Leaner
 

If you want to be leaner make sure you are eating in a caloric deficit. Worry less about food choices but more about amounts of food and overall calories.

Would you drive halfway across the country with no gps? No, that would be an easy way to get lost. Same principal applies to "dirty bulking". I am sure most guys reading this have at one point done a dirty bulk. Can a dirty bulk be helpful? Sure, but I don't find it optimal for muscle gain. Typically, when someone does a dirty bulk they eat whatever is not bolted down and they gain a lot of weight rather quickly. The problem is that most of the weight isn't muscle.

You can only gain about -.5lb of muscle per week. Whether you gain 5lbs in a week or only 1lb you will still only gain the same amount of muscle. The difference is in the latter. When you gain a ton of weight quickly a lot of that weight will be fat. That will translate to you spending a lot more time dieting to take fat off and less time dedicated to building muscle.

Overtraining is one of the most controversial topics in the fitness industry. Does overtraining exist? I believe that overtraining does not exist, what does exist is undertraining and overreaching. Overreaching is a real thing. During certain points in your training you will feel run down, tired and not in the mood to train. Normally when you feel this way you are on the tipping point to making huge progess.

How you feel during training is not an indicator of how well your progress is coming along. When you train bodyparts one time per week you are limiting yourself to how much muscle you can gain. It typically takes 24-48 hours for a muscle group to recover from training. If you trained chest on Monday by Wednesday/Thursday the muscle is fully recovered and ready to go. By training bodyparts once per week you are missing another training window. Missing that training window will leave you smaller and maybe even deconditioned.

The more frequently you train bodyparts, the better your body is at handling overall load and volume. You can actually train your body to handle more, if you properly add in the volume over time.

Taking a full week off from the gym is an old school way of thinking. A more optimal way to recover from your training is to take a "deload" week. A deload is a properly planned week of performing your normal routine at 50-60% normal weights and volume. This "light" week of training will allow your joints and muscles to fully recover while still allowing you to stimulate muscle protein synthesis.

When you take time off from the gym, yes you will recover but you will also become deconditioned. Lots of people forget that weightlifting is a sport and there are certain skills involved. In order to grow your legs you need to squat, in order to be a good squatter you must practice squats. How can you practice squats while taking a break from the gym?

During a deload you should be focusing on your form and practicing full range of motion. Another technique I recommend during a deload week is focus on developing your mind muscle connection. Focus on squeezing the bodypart you are training. Developing a better mind muscle connection will help you recruit the target muscle during heavy training.

Supplements were designed to "supplement" your diet with anything you are not providing it. For example, if you need 200g of protein a day and fall short eating real food, you could have a protein shake to help you get in additional protein. Supplements are not magical items that will make you gain muscle or lose fat. Despite what advertisements say, there are only a few supplements that actually work. These are the ones that I recommend:

Multi-Vitamin: I use a multi as a basic insurance, to ensure I am getting all my required vitamins and minerals.
Creatine: One of the most tried and true supplements. Creatine has been around for many years and been shown to help increase muscle.
Joint Supps: Our joints take a beating during training, I like to supplement with a basic joint product to help my joints recover from heavy training
Fish Oil: Fish oil has a variety of benefits including improved insulin sensitivity and improved