but rice cakes is good too just eat what ever Is more comfortable for you.
3.And lastly, your post workout carbs (PWC), this is not mandatory but it’s better especially for people who run a high frequency program since it will reduce the post workout fatigue which will eventually let you push yourself harder in the gym the next session, I would opt for 40-50 g of carbs.
More protein doesn’t automatically mean more muscle. Your body can only use a certain amount to stimulate growth, and once you hit that level, adding more just gives you extra calories, not extra gains. As long as you’re eating enough protein to cover your needs, pushing it higher doesn’t speed things up. Find your minimum effective protein intake and eat it.
Carbs are just as important, if not more for actual progress because they fuel your workouts. Better fuel means better performance, and better performance means better stimulus for growth. If your training suffers because carbs are too low, muscle gain will suffer too.
So instead of obsessing over extremely high protein, hit a solid amount, then prioritize carbs to support training, recovery, and overall performance.
Carbs are just as important, if not more for actual progress because they fuel your workouts. Better fuel means better performance, and better performance means better stimulus for growth. If your training suffers because carbs are too low, muscle gain will suffer too.
So instead of obsessing over extremely high protein, hit a solid amount, then prioritize carbs to support training, recovery, and overall performance.
Okay I think that’s what I had in mind, would love you hear your insights guys.
I will probably do more of this but these 3 are the ones that made me realize how many people are failing for it.
Dont lose your volume guys
if I did any mistake or wrote something wrong then fix me. My English is not the best so if you don’t understand something just copy paste it to an AI it will make it simple for you.
@LTNhell63 @seeyenar @idont @Jensonsahighlander
@Dr. Mog
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