DON'T EVER BULK AGAIN, PART 2: NEWBIE GAINS
Ok, so in part one we covered the history of bulking, and why people think it is ok to gain 20 pounds in 4 weeks. What was once limited to elite (the best in the world) bodybuilders somehow became mainstream. Next thing you know, Bro-Science took over bulking, among other things, and the rest is history. However, not all seems to be right in the Universe.
You may have witnessed firsthand that a friend gained 20 pounds of pure muscle within 6 months. Hey, I put on 10 pounds of pure muscle in 7 months, while barely eating any food at all. A bowl of cereal for breakfast (just one), a pack of Nabs for a snack at school (If you don’t know what Nabs are, shame on you!), a sandwich with 2 slices of turkey, 2 slices of ham, and chips for lunch, another sandwich before basketball practice (I was the most jacked basketball player in the entire city.
I was stronger than ALL the football players at my high school, the largest in the state at the time.), and meat with vegetables for dinner. I ate this way the entire time I was in high school (We didn’t have YouTube and social media to tell us we were doing it the wrong way.). When it was all said and done, I gained a total of 30 pounds of pure muscle in three years. I was ripped the whole time. Heck, I graduated with 18+ inch arms, and I’m only 5’11”. And guess what, I never Bulked! And now, onto the next reason why people think it is okay to bulk. Newbie Gains!!
WE ALL KNOW A GUY
The idea of bulking didn’t just come out of nowhere. Bodybuilders were eating more calories and gaining tons of muscle. However, they are genetic freaks taking drugs (we will cover that in a future part of the series). So how did Bro-Science get its slimy hands on bulking, and take it to the masses?
It’s simple. We all know a guy, or a friend of a friend, that gained 30 pounds of pure muscle in a short amount of time. It just so happens that most of the time it corresponds with Newbie Gains, the gains you make during the first 3-4 years of training. Unfortunately, this correspondence then dismantles common wisdom, and people are left believing that bulking “works.”
The truth is that bulking didn’t cause your friend to gain 30 pounds of pure muscle. It may have slightly sped up the process, but the truth is that Newbie Gains were the culprit. This phenomenon happens all the time. Sometimes it even occurs when someone decides to use creatine for the first time. Then the rest of their lives, and their friends’ lives, creatine becomes the best muscle building miracle ever. They constantly chase the gains they made on their first creatine cycle.
Alas, those Newbie gains are never found again, leaving the individuals to ponder their existence, and either blame father time or the poor quality of present-day supplements. They use phrases like “Back when I first started training, creatine actually worked.” If only they could remove the vail of deception, they would figure out that bulking is the best, and most successful, way to jump on the fat train. It wasn’t the extra hamburgers or creatine that made you gain that weight. It was your Newbie Gains.
WHAT ABOUT THE SKINNY GUY THAT HAD BEEN LIFTING FOR 10 YEARS?
If you still think I am wrong, I feel bad for you. Good luck on your abs ever making a special appearance again. However, someone will undoubtedly throw the skinny guy paradigm in my face. “I know a guy (or have a friend, they are interchangeable phrases) that was training for 10 years and didn’t make any gains until he started to bulk. Stop right there.
“Your friend” is probably an Exomorph (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s probably worth a Google) that was greatly undernourished. These individuals are extremely skinny, and have a hard time putting on any weight. When their bodies finally get the adequate amount of protein to supply their muscles with amino acids to grow, they get bigger. However, this doesn’t last forever. They are naturally skinny, for whatever reason, and aren’t eating enough.
Everybody’s Resting Metabolic Rate is different. They have an unusually high Resting Metabolic Rate. Who knows why? Maybe Meth or something. When the body finally has enough calories to stay alive, it will start sparing some amino acids for muscle growth. This is the same principle as Jamie’s “Feast or Famine” diet. The point is that just like the diet, the results won’t last forever.
THE PICTURE IS BECOMING CLEARER
So now we can see how the influence of bodybuilding and your friend’s Newbie Gains have cast a deceptive shadow on the idea that bulking is not only good, but necessary. And don’t feel bad if you have been duped by the mirage of bulking. I have also fallen victim to its evil grasp. Looking back on my training years, I gained the most amount of muscle, in the shortest amount of time, when I was NOT BULKING. When I was bulking, I just got fat. My mission is to disprove the myth of Bulking, and to help thousands, if not millions, of people to see the light. Goodbye. Until we meet again in part 3 of the Never Bulk Again series.
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