Hi, 1st post here (and not even in the boxing forums!) so hello to all. Was wondering if anyone had any views or advice on whether this would be a good idea for us. Ive been weight training seriouslyfor about 3 years now and currently go 3-5 times a week. I am by no means a beast! A few weeks ago had some skin fold tests done at the gym and was 84.5kg, 11.3% body fat. Im just under 6 foot. Anyway I read a lot on here and some of the more serious gym going guys I know talk a lot about bulking up over a period of time and then cutting down. Would that be a good idea for someone of our size or is it something for hardcore bodybuilders only? I feel it could be of benifit to me as have really plateaued lately and have been a hard gainer throughout (A few years ago I was 11 stone and the same height, my dads taller than me and barely 10 stone) However I have a few concerns. Mainly: I don't really take supplements, have never really seen decent gains with them and would rather spend my money on other things. From what I read a lot of guys will invest heavily in creatine, mass builders etc for bulking and then fat strippers etc for cutting. Are these vital or can it be done without? How hard work is it? I can imagine you don't feel great about yourself getting fatter for a while and then dieting hard and dehydrating yourself. Is it healthy for you in the long term? Does it affect other things like your skin, how you feel etc? Is it maintainable or a technique used to look good for a short designated period of time such as for a competition. For example if i was too bulk up to 88kg over a month then diet down to 85.5 would you be able to stay walking around at that weight/ body fat indefinitly or is your body only there because your dehdrayed so as soon as you start eating/ drinking and training as usual would you go back to square one? Finally, how compatible is it with a pretty "normal" life and other sports? I work full time so can't schedule meals every two hours say. I also play rugby, cricket, go boxing and running. Could you realistically maintain doing these to a decent level whilst going through it or is it a fulltime gig? If the above doesn't make it completly unfeasible how would you go about it? Is there a best time frame for one and the other? I have imagined just doing say a month of taking supplements like mass builders and creatine and eating as much healthy food as possible with minimal cardio and then a month of no supplements, eating only when hungry and stepping the cardio up or is that far too simplistic? Lastly do you have to adapt your training methods, so frequency, rep ranges etc for one phase to the next or can that stay consistent through out? I know I could of just looked online for a lot of this but find articles on alot of sites full of contradictions so would appriciate some personalised advice as I see a lot of sense being talked on here. Thanks in advance.
If you want to be bigger with a lower bf%, then yes. Just don't use bulking as an excuse to get fat and eat whatever you want.
You can bulk but you really don't have to. Your body can only build so much muscle at a time, you can't bully it into building more muscle by overeating. I always read about people gaining 30lbs in 2 months then going on a cut. Maybe 4-5 pounds of that is muscle if they're lucky. Just aim for around 1lb a week increase for minimal fat gain.
