Yet, many fall short of their muscle-building goals despite maintaining a calorie surplus.
There are reams of reasons this can happen. Often, however, it boils down to sub-optimal training.
How should you work out while bulking to sidestep this prevalent pitfall?
A recent study funded by Legion and conducted by a group of esteemed fitness scientists, including Eric Helms and James Kreiger, offers some valuable insights.
The study aimed to pinpoint the perfect calorie surplus for maximizing muscle growth and minimizing fat gain.
The researchers split 17 seasoned weightlifters into three groups:
Group 1 (maintenance group) ate maintenance calories.
Group 2 (small-surplus group) ate in a 5% calorie surplus (5% more than their TDEE).
Group 3 (large-surplus group) ate in a 15% calorie surplus (15% more than their TDEE).
Over the following 8 weeks, the dieters ate 3-to-5 meals spread evenly throughout the day. They also consumed a minimum of 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight daily and got a minimum of 20% and 40% of daily calories from fat and carbs, respectively.
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Unfortunately, the dieters didn’t adhere to their assigned diets closely enough, making it impossible to draw any conclusions about the ideal calorie surplus size.
Despite this setback, the study’s secondary findings relating to muscle growth provided valuable insights into effective bulking training techniques.
They showed that all the dieters gained next to no muscle during the study. The only exception was the biceps, which grew significantly in both surplus groups.
There are two likely reasons for this:
The dieters trained their biceps with more volume (sets) than every other muscle. For example, they trained their quads with 9 weekly sets of squats and triceps with 15 weekly sets of bench and shoulder press. In contrast, they did 18 weekly sets of biceps training using a mixture of compound and isolation exercises.
The scientists instructed the dieters to perform most sets of the squat and bench press far from failure, whereas they encouraged the dieters to take all exercises involving the biceps to “volitional failure”—the point at which they could no longer perform the exercise with proper form.
In essence, the dieters trained their quads with relatively low volume at a relatively low intensity; their triceps with moderate volume, mostly at a low intensity; and their biceps with high volume and intensity.
How to Maximize Muscle Growth While Bulking
This study highlights three areas experienced weightlifters should focus on to maximize muscle growth while bulking.
1. Do the right amount of volume.
These findings build on earlier research showing that experienced weightlifters should train with higher volumes to continue gaining muscle and strength effectively.
Previous studies suggest 15-to-20 weekly sets per major muscle group is the optimal range. These results agree but suggest leaning toward the higher end may be more beneficial.
According to the authors, aiming for the upper end is especially important while bulking since doing so potentially encourages your body to use surplus calories to build muscle rather than store them as fat.
2. Train with enough intensity.
The results provide evidence that ending most of your sets within a rep or two of failure is likely better for muscle gain than training further from failure.
While most weightlifters feel they’re busting a gut in the gym, research shows many aren’t training hard enough. For instance, a study conducted by researchers at Solent University found that regular gym-goers generally train 6-to-7 reps shy of failure despite believing they’re training much harder.
To avoid sandbagging, ask yourself at the end of each set, “If I absolutely had to, how many more reps could I have gotten with good form?” If the answer is more than two, increase the weight or reps to make your next set more challenging.
3. Include isolation exercises.
The findings underline the advantage of including both compound and isolation exercises in your program.
Although it counters many “minimalist” training perspectives, ampleevidenceshows that doing both compound and isolation exercises produces more balanced muscle growth than doing just 2 or 3 compound exercises.
That’s why I recommend dedicating approximately 80% of your training time to compound exercises and the remaining 20% to isolation exercises.
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A key challenge in real-world diet research is ensuring participants adhere to the diet and report their eating accurately.
This challenge greatly skewed this study’s data, making the results inconclusive.
The study wasn’t in vain, though.
Its secondary findings highlighted some important points about training while bulking that many experienced trainees overlook. Specifically, they showed that for experienced weightlifters to maximize muscle growth while bulking, they should:
Aim for close to 20 weekly sets per major muscle group
Push each set to within 1-to-2 reps of failure
Perform a combination of compound and isolation exercises
If you like training tips like these and want even more advice about building muscle as an experienced weightlifter, check out my fitness book Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger.
Mike Matthews is the founder of Legion as well as the author of several award-winning fitness books, including Bigger Leaner Stronger, Muscle for Life, and The Shredded Chef.
His simple and science-based approach to building muscle, losing fat, and getting healthy has sold over a million books and helped thousands of people build their best bodies ever, and his work has been featured in many popular outlets including Esquire, Men’s Health, Elle, Women’s Health, Muscle & Strength, and more, as well as on FOX and ABC.
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Free Worldwide Shipping & Returns
Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you live in the UK or Canada, your order ships free when it’s over $99.
Why the restriction on international orders? Unfortunately, shipping abroad is very expensive, and if we didn’t require a minimum order size, we’d lose a lot of money. But! We're also hustling to improve our international logistics and will be passing our savings along to our international customers.
Also, if you don’t absolutely love our stuff for whatever reason, we don’t request you deliver it to a PO box in the Gobi Desert by carrier pigeon.
We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
That means you can say “yes” now and decide later. You really have nothing to lose.
Free Worldwide Shipping & Returns
Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you’re outside the USA, your order ships free when it’s over $199.
Why the restriction on international orders? Unfortunately, shipping abroad is very expensive, and if we didn’t require a minimum order size, we’d lose a lot of money. But! We're also hustling to improve our international logistics and will be passing our savings along to our international customers.
Also, if you don’t absolutely love our stuff for whatever reason, we don’t request you deliver it to a PO box in the Gobi Desert by carrier pigeon.
We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
That means you can say “yes” now and decide later. You really have nothing to lose.
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That’s why all of our supplements are made in America in NSF-certified and FDA-inspected facilities that operate in accordance with the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) regulations.
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That’s why we test every ingredient of every supplement we produce for heavy metals, microbes, allergens, and other contaminants and ensure they meet the strict purity standards set by the FDA.
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In consideration of the services and/or products offered by Legion Athletics, Inc. (“Legion”) including, but not limited to, nutrition plans, exercise routines and coaching, and in addition to the payment of any fee or charge:
I knowingly and voluntarily enter into this waiver and release of liability and hereby waive any and all rights, claims or causes of action of any kind whatsoever arising out of my use of Legion’s services and/or products, and I hereby release and hold harmless Legion and its consultants, officers, contractors, agents, owners and employees from any and all responsibility, liability, cost and expenses, including for injuries, damages or disorders (physical, metabolic, or otherwise), resulting from my use of Legion’s services and/or products.
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Some popular pre-workouts are all-natural. Some contain the right mix of high-quality ingredients. Some provide clinically effective doses. But only Pulse checks each of these boxes.
Pulse doesn’t just “contain natural ingredients''—every ingredient is naturally sourced from plants and animals. Pulse contains no artificial or synthetic substances of any kind.
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While these types of chemicals may not be as dangerous as some people claim, studies suggest that regular consumption of them may indeed be harmful to our health. And that’s why we don’t put any of them into our products.
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Analyzed for purity and potency in a state-of-the-art ISO 17025 accredited lab by Labdoor™, the gold standard of third-party lab testing.
Analyzed for purity and potency in a state-of-the-art ISO 17025 accredited lab, the gold standard of third-party lab testing.
This product doesn’t just “contain natural ingredients”—every ingredient is naturally sourced from plants and animals. This product contains no artificial or synthetic sweeteners or flavors of any kind.
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