I am a man in my 30s tired of feeling skinny. Someone at the gym suggested I use the winter months to bulk up and then cut for summer. Will this finally lead to the results I am after?
Answering this question in no way endorses one body type over another. Someone else in his 30s may read this question and think you are crazy because he’d love to feel skinny.
Let’s address some bro-jargon. Bulking is fairly obvious — it refers to adding size to your body. In the context of gym, and especially bodybuilding, it refers to eating a caloric surplus aimed at gaining more muscle. During “a bulk” most gym bros gain very little muscle and a lot of fat, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Cutting refers to the “dieting” component of a bodybuilding journey. While everything you eat is technically a diet, dieting here refers to eating fewer calories and doing more exercise to try to lose as much fat as possible. During “a cut”, most gym bros lose most, if not all, the muscle they gained during their bulk.
Unlike gym bros, competitive bodybuilders have mastered the bulk-cut art. We are approaching the competition season and so many competitors are “prepping” for their respective shows, meaning they are in their cutting phase. They do this with dedication and precise attention to their diet and training.
If you’ve ever known someone who competes, and does well, you would have seen the most impressive — or rather, obsessive compulsive — dedication. Every meal of the week, and there are many in a day, are weighed and prepared in advance. They take their own food to work, parties, weddings and conferences. They go to bed early and wake up when it is still dark. They train more than you and I.
Most people aren’t prepared to live like this, which is probably why they go into huge caloric deficits during their cutting phases and end up losing too much weight too quickly, including their hard-earned muscle, all the while placing excessive strain on their bodies.
When it comes to bulking, you get two types. Clean bulks and dirty bulks. The clean bulk increases the calorie intake just enough for a useful surplus, but not enough for excessive fat gain. Calories and exercise are adjusted depending on body composition changes. The end of a clean bulk for a bodybuilder is very different from the bulk of an average gym bro. Often, competitive bodybuilders are still leaner post-bulk than a gym bro is after his get-ripped-fast-for-Plett diet.
A dirty bulk refers to sticking anything and everything into your mouth and getting as big as possible. Gym bros love this — MacDonalds, KFC, anything goes. Sure, they do grow, but they usually only realise that they have become overweight when they look at photos in the future. This is dangerous and can lead to high cholesterol, high blood pressure and a partner sick of the snoring. In other words, like a dangerously aggressive cut, the body is under too much strain. Do we train to hurt ourselves or to become healthier and stronger?
An alternative, safer, approach for the average gym goer is to do what I always suggest. It takes longer to see results, but is more sustainable and healthier.
Eat a good clean diet most of the time, with consistent weight training and cardio — for months and years. When you feel your body fat is increasing beyond your liking, you can tweak the diet a little and increase your training intensity or cardio. If you aren’t gaining muscle you can increase your macros moderately and speak to a trainer about optimising your weight training.
This isn’t as exciting as a short-term bulk or cut, and for many people it is too difficult to stay focused for long. If this is you, setting your own short-term goals will help keep you interested. You can choose whichever approach you want, however, you’ll get the results you want only when you accept that no fancy training phase will fast-track your long-term results miraculously on its own.
Brace yourself because I am about to rewrite a gym meme: motivation is not enough and all the rest is fluff. Bodies are built with discipline and consistency.
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