If You're Trying To Build MUSCLE, You SHOULD Be Doing This!

have you been on a bulk and your body stopped responding watch this our next caller is Kevin from Colorado Kevin what's happening how can we help you hey guys uh first off thanks for having me on the show um you've been a huge part of my fitness journey um so yeah I love what you guys are doing and uh kind of squashing some of the myths that are going around these days so thank you for that um so just to kind of get started I just want to give you a little bit of background on where I'm coming from so I'm 32 years old I weigh about 205 pounds been working out consistently for about five years or so and um for a lot most of that I was probably over training uh but recently in the last two years or so I've started to realize that and so I shifted more to your anabolic uh style programming and um started eating a lot better uh when I first started working out I was about 160 pounds definitely under eating and over training so that was just a bad mess um in August of 2021 I started anabolic and I followed that up with performance and then powerlift and after finishing powerlift in June of 2022 I felt like I made some really great improvements with the the major lifts there and so I was really excited to get back to doing anabolic again to try and Crush some of my previous numbers uh however when I went back to do it again some of my numbers either stayed the same or even went down in some cases like uh tricep dips and stuff I couldn't do the numbers that I once did before um so as far as like Diet goes and stuff I consistently log Monday through Friday hitting at 220 grams of protein 3 500 calories and then on the weekends I just kind of you know just relax a little bit and I don't eat out a whole lot don't drink a whole lot um but uh yeah and so I'm just kind of feeling that my goal is to get to 210 215 Maintenance Weight and bulk up I've always been skinny so I'm just trying to get there and it just starting to get a little frustrated with why my strength isn't progressing when I feel like my diet's been pretty squared away so my questions to you are you know do you have any suggestions of things that maybe I could do differently to see more muscle growth um and when you're in seasons of kind of stalled progress how do you stay motivated with doing diet and Trigger sessions and uh consistently working out when you know you look around the gym and and you're not supposed to compare yourself to others but you know it generally happens Kevin how long have you been trying to build and when was the last time you did a cut so um so I've been basically on a consistent bulk since probably 2019 when I was down in the 160s uh and for the most of that time I was on a bulk uh I'd say within the last maybe two or three months I've been doing what you guys have recommended about a mini a mini cut so I just got off a mini cut last week so I'm back onto bulking again how long was the cut for just just a week yeah I know I would do a more Focus yeah I I would go I would go on a do you know what your body fat percentage is uh according to like one of those scales you know that measures measures the impedance I think it's like around 14 but I've never actually like physically measured it so there's two things here one um something's different so when people are like I did the same exact thing as before and it doesn't work nothing is exactly the same so something is different whether it be stress sleep diet intensity intent I mean it could be something one of those things so something's different life changes all the time which means you know you want to change your approach especially if you're gonna do this for for the rest of your life number two if if the if since 2019 the longest you've been in a calorie deficit is a week I would say let's change gears yeah let's see if we can get you down to single digit body fat I I would go let's get you on a cut and interrupt the cut with mini bulks until we can get you down to visible ABS which will be probably around 10 to 9 that'll take you probably I mean if you're consistent you could do that in about eight weeks 10 weeks with some interruptions um and then once you get down to single digit body fat reverse into a bulk the most anabolic I've ever felt my entirely so look I I identify with the the constant bulk I did this for most of my life the most anabolic I ever felt my entire life where I was like I couldn't believe how responsive my muscles were it literally felt like they were sponges was after I filmed and shot the original Maps anabolic I got myself down to shred it I don't know what I got down to I was single digit five six percent body if I don't know what it was after that I started eating more and training and it was like I just built my body was so sensitive to calories and to lifting heavy I just built more muscle I hit PR's and everything it was this incredible feeling and really what it was is just I never let my body experience that really long enough I would I would even take it one step further and shift your complete I'd actually make you run uh Maps aesthetic next and do exactly what he's saying so I'd run maps aesthetic and let's get lean and I'd say let's not worry about the the lifts as far as your strength right now we'll get to that like this I think it would be a good Focus for you right now is to kind of train the bodybuilders may as well since we're trying to lean out and we're trying to get visible abs like go on that Focus for a little bit and then when you come out of that we can go back to bulking and then run anabolic or power now remember this when you're when you're when you're in a cut and you're running a high volume Pro program like Maps aesthetic do not get hung up on the numbers on the bar that's why I want to move them to aesthetic oh yeah but just don't even worry about it it's all about form it's all about feel even in phase one with a cut for you I would worry about form feel pump don't overdo the intensity because if you overdo the intensity while you're going to cut you're just going to over train yourself sure just focus on the pump focus on the squeegee pretend like you're a bodybuilder getting ready for a show don't focus on the weights as much as the technique form and feel and it's a 12-week program that gives you plenty of time to get down to single digit body fat when you feel like you need a diet break quote unquote uh like you need some calories I would go on a mini bulk for four days five days and then go back on the cut and get yourself lean and then when you're out of that go back to a bulk and then watch what happens man keep it keep crazy feeling keep in mind this advice is coming because we know we got your history right so I know you've been training for five years pretty consistently so and hearing what you've been doing nutritionally and focused training wise I just know this is the the best the BET one of the better avenues for you to take yeah it's not it's let like because someone else might hear that but okay this guy wants to hit PR's in his Squad and bench and you're telling him to go on account and go to aesthetic that sounds countering No we're talking to Kevin right now that's right I'm talking specifically to the the Avatar you've built for me and train your training background how long you've been doing this for and this kind of plateau you're kind of feeling this to me is going to break through that Plateau you're gonna shift your focus we're not worried about weight on the bar so much we're gonna go into this kind of bodybuilder-esque type of programming we're gonna diet to lean down drop some body fat get lean and then when we get out of that program we're gonna bump the calories back up and go back to anabolic or power lift and then watch what you feel and see totally do you have Maps aesthetic by the way Kevin no I don't have that one we'll send that to you all right awesome and then just on that real quick so like with the cut you know when I have done these little mini Cuts I've always just try to hit the the protein goal make that the focus and then kind of between fats and carbs whatever kind of fits into I like it I like 500 calorie deficit or I don't even know like what's a good deficit oh I see okay so right now you're eating what 3 500 calories a day yeah about that yeah I go down I'd start with probably 2 800 2900 calories and then base that on how you feel so that's that would be the starting point and then if you lose more than you know if you lose more than like a one and a half two pounds on the scale uh I would bump the calories again I I wouldn't want to lose like three four pounds in a week that's probably going too fast although the first week you might see a little bit of that well because of water okay so yeah I wouldn't want to see two weeks in a row yeah there you go thank you three three four pounds uh right because we're at the gate you might see a little bit but that's probably mostly water so but yeah to Sal's point I think 2 800 to 3 000 is where I'd put you and then and I think it's totally fine what you're doing I'd like to Great easy Focus just hit your protein intake split your carbs in fat doesn't matter as long as you're heading around your calories and following that program I think you're going to be in a good place yep okay awesome all right um and then just the second part of my question was that right now like it kind of feels like since I have been in a book for so long and I'm kind of like force feeding myself and I assume after you go into a cut for a while coming back to a bulk your hunger and oh yeah this is also these are all science this is also why I asked that that's why my question first was to you was how long when was the last time you did a real cut is because I think it's going to promote you being able to eat more and want more and then you're going to be the sales point of being depleted and then refeeding it's going to serve your body well you've got to be patient trust the process Believe in Us follow what we're saying and then when you get back to anabolic or power blow your mind yeah you're going to feel you're going to feel amazing look amazing and be hungry and fuel you're gonna like it well I appreciate that thank you guys very much for all your advice you got it man do you remember the first time experiencing that like where you actually did a cut and then you came out of me like oh I man I missed out on all this I mean I've said that I felt more anabolic from that than I did from steroids which is a strong ass statement but I did I mean I really felt going in a hard cut for an extended period of time and then coming out and refeeding and those it's like your mother that week of exercising is like I mean part of the uh draw to competing for me became the week after the show was over I look forward to that more than anything else was I know I'm about to get myself in the best shape of my life which is cool but the week after the way I felt the way I looked so I mean everything especially with something like that because then you still maintain most of the leanness yeah just muscle yeah packs on your body but even besides that like just re-sensitizing your muscles your body your psyche to food yeah uh is you it's no different than the advice we give someone who's always trying to lose weight and we tell them to try to reverse it that's why you guys advise made a lot of sense to me it's like he's been in this bulk for so long long and it's like a chore at this point and it's where the body's not even receiving the nutrients the way it used to initially in the beginning so to interrupt that entire process I think is going to be fantastic I knew it that's why I asked him yeah he's in a five-year bulk right now [Music] oh