How to ACTUALLY Get Big

Putting on a substantial amount of muscle mass may seem like a far-fetched idea for most individuals, including myself, at one point. I used to believe it was only reserved for the genetically elite, or for those who refuse to put in less than hours of daily work into achieving this goal. Though with the right strategies, it's not only possible, but predictable. The process isn't about perfecting every aspect of your nutrition, training, and PED use - it's about making small wins over time that slowly add up. Let's start with the basics:

Nutrition

"Bulking" - Caloric Surplus

First and foremost, you need to find your maintenance calories if you have not already. Your maintenance calories are the calories you need to maintain your current weight at your average activity level and metabolic rate. I would recommend trying out an app like cronometer, which tracks every nutritional aspect, in order to trial-and-error this process. At this point, we do not need to worry too strongly about macronutrient ratios.

Once you've found your maintenance, you can begin by increasing your caloric intake by 300 calories, as well as adjusting your macronutrient profile. For my clients, I like to split macronutrients as follows: 0.3g/lb fat, 1-1.2g/lb protein, and fill the rest in with carbohydrates.

At this new caloric surplus, you should be putting on weight week by week. Until you plateau for a full week in weight gain, stick to this caloric intake. Do not rush the weight gain process, or you will be at risk for putting on excess fat. Putting on weight, specifically muscle mass, should be a slow and steady burn.

Once you inevitably do plateau, you can go ahead and add 100-200 calories more. You should rinse and repeat this process until you've reached an unfavorable fat mass (15-16%, roughly).

At this point, you should do one of two things: a mini-cut, or a complete deficit, in order to improve insulin sensitivity and shed some of that fat off.

In the case of a mini-cut, the process is fairly simple - go in a 300-500 calorie deficit for a few weeks, cut down on carbohydrates, and increase protein intake accordingly. Again, doing this will allow you to put on a more favorable ratio of muscle gain as you continue the bulk, as your insulin sensitivity will improve.

"Cutting" - Caloric Deficit

Cutting is essentially the inverse process of bulking - you're cutting back on caloric intake to reduce mass (specifically fat mass) and improve insulin sensitivity. During this time, you should not worry about putting on a substantial amount of size; your focus should be just improving body composition and insulin sensitivity, as well as giving your mind and body a rest from pushing calories.

In this phase, you want to cut back your caloric intake by around 300 calories. This should be mostly from carbohydrates and fat, as the elevated protein will allow us to prevent excess catabolism. You will continue this caloric deficit until you either plateau (in which case, you'd decrease caloric intake by 100-200 calories) or reach your target body composition, which should be roughly 12-13% body fat.

These two phases will be the core upon which your body composition will depend. Without proper applications of bulking and cutting, you will fall short of your goals.

Maintenance

If you find yourself constantly falling short in your dietary or training goals, whether it's due to life circumstances or just laziness, I'd recommend just defaulting to maintenance calories and allowing yourself to re-stabilize. You do not want to end up in a position where you're either excessively fat or emaciated because you could not adhere to your program, but you tried to push through it anyway.

Performance Enhancements

Using performance enhancements should not be complicated. I see many individuals who overcomplicate their PED protocols and cause excess stress and damage to their bodies, sometimes leading them to completely fail at maintaining their growth or deficit phases. Keep it simple.

Growth Phases

During a growth phase, which we traditionally call a "bulk", is when you'll be pushing the most gear.

If you're going through your first growth phase with PEDs, I'd advise running a beginner cycle like the one I described in this article. If you're on your second cycle or an advanced user, it can get a little complicated.

For second-time users, you'll want to add a secondary anabolic on top of testosterone. I generally recommend boldenone or primobolan. Your traditional "maximum tolerable dose" of testosterone may not be applicable here, as it may change when you add in a secondary compound that lowers estrogen. For example, I can only tolerate 100mg of testosterone before I run into estrogenic effects, but once I add in boldenone, this dosage becomes much higher (as boldenone, for me, lowers E2 quite drastically). My maximum tolerable dose of testosterone after adding in boldenone, then, only becomes dependent on androgenic effects, which I don't run into until 400-500mg. Of course, this is different for everyone, so you'll have to play around with different ratios of anabolics.

I'm a big proponent of safer use protocols, so I would not advise your total androgenic load to exceed 1,000mg weekly. For smaller guys, you can absolutely get away with 350-500mg of androgens weekly and still grow well if your nutrition and training are in check.

Cutting Phase

Many coaches push more gear during a "cutting" phase, as you'll be receiving less anabolism from the calories compared to a growth phase, but I find this redundant - in my opinion, a cut is when you should be giving your body a break from the calories and drugs. The exception to this, of course, is during contest prep, where you'll be experiencing severe degrees of muscular catabolism. It is also reasonable to introduce a few days or weeks of an androgen that improves body composition acutely, like superdrol (very toxic, not recommended for beginner users), anavar or masteron.

In this phase, you should only be intaking 750mg of total androgens or less. Really, we're just looking to preserve muscle mass here, not gain any. This is the time to give your body a break from that androgen-induced stress that will chip at your body over time.

Generally speaking, most guys will only need a small dose of testosterone in this phase, something like 300-400mg. If you're looking for a temporary "dry" look for photoshoots or beach days, it is feasible to add in a small dose of anavar (say, 10-20mg) or masteron (say, 100-200mg) for a few weeks at a time.

Training

As controversial as it is to say, although training is important, it is the least important of all of these steps. You do not need to waste time or effort optimizing your exercises, as this will provide only a minute benefit for the time you'll spend attempting to learn "optimization techniques".

Get in the gym, train with moderate to high volume and frequency, make sure you're progressing weekly, and, of course, train hard. Don't be a pussy.

Conclusion

Now, this is not a full comprehensive guide on everything you need to know about getting dialed - these are just the basics. However, building these foundations will allow you to get 80-90% of the way to fully "optimizing" the progression of your physique. Don't overcomplicate it; stick to the basics, and you will make progress.

If you have any further questions, you can book a call with me here.

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