Why I Don't Recommend Bulking and Cutting for Calisthenics

Bulking and cutting cycles can be helpful for some people, but it's typically not worthwhile for most people, especially calisthenics enthusiasts.

This is because most people. want to see gains in size and weight faster than they reasonably can through muscle growth. They grow impatient, so they just eat a lot and call it "bulking," which is just over eating and getting fatter. They then need to cut off the excess bodyfat and the cycle starts anew.

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[aristidesperobelli]

About bodybuilding strategies, once in my rugby team we had the discussion "why do we train like bodybuilders if we are rugby players??" The answer was: when you get to the gym everybody (including the gym trainers) assumes you are there for aesthetics, therefore the training mimics the bodybuilders' training...

[brdr]

So bulking and cutting is a bodybuilding strategy...but so are sets and reps, frankly. Once I figured that out, I realized I could break that paradigm and train however I wanted. It's very freeing to ask what my goals are and come up with my OWN way to achieve it.

[lehongduong]

I feel like this video is too short and misses some clarifications:
1. Bulking mentioned here is the gaining of both fat and lean mass. If you’re bodybuilding the “optimal” muscle growth would require a surplus large enough that would inevitably bring with it fat gains. It’s like a necessary evil. What’s missing in the video is that people would assume lean bulking and sometimes “gaintaining” to be the same as the “bulking” mentioned. To a calisthenics athlete, both of those strategies is beneficial (it’s just slower in terms of gaining actual muscles).
2. Calisthenics here is a method of training, not necessarily a goal. You haven’t indicated any goals for the “calisthenics” group, so people would assume that calisthenics goals are only for relative strength, which would favor not gaining fat like you said. But what if one would like to use calisthenics for bodybuilding purposes? Then they should bulk and cut to an extend, since other approaches (recomp, maintaining, gaintaining, or even lean bulk) are still too slow for building muscles. Alex Leonidas from Alphadestiny has discussed this in the past.
3. Bulking and cutting can still teach you a lot about how your body responds to food, so in the long run I believe everyone should experiment with it.

[watermelongames]

Hey RDP I have recently been experimenting with eccentric only for calisthenics, specifically for weighted calisthenics. I have found they work especially well for pistol squats were you squat with one leg on the way down and squat with two legs back up. I have found that it allows me to preform way more reps with way more intense loads. Although I am just experimenting I wanted to know your thoughts on doing only the eccentric portion of an exercise for calisthenics. On paper doing eccentric only training sounds like the best of both worlds.

[edge]

So you don't need a positive energy balance to build muscle, or a negative energy balance to loose fat? How does calisthenics exclusively, compared to all other forms of training, work around the most basic principles of thermodynamics?

[brianbadonde]

Bulking could be a form of progression if your performance stays the same, if you put on 5 kg but your pull ups are still the same for example is that an improvement, you're lifting a heavier weight ?

[danielmillward]

So how do folks like alpha destiny, bald omni man, natural hypertrophy, basement bodybuilding and hersovyac gain muscle and strength so quickly after 10+ years in the game still.

[davepazz]

I can at least understand the logic behind bulking/cutting for lifting weights (not that it's optimal), but for calisthenics it's *really* pointless...

[antonycuff]

Most people with a bodybuilding mentality consider going from a 6 pack to a 4 or 2 pack a bulk . they still wouldn't be considered fat to society but they look at themselves as fat !

[DarkVeghetta]

Eeeeh... yes and no.

Thing is, muscle grows much better (not just a bit, but significantly better) when there's an abundance of stored energy in the body. As such, training while over, say, 20% body fat, is more effective than doing the same thing at 12% body fat. This effect can be used to overcome plateaus, for example. It's also why Kyriakos Grizzly can move as much weight as he does (that and everything else he does and is) - precisely because he's fat and his muscles have an abundance of energy to grow.

As such, using a cycle of bulking and cutting is more effective in the long term, all things being equal (there's the catch), than staying lean all the time. Weather or not this works for everyone can't be stated with any certainty, because most people will never train for long enough to ever get to the point where such a cycle would benefit them. It might also not be compatible with their goals in the first place. More research is needed, but this has been shown to work for many athletes in an overwhelming majority of high level sports - granted, this is also due to weight categories being enforced, so bulking/cutting cycles are a natural result of those requirements.

That said, being over a certain fat percentage is very harmful to our bodies in the long run, so a compromise must be reached. For yourself, this compromise is a stable weight you're happy with. To others, it might be bulking and cutting cycles. To Kyriakos, it's a perma-bulk that will allow him to break records and impress men the world over, but will also take him from us much sooner than otherwise.



We all must make our own choices, but we should seek to make informed decisions.

[supmob]

#bodyshaming 😂 but yeah mans right.. train, eat, sleep, recover and have fun.
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