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By: Steve Doucette
On a sunny weekend morning, I approach the gym parking lot ready to battle out another grueling leg workout. I am beginning to feel the intensity of my pre-workout supplement working its way through my bloodstream. The excitement of whether I will set another PR on a heavy squat is fueling my desire to get into the gym as quick as possible. Then as I ring in and head upstairs to the weight room, I get stuck. I am stuck behind a 280 pound monster. The man looks as though he can bench press a bulldozer, and as he takes another step up the stairs, he blocks the sunlight beaming through the window and casts a shadow that nearly blocks all the light from the main level cardio floor. But then I begin to question, is this guy going to make it up the stairs? Half way up the long flight of stairs he is already out of breath, and clearly putting out a big effort to make it up. As he rounds the bend of the staircase, this is when I notice he is larger sideways than head on. His face looks rounder than a full moon on a clear night and the pot belly protruding underneath his tank top is approaching his knees. I pause, and turn to the other wall and notice his face on the wall in a picture with an overall trophy, no more than 4 months prior winning the local bodybuilding championships. Yes, another example of taking the bodybuilding staple ‘you have to eat to grow’ too far.
Do I personally think one needs to stay lean year round? Not necessarily. Calories are essential to produce energy, maintain life and finally to stimulate growth. This is why you often hear people say we ‘grow’ in the offseason, and during contest prep season we can reveal just how effective the offseason was at stimulating growth. But often times what happens is individuals will gain a massive amount of weight in the pursuit of growth and yes – they grow – but why is it that the next year they look the same as they always did? In a best case scenario, they may have put on 3-5 pounds (which is an EXCELLENT achievement in a year – more on that later). Was it worth it? The answer to many of us reading this and trying to put on muscle is: YES, of course it was worth it. However, ignoring the fact that becoming morbidly obese in the offseason has countless other health drawbacks, ask yourself this…Would you have still gained those same 3-5 pounds of lean tissue this offseason if instead of packing on 50-60 pounds post contest, you were to have stayed within say 20-30? 99% of the time the answer is yes. No one argues the fact that you have to eat to grow, but I draw the line at gorging on fast foods because eating clean seems to have caused a plateau on the weight scale. Or getting to the point where working out becomes a chore since you are ready to vomit after each hard set.
Many people will have different answers to this question, but consider this. Let’s assume that getting fat in the offseason actually does provide a slight benefit above and beyond eating a clean but substantial amount of food in the ‘growing months’. Would you rather look good all year round, feel good all year round and make slow and steady gains of 3 pounds per year…OR is getting that 4th pound really worth the devastation to your cardiovascular health? In an obsessive sport, I do realize there are many that would agree that getting fat is actually worth the additional pound. But one thing people must realize is that you can still make, in my opinion, ALL the gains necessary and still look good year round. This applies to not only the competitive physique competitors, but to the average gym enthusiast as well. The notion of ‘bulking and cutting’ seems to be popular among anyone trying to gain muscle.
The debate has existed for years, and I see it come up time and time again on bodybuilding forums all over the net. One criticism of staying relatively lean year round is that how is one supposed to ‘move up in weight classes’ if they only gain 15 pounds in the offseason? For example: person “A” weighs 176 pounds on stage, and the goal is to be the top of the next weight class (187) the year after to stay competitive. So how is one going to achieve this by ‘only’ gaining 15-20 pounds in an offseason? My answer is, they probably won’t…! BUT gaining 40-50 is not going to change that fact! Seasoned competitors do not gain 10+ pounds per year of lean muscle…They may gain 10 pounds from 1 show to the next, but most often, those aren’t 10 good pounds. Perhaps the theory is that for every 1 pound of fat gained, an additional pound of muscle (for example) would come along with it. Realistically that only works for the first few pounds. Gaining muscle doesn’t come easy, and the reality of it is, jumping weight classes within a year is extremely rare. Remember the old adage, ‘slow and steady wins the race’…this isn’t exclusive to rabbits and turtles guys…If you can gain 3 pounds of muscle from the time you are 20 years old until you are 35, that is 45 pounds of pure muscle…That is taking a lightweight bodybuilder into the heavyweight class! Besides, judges don’t care how much you weigh – they care what that weight looks like. I know many people, myself included that have competed in back to back years in the same weight class, but the detail, maturity, and shape, all improved to the point where they could compete with guys 2-3 classes higher.
So as I take another step up the stairs, “Mr. Offseason” insists I go ahead. Too bad for him, it was also his squat day, and there is only 1 rack in our gym…But I’ll probably be done with it by the time he makes it up to the gym floor.
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Awesome article, Steve!
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