After dropping my body fat to my lowest point in May, I knew that I had two choices that I could consider. I could keep my body fat low and enjoy it like that for a few months, or I could bulk and hopefully build a bit of muscle for next year. If I was already near my maximum natural potential I would have enjoyed the lower body fat. As I have a very long way to go still, I really don’t want to waste time when it comes to building muscle.

I’m quickly getting back to the body weight I was when I started my cut at the beginning of this year. This is very disheartening as it’s so easy to put on weight, but very difficult to lose it. Especially losing the fat whilst maintaining/building muscle.

Positive points bulking-

• Full of energy
• Much stronger
• Happy
• More relaxed with diet
• Sleep better
• Building muscle
• Recover MUCH faster even after harder training

Negatives-

• Body fat is increasing
• Feel disheartened after all that hard work cutting
• Feeling very fat even though you’re not
• Find it hard to eat a bulking diet as you are hooked on cutting diet

There are many more points, these are the ones that come to mind as I type this.

My plan at the moment is to just keep an eye on my diet and see what I can cut out or change around. I’m not having a bad diet at all. I just like to eat a lot before bed. I genuinely believe that the last meal is just as important as any other meal throughout the day. I believe it helps with recovering faster and it also seems to give me a big boost in the morning when waking up.

Although I have put on around 17lb of weight (weight = fat/muscle/water etc) I don’t think the fat is going on me in the same way as it was before. It’s more like toned fat now, rather than jelly fat. If I could give an example of what my body fat is like, it would be around my 4th/5th week of cutting.

Bearing in mind that I have never been fortunate enough to bulk from a good cut before as I have always bulked on top of being fat (Fat is over 20% BF). My strength has gone through the roof compared to how it has been in the past, yet my body fat is at it’s lowest point apart from when I cut. I can afford to put on another 5lb of weight over the next 3 months if I need to. I really don’t want to go any heavier than 13 stone as this will just mess with my head too much, even if it will benefit me more. It’s a difficult situation to be in unless you have done it before and know exactly what you are doing.

(To put that above paragraph into better terms. I want to stay under 15% body fat at my peak point. If I was 13 stone with 15% body fat I would be happy. I if was 13 stone with 25% body fat then I wouldn’t be happy)

This is what I like to use my blog for. I like making notes regardless to how crazy they may seem at the time. At least I can note down how I feel and what I’m doing, so I can compare everything months/years down the line.

Body fat is tested via Scoobys workshop and can be found here.

I am going to try to give some of the ideas and stages I went through when I started my bodybuilding journey…

I didn’t wake up one day thinking that I wanted to try bodybuilding as such. I was over weight up to 6 years ago and I found it was causing me some annoyances in my personal life that I thought I would do something about it. I started to diet and walk more for the first few months to help me lose weight. Once I dropped over 3 stone, I got inspired by a friend (John) to lift weights. This was when I took my first of many steps on this journey.

I started by lifting at home with very basic knowledge on weight lifting and absolutely no idea food played most the part of the sport.

From my journey so far, here’s a few things that I would consider from the beginning to give me head start in the game.

If I could be perfectly honest, I don’t think you can just start bodybuilding. I genuinely believe that you must have some interest in it prior to wanting to start bodybuilding. Pictures, movies, sports, something must have triggered a spark and slowly led you to this door.

• I would most certainly look into a good nutritional diet for my body type and goals in mind.
• I would set out to have 6-7 smaller meals rather than 3 big meals.
• Study an anatomy chart and start to get an understanding of what each major muscle does. (Walk around the house and pull/push walls to see which muscle it activates and this can give a safe and easy understanding of how to work it in the gym.)
• Understand that your muscles repair and grow outside the gym when you are eating and resting.
• Understand the importance of muscle rest for quicker repair.
• To know that the importance of nutrition. Protein, carbs, fat and when to have them for optimum results.
• To understand the safe and best ways to train.
• Everyone’s body is different and something will work for you and not others etc.
• Don’t expect quick results.
• Get a training split together that ensures you don’t work the same muscle group before it’s fully recovered.
• Train legs too.
• To know the difference between a pump and a high intensity.
• Record myself and monitor from a different angle other than what I see in the mirror.
• Take pictures and measurements before I started. Regardless of how uncomfortable I felt.
• Drink lots of water.
• Make sure you are prepared to make it your lifestyle and not a hobby.
• Be prepared to ache for the rest of your bodybuilding life.
• Have a training partner that shares the same passion.
• Know that more can be less. (45 minutes of hard training is better than 3 hours of waiting around)
• Don’t train the muscle group that still ache. Let them fully recover for maximum gains.
• Surround yourself with like minded people that will support you when you need it. (and visa versa)
• Solid foods over supplements.
• Stay humble.
• Enjoy it!

There are many other things I would consider, but these are ones that spring to my mind. I never followed anything when I started and so I figured the majority of it out through trial and error. I still do use the trial and error method now, as I want to discover all possibilities of what I think will work for me. I now have a good idea of what will work and what won’t, what makes me feel uncomfortable and what suits me.

Should I start steroids when I start lifting?

In my opinion, NO! There are much more important factors to bodybuilding than steroids when starting off. First of all I would strongly advise anyone to get a good nutritional diet in place, discover how to control the weights and make sure you want to continue with the sport. There are no short cuts!

But I don’t want to get too big…

You wont! It’s a very long process even when you have everything nailed. (what is too big?)

(Female) I don’t want to look like a man!

You wont! You will look toned and fit. You will have the curves in the right places! Squatting is a girls best friend.

How can I get ripped fast?

Dedication, discipline, consistency, hard work, time, diet, passion. That’s my honest opinion. Building muscle whilst cutting body fat defies the rules of the human body. It can be done, it’s just very difficult.

TBC…

On 31st December 2009 I had lost 2.3 stone and still had a 38.5 inch waist…

This May is 4 years into my weight lifting/ bodybuilding. The seed was planted by John on the 12th May 2010. From that day I have never ever looked back… unless it’s to see how far I have come. Closer to 6 years is took me to just get here, but I’m much happier living this life and challenging myself compared to how I used to live.

18-08-2012 Skin Fold Test…

13.5 Stone

1. 20mm
2. 27mm
3. 32mm

It’s crazy how quick time goes by and I’m glad I started it then, even if it has took such a long time. Fortunately I look forward to the next 6 years and creating goals and dreams to fulfil and conquer.

(I was looking at all my old pictures throughout my journey and that’s why I ended up here typing this)