The advantages of bulking up throughout the Christmas season to increase muscle mass
Bulking is without a doubt one of the most pleasurable elements of maintaining a bodybuilding lifestyle when eating becomes a pleasure rather than a tool, and new levels of growth are possible. The first point to accept is that the science of dieting has lately devolved into something that is much too difficult, as a new dieting approach appears to arise every few months and ârevolutionizeâ the bodybuilding industry.
The fact is, dieting, whether bulking or cutting, is a straightforward process; if you want to lose weight, you reduce your daily food consumption; if you're going to gain weight, you do the reverse. That being stated, it's that time of year again when the Christmas spirit makes us want to eat everything in sight for the next several months. With that in mind, here's everything you need to know about bulking during the holiday season.
How to Handle a Holiday Mass
The last months of the year may be both joyful and terrible if you continuously check your body's development. Consistent athletes typically divide the year in half; the first six months are spent cutting so they are ready to compete and look good by summer; the second six months are spent bulking up and adding excellent mass to their frame so they can lean out at the start of the following year. Bulking is meant to be an enjoyable period during which the athlete may expand his body to new heights; the holiday season should not change this attitude.
Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's are favorite holidays that often include a large caloric intake, providing you with the ideal chance to develop. The holiday season is perfect for fooling the body into growing by enabling it to ingest meals that it would not typically consume; it's worth noting that many of these holiday foods are relatively nutritious and filled with macronutrients. The majority of the festivities revolve around turkeys, poultry, and various sorts of meat, as well as a variety of fruits and vegetables, not to mention the delectable yet dreaded pies and cakes.
The Christmas season is an excellent time of year to try new things both inside and outside of the gym, including nutrition. If you want to do a lean bulk, avoid desserts but load up on protein-packed foods and be willing to ramp up your weight training and cardio time. It's simple science: if you want to grow, you need to eat more; however, if you're going to avoid getting extremely fat, increasing your training is only natural.
Post-Holiday Insanity
While the holidays are enjoyable while they last, the post-holiday craziness usually drives everyone insane. As previously said, the key to a good bulk is striking a balance between training and diet. The most common error made by non-bodybuilders over the holiday season is to increase their daily food consumption while entirely skipping the gym. Maintain a reasonable training program while taking advantage of the additional calories your body will burn. It should be pretty easy to return to the contest condition form once your bulk is complete.
While it's natural to want to move on and begin a simple cutting cycle following a bulk, the key to effectively transitioning from a size to a cut is simply returning to a regular and consistent dietary regimen. After all the turkey, cake, pie, booze, and sweets, the body will significantly benefit from a low-fat, high-protein meal.
Avoid sugary meals throughout the holiday season and stock your refrigerator with bodybuilder-friendly foods. As for training, keep the cardio regular and the weights hard; simply changing your nutrition can significantly improve your wellness and performance both inside and outside the gym. Maintain consistency and abstain from cheat days for the first month or two; begin experimenting with your food and workout based on your results.
Is Bulking Worth the Effort?
This is perhaps the most critical topic to address when it comes to bulking, simply because many people are unaware of the objective of a bulking cycle. Believe it or not, while most fitness athletes and bodybuilders like to bulk and trim throughout the year, some prefer to maintain a lean physique year-round due to a lack of belief in the benefits of bulking, which is entirely false.
Bulking alters your body composition; you will be heavier and lift more iron if your diet is controlled. The more weight and repetitions you can accomplish regardless of your body weight, the more hypertrophy you will experience, which will eventually result in increased muscle growth and development.
While arguing that athletes who do not bulk are lazy would be entirely out of context given how tough it is to maintain a lean physique year-round, arguing that bulking is also for the lazy would be incorrect. Bulking serves a function in that it permits the body to relax and reposition itself to profit from the extra bulk.
If done correctly, bulking will always be an effective dieting method, as it is an unavoidable tool for becoming a successful bodybuilder or fitness athlete. Please take advantage of the holidays and donât to be afraid to grow; remember that it is more challenging to gain muscle than to lose fat.
