AKACS nah I am so full of the 0.5-1 gallon of water and so amped up that I am not hungry after. For many hours. And if I had caffeine the next hour I'm trying to not throw up
The reason why permabulkers succeed is because they have faith. They are very religious people. Theyre part of the religion of permabulking and their lord and sevior bear mode jesus is always watching. Amen
I'm 56yrs old, go to the gym 3 times a week weight train for the last 2 -1/2yrs. married 31yrs. I don't care about shredded, I do it for health and I enjoy it.
Getting shredded is only for genetic elites and guys who know how to diet and train and have enough muscle mass 5 years plus training and you my friend should be lean 12-15 anything over is unhealthy for the general population . If you push it to 18 you start looking like a middle aged woman
Hebrew Kang healthiest body fat is more like 10%. We are not meant to be overweight. In order to become 15-20%, we need to consistently eat excess calories, most of the time will be from unhealthy foods. The more we eat, the more we need to metabolize. Metabolizing food takes around 50% of our energy, and increases the speed in which we age. The healthiest lifestyle is lower in calories, infrequent eating, and lots of fasting to give our body time away from digesting. Living a life like that will naturally result in low body fat.
Yeah man I didn’t care if he was on steroids, I respected him for his honesty. I actually miss him, I happen to think about his old videos a few times a month. Oh month and it will be 1 year since his death.
Even though I gained a LOT of weight.. the strength and recovery time while dirty bulking was AMAZING. Didnt give a shit about calories so long as I had a surplus. Made sure I was getting tons of water and protein on top of my extra food and whatnot. Yeah, I gained an unnecessary amount of weight but it was so much fun seeing the strength, power and recovery time my body was capable of.
Success is measured by what goal you have. I've been on both ends of the spectrum...being lean was fun and also being bearmode was fun. I find the optimum range for myself is 11 to 14% BF.
I was always scared to bulk up with fear of gaining a lot of fat but I’ve decided to take your advice and I feel way less stressed about it. Strength gains going up like crazy. You’re my favorite fitness UA-camr because you are more realistic about things and have great advice. Thanks Alex
Miggie 101 I was and still am fairly lean and was scared I’d lose my 4 pack if I bulked up but lately I’ve just been eating way more and have still maintained my 4 pack but also strength has gone up
Hey Alex, would love if you made a video about yourself, like how you got into fitness, changes over the years and then where you are at now with your goals and everything. Really respect your channel and love the content!
The most bodyfat I ever had was around 17-18% last bulk, and for me, the workouts and the recovery are better when I'm around 14%...maybe just because I feel healthier and lighter.
But, your “fluffy state” was much leaner than most strong guys/ power lifters in the gym. Your abs were always visible and that is much leaner than most. I would worry that people would abuse this advice to be fat.
He also does a lot of core work, and believes in isolating/working abs. Most people have mediocre abs built only on compound movements, and requires much lower BF% for ab visibility. This comes back to good programming.
My point is that he is GENERALLY leaner than most gym goers even when he is “fluffy” . Man, my point was not about his abs. Face slap. Some peeps are going to try to justify being fat and bulked for life with this video.
I was eating in a calorie deficit but got weaker on my pull ups. I’m now in a surplus and doing grease the grove and i am finally seeing progress. Thinking after I can do atleast one set of 15 I will be happy and start doing an actual routine.
I’ve watched you for a few years now and your wisdom has increased by a mile. All the advice and tips you give are always spot on now and fully back by logic or science. Keep it up
Very inspirational. Although I must admit, I am a fan of keeping you BF level where you feel comfy. I was obese my entire teen years, now I feel fat over 15-16%, so I try to keep it low. And although I may stall more often when it comes to strength development, I feel much better. And I think that is the goal of lifting/fitness.
I totally agree with this. Whenever I don't monitor my weight (and say it goes up), my strength most generally increases. However from experience, if I lower/constantly control my weight (for reasons of maintaining/increasing dance/calisthenics performance), the strength gains (especially in lower body) and recovery are much harder to attain.
Permabulking changed the game for me, first two years of training I improved so slowly I considered myself a hardgainer but once I started piling in the food with a good strength program my body composition improved in ways I never imaged, I actually developed a leaner core in a surplus, and my stomach tightened up, I made more gains in that one year than I ever did in the previous two
I always thought I had a big appetite, until I started lifting, then I started force feeding myself. I’ve fallen in love with high intensity, rest pause, beyond failure style of training because one: it’s awesome and two: I’m hungry as shit when it’s all said and done
Hey Alex, ty for the amazing content put here on youtube, you are a big inspiration for me, like a mentor... i started doing exercises last mont following your novice fullbody workout, i started extra weak(like 7 years doing nothing) and rright now i even struggle to do 1 chin-up... but i will keep following your advices to taking it at my level, no need to rush and enjoying the ride better than focus on the destination while im creating my foundation, and finally after some saves tomorrow i am buying a better bar and extra weights. Again ty bro.
You know you making gains when your gym friend who you haven't seen in a three months see you and say you got a little big without asking if I got bigger or not 😎
Totally agree with the point that people who bulk have to worry less about everything else and more about just training which results in them just focusing super hard on one thing which makes it veeeery easy to exceed in that particular thing and not having to multitask. Also bulkers have to focus only on training which is the easiest part of the equation so they adjust it very easily and just live the rest of the day with satisfaction.
GashiiBC after dumbell pressing one day I went a bit too heavy and my left side gave out and put my shoulder in an awkward position. This happened about 4 months ago. I took a month off the gym thinking it would help but it didn't (along with being busy with exams) I had a shoulder impingement and couldn't lift my arm properly. First day I start doing over head press with a shrug the next day my shoulder felt amazing. Since then I've incorporated it to my warm ups
I wouldn't consider 12-15% bear mode, more like over 15%-20% then anything over 25% is just fat and poor choices. Surprised people still do the bulk and cut rather than slow steady gain and a recomp once in awhile. Alex, you've done most of your cool "feats of strength " during this stage of your leaner physique - single arm pullups, loaded pistol squat, 309 benchpress record and some finger pullups. All these were far more impressive than the things you did in bear mode IMO. Every time you do one of these kind of strength moves I'm totally blown away!!🤙
Mr. Potato head cutting is really fucking easy. People are too scared to bulk these days because they do a small bulk and never get to the point where the really gain a lot of strength. You need to gain like 40+ lbs and get apsolutely massive as fuck, then cut Just waking around heavy will help you hold onto muscle, look at the lean body mass of sumo wrestlers, they are all natty btw Cutting 100lbs then getting back on a surplus is why a lot of top guys used to do in the pre steroid era, and there were many who moved huge weights natural.
Don't forget it's easier to cut the fatter you are. You can burn around 22 calories per-pound of fat per-day. If you're 10% fat at 170lbs you can cut a maximum of 374 calories before losing muscle, you'd probably need a team of scientists to be able to keep working out and gaining muscle while eating exactly the right amount of food to do a significant cut at the same time. Oppositely at 20% body fat you can safely cut a few hundred calories every day and not worry about making a mistake and losing strength. Point being if you try to live at 10% body fat your body will quickly punish you if you miss a meal or work too hard without eating enough to compensate.
Went from 225 to 205 by doing fasted training for a month. Diet is very flexible. Still gaining strength! I haven't gone up on bench but I don't focus on it. Aesthetically I'm feeling great. I feel like I could tighten up on diet and weigh in under 190 in a month easily from pure fat loss. If you do it for strength or for aesthetics or to feel good; just go for it.
I agree, naturals do better on a higher bf and it only makes sense, all the guys that try to stay shredded won't have enough recovery to handle the volume necessary to drive further gains.
Alex you're so correct on this Topic. Being that I was once Obese I'm hesitant on eating at surplus. I've tried it for a couple of weeks and recovery was great and strength. Then I got nervous about getting fat again and went to maintenance. Thinking about giving it another go at it for winter hopefully I can stick out this time. 👍:)
This video is on point man. I'm lucky because I've been bulking/recomping for a while with great sucess. I'm around 16% bf and I have to eat a lot to actually maintain the weight I am at now. If I get lazy when it comes to eating I easily lose a significant amount of weight in a few days. That means all I have to do if I think I'm going overboard and gaining fat is to take it easy for a few days and I pretty much return to the same weight I was before. This has allowed me to get stronger and slowly leaner without any stress, I don't even track calories or macros.
bro. i've been suppressing my natural appetite (for food volume, not taste) for the reasons of wanting to cut down so i can bulk properly because that's what's called "optimal", but man i've been getting stronger and stronger now and i don't think the bulk can wait. been failing miserably on my cutting attempts (like 4x already) cos of the metabolism. you've convinced me on following my natural appetite (4,000+cal) . as long as i'm getting stronger and training hard, i think the fat gains are temporarily worth it for some huge muscle gainz. let's see where i'll be in 3 months eating at 4,000 +cal @140lbs
Def true. I'm a skinny guy and I'm way more concerned with calories and carbs than the workout itself since that is more difficult in my opinion. As long as I'm pushing myself every week in the gym then I know I'm good and the only time I feel that I'm not growing as fast is when I'm not being consistent with my calorie intake. At times I felt I wasn't turning as much food into muscle and it was obviously due to not pushing myself in the gym. Makes the whole thing easy as a beginner since there's only two components.
Honestly for me bulking is way more easier and better then cutting. I mean your only argument is health which is meh i feel healthy being the heaviest around my friends. But also girls notice you, your massive size while shredded people need to get their shirt off first. For me it'll always be bulk>cut
Yeah I've been bulking since January and I've gained 30 pounds since then. I've noticed that I've put on some bodyfat (I'm probably around 13-14%), which has been strange for me since I've always been skinny. Before I was very lean and had some muscle mass, but sometimes it would be hard to tell that I even worked out when I was in a t-shirt. Now that I'm bigger but "fluffier" I've gotten compliments on my size and how good I look, and my strength is constantly going up.
I am the guy that tried to stay shredded year round for 2.5-3 years and I barely made any gains. I was even cycling 500 mg test during 2 years of that time, but was cutting 70% of the time. I did look good, but I haven't gained size, maybe 1 kg which is sad. Now that I quit gear for good I am not obsessed about being shredded year round and I'm actually gaining slowly, but quality.
Increasing your body weight increases leverages. Enabling you to decrease the resistance encountered getting the weight from A to B - but still enabling you to lift heavier and therefor stronger. As long as your nutritional equilibrium is on point you will feel healthy. Exercise stimulates appetite. You have to match that appetite or you will up regulate cortisol. If you reach a point where you can’t delay a meal by an hour or two then you are unhealthy and need to dial back on the intensity and duration of all your workouts. This acts as a kick starter to put your cortisol and leptin levels back in balance. Basically taking you out of a higher fat storage (bear mode) state. A less ravenous and anxious state and into a leaner and more alpha state. In this state you can allow you muscles to encounter the full resistance of the PR’s set during a bulk and on a smaller appetite.
im bulking as of right now, and its amazing. i can literally eat as much as i want and never count calories. ive gained a bit of weight, but not a lot of fat because i use my energy at the gym for gains :D
People in a higher body fat are successful because they’re enjoying themselves. When people start going on cuts their motivation goes down more than usual, cutting is painful and you just feel like shit. But when you’re on a bulk you just see all dat size and strength, your hormones are great, and you’re just like “damn straight, this is how I should always feel. Like a god damn king.”
Yeah I started reading it too but after a while I realized that it’s not suited to beginners (he said it in the beginning of the book, but I managed to miss that,I felt like a moron ahah) I stopped reading it and jumped to the Novice Program (I love it)
i gained 7 lbs over the past month embracing eating more. starting drinking whole milk and eating surplus. People complementing my muscles and i feel good. getting addicted to working out.
Bro I can never describe how much of a motivation u give me as you just give me this feeling that you are like agreeing with me all the time. Love u man
I´ve been learning about the scientifically called "structured water" which is the kind of water that is in nature in an electrically charged state (in flowing rivers etc.) and is present also in ones body and absorbs energy from it functioning in the body like a battery (holding energy for later use). If this is the case, we can only realize that water retention in ones cells will increase the energy at disposal for weight lifting as well as to all the other body functions. More water retention = more strength (ideally one would have low body fat and high water retention, as low fat means higher body electrical conductivity/power and high water retention means higher strength - to have a balance of both it would be a good idea to remain at about 10% bodyfat or so.
Also when youre on a surplus your stress levels are down since youre not worrying in the back of your mind if you got your macros perfectly that day, and just generally more at ease when not worrying about food.
I eat as much as I can, when I can lol. I've tried extreme tracking, and still failed to put on weight even while force feeding. So I just free ball now since I've realized I don't gain weight easy. Been sitting around 200 for the last couple months.
Tracking macros is optional if you know what you’re eating you should have an estimate to exactly what your caloric intake is for the day. Lean isn’t bad though it’s just more maintenance
You really don't need a large surplus. You make it sound like there's a huge difference between, let's say, maintaining and bulking. But actually as you have to be quite strict and calculated to maintain your weight, so in a bulk you can allow yourself only a limited degree of leniency. btw, I agree big time regarding bulking making you more accountable for your training. Thanks for the video!
i dont care anymore about food intake.. im done on my bulk cut hypertrophy strength gainz etc (im 170cm 67kg well build but not massive, lean). i love my body n my life.. and love handstand.. train it everyday and strength trainig for preservation only. everybody have their goals.. and my goals is healthy happy and handstand..
I did a hard bulk after a 6 month cut. Started the bulk with NE and food was a limiting factor. I couldn't pass 195lbs. I got lazy with food prep and I resorted to $5 lil Caesars pizza. The extra junk got me past my plateaus and got me over 195lbs. I regret doing it dirty but holy fuck the gains were great.
I’m stuck at a plateau. Everyone tells me I should eat more but afraid I will gain too much in my face and gut. I think I need to really lock it down and eat lots of healthy food.
If you’re in a surplus you’ll have enough energy reserves for all bodily processes. If you’re trying to cut the water from the ice, your body’s going to prioritize different things with what’s available. Muscle repair/growth and testosterone production, etc. may not hold as high a priority in some men’s bodies as others. That being said I need to eat more lol. Gained like 15 pounds in 6 months and plateau since then I cri.
Diderpderp Hell yeah. There's a study where they tested a natty bodybuilder's testosterone lvls in his offseason/bulk then right after he finished cutting for a competition. His T levels went from 1000 ng/dl (Top end range-very good) down to fucking 100. Even months after, his T was still low.
bulking is THE only way i can make progress. I've poor ability to recover, so trying to make progress on recomp is impossible to me even on lower volumes
If a bulk is done in a slow & controlled manner with 80-90% whole foods, then I agree. If not, nutrient uptake may be altered which will impede the effectiveness of the calories consumed
I've been making steady gains at about 13% body fat but i have noticed that guys at higher body fat percentages have made faster gains. The only drawback is most of them never get to see there results cause its so hard to cut back after years of bulking.
i remember my bro telling me to eat clean and stay healthy and all but after him leaving and stuff i started to bulk myself and damn the strength i gained was insane i was hitting PRs like sometimes every week maybe two but it was still crazy how effective bulking really is and if i wanna get rid of my weight and just see my muscle gains i can go and lean down a bit that simple and am also bulking in the summer lol. Great video btw i agree with what your saying :)
fullbody workout + heavy meal after = heaven
AKACS hell yeah!!
AKACS I thought you said fuckboy workout😂😂
AKACS nah I am so full of the 0.5-1 gallon of water and so amped up that I am not hungry after. For many hours. And if I had caffeine the next hour I'm trying to not throw up
Fuck yeah. Full body workout. OHP 3x5. Pendlay row 5x5. Decline bench AMRAP set. Squat 5x5. Dumbbell row AMRAP set. Curl 3x10. Extentensions 3x10. Hyperextension 3x20. Sit up 3x20. Weighted plank 3x30sec! Drive home. Shower with dove shampoo. Go to buffet. 2500 Cal meal(boba tea. Sushi. Steak. Noodles. Shrimp. Octopus. Seaweed. Miso soup. Grapes and cottage cheese!
Stevo'sGamingLounge you mean a split? Lmao
The reason why permabulkers succeed is because they have faith. They are very religious people. Theyre part of the religion of permabulking and their lord and sevior bear mode jesus is always watching. Amen
their prophet is Jason Blaha
@@salmanhussain6863 lol
Bear mode Jesus= Kyriakos Grizzly?
@@hatejethro1164 Yes, my child.
I'm 56yrs old, go to the gym 3 times a week weight train for the last 2 -1/2yrs. married 31yrs. I don't care about shredded, I do it for health and I enjoy it.
Stephen good job dude👍
Getting shredded is only for genetic elites and guys who know how to diet and train and have enough muscle mass 5 years plus training and you my friend should be lean 12-15 anything over is unhealthy for the general population . If you push it to 18 you start looking like a middle aged woman
Hope you have kids chap or else its all in vain
Hebrew Kang that’s all kinds of false
Hebrew Kang healthiest body fat is more like 10%. We are not meant to be overweight. In order to become 15-20%, we need to consistently eat excess calories, most of the time will be from unhealthy foods. The more we eat, the more we need to metabolize. Metabolizing food takes around 50% of our energy, and increases the speed in which we age. The healthiest lifestyle is lower in calories, infrequent eating, and lots of fasting to give our body time away from digesting. Living a life like that will naturally result in low body fat.
haha the zoom in you do when you want to emphasize something you're saying is hillarious .
Bulkers succeed cause bulk rythmes with hulk which makes u god
starving kid from africa you will never be....a god *dies*
The only thing stopping me from legitimately bulking is fat face. My face looks so much better at 12% bodyfat than 15+%
I hear ya man. That's why you need the beard to hide all that face chub. If you can get it long enough the fatter face won't show as much
AlphaDestiny who cares if you look like a dumpling if you can bench 405lbs
AlphaDestiny I can't grow a beard, been trying so hard but it doesn't come in sigh.
Troy Dodson Women
i dont know when you get too cut you look like a crackhead sometimes, look at epicfivetv he looks so drawn in the face from losing all that fat.
gotta eat big to get big CMON
Edd360 haha Rich piana
Yeah man I didn’t care if he was on steroids, I respected him for his honesty. I actually miss him, I happen to think about his old videos a few times a month. Oh month and it will be 1 year since his death.
So, gotta eat a pig to get big ...
Edd360 right babe shake time goddamit uh oh cookie real food good fucking morning
Even though I gained a LOT of weight.. the strength and recovery time while dirty bulking was AMAZING. Didnt give a shit about calories so long as I had a surplus. Made sure I was getting tons of water and protein on top of my extra food and whatnot. Yeah, I gained an unnecessary amount of weight but it was so much fun seeing the strength, power and recovery time my body was capable of.
Do you regret it?
Success is measured by what goal you have.
I've been on both ends of the spectrum...being lean was fun and also being bearmode was fun. I find the optimum range for myself is 11 to 14% BF.
Completely agree. Once I embraced high body fat, I started seeing a lot of improvement in strength and size... it feels so good
This is me 100%
The boss! Shows in those gains brother
AlphaDestiny Thanks Alex! 💯
salah karim I’m drug free
Next Bearmode will look absolutely badass with long hair and beard
Matt Folkerts Alan Thrall
Think if Alan ran NE with a focus in hypertrophy, that would be a scary man lol
Jovan King no homo tho
Permabulking lanklet crew checking in.
I was always scared to bulk up with fear of gaining a lot of fat but I’ve decided to take your advice and I feel way less stressed about it. Strength gains going up like crazy. You’re my favorite fitness UA-camr because you are more realistic about things and have great advice. Thanks Alex
Miggie 101 I was and still am fairly lean and was scared I’d lose my 4 pack if I bulked up but lately I’ve just been eating way more and have still maintained my 4 pack but also strength has gone up
Had terrible back pain then did 3x20 reverse hypers and all the pain went straight away. Thanks Alex 👍🏻
Hey Alex, would love if you made a video about yourself, like how you got into fitness, changes over the years and then where you are at now with your goals and everything. Really respect your channel and love the content!
I see the cravings have set in, “cutting fever” if ive ever seen it. But nothing to be ashamed of. You’re only human
The most bodyfat I ever had was around 17-18% last bulk, and for me, the workouts and the recovery are better when I'm around 14%...maybe just because I feel healthier and lighter.
14 percent is a great bfat but the influencers who rock 8 percent are killing there gains.
you're starting to look like a Jewish father dude
ethos lotus oy vey
THATS AN INSULT
ethos lotus 😂😂😂
Hey! My Father Jewish! 😂
ethos lotus yeah , Rabi Alpha
But, your “fluffy state” was much leaner than most strong guys/ power lifters in the gym. Your abs were always visible and that is much leaner than most. I would worry that people would abuse this advice to be fat.
TopLift His abs were visible when he was around 20%, abs don't mean that you're lean.
Trunks The Avenger Of The Future - Read my comment again. I didn’t say lean I said “leaner.”
is because he have good fat distribution in his body, other poeple look very fat in that %
He also does a lot of core work, and believes in isolating/working abs. Most people have mediocre abs built only on compound movements, and requires much lower BF% for ab visibility. This comes back to good programming.
My point is that he is GENERALLY leaner than most gym goers even when he is “fluffy” . Man, my point was not about his abs. Face slap. Some peeps are going to try to justify being fat and bulked for life with this video.
I was eating in a calorie deficit but got weaker on my pull ups. I’m now in a surplus and doing grease the grove and i am finally seeing progress. Thinking after I can do atleast one set of 15 I will be happy and start doing an actual routine.
So you mean I CAN make my dad proud?
Hell yeah bro
Anything is possible
Jared Spaulding see it , believe it , achieve it
Lmao if you're not bloatmaxxing in 2k18.
Figel the Great grizzly is our king
fuck 2k18
Kyriakos Grizzly lol
Everyone is memeing about him but he is pretty beast.
permabulkers
No idea why UA-cam keeps doing that lol
AlphaDestiny what does youtube do?? So youtube knows what permabulking is?
eric yam oy vey
eric yam Illuminati confirmed !
Ayeeeeee
Alex the type of Leonidas to preach 15-20% although he's 10% body fat
He was 15-20 for like 4 yrs straight lol
This Is 15% !!! (leonidas voice)...
haha yeah brahs but I honestly think this is 10 percent he looks crazy lean a lil more and he would be shredded
He's not 10 percent lol, probably 12-15
Ray Williams is living proof of the concept of this video
Ess Azurah the legend
Finding this channel was a game changer. Thank you Alex.
I’ve watched you for a few years now and your wisdom has increased by a mile. All the advice and tips you give are always spot on now and fully back by logic or science. Keep it up
Very inspirational. Although I must admit, I am a fan of keeping you BF level where you feel comfy. I was obese my entire teen years, now I feel fat over 15-16%, so I try to keep it low. And although I may stall more often when it comes to strength development, I feel much better. And I think that is the goal of lifting/fitness.
Your message is filled with just common sense logic. Keep it up
Maan,I'm currently on a bulking period,and I can say it's actually amazing,very helpful for those hardgainers!
I totally agree with this. Whenever I don't monitor my weight (and say it goes up), my strength most generally increases. However from experience, if I lower/constantly control my weight (for reasons of maintaining/increasing dance/calisthenics performance), the strength gains (especially in lower body) and recovery are much harder to attain.
Permabulking changed the game for me, first two years of training I improved so slowly I considered myself a hardgainer but once I started piling in the food with a good strength program my body composition improved in ways I never imaged, I actually developed a leaner core in a surplus, and my stomach tightened up, I made more gains in that one year than I ever did in the previous two
I always thought I had a big appetite, until I started lifting, then I started force feeding myself. I’ve fallen in love with high intensity, rest pause, beyond failure style of training because one: it’s awesome and two: I’m hungry as shit when it’s all said and done
Hey Alex, ty for the amazing content put here on youtube, you are a big inspiration for me, like a mentor... i started doing exercises last mont following your novice fullbody workout, i started extra weak(like 7 years doing nothing) and rright now i even struggle to do 1 chin-up... but i will keep following your advices to taking it at my level, no need to rush and enjoying the ride better than focus on the destination while im creating my foundation, and finally after some saves tomorrow i am buying a better bar and extra weights. Again ty bro.
This opened my eyes
c MAN Glad to hear
You know you making gains when your gym friend who you haven't seen in a three months see you and say you got a little big without asking if I got bigger or not 😎
Totally agree with the point that people who bulk have to worry less about everything else and more about just training which results in them just focusing super hard on one thing which makes it veeeery easy to exceed in that particular thing and not having to multitask. Also bulkers have to focus only on training which is the easiest part of the equation so they adjust it very easily and just live the rest of the day with satisfaction.
Ive been successfully bulking for 39 years
Great video Alex ! I like your real and honest opinions backed up with evidence and logical reasons,keep up the amazing work!
So many valid points on bulking. Nice vid bro.
I love bulking. Sometimes gaining fat makes you feel manly and big.
Daniel A but they are very interestingly true.
I know this is un related but Uhh, your shoulder pain fix video (over head pressing with a shrug) worked crazy good! Thanks Alex.
Fantastic news!!
Ess Azurah link?
Ess Azurah What kind of problems were you having bro?
GashiiBC after dumbell pressing one day I went a bit too heavy and my left side gave out and put my shoulder in an awkward position. This happened about 4 months ago. I took a month off the gym thinking it would help but it didn't (along with being busy with exams) I had a shoulder impingement and couldn't lift my arm properly. First day I start doing over head press with a shrug the next day my shoulder felt amazing. Since then I've incorporated it to my warm ups
Ess Azurah You do it with empty barbell ?
Thank you bro for this video, its the best time. ive been bulking now for 2 years
I wouldn't consider 12-15% bear mode, more like over 15%-20% then anything over 25% is just fat and poor choices.
Surprised people still do the bulk and cut rather than slow steady gain and a recomp once in awhile.
Alex, you've done most of your cool "feats of strength " during this stage of your leaner physique - single arm pullups, loaded pistol squat, 309 benchpress record and some finger pullups. All these were far more impressive than the things you did in bear mode IMO. Every time you do one of these kind of strength moves I'm totally blown away!!🤙
Mr. Potato head yeah but the point is he just wouldn't have gotten there had he stayed shredded year round
Mr. Potato head us 309 his max bench or his pr for like 10 reps or something
Fuck recomping. People bulk and cut because it's a guaranteed way to make gains and not spin your wheels
Mr. Potato head cutting is really fucking easy. People are too scared to bulk these days because they do a small bulk and never get to the point where the really gain a lot of strength. You need to gain like 40+ lbs and get apsolutely massive as fuck, then cut
Just waking around heavy will help you hold onto muscle, look at the lean body mass of sumo wrestlers, they are all natty btw
Cutting 100lbs then getting back on a surplus is why a lot of top guys used to do in the pre steroid era, and there were many who moved huge weights natural.
Don't forget it's easier to cut the fatter you are.
You can burn around 22 calories per-pound of fat per-day. If you're 10% fat at 170lbs you can cut a maximum of 374 calories before losing muscle, you'd probably need a team of scientists to be able to keep working out and gaining muscle while eating exactly the right amount of food to do a significant cut at the same time.
Oppositely at 20% body fat you can safely cut a few hundred calories every day and not worry about making a mistake and losing strength.
Point being if you try to live at 10% body fat your body will quickly punish you if you miss a meal or work too hard without eating enough to compensate.
Went from 225 to 205 by doing fasted training for a month. Diet is very flexible. Still gaining strength! I haven't gone up on bench but I don't focus on it. Aesthetically I'm feeling great. I feel like I could tighten up on diet and weigh in under 190 in a month easily from pure fat loss. If you do it for strength or for aesthetics or to feel good; just go for it.
I agree, naturals do better on a higher bf and it only makes sense, all the guys that try to stay shredded won't have enough recovery to handle the volume necessary to drive further gains.
Alex you're so correct on this Topic. Being that I was once Obese I'm hesitant on eating at surplus. I've tried it for a couple of weeks and recovery was great and strength. Then I got nervous about getting fat again and went to maintenance. Thinking about giving it another go at it for winter hopefully I can stick out this time. 👍:)
This video is on point man. I'm lucky because I've been bulking/recomping for a while with great sucess. I'm around 16% bf and I have to eat a lot to actually maintain the weight I am at now. If I get lazy when it comes to eating I easily lose a significant amount of weight in a few days. That means all I have to do if I think I'm going overboard and gaining fat is to take it easy for a few days and I pretty much return to the same weight I was before. This has allowed me to get stronger and slowly leaner without any stress, I don't even track calories or macros.
bro. i've been suppressing my natural appetite (for food volume, not taste) for the reasons of wanting to cut down so i can bulk properly because that's what's called "optimal", but man i've been getting stronger and stronger now and i don't think the bulk can wait. been failing miserably on my cutting attempts (like 4x already) cos of the metabolism. you've convinced me on following my natural appetite (4,000+cal) . as long as i'm getting stronger and training hard, i think the fat gains are temporarily worth it for some huge muscle gainz. let's see where i'll be in 3 months eating at 4,000 +cal @140lbs
Happy I semi bulked/bulked for 2 years before cutting down some fat
Def true. I'm a skinny guy and I'm way more concerned with calories and carbs than the workout itself since that is more difficult in my opinion. As long as I'm pushing myself every week in the gym then I know I'm good and the only time I feel that I'm not growing as fast is when I'm not being consistent with my calorie intake. At times I felt I wasn't turning as much food into muscle and it was obviously due to not pushing myself in the gym. Makes the whole thing easy as a beginner since there's only two components.
Thank you for validating me even more
15-20% lifestyle
Hanzok the best
See this is what Maxx chewning needs to do if he wants to bench 3 plates .
Beard's looking great Alex!
As a taller natural lifter, I find carrying around a little more weight is extremely beneficial for filling out my frame !
Honestly for me bulking is way more easier and better then cutting. I mean your only argument is health which is meh i feel healthy being the heaviest around my friends. But also girls notice you, your massive size while shredded people need to get their shirt off first. For me it'll always be bulk>cut
You won't be saying that in the summer, cut is greater than bulk, if you travel to different countries or states that is always summer
destroyerplayer 15% bf is good. Then you have 5% to work with when you want to bulk and get stronger.
Let's be frank cutting is hard, bulking is much easier.
Cutting is intense on your stress level.
I personally find cutting more rewarding though.
Yeah I've been bulking since January and I've gained 30 pounds since then. I've noticed that I've put on some bodyfat (I'm probably around 13-14%), which has been strange for me since I've always been skinny. Before I was very lean and had some muscle mass, but sometimes it would be hard to tell that I even worked out when I was in a t-shirt. Now that I'm bigger but "fluffier" I've gotten compliments on my size and how good I look, and my strength is constantly going up.
I am the guy that tried to stay shredded year round for 2.5-3 years and I barely made any gains. I was even cycling 500 mg test during 2 years of that time, but was cutting 70% of the time. I did look good, but I haven't gained size, maybe 1 kg which is sad. Now that I quit gear for good I am not obsessed about being shredded year round and I'm actually gaining slowly, but quality.
Increasing your body weight increases leverages. Enabling you to decrease the resistance encountered getting the weight from A to B - but still enabling you to lift heavier and therefor stronger.
As long as your nutritional equilibrium is on point you will feel healthy. Exercise stimulates appetite. You have to match that appetite or you will up regulate cortisol. If you reach a point where you can’t delay a meal by an hour or two then you are unhealthy and need to dial back on the intensity and duration of all your workouts. This acts as a kick starter to put your cortisol and leptin levels back in balance. Basically taking you out of a higher fat storage (bear mode) state. A less ravenous and anxious state and into a leaner and more alpha state. In this state you can allow you muscles to encounter the full resistance of the PR’s set during a bulk and on a smaller appetite.
im bulking as of right now, and its amazing. i can literally eat as much as i want and never count calories. ive gained a bit of weight, but not a lot of fat because i use my energy at the gym for gains :D
People in a higher body fat are successful because they’re enjoying themselves. When people start going on cuts their motivation goes down more than usual, cutting is painful and you just feel like shit. But when you’re on a bulk you just see all dat size and strength, your hormones are great, and you’re just like “damn straight, this is how I should always feel. Like a god damn king.”
Just bought naturally enhanced! Been reading it all day
Preciate the support Daniel! Keep me updated with those gains :)
Yeah I started reading it too but after a while I realized that it’s not suited to beginners (he said it in the beginning of the book, but I managed to miss that,I felt like a moron ahah) I stopped reading it and jumped to the Novice Program (I love it)
i gained 7 lbs over the past month embracing eating more. starting drinking whole milk and eating surplus. People complementing my muscles and i feel good. getting addicted to working out.
Still working out man ?
Bro I can never describe how much of a motivation u give me as you just give me this feeling that you are like agreeing with me all the time. Love u man
Really insightful video with good points. Beard looks good too
I´ve been learning about the scientifically called "structured water" which is the kind of water that is in nature in an electrically charged state (in flowing rivers etc.) and is present also in ones body and absorbs energy from it functioning in the body like a battery (holding energy for later use). If this is the case, we can only realize that water retention in ones cells will increase the energy at disposal for weight lifting as well as to all the other body functions. More water retention = more strength (ideally one would have low body fat and high water retention, as low fat means higher body electrical conductivity/power and high water retention means higher strength - to have a balance of both it would be a good idea to remain at about 10% bodyfat or so.
beard gains on point... Salute
Also when youre on a surplus your stress levels are down since youre not worrying in the back of your mind if you got your macros perfectly that day, and just generally more at ease when not worrying about food.
There was something about how at a higher body fat, your joints are better insulated from shock,along your nervous system to lift more weight.
I eat as much as I can, when I can lol. I've tried extreme tracking, and still failed to put on weight even while force feeding. So I just free ball now since I've realized I don't gain weight easy. Been sitting around 200 for the last couple months.
Lost mad strength cutting down finally getting stronger bulking up
Most of the big naturals I know bulked heavy at least once
I think fluff helps the pump look real yoked if its not too much fluff. And fluffier guys are more concerned about power which makes training fun
you have to live it
slightly surplus all year around works the best for me. making gains non stop.
Tracking macros is optional if you know what you’re eating you should have an estimate to exactly what your caloric intake is for the day. Lean isn’t bad though it’s just more maintenance
Notifications squad 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽
Bulk gang where ya at? 👀
That forever bulk life
You really don't need a large surplus. You make it sound like there's a huge difference between, let's say, maintaining and bulking. But actually as you have to be quite strict and calculated to maintain your weight, so in a bulk you can allow yourself only a limited degree of leniency. btw, I agree big time regarding bulking making you more accountable for your training. Thanks for the video!
I was a pussy and was lazy with caloric intake during the winter. My goal is to go from 155 to about 175 by the end of the summer, lol
i dont care anymore about food intake.. im done on my bulk cut hypertrophy strength gainz etc (im 170cm 67kg well build but not massive, lean).
i love my body n my life.. and love handstand.. train it everyday and strength trainig for preservation only.
everybody have their goals.. and my goals is healthy happy and handstand..
I did a hard bulk after a 6 month cut. Started the bulk with NE and food was a limiting factor. I couldn't pass 195lbs. I got lazy with food prep and I resorted to $5 lil Caesars pizza. The extra junk got me past my plateaus and got me over 195lbs. I regret doing it dirty but holy fuck the gains were great.
You can defiantly see a difference in your yoke sense you ended your cut, looking bigger.
That’s it I’m bulking.
I’m stuck at a plateau.
Everyone tells me I should eat more but afraid I will gain too much in my face and gut. I think I need to really lock it down and eat lots of healthy food.
It's naturally difficult for me to gain weight, so I decided calisthenics is my way to go. Working great!
If you’re in a surplus you’ll have enough energy reserves for all bodily processes. If you’re trying to cut the water from the ice, your body’s going to prioritize different things with what’s available. Muscle repair/growth and testosterone production, etc. may not hold as high a priority in some men’s bodies as others.
That being said I need to eat more lol. Gained like 15 pounds in 6 months and plateau since then I cri.
Diderpderp i know brother, i gained weight and then plateau for a couple of months and now i am getting wight again. Why? Because i eat more food
Diderpderp Hell yeah. There's a study where they tested a natty bodybuilder's testosterone lvls in his offseason/bulk then right after he finished cutting for a competition.
His T levels went from 1000 ng/dl (Top end range-very good) down to fucking 100. Even months after, his T was still low.
bulking is THE only way i can make progress. I've poor ability to recover, so trying to make progress on recomp is impossible to me even on lower volumes
If a bulk is done in a slow & controlled manner with 80-90% whole foods, then I agree. If not, nutrient uptake may be altered which will impede the effectiveness of the calories consumed
Bulking is awesome!
Every bodybuilder should probably be gaining weight every year. I have gained about 5 pounds per year working out and paying attention to my diet.
I've been making steady gains at about 13% body fat but i have noticed that guys at higher body fat percentages have made faster gains. The only drawback is most of them never get to see there results cause its so hard to cut back after years of bulking.
What if somebody is in a calorie surplus and stalls out using your novice program and they’re not an intermediate??
A Confused Shoe then a weight reset or deload is a good idea
I’m 28 percent body fat but have almost no muscle so I’m dirty bulking
this made me feel good about my bodyfat for literally the first time
i remember my bro telling me to eat clean and stay healthy and all but after him leaving and stuff i started to bulk myself and damn the strength i gained was insane i was hitting PRs like sometimes every week maybe two but it was still crazy how effective bulking really is and if i wanna get rid of my weight and just see my muscle gains i can go and lean down a bit that simple and am also bulking in the summer lol. Great video btw i agree with what your saying :)