The Best Strategy To Get Bigger And Leaner Over Time

hey folks Dr Mike here for Renaissance periodization we have a really cool video for you today I've given us a lot of thought I've trained a lot of people I've diet consulted and coached a ton of people and I realize that most folks with careers and hobbies and school and stuff like that want to get more muscular over the long term let's say a year and they want to get leaner but real life is a thing and so sometimes when you ask people to bulk through the time of the summer which mostly they want their

shirt off if you ask people to diet hardcore into December something like that or through January it doesn't line up with the rest of their life so what I have developed for you is a periodized plan for diet and training that covers the entire year and makes it super super convenient super awesome lets you modify it such that over the year you make gains and you get shredded but all the phases make sense as to why they're positioned where they are to maximally improve your lifestyle why periodize specifically because I think you probably want three

things versus just training and dieting and seeing what happens one you want a physique that gets bigger and leaner over time duh that's why you're in the gym two you want ideally to have the ability to be your leanest when it's the season to show some skin again it's awkward when you're Mega Peak bulk in mid July and people are like let's go boating and you're like uh it look like a boat right now but fuck that and you're the weird guy with your T-shirt still on and of course you want the ability to enjoy

fun events and holidays without having to diet right through them you know there's a lot of articles that I've written in the past and commentary I've done about people's uh take to what is it what is the best approach to diet through the holidays usually what I say is it's best not to diet through the holidays eat some fun Foods relax with your family and friends there are good God 11 months out of the year that aren't the winter holiday month and you can just do that shit then there's no big deal at all so

putting this all together by arranging your diet and training in a specific periodized fashion throughout the entire year you can have it all you can look great when you're expected to look great you can look fluffy when no one gives a shit because it's too cold outside to see your physique and you can make gains that entire time here's the plan I'm going to outline it real quick I'm going to talk about how these phases work and then get into specifics March April May or roughly thereabouts you're going to do a fat loss phase June

July August you're going to do a slow gain phase through the summer late August you take an active rest phase generally two weeks of limited or no training and generally at the end of August I'll tell you why in a bit September October maybe a little longer you do another Fat Loss phase maybe a little shorter we'll get to that in a second as well and then November December January and February you do a muscle gain phase for sure and there's going to be an active rest phase in there as well so that you're taking

care you get two muscle gain phases per year you get two fat loss phases per year and you get two active rest phases for year so checks all the boxes but why this specific sequence why can't I do a bulk in March April May good question here's the justification in the spring you're going to do a fat loss diet because then you're going to get to look leanest for the summer amazing nobody cares what you look like during the spring anyway so if it's you know March and or April and you're not quite in the

best shape yet who gives a shit who the hell is showing skin in April that's insane look if you live in Australia sorry this is all going to be backwards for you maybe you can still rig it to be super effective ask a kangaroo what to do or a koala they'll help you out secondly when June hits you've been dieting for the entire spring and your shirt comes off it's odd because people are like holy shit you look great exactly when you're supposed to and here's a cool bonus feature dieting is easier for almost everyone

fat loss dieting when the weather is warm outside you're not as cold you're not as hungry which is amazing when the weather is cold outside you're both cold and more likely to be hungry believe it or not but when the weather is really warm you don't get asung hungry you guys ever been to like a tropical resort and you're out by the pool and they've got like the little stand where they give you hamburgers and french fries and hot dogs and you're baking in the Sun and someone's like do you want a snack and you're

like I guess cheeseburger arrives and you're like oh my God this fucking son and it's human I ate this cheeseburger I don't know about all this man you eat half of it you're like that's good enough give me some fresh fruit or some shit but if it's winter time someone's like do you want a cheeseburger you're like yes why the hell wouldn't I hell's wrong with you and just existing with your lower and lower body fat is a very comfortable when it's hot if you're fatter when it's hot it sucks if you're leaner when it's

cold it sucks so this timing works out really really well because you are now your leanest precisely when the temperature is as they say in uh in the British Isles hotting up which we in America say heating up I don't know why the hotting up thing thing but that's something that's that is said in the world now we're into the summer in the summer for the first part of the summer for most of it you're going to do a slow muscle gain phase and at the end you're going to do an active rest phase because

the muscle gain phase is really slow how slow I'll tell you in just a bit because it's really slow you never really get out of shape during the summer you're still in very decent physical appearance by the end of the summer or close to the end like you were in the beginning but because you are gaining you have a surplus in your diet you don't need to fret and worry about hitting crazy macros and starving yourself which really does interfere with Summer Fun a ton but also you can enjoy fun summer treats and parties and

cookouts and things like that so you both enjoy the shit out of your Physique in the summer and get to eat some tasty food and you're making gains Triple Threat unbelievable now at the end of August generally is when we prescribe active rest when you don't really go to the gym much you just chill out eat whatever train basically not at all really give your body a physical and psychological break why do that because in most of the world late August everyone's on vacation anyway fun fact try to vacation in Spain or Portugal or Italy

in late August ain't nobody around there's nobody to fucking use nothing to buy at the store fucking entire the entire fucking country moved somewhere the fuck else wherever they go and all the British people show up and then there's no one around to take care of them fun fact right that's just the way it works generally speaking in many of the modern countries of the world late August is a time when not a lot of people are uh doing a whole lot of shit so and a lot of people are vacationing great time to go

on a trip and amazing because you don't have to train super hard or Diet super hard you can take your active rest in Late July if you like but uh August is definitely the default and my highly recommended version now Summer's over the fall begins you take about 8 to 10 weeks through the early part of the Fall to get leaner again this shreds off all the summer fluff Because by the end the August active rest you're a little fluffy uh in the fall there's no more naked times so who gives a shit you look

like it's Sweater Weather and well most anyone can look like a human being uh underneath a sweater and so you don't have to worry about being super shredded it's kind of like if you are there's no bonus can you imagine being your best shape and like late October and you're like yes finally one day for Halloween I can go as Macho Man Randy Savage and the rest of the days I'm just bundled up like everyone else and no one can tell I'm lean look at my face bro can you tell I'm lean like yeah stay

calm good God you can end this diet I'll give you some more options in a bit but generally right before Halloween if you're as lean as you want to be or you can di it right into about just before Thanksgiving if you really want to get leaner still and that's your call dealer's Choice soon as right around the Thanksgiving holidays hit and I'm just using the American reference late November you switch and do one of two things muscle gain diet and some active rest in there some place holiday eating makes muscle gain a no-brainer if

you fat loss through the holidays you zigged when you should have zagged and you fucking made a mistake you're going to put on a little fluff but don't you worry about that because remember you have next spring to shed all of that off and you're going to gain some muscle too so it's going to be a really great thing there are very few things more fun than hard ass training and fun holiday eating amazing combination and you can take your rest during the winter holidays or even take your active rest sometime in February depending on

how you want to do things some people gyms around them are open they want to smash that food and that training during the holiday season but for some folks they go on holiday they go on vacation or the gyms aren't really that open and then they just take an active rest phase right around Christmas time and New Year or something like that if you're real Galaxy brained and you're really dedicated and you have lots of good gyms around and you're not worried about folling on or off the plan Super Galaxy brain idea is to take

your active rest in the first two weeks of January strange right fuck would you do that well think about it how many New Year's resolutioners are there in your favorite gym in the first two weeks of January I don't know like all of them it's like the Barbarian hordes invaded they don't know what the fuck they're doing they're watching hopefully our channel to help them out it's a fun time for everyone involved but if you're pretty Advanced and you like the gym environment like you like it and you have a choice to take an active

rest phase anytime and you love to smash food and to smash great training during the holidays soon as Jan one hits you're off the gym for two weeks so that by the time you come back me there's some new faces but most the old faces and the year resolutioners are well for the most part after two weeks unfortunately they're gone most people drop off after a week or two and then it's kind of like you can avoid that whole Rush altogether and bonus round is you can get New Year's resolutioners to have a little bit

more space uh to themselves so which is quite nice it sometimes works out really well either way it works now time for the technical recommendations these are fungible and we'll talk about that in a little bit as well I recommend for your spring fat loss phase to do roughly half a percent to 3/4 of a percent body weight loss per week as the goal for around 12 weeks plus or minus and we'll talk about that in a bit that's going to net you something like four to 8% fat loss pessimistically you can do even a

little bit better and that's pretty cool that's a big dent for the summer muscle gain remember earlier I was telling you guys we're going slow because we don't want to get too pudgy so I recommend a quarter of a percent of your body weight gained per week all the way up to 375% gain per week that means you're not gaining a ton of weight so if you weigh 200 lb we're talking about half a pound per week gain I mean that's around 10 weeks of gaining plus or minus you're only going to net around 2

and a half to 4% body weight gain through that time some of which is muscle so you may be talking about maybe two or 3% gain in fat look gotd be honest with you guys if you finish your fat loss phase at 11% fat you're nice and lean you're looking great and you bulk through the summer to 14% fat you're still fucking pretty shredded out you're still looking great it's not the end of the world right it's not like you're going Mega bulking and then you're a fat fuck at the end of the summer and

you were working on a couple girls that you were talking to you know what I'm saying by the dock is that where people in the summer hang out by a lake and meet women any case I've neither been to hang out by Lake nor have ever met any women but theoretically you know she's talking to you and everything is going great but every week you meet up at the dock you're fatter and rounder faced and bigger titties her titties may look great but you have bigger titties in the wrong way and then she's like ah

things started out cool but that fuck that but this way you go nice and slow in the bulk you just look healthier and have more energy and you're happier and most women don't give a shit about veins anyway so nobody lost nobody found this is a really really good approach actually you're pretty lean the entire time which is great if you want to stay leaner I just recommend getting leaner during the spring fat loss phase a little bit more aggressive in the spring get down to 8 or 9% you'll be 12% by the end of

the summer that's still fucking that percent from a technical scientific perspective still fucks so you're still good to go active rest during the summer maintenance eating around two weeks in duration no big deal you're going to look a little flop little floppier a little uh flabbier no big deal fall fat loss somewhere between half a percent and 75% loss per week just like before in the spring this time around 8 to 10 weeks a little bit shorter and there you net something like 3 to 7% fat loss which is a really really good amount of

fat loss if you really really grind into there and I mean total weight loss so fat loss could be a percent less than that that's still fucking solid I mean imagine dropping 5% fat you go from 15% fat to 10% fat that's a fucking big deal you're going to be much leaner at the end of this perfectly setting you up to bulk through the holidays amazing it's weird to start bulking when you're already fat but when you're very lean not only do you psychologically want to start bulking but physiologically and anatomically you have tons of

room to grow so it's a really great situation winter muscle gain 0.25 to 0.5% gain per week a little bit more aggressive because look it's the winter and you have all of spring to drop that fat off so feel free to little eat a little bit more and remember summer yeah there's fun treats around but you're not that hungry because it's hot outside winter not only are the treats pretty much fucking better because holy shit holiday food is fucking amazing but also it's cold as shit and you're less active and you just eat more when

it's cold all sorts of porridges and shit like that saw Stu pasta I love it so 14 weeks is of winter muscle gain this is a good thing muscle gain takes time and you're going to want to take a lot of time to do it around 3 to 7% of your weight gain will occur there that's a lot of weight gain potentially and some of it's going to be muscle which is great but a good deal is going to be fat but you'll probably be leaner at the end of that phase than last time because

last time you had minus one fall and one spring of fat loss and guess what after active rest in the winter where it's two weeks of Maintenance eating and and roughly no training you're going to be ready to hit up Spring again shred City get shredded have a couple more pounds maybe even more of muscle from that whole year and you just repeat and repeat and repeat amazing now three modifications to think about before you you apply this to yourself what do you get when PhD sport scientists collaborate with Pro [Music] bodybuilders the most effective

muscle growth training app ever made get yours now first you can always and everywhere slice a week or two off of the plan duration or add a week or two on just to match your schedule to make sure that your phases work well if you have a cruiser taken in early June there's no sense in dieting through that just cut it off early and you'll be ready to go number two you can fuss with the rate of gain or loss uh by a small fraction if needed maybe you want to gain a little slower than

I said maybe you want to lose a little faster be intelligent about it be wise and you can get really really good results tailored exactly to your face Point number three this is a big one you can always take especially the fall fat loss phase because when you think about it in the fall in the spring fat loss phase in the spring fat loss phase your fat loss has two elements one is to reduce your body fat to prep you for further bulking but two is like to actually look good so there's some impetus for

the spring fat loss phase to be pretty serious but a fall fat loss phase yeah you can get primed for gains but you might already be lean enough to gain plenty and it's not like anyone's going to see what the hell you look like after the fall fat loss phase short of posting some after picks so feel free to turn the fall fat loss phase in just a four-week mini cut probably through like the month of September or mid-september to Mid October there you can lose up to a percent of your body weight per week

every week for about four weeks Chi you know 3 to 4% fat loss and then you can take a much longer bulk 16 to 18 weeks if not more through the winter if you really need some size so if you're biasing the plan towards being lean over the course of the year your fall fat loss phase should be like 8 to 10 weeks but if you're biasing towards muscle gain because you're already pretty lean or Fu and skinny and you want more muscle over the course of the next following years then every year you should

do something like a 4-we uh mini cut during something like September October and then as soon as that's over right back in to that winter bulk early hash winter bulk Ash samsul there you go I said all the stuff I needed to say during this entire time by all means feel free to click on the link in the description use the RP diet coach app and the RP hypertrophy app because if you use them they're designed to be periodized you arrange all of the needs that you need to with all of them you type in

all the variables you need and they'll Coast you through get you amazing fat loss amazing muscle gain phenomenal training and all the best and you just have an entire plan for the whole year so that whenever you need to be shredded you're shredded whenever you need to be super bucked you're super bued everything is good you're happy you have friends even your dog looks at you differently nodding an approval there his dog wisdom what anyway questions hit them in the comments I'll see you you guys there peace