The Bulking Phase How Long Before Deciding to Cut

The Bulking Phase How Long Before Deciding to Cut? In this article we’re going discuss about optimal bulking cycle length. So regardless of some of the experts out there might tell you, it’s just not realistic that an average trainee is going to both lose fat and build muscle at the same time to any significant degree.

Both goals have opposing requirements unless you have top level genetics or some chemical assistance on your side.

Traditional cycles of bulking and cutting

Traditional cycles of bulking and cutting are going to be the most efficient overall path to your ultimate goals. If your reading this article chances are that you started out with a bulking phase by placing your focus on gaining lean muscle size and strength for the time being.

Now you might wondering how long the bulking phase should last before you decide to shift to a cutting phase and strip off the excess fat? Well the truth is there is really no set answers here and it’s going to vary greatly from person to person depending on their specific situation.

For example, some trainee might be best of bulking for 6 months before aiming to lose fat. While others can bulk for years without ever having to worry about cutting phase at all.

Know Your Goals

The first thing you want to take into account is how much muscle you want to ultimately carry. Some lifter want to be as bulky and muscular as they possibly can, while others want to have a lean aesthetic built, and while others would prefer to be somewhere in between. So the length of bulking really depends highly on you own personal goals and no one can decide that but you.

On top of this there’s really no use of applying a set time frame to your bulking phase. Why? because it’s not going to be possible for you to predict exactly how fast your going to make gains. 

Your individual rate of muscle growth will depend on your genetics, it will depend on how well your program is structure, as well as how your body respond to each type of programs.

slowly Put on body Mass

About 1/2 pound of lean bodyweight per week is a reasonable guideline for most average beginners but still this is just a rough estimate. Not only that but you won’t be able to predict how those results in gains are going to appear on your frame.

For example, 15 pounds of muscles on a 5 foot 7 inch height is not going to appear the same as 15 pounds of muscle on a 6 foot 4 inch frame. You will only know how it look once you get there.

The second thing you want to take into account is your body fat percentage. Anytime you want to gain a significant amount of muscle, you are always going to gain some fat in the process. This is just natural result of remaining in a calorie surplus over time and your goal during a bulking phase is to simply keep those fat gains to an absolute minimum.

This is best accomplish by maintaining only a small well control calorie surplus of around 15 percent above your maintenance level by ensuring that your employing a properly structure weight training routine. And by including additional cardio exercise in your program to keep fat gains at bay.

It is recommended that you only set out on a serious bulking phase if your body fat was initially around 12 percent. Since your bulking phase should be implemented in a careful gradual way.

Keep fat levels under control during bulking

Having your body fat level getting out of control during your bulk simply shouldn’t occur if your doing things properly. If things do happen to go off-course or if you simply end up with an amount of body fat that you’re not comfortable with. That’s probably a cue that it’s time for you to shift out of your bulking phase into a fat loss phase.

how long is a bulking phase?

The bottom line here is to simply take it week by week, carefully monitoring your progress, and simply shifting into fat loss mode when or if it becomes necessary.

To say that your going to bulk for 4 months and cut for 2 months or your going to bulk for 1 year, then cut for 3 months isn’t going to get good results. There are too many unpredictable factors involve.

Just continue your bulking phase until you reach a level of muscular development that you are happy with or until your body fat reach a level that you aren’t comfortable with and you want to reduce.

Don’t be one of those guys who constantly goes back and forth between both phases every few weeks. And after a year still no progress has been made in either direction.