I just want to get jacked

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hello & happy holidays Doctors!

Planning out 2020 in advance…currently at the end of a lengthy weight cut, I’m about a month away from reaching my goal weight & physique composition. About to finish The Bridge & figuring out next steps…

For the next two years, I’d like to put on as much lean body mass as possible (minimal focus on strength outcomes). My goal would be to be in a ~300 caloric surplus (est. 3400 - 3600) & ideally training 4 times a week w/ 2x GPP days (total 6 gym days). My upper back is criminally under-trained (I need the extra GPP work).

I purchased PowerBuilding 2, but I’m thinking of doing a pure 12-week hypertrophy template before that, followed by PB2, and then some kind of 12-week strength program.

What would you do if you were trying to maximize how much muscle mass you can put on in a 1-2 year period?

2

David,

Thanks for the post and I can appreciate your ambition.

I think the overarching principles for lean body mass gain should revolve around:

  1. Adjusting nutrition intake based on real-world feedback, e.g. weight, waist, and both objective and subjective body composition in addition to appropriately monitoring health metrics.
  2. Training should be based on progressive overload and sound periodization principles. This would entail varied training over the course of the training year, e.g. some cycles of more focused hypertrophy work and some strength work mixed in. We would also recommend pursuing improving strength during hypertrophy blocks in whatever movements you’re training.
  3. I think it’s pretty early in your training career based on your post here, which is good! I’d probably do PB 2 twice in a row, then the hypertrophy template, then back to PB 2 and reassess from there.

-Jordan

3

Thanks, Doc.

And just to preemptively set the right expectations. As far as minimizing adipose tissue acquisition during the this process…I suspect that as I become better trained following a few training cycles, the rate at which additional LBM can be gained will decrease, what can we do to maintain a healthy ratio of weight gain where the majority still is LBM?

In other words at what point do diminishing returns begin to truly affect the amount of LBM a trained individual can acquire and what can be done to continue that progress while minimizing any collateral fat gain?