When a beginner wants to increase his muscle mass, he usually imagines what his ultimate goal might look like, but the path to this goal may be somewhat different. Usually it can be two different methods that differ from each other.
✅ The first method is the classic bulk method when you try to maximize your muscle mass, but which inevitably (almost always) leads to an increase in subcutaneous fat and fluid retention due to the peculiarities of nutrition and drug selection. Usually, after a cycle of gaining muscle mass, a cutting cycle follows – where athletes try to burn off accumulated fat with the help of diet and fat-burning drugs.
✅ And the second method is Clean Bulk – when you maintain a more aesthetic appearance of your body but sacrifice a little the speed of muscle growth, restraining your diet (reducing daily calories) and also using drugs that retain less water.
The mass-oriented cycle should last until the goal is achieved. 3-6 kg of muscle mass for a beginner is realistic result, such a goal can be achieved in 10-12 weeks with the right approach. There are different cases: the first “cycle” or “cycle” after a long break, when the muscle mass is not is restored, can achieve a better result. Or vice versa: the result may be lower than expected, if it is extremely difficult to bring your body out of balance at a given time. In any case, when working on mass, it is better to focus on cycles of average duration- 8-16 weeks. This is an almost guaranteed period for the body when it will be able to intensively gain muscle mass. Most often, after this period, you need to take rest.
Clean bulk 💪
“Clean bulk” is a comprehensive approach to increasing muscle mass in bodybuilding, focused on increasing muscle mass with minimal fat accumulation. This method not only promotes aesthetically pleasing physical development, but also supports the overall health of the body.
Unlike the approach aimed at maximum weight gain (bulking) in a minimum time, “clean bulk” assumes a more moderate and manageable approach to weight gain. This allows the athlete to more accurately control the ratio of muscle mass to fat and achieve the desired results, while maintaining the overall aesthetics of the physical appearance.
The main focus of “clean bulk” lies on calorie control, where the bodybuilder strives to maintain a moderate excess of calories to support muscle growth, while avoiding excessive excess, which leads to the accumulation of excess fat. This is important for those who strive for high-quality muscle gain without excess weight. If the number of daily calories and especially carbohydrates is excessive, then you will not notice how you turn clean bulk into a regular classic bulk, despite the fact that you will use the drugs and dosages recommended by us.
💉 PEDs
The choice of drugs in this context also plays an important role. The purpose of this kind of cycle is either to build lean muscle mass without increasing fat. As you know, anabolic steroids differ from each other not only in their anabolic and androgenic properties, but also in their ability to cause fat breakdown. The classic drugs for clean bulk are Stanos (stanozolol), Anavaros (oxandrolone), trenbolone and drostanolone, Primos (methebolone). They have a noticeable effect on fat burning, while increasing protein synthesis, which will give an increase in muscle mass.
The main drugs for “clean bulk”, when it comes to androgenic anabolic steroids, should be considered dihydrotestosterone derivatives. You need to understand that you can get rid of most of the subcutaneous fat deposits with absolutely any androgenic anabolic steroid, because absolutely all AAS stimulate lipolysis to one degree or another. It’s just that it’s much easier to do this with some drugs than with others. DHT derivatives are among the tools that greatly simplify the task. Firstly, DHT derivatives do not have estrogenic activity (oxymetholone is an exception to the general rule).
Aromatase inhibitors can also suppress estradiol levels. During this cycle, prolactin and estradiol should be in the middle of the control values and not higher, because any increase in the level of these hormones leads to an increase in body fat.
Also, when we talk about “clean bulk”, we mean an athletic appearance when all the muscles are clearly visible and separated from each other. In order to achieve this appearance, the drugs you use should not delay a significant amount of fatness, otherwise your appearance will become puffy. That is why we recommend using DHT derivatives that do not increase estradiol levels and retain fluid in the body to a much lesser extent.
In addition to anabolic steroids, athletes often use growth hormone or IGF-1/PEG MGF to further stimulate protein synthesis and increase muscle growth, as well as further reduce the fat layer. As for peptides stimulating the production of growth hormone and MK677, this is not the best choice in the case of Clean Bulk due to its ability to cause an increase in appetite, which threatens overeating. But such a combination as Ipamorelin and CJC 1295 with DAC may be suitable because they do not cause this effect.
HGH Fragment 176-191 and other fat-burning agents can also be used, but in this case this cycle will already resemble pure Cutting more, especially if you make dietary adjustments – namely, reduce calories in order to burn fat even more. But in this case, you cannot expect that your muscles will grow.
❓ Advantages and disadvantages
The advantage of this method is that while you are walking towards your goal, you will look maximally aesthetically pleasing, with your muscles and abs eroded, at least if you already have a fairly low percentage of fat. If your fat percentage is not very low, then at least during the clean bulk cycle you will not gain even more fat and may reduce its amount per cycle of 12 weeks. Even if you do not burn off excess fat (although most likely you will lose several kilograms of fat) and gain a couple of kilograms of muscle mass, the percentage of fat and muscle will change and you will look ripped anyway.
The disadvantage of this method is that you will increase muscle mass a little slower than if you were doing a classic bulk scheme. But you will definitely feel better, you will not have problems with swelling, high blood pressure and other unpleasant effects. For example, in the long term, a large increase in body fat mass creates risks of insulin resistance. The Clean Bulk scheme is what we recommend to age athletes, as well as to all those who are not going to gain extremely large muscle mass or do not set goals to increase their weight as soon as possible.
Bulk 💪
Often, the classic bulk method in terms of drug selection is the same as strength training for powerlifters and strongmen. Despite the fact that the goal of muscle growth and strength development are different goals – the means to achieve them have the same principles – a high-calorie diet with a lot of carbohydrates, specific training and the use of drugs that significantly retain water. It is these conditions that must be met in order to maximize your muscles and develop strength.
Workout to get more strength is a bit different from working on muscle mass, although certain points of intersection can be found. At least in the sense that more mass allows you to lift more weight. Although, of course, power indicators depend not only on it. Strength has several components: firstly, it requires the strongest and most healthy ligaments and joints, secondly, good aggression helps to increase strength indicators, and thirdly, increased cortisol levels positively affect strength to a certain extent.
Drugs that will provide a noticeable water retention in the body, (including synovial fluid in the joint bags) will positively affect the strength indicators. In addition, estradiol (and progesterone even to a greater extent) will help fight micro-damage to the ligaments, which is inevitable, especially when working with submaximal weights. In this case, it is important not to lower the estradiol too severely.
If you want to gain the most efficiently, then you will have to have a puffy appearance for a while due to a large accumulation of fluid, but this is exactly what you need to grow as quickly as possible. Estradiol values during bulk cycles may be closer to the upper reference values or even slightly higher, for example, x1.5 upper values if you tolerate it well. Due to the high estradiol value as well as due to the high-calorie content, you will definitely be smoother and rounder, but most often it will be unreliable, at least if you do not have special genetics in which you will eat a lot and at the same time not gain excess fat.
In order to avoid excessive edema and swelling when using these drugs, we recommend getting rid of excess fat in advance, then during the cycle you will look much better. Gaining pure muscle mass is also possible, but it’s always more difficult because the growth of muscle mass will be much slower. The body grows well only during a period of a positive energetic balance, and a set of clean muscle mass is primarily not a selection of drugs, but a question of diet
💉 PEDs
During a cycle where your goal is the maximum set of muscle mass – very often testosterone is the main drug and its dosages can be quite large 750-1500 or even more, depending on the level of training of the athlete. Testosterone will significantly retain water in the body, which has a good effect on the growth of muscle mass and on the growth of strength results. During bulk cycles, strength is crucial because large training weights significantly stimulate muscles to grow.
The second drug during the bulk cycle can be nandrolone, DHB, trenbolone, oxymetholone, methandienone, or a combination of them. All these drugs will also significantly retain fluid, all except trenbolone. Trenbolone is great for both gaining muscle mass and cutting because it is not converted to estradiol. It is so effective that it can also be added for bulking in combination with other drugs, further increasing the effectiveness of the cycle. The weekly dosage of any of these drugs can be approximately 1:1 to testosterone or slightly lower than testosterone.
The additional use of growth hormone or IGF-1/PEG MGF or any growth hormone stimulants can increase the effectiveness of the cycle and slightly reduce the level of subcutaneous fat for a more aesthetic appearance. Ghrelin agonists such as GHRP2, GHRP6 or MK677 can also increase appetite, which will further give an impetus to the growth of muscle mass. Also, high levels of growth hormone and IGF-1 will maintain the condition of joints and ligaments, which is very important during the Bulk.
❓ Advantages and disadvantages
The advantages of this technique are that you become stronger and your muscle mass grows much faster, but the disadvantage is your appearance, it becomes renal. Also, due to the large weight gain due to water retention, many athletes experience shortness of breath, tachycardia and increased blood pressure, so sometimes they have to use drugs such as telmisartan and nebivolol.
The case when we can recommend this method is when you are a powerlifter, strongman, or athlete of any other kind of sport where not important aesthetics but great strength is required. This method may also be suitable if your physique is very thin and it is difficult for you to gain muscle mass. In this case, you are unlikely to experience significant fluid retention and eventually it will not be able to create problems for you.
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