Bodybuilding training can be divided into periods of bulking to add muscle mass and cutting to remove fat mass. During contest season, a bodybuilder needs to maintain a buffed and shredded physique. After the contest season is over, a bodybuilder attempts to gain as much additional muscle mass as possible and lose fat that accumulates with the muscle before the next contest seasons begins.
Recovery
Most bodybuilders maintain a caloric deficit during the contest season to keep a low body fat percentage. This can decrease levels of key hormones needed for muscle growth, including thyroid, pituitary and sex hormones, and increase stress hormone levels. After you finish a contest season, take a break and eat a clean diet without calorie restrictions. Avoid excessive consumption of fast food, keeping lean meats, fruits and vegetables as your dietary core. Additionally, allow yourself a break from training. Although your overall lift totals may decrease, your muscles will be completely recovered and primed for growth.
Bulking Diet
The majority of off-season training is the bulking phase to add muscle and fat mass. It's impossible to add only muscle without adding fat, as a surplus of calories must be consumed. While bulking, consume an additional 500 calories over what you estimate your daily expenditure is. Your muscles need ample protein to grow, although the protein does not need to be consumed in amounts over 2 to 2.4 grams per kilogram, or 0.5 to 0.6 grams per pound of body weight. Eat enough carbs to account for your daily energy expenditure. The remaining calories should be accounted for from healthy fat sources. Eat healthy; don't resort to fast food for extra calories.
Bulking Training
Focus on multijoint exercises, such as the bench press, squat and dead lift, while training for mass. Exercise using 50 to 80 percent of your one repetition maximum weight for three to five sets of eight to 12 repetitions for muscle hypertrophy, according to exercise scientist Mel Siff. Growth is caused by your muscle adaption to new stimuli. Varying weight, speed, exercises, exercise order and workout volume can help you maintain steady progress.
Peaking
After 10 to 12 weeks of focusing only on adding muscle mass, begin adding specialized exercises to drive growth of individual muscles. Although these muscles, such as the forearms, calves and biceps, received plenty of work during bulking, they are muscles that are highly visible: it is important they show well during competition. The peaking phase needs to last only six to eight weeks. You also may wish to begin reducing your caloric intake to aid in fat loss prior to competition season.
Cutting
As the off-season draws to a close, you should set aside eight to 12 weeks for your cutting phase. Cutting involves a drastic reduction in calorie intake and an increase in cardio and exercise volume to reduce fat mass. Bodybuilders often adopt a very low carb diet to maximize fat loss, although this cannot be sustained for long.
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