If you want to gain muscle and are looking to improve your performance on the Exercise Bench, you may have heard people talking about bulking and cutting, clean bulking and maingaining. But what do these terms mean, and which is right for you?
What is Maingaining?
A blend of maintaining and gaining (sometimes also called gaintaining), is the goal of slow, sustainable muscle gain, without increasing body fat at the same time. You eat at maintenance calories, alongside a consistent resistance training regime.
What is a Bulking and Cutting Cycle?
A traditional body building nutrition technique used to build size, muscle mass and strength quickly. You start with a bulk (+500-1000 calories) by eating in a significant surplus (usually 4-6 weeks), followed by an aggressive cut, eating in a calorie deficit (for 6-8 weeks). This cycle can be repeated over and over until the goal is reached.
What is Clean Bulking?
Eating in a slight calorie surplus (+200-300 calories) whilst focusing on high quality, nutrient dense foods. The aim is to gain muscle as quickly as possible, whilst gaining as little fat as possible.
What are the Benefits and Downsides of Maingaining?
Maingaining is not for the impatient, results will be slow and steady, you have to ensure that you’re going hard in every training session, and eating sufficient protein, consistently spread throughout the day, to support protein synthesis and therefore maximise muscle gain.
It is best suited to those that are already happy with their weight and stature and are willing to be patient with the results. It means you can stay a consistent size and weight, keep to a nutritious diet, that you don’t have to change every few weeks, or see your body completely change shape. It’s more supportive for people who have a poor relationship with food or low body image. It is also a lot less admin and will have less of an impact on the rest of your life, meaning it’s great if you already have a busy schedule with work and family.
What are the Benefits and Downsides of Dirty Bulking?
Bulking and cutting has been around since the late 19th/Early 20th Century for a reason… It's a proven and effective way to gain muscle and size, quickly. The bulking phase can be great fun; if you enjoy large quantities of food, and training sessions on the Weight Leg Press Machine that feel energised and fuelled. You’ll breeze through it seeing numbers in the gym go up whilst totally indulging in foods you perhaps wouldn’t usually eat and with it being such a tried and tested method, you won’t be short of gym aficionados to ask for advice.
However, many underestimate the volume of food needed, the impact it will have on your life because of time and organisation needed, how isolating it can be, the cost, and the rollercoaster your body image will go on.
What makes eating more so difficult? When we eat, we use energy (calories) to digest and absorb the food that we eat, this is called The Thermic Effect of Food or TEF for short. So, the more you eat, the higher your TEF, and therefore your total daily calorie burn. So to counter the extra calorie burn you didn’t have before, it’s not just eating a little bit more, it’s eating A LOT more, and leans more favourably towards highly processed foods as they have a lower thermic effect, are less calorie dense and lower in volume.
‘Eating clean’ makes reaching your calorie goal much harder as wholefoods keep you fuller for longer and have a more complex structure, resulting in a bigger thermic effect. If you suddenly start eating a high-calorie, heavily processed diet, the transition could be difficult for your digestive system, your energy levels, and most crucially your nutrient needs. Besides the difficulty of forcing yourself to eat past full or when you’re not hungry, it’s hard to ignore the fact that you’re purposely putting on fat. It is not supportive to a positive relationship with food and your body, especially as, just as you get used to it, you switch to a cut. It’s an abrupt transition for both your mental health, your digestive system and your hunger cues.
What are the Benefits and Downsides of Clean Bulking?
The moderate surplus will feel more achievable to maintain and will allow for quicker muscle growth than maingaining. Nutritionally dense food choices will be supportive to your overall health and won't leave you feeling sluggish and heavy.
However, progress will be slow, and eating a lot of nutritionally dense foods can be difficult if it’s not well planned. Typical food choices would be fibre and lean proteins, which are highly satiating and makes it surprisingly difficult to eat more. It requires precision perfect tracking, to ensure you don’t creep over or under the calorie target. So although it doesn’t negatively impact your body image with constant changes in weight, it does still require a certain level of mental capacity.
Is Maingaining Better Than Bulking?
All three approaches result in a higher muscle mass, and stronger bones. So pick the option that’s best suited to you, and your patience levels, and you’ll be working your way to new PB’s in the Squat Rack.
Written by guest author Chelsea MacColl.
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Tags: Misc. > Lifestyle
