Written by Charles Glass
22 November 2021

 

 CLEAN-BULK 1

 

 

 

Clean Bulk: Gaining Muscle, Not Fat

Muscle-Building, Fat-Burning Mode

 

By Charles Glass

 

Q: I’m 19 years old and have been lifting since about 16. I weigh 190 pounds, but am about 16 percent body fat. So you can tell I lift, but I’m not cut to shreds like I used to be. My ultimate goal is to be 205 at 6 or 7 percent fat. If you were me, would you just keep slamming the calories and protein shakes down and get up to about 230 pounds and then cut, or would you cut down now and try to build lean mass from now on? I’m thinking about continuing to bulk because it’s no problem for me to eat burgers, fries, pizza and ice cream (I work at a restaurant a server), but I would love your advice.

 

A: Even though you’re young, I don’t like to see anyone carry too much body fat and I certainly don’t like to see someone eat a lot of nutritionally void and artery-clogging saturated fat and simple sugars. Sixteen percent body fat is pretty high for a teenager. Let’s look for a second at your goal. If you’re currently 16 percent at 190 pounds, you probably would weigh around 170 if your body fat was 6 or 7 percent. So for you to maintain that level of body fat and get to 205, you’re looking at about 35 pounds of muscle to gain. That’s not unrealistic at all. At your age, given the optimal hormonal environment of your body (plenty of testosterone and growth hormone flowing), you should be able to accomplish that in about 18 to 24 months. You could certainly gain bodyweight much faster than that, but it would be fat. Muscle just doesn’t grow that quickly. It takes consistent hard and heavy training with good form on the best mass-stimulating exercises like squats, bench presses, deadlifts, military presses, barbell rows and dips and it also takes a lot of good food and rest. I suggest you do two things immediately: clean up your diet and start incorporating regular cardiovascular work into your program. You can have cheat meals two or three times a week, but most of your meals should be made up of eggs, lean red meat, chicken or turkey breast, fish, moderate amounts of starchy carbs like rice and sweet potatoes and plenty of fresh, raw vegetables. You can also have protein shakes as a couple of your meals every day so you can boost your total meals to around six a day. Six moderate, high-protein meals a day will put your body in a muscle-gaining, fat-burning mode, unlike three big fast-food meals a day, which will just make you fat and sluggish. As for cardio, I’d advise you to start doing a minimum of four sessions a week, 30 to 45 minutes in length and build from there. I would like to see you get your body fat down to about 10 or 11 percent before you start trying to gain any weight. By then, you’ll look and feel 100 percent better and you’ll be able to see the gains you’re making without all that fat getting in the way.

 

Charles Glass is the Godfather of Bodybuilding, with over 35 years of experience as a trainer of champions. Charles’ methods produce dramatic and significant gains to anyone that applies them. His clients cross the spectrum from celebrities, fitness athletes, and pro athletes to everyday people, and include some of the most successful people in the fitness industry and numerous Mr. Olympia and Bikini Olympia champions. For more information, visit godfatherofbodybuilding.com

 

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