Just wondering what most people do all-year round:
I understand there’s no such thing as one shoe fits all. Please comment how this works for you best & tell us how long your bulk and how long your cut is.
Thanks!
Ideally it would be 3 month cycles bouncing between 10-15%BF. I have yet to achieve the 10% part, but that is the plan.
Sticking to these ranges will help with nutrient efficiency and allow me to always be ready to take my shirt off when life “demands” it.
The longer fat stays on, the harder it is to remove. I want all intentional fat gain to be very short lived.
With no competitive season, my real life version is something like:
That’s how the pros do it, anyway.
So you do 3 months of bulk, 3 months of cut, correct? 
Yes, at least that is my long term plan once i manage to hit a good 10%BF.
This.
The ideal plan for me is to bulk 3-5months, gain 10lbs. Cut 10lbs+ in 3-5 weeks, return to bulk. Every cycle of this my body composition should end up at least a little bit better at a slightly lower bodyfat percentage. I believe this is best for my adherence. I’m not interested in photoshoot levels of leanness, but still enjoy the quick visual changes. A drawn out cut doesn’t fit my psychological profile at all. I’d rather be deprived of most things for 4 weeks than some things for a longer time period. I also want to spend as much time of the year as possible in a mass-gaining phase. Especially when I feel that I have a long way to go.
I’ve been bulking since April 2021 and am up from 169 to 229 as of my last scale visit yesterday. I eat for steady size gains but will do periods where my weight doesn’t move and I’m basically just recomping at the weight for a couple of weeks. I still have a 6 pack, but I started out very, very lean at the end of a harsh cut that got me the lightest I’ve been since sophomore year of high school. I just focus on lifting progressively and eating to support recovery.
Life determines training, and chaos is the plan.
If I have a solid stretch of time with no significant stressors or time obligations: I gain. Gaining is VERY time consuming and stressing. It’s HARD training and hard dieting. I’m not going to try to do that while juggling job stress, family obligations, travel, etc. In truth, gaining is kind of my “selfish” time. Like, no joke: my last week of Super Squats, I ended up working an hour later than normal, and the consequence was I came home and literally ate until I went to sleep.
If life is going to be rough: I lose. Heck, right now is a great example. I’m following a semi-Velocity diet approach to nutrition. My “meal prep” was bringing a bag of metabolic drive to work. I have far more free time now because I’m not grocery shopping, cooking, and eating around the clock.
In periods of moderation, I stay moderate.
I think this stuff is huge. Real life is there and it absolutely changes the game. I think it’s why nobody can answer the omnipresent “what’s optimal?” question. The real question is “what’s practical?”
To argue against myself, it’s also why I get frustrated with the “I’m in high school and want a D1 scholarship… how can I get big biceps?” If that opportunity is your “job,” treat it as such.
Yup. And rather than reinvent the wheel, I steal from Dan John, who is the master of that question. He phases gaining into 6 week chunks, and attacks fat loss with a 1 month blast, and the rest of the time can be “Easy Strength”. Bus bench-park bench.
And oh my goodness the high school/college student “struggle”, haha. I get it: when you have no other frame of reference, those seem like high stress times of your life, but man, you grow up, get some kids, a career, and decide to pursue some further education and suddenly you appreciate what having “no time” is like.
Similar approach here, my weight gain can stall for weeks, but providing I feel I am recovering between sessions, I don’t force feed my way through it. The first 15kg came on quite easily, the next 5-8kg was about 12 months, it’s like my body adapts and gets comfortable with the heavier weight.
At a gangly 6"2 I still feel I have some way to go, so content to let the weight continue creeping up. For reference, I was running 60mile a week over the UK’s Covid gym lockdown before committing to regularly picking up a barbell, so I had a lot of gaining to do! So, I guess I can’t really answer the question, as yet I’ve never focused on cutting.
For me mostly cutting with mini bulks.
I should be more disciplined with cutting, but historically I have not been. I’ve improved a bit though. I think this may help me quite a bit actually. If I can spend more time in a caloric surplus, and less time cutting I think that means more muscle over time.
I think what one’s body gravitates towards will somewhat dictate what strategy will work best for them.
Usually i’m bulking most of the time. There’s periods of my training that I’m Maintaining and if I really feel like i’m starting to get a little pudgy I’ll do a minincut. But i’m either Bulking or Maintaining while throwing in some Minicuts to try to get my weight somewhat under control
Over the years, I stopped caring about it. I came to the conclusion that life itself verifies what I do. Stress, work, lifestyle, all this affects it. Currently, for a long time I have been using a method, let’s call it “slow permabulk”. I don’t like to lose weight and I don’t like to gain weight. I have moments when I weigh a little more or a little less (between 220lb-231lbs), it depends on what my life situation is at the moment. However, I know that in order to reach my full strength potential (Sheiko tables), I will have to gain a lot of weight. I’m guided by a longevity outlook, so I want the weight gain to, say, 308lbs to happen on a scale of long years, not months. Generally speaking, I don’t care and let the process autoregulate.
This is pretty much the approach i have settled on. 6 or so weeks of intentionally pushing the scale up, then coast for a little while before pushing again. If i feel i need to drop some fat it will be hard and fast, no point dragging it out and im no longer worried about actual muscle loss if the training is still good and protein is still high.
I try to stay relatively lean and strong year-round by consistent training and nutrition. I don’t cut or bulk.
The pluses of this: I turn 50 in a few months, and I’m stronger, leaner, and healthier than most guys half my age. I’ve remained similarly strong and fast over my whole adult life.
The negatives of this: Well, I’ve remained similarly strong and fast over my whole adult life. Meaning I’ve never really gone all-in on one facet of training. I’m just “pretty good” at everything rather than “great” at any single thing. (except pull ups. I can crank those out with anyone).