How to build muscle without gaining fat this winter can be done without the traditional bulking and cutting method.
People often talk about the only way to build muscle is to bulk and the only way to build muscle while loosing fat is to have bulking and cutting phases. While bulking and cutting cycles can be effective for building muscle and achieving a defined physique, they come with several downsides and challenges. Understanding these drawbacks can help individuals better manage their approach and expectations throughout the process.
Here are the key downsides:
1. Potential for Excess Fat Gain:
During Bulking: Even with a controlled caloric surplus, some fat gain is almost inevitable during a bulking phase. This is especially true if the caloric surplus is too aggressive or the diet includes a lot of processed, high-calorie foods.
Impact: Gaining too much fat can make the cutting phase longer and more challenging, as it requires a more significant caloric deficit to reduce body fat while retaining muscle mass.
2. Difficulty Retaining Muscle During Cutting:
Muscle Loss Risk: During the cutting phase, when calories are restricted, the body can break down muscle tissue for energy, especially if the caloric deficit is too large or protein intake is insufficient.
Risk Factors: This risk is higher if the cutting period is prolonged, if protein intake is not adequate, or if resistance training intensity drops, leading to a loss of hard-earned muscle mass.
3. Metabolic Adaptations:
Reduced Metabolism During Cutting: As you cut calories for a prolonged period, your metabolism may adapt and slow down to conserve energy. This can make further fat loss more difficult and create a plateau, requiring further calorie reductions to see continued progress.
Increased Hunger: During a bulk, increased food intake can lead to higher levels of leptin (a hormone that regulates hunger), but during cutting, leptin levels can drop, increasing hunger and making adherence to a caloric deficit challenging.
Here are my 5 steps to building muscle without gaining fat this winter.
Intensity Matters: Intensity over volume matters.
Intensity and volume are two key variables in resistance training that impact the effectiveness of a workout program:
Intensity refers to the difficulty or effort level of a workout, often measured as a percentage of your one-repetition maximum (1RM) or using the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale. For example, if you lift a weight that's 80% of your 1RM for a given exercise, it's considered high intensity.
Volume is the total amount of work done during a workout session. It is typically calculated as the total number of sets, reps, and the weight used across those sets. For example, doing 3 sets of 10 reps with a certain weight would result in a specific volume.
Example:
Suppose you are doing a bench press exercise:
High Intensity, Low Volume: 3 sets of 3 reps at 90% of your 1RM. This focuses on lifting heavier weights but with fewer repetitions, which is typical for building maximal strength.
Low Intensity, High Volume: 4 sets of 12 reps at 60% of your 1RM. This involves lifting lighter weights but with more repetitions, which is generally aimed at improving muscle endurance and hypertrophy (muscle growth).
In short, intensity and volume are balanced based on training goals, with intensity being more about the weight lifted, and volume being about the amount of work done.
Maximum Recoverable Volume.
Maximum Recoverable Volume (MRV) is the highest volume of training that an individual can perform while still being able to fully recover and adapt before the next training session. It represents the upper limit of how much work you can handle without overreaching or overtraining, ensuring that you make progress without compromising recovery.
Key Points About MRV:
Personalized: MRV varies from person to person and can depend on factors like training experience, genetics, age, nutrition, and sleep quality.
Dynamic: Your MRV can change over time, especially as you become more experienced in training or during different phases of a training program (e.g., during a deload or peak phase).
Monitoring: To find your MRV, it's important to monitor your progress, recovery, and signs of overtraining (e.g., excessive soreness, decreased performance, fatigue). If you’re performing at or near your MRV, you should still feel challenged but able to recover adequately for the next session.
Example:
Imagine you are doing a training program focused on leg strength:
You might find that you can handle 15 sets per week for your quads (e.g., squats, leg presses) while still making progress. However, if you increase this to 20 sets, you start experiencing excessive muscle soreness, fatigue, and your performance in subsequent sessions drops.
In this scenario, 15 sets per week might be close to your MRV for quad training.
MRV helps in optimizing training load to ensure that you are working hard enough to stimulate growth but not so much that it impairs recovery and progress.
Train in a Fasted State.
Split your week train fasted 50% of the week. Train fed the other 50%. Training fasted teaches your body to use your stored fat for fuel. After you train fasted have at least 50 grams of pure protein to boost muscle growth.
Mix Whey & Collagen.
New literature suggests that combining whey protein with collagen increase total global protein synthesis. Glycine in whey has a catabolic affect. Lucien in collagen builds the connective tissue. Isolate is the most beneficial.
Increase Creatine Dose.
Creatine will build muscle faster. Yes you will retain water so your overall weight on the scale may go up a little. However, for body recomposition, you will build muscle faster. After winter, you can scale it back down.
Join Powerfit today. Our training methods incorporate changes over time with progressive overload, meal and nutrition advises and macro counting, and workout programs to address limiting factors so you build a strong foundation of muscle and strength. You can also get expert advise anytime you need it. Whenever, you have questions or concerns. We are here for you.
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