I’m not exactly a ‘clean bulk’ guy, but I’ll tell you how I’ve done it. Started Nov '08 @ 29% bf and 182lbs and 33 years of age. Now I’m 21% bf @ 215lbs. Which, in layman’s terms, means that I’ve lost about 8lbs of fat while gaining 41lbs of muscle. Not lean, but now I’m ‘chunky’ rather than ‘chubby’, lol.
Water retention, newbie gains, yadda, yadda, yadda. I know all that, but I’m happy. At least people are giving me compliments for my size now. For the first year I followed Thib’s advice like it was gospel- I drank bottled water (because of the oestrogen in tap water), put cinnamon on my food (because it makes it more anabolic or something), avoided soya (don’t think this was Thibs, but I definitely read it on T-Nation- again, it’s supposedly full of oestrogen or some shit) and my PWO meal consisted of two tins of tuna, a protein shake, a banana and an apple (because someone had asked him what the optimal PWO meal was and his answer was along the lines of “80g protein, 2 pieces of fruit and a handful of almonds, plus 2 fish oil caps”). I GOT NOWHERE FAST. I even gave up going to the gym for two separate periods of 4 months each time, so pissed off I was at my lack of progress.
Now I’m not blaming Thibs EVEN 1% for this. “I” was at fault. I was focussing on the minutiae of lifting, which would make a 5% difference to an experienced lifter, whereas I was a complete newb. My trainer was also much to blame. When I told him that I was interested in hypertrophy, he put me on a bunch of machines for 2 sets of 15 reps. He even lied to me and said that THIS WAS THE ONLY WAY IT COULD BE DONE, after I asked why I wasn’t squatting, deadlifting or doing a 5x5 program. And he claimed to be a former amateur bodybuilder.
So, for the past 6 months I have listened to the big men on this forum. I have read time and again Prof X saying that you need to hit the gym 5-6 days a week, eat enough to grow and lift heavy to get big, and so I decided that that’s exactly what I was gonna do. Nowadays I eat bread after my workout, coz I like it and it works for me. If I feel like a pizza, I have one. I don’t eat meat, so I started eating soya products again. Have I grown tits? No, but my chest has gotten more developed and my bench improves all the time. My program could’ve been taken straight from Brick’s Bible thread- One or two compound movements, with one or two isolation movements per body part. I train each body part on its own (A la Prof X), hit the gym at least 5 days a week and I try to lift heavier each time. I firmly believe that if you lift heavy weights 5-6 days a week, eat enough to grow and not be anal about fat gain, then you will add muscle. Plus, your metabolism will be so fast that you will probably lose a few lbs of fat as well. I’ve also only just started doing cardio for 20 mins at a time after my afternoon sessions because it’ll soon be summer and I would like to accelerate my fat loss while still adding muscle.
Anyway, I know I’m probably not who you had in mind when you asked the question, but this is what’s worked for me and I’m gonna carry on doing it 'til it doesn’t.