December’s Theme: MUSCLE BUILDING 💪
For iron jungle veterans, winter = bulking.
And by winter, I mean that both literally AND figuratively to mean “the time of year you’re least active in sports / adventures / life and have more time and energy to focus on training.”
And by bulking, I simply mean a short time focusing on building strength and/or muscle building, either to support your activities, or to build a particular body shape.
So for me, someone who is most active in the summer months, “bulking season” is literally the winter months. For a skier/snowboarder, however, bulking season could be the summer months!
However you’re using the term “winter,” it usually means:
Your days are less busy and you have more downtime.
You’re less active outside and/or in your usual sports/adventures
You might be ingesting more calories than usual due to mammalian cravings for carbs and fats in cold weather
What do these things have in common?
They are awesome for training hard and building muscle!
**A note about the term bulking: “Bulking” is simply bro shorthand for building muscle. When you focus on building muscle, you will not accidentally look like a bodybuilder. You will not pull a “whoopsie!” and get jacked overnight. The “bulk” that most folks don’t want is from fat. Lean muscle makes everyone look and perform better, especially when we do it strategically. The end.
Once you build the amount of muscle you want, it is stupid easy to maintain (unlike cardiovascular fitness, which is fast in and fast out).
The #1 Mistake
The reason we have a “season” for muscle building is because it allows us to focus on a short sprint of behaviors that optimize muscle or strength gain.
When folks try to kinda do everything all year round (get stronger! lose fat! build endurance! play my sport!), they make progress at first, but then usually end up staying more or less the same.
I did this for YEARS. I was all over the map.
As the proverb goes: The man who chases two rabbits catches neither. (this was also my motto on the dating scene 😎)
As you’ll learn over the next few weeks, there are specific things we need to do in our training and nutrition in order to optimize muscle growth (while minimizing any fat gain), which means you actually see results, which means you’re a happy camper who sticks with it longer.
December Theme Schedule:
This week we went over what bulking season is, why it exists, and what “winter” can mean
Week 2: Nutrition for muscle building
Week 3: Training for muscle building
Week 4: Mitigating fat gain VS body recomposition
Love & muscles,
Coach Mac
PS. When’s YOUR winter/gaining season? What time of year are you least active or busy and can focus on strength training?
