You did this 100% right. You never catch the leanness dragon, no matter how hard you chase it, and along the way you lose more than just fat. Pulling off now and building is the absolute right call. And just like you wrote" training when you aren’t building is unsatisfying. These downtimes are good to recover before something big, but making them the focus goes poorly.
You’re going to bounce hard from this. It’ll be awesome.
Thanks brother
This is exactly what I needed to hear man
Thoughts on bulking
A million times harder than cutting as @T3hPwnisher agree
You need to train harder, eat harder and deal with even worse hunger while your body gets used to the extra consumption, sending your ghrelin levels into orbit
Bulking is going full throttle on the motorway in a Honda Civic, redlining the RPM in the hope that you can catch up with your mate who’s driving an Audi R8. It’s relentless.
Building muscle requires a vast amount of resources
Cutting requires nothing. It’s maintenance mode at best. A Sunday drive to work when the roads are empty
People seem to fear cutting more which is actually insane.
Gaining should be feared because the amount of work to pull it off, EFFECTIVELY, is all consuming.
I’m on 3300kcals a day and I’m still LOSING weight.
And I’m supposed to be bulking.
Conventional wisdom would be to drop the burpees, just lift, rest and grow
But conventional training is what got me into non gains hell.
Conventional training is for the fearful and juice freaks who want to go anaerobic while wiping their ass
Dude, SO so true.
There are TONS of stories of people losing 100,200,300 and 400lbs. Though inspiring, it shows just how average an accomplishment it is. Hell, you can put people into forced camps and make them lose weight. Meanwhile, there are so few big and strong people out there, to the point that we will pay MILLIONS of dollars to see the biggest and strongest humans compete against each other: it’s so worth it.
Getting this is a battle few will fight.
I’m not sure if this is true for others, but my busy work schedule and parenting 4 kids makes skipping meals or eating quick and small much easier and more desirable. Fitting in larger meals or more meals and maintaining that is much more difficult. In my limited experience, getting home at 6 and then trying to eat 2000 calories of good clean foods (because you forgot to eat breakfast or lunch) is difficult, especially if you are also setting a goal of more rest.
The mental drain that comes with bulking is more overwhelming than the physical for sure
Absolutely
Yesterday I went out with my wife and never ate for 3 hours
On a cut that is a breeze
Bulk?
Any longer and I would have developed PTSD
I was STARVING
I’m like a squirrel when I’m gaining: I’ve got food stored EVERYWHERE. It’s like packing for a military expedition whenever we travel anywhere.
On the plus side, as a dad I’m sure you appreciate the difference when the kiddo says they’re “hungry” when they really mean “bored”.
“Dad, I’m hungry”
“I’ve got 2 sunflower butter sandwiches, 2 protein bars, 2 keto bars, 2 packets of almond butter, 2 grassfed beefsticks and an avocado: what would you like?”
“…nevermind…”
Haha yep
‘Dad I’m hungry, can I get chocolate buttons’ 
Bulk is going well so far. Probably starting to go up my own arse with the amount of physique photos I’ve been dropping lately but you know what, I’ve worked for it so I’ll bask in my own glory for a while
I don’t really log my training on here. More of a time issue. I’m really busy with dad duties, my YT and other projects I have going on
However here’s a brief rundown
Training 6 days a week
Weights
Upper chest focused
Lower ham focused
Upper back focused
Lower quad focused
Upper arm focused
Using 1 set to failure and a back of set to failure
Rest pause as well
Usually 4-5 exercises per session which can change due to availability of equipment
Conditioning
Burpees/bodyweight focused. No set plan. Chaos is the plan a la @T3hPwnisher
Usually training twice a day as well
Good to see you working hard and stacking some weight back in mate.
Alright matey
Long time no hear. How are things with you?
Do you still hear from Joe Hotai?
I am good mate. Just had 2 weeks in Bali relaxing and eating too much. Now need to get busy again and do some work. Spoke to Joe about a week ago, he is good.
Good man. Getting the R&R in for sure
Tell Joe I was asking for him
I will deff tell next time I message him.
I want to bring @Andrewgen_Receptors into the fold here as I know he’s a JP head?
I tried Jordan Peters upper body split today as I had some downtime and I’ve got Covid so have had time to think about my training
This was a great workout and was the first time I’ve worked up a sweat in the gym
Some questions for you mate
I never warmed up for the last half of the exercises. Just want straight into the 2 hard sets. Is this the norm?
I’m sure @throwawayfitness ams @kd13 dp this as well if they want to chime in?
Yeah that was pretty normal for me. First exercise of a group i would take some doubles up to the working weight but then the following exercises i might have done 1 warm up just to get in the groove depending on the exercise.
I just went for it man
What a pump I got btw
