Bulking Season

Its getting colder and in gym circles that means only one thing Bulking Season. Its the time of year when there is a concerted effort to gain muscle mass (by any means necessary usually). As this time is arriving I asked myself is the intentional gain of muscle mass contrary to our philosophy. I say absolutely not, I'm not against big muscles its the how you get them that matters. If the size that you want comes from chopping the body up into separate muscles then I am opposed to gain at that expense. My issue boils down not to the goal but how you achieve the goal. I'm striving to help you achieve your health and fitness goals the most safe and efficient way possible.

What does that safe efficient way look like practically? Well here is the thing, the process to growing muscle is solid. Lift heavy, lower rep count, and caloric surplus. With RAW we simply use different heavy lifts that fit in with the design of our body. Their will have to be a change in mind set as to what is considered heavy lets look at some traditional size building exercises bench press, squat, and dead lifts. With the traditional bench press you have weight on both sides which stabilizes you and allows to stay one dimensional. An offset bench press challenges more muscle groups and you are unstable, so where traditionally lets say you can bench 135 offset heavy might be 65. Same with dead lifts where traditionally someone might be able to lift 200 as a heavy lift, you take the weight off one side and to hold that same symmetrical form could cause you to drop down to simply a 25 on one side. I know that seems counter intuative that lifting light would cause muscle growth. Its not the heavy weights that cause growth its recruitment of more muscle fibers, activation of those fibers, and overloading them. All of these things can be done with lighter weights if you know how and at RAW we teach that how. So until next time keep it RAW