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If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go.
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Mind Pump. Mind Pump.
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With your hosts, Sal Destefano, Adam Schafer,
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and Justin Andrews, you just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast in history. Approaching half a billion downloads. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode is on Clean Bulking. What is it? And how to do it properly. By the way, we have trainers and coaches here at Mind Pump that can help you with your diet and your nutrition. They'll coach you through. And these are Mind Pump coaches. So they're good. And we have a code for 50% off. Go to mindpumpnutrition.com use the code MP50 for the half off. This episode is brought to you by a sponsor. Crisp Power. Look. If you're looking for a snack that actually fits your macros without sacrificing taste or crunch, you need to try Crisp Power Protein Pretzels. These are pretzels. They. They taste like pretzels. They look like pretzels. They're pretzels. But each bag packs up to 28 grams of protein with only 6 grams of what are considered net carbs when you subtract out the fiber. Because they're also very high in fiber. They're baked, they're not fried. No added sugar. They're vegan. They taste good. Really good flavors. Cheddar, Flamin crunch, Cinnamon crunch. They're delicious. But again, very high in protein. So if you want that extra snack, you. You like the crunch, you want the protein. Use crisp Power. So go to crisppower.com mindpump and use the code mindpump10 for 10% off your order. Back to the show. All right, real quick.
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If you love us like we love you, why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear? Over@mypumpstore.com I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to mypumpstore.com that's it. Enjoy the rest of the show.
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The topic for today's episode, clean bulking. What is it and how can you do it? Let's get to it.
D
Justin's a big dirty.
C
I love bulking, you guys.
B
He's a big, dirty bulk. Let's break it down first for people aren't familiar. So the bulking is a term that relates to trying to gain size or muscle, Right? Strength usually accompanies this. Now we've changed the term to mean other things. Or should I say we've. We've used different term terminology that's also describing clean bulking in a way to make it more appealing to certain people. For example, reverse diet. Reverse diet is actually a clean bulk. Yeah. And the reason why we call it a reverse diet is because when you tell in particular women, we're going to bulk you, even though you're trying to lose body fat, the. They will run in the opposite direction.
D
Well, I think. I think another thing that it implies is that it's controlled. Right. Because it's a diet. Reverse diet. You're still following a plan where bulk doesn't necessarily.
B
It sounds like a single plan. Yeah. It doesn't signal plan.
D
Really?
B
Yeah. Bulk sounds like you're off your diet.
C
Yeah. You're trying to get big.
B
Yeah. But, you know, this has been around for a long time. Strength athletes, athletes in general, fighters, have done this for a long time.
C
Really.
B
It's the attempt at trying to build strength and muscle. And what comes along with that is like a faster metabolism. This is why bulking or reverse dieting is attractive to people who want to lose weight. Because through this process, you speed up your metabolism through this process, in many cases, especially if you're somebody that chronically diets or has always tried to get leaner and you've never tried to do something like this, this can be very healthy. It could balance out hormones. It can make you feel a lot better. It can get rid of pain. I've had many clients who were so afraid of gaining weight, they always ate in this really controlled way. And then we put them in a clean bulk, you know, strategy. And they feel so good. They have tons of energy, tons of strength. The result of which being more muscle and eventually later on, less body fat. So that's a clean bulk is. Is trying to build muscle with minimal fat gain. Okay. Dirty bulk is no strategy. Dirty bulk is. I'm just gonna eat a bunch of
C
food, a lot of calories all at once.
B
Yeah. I'm just eating a ton of food and just trying to gain weight on the scale.
D
Let's be honest. It's what it looked like for most of us when we.
B
This is. I bulked as a kid. Yeah.
C
I thought that's how you had to
B
do it, to be honest.
A
Yeah.
B
Well, I think if I had done it, I'll be honest. That's a good. That's a good question, Justin. Or good, good statement. Because had I tracked and done things properly, a quote unquote clean bulk would have resulted in more muscle mass for me as a kid. Oh, yeah. I just. I knew I needed to Eat more. And so what I did as a kid, and I was a skinny kid, so what I did is just ate as much as possible and ate as much garbage as possible because I could eat more of it. But had I done this the right way, I would have ended up with more lean body mass. I'll never forget that. This. The first time this really, really hit me was I was, I want to say, 21. So I was still young, and I knew better at this time, but still I was kind of stuck in that trap of just trying to get big. And I had a competition, or I entered into a competition with my fitness manager and my assistant manager. So the three of us said, let's see who can gain the most muscle and strength over 60 days, I think it was. And I went hard. I didn't want to lose. I went hard. I ate as much as I could. It was a lot of garbage. And I don't remember how much weight I gained, but I got pretty heavy. I almost got up to 240 pounds. Tested my body fat, which I had tested before. I started the bulk, and the vast majority of the weight that I gave was body fat. And when I went on the cut, I went back to where I was before. So a good clean bulk builds lean body mass that you can hold on to later when you want to cut. A good, clean bulk looks like you're building muscle, not just gaining a bunch of sloppy weight.
D
I. I think this is actually really common even in the competitive world. I saw a lot of this, and I. I had a similar experiences as you did. In fact, I still remember when this had. Was very vivid because I had a competition with my. My buddy, my buddy Mark, and.
B
Oh, he wanted a bulk with you?
D
Yeah, we both went on a bulk together. And, you know, and I'm. I'm the trainer of the two of us, so I, you know, I had a lot of confidence going in that I was gonna whoop him at this, right? Like, I should be better at this than he is. And I just went so aggressive with, you know, eating in a dirty bulk that when we actually got on and we. And we did a dunk tank before and after, and so we had a controlled thing to test it, and I had put on a good amount of weight. You know, I put on 25, 30 pounds. So I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna smoke him. And he didn't put on. I think he only put on, like, 10 or 15 pounds. He ended up winning because he built more muscle, he gained more lean. Body mass. I put on more body fat.
C
Wow.
D
And so I did put on muscle, but as. As much muscle I put on, I put just as much body fat on. That was my first experience. I'm in my. Probably mid 20s when I experienced that. Fast forward into my 30s when I got into competing, I saw this. I got to hang out with a lot of other amateur and pro bodybuilders, and, you know, we all. There's a lot of us that worked out at the same facility, and we were, you know, talking about. We ate at the same places and dieted and talked about all that was, you know, you're talking about everything, right? And, you know, I'd watched some of these guys in the off season just put on 40, 50 pounds, you know, and just whatever, you know, burgers, fries, milkshakes, whatever, like, just to put mass on. And then they would cut and get shredded for a show. And I'd watch this happen kind of and show to show. And again, we're all showing up to the same events, and I'm. Their physiques look the same, you know, or arguably sometimes not as good. And it's like, man, you're putting all this work in.
B
And.
D
And. But what was happening was they're. They were basically, you know, putting on 30 to 50 pounds, half of it being muscle, half of it being fat. Then when they shred all the way back down, they would lose it all. They would lose. They would lose a bunch of. They lose a bunch of fat, but they also lose a ton of muscle because they would also extreme cut, too. So they go from one extreme, the other extreme. So they go from extreme bulk eating to what we talk about, what not to do on the show all the time, which is just cut calories like crazy, increase cardio every day. And so, you know, the same rate that they were losing fat, they were losing muscle. And so they end up where they started going into the off season. It's like, man, if you would have just, like, kind of maintained, it would have been far easier on your body to do that. I think that's an extreme example, but this is what I think happens with a lot of people.
C
Well, it's funny, too, because, like, I. I went through that whole process of just, like, adding whatever calories I could and drinking whatever shakes I thought, you know, would be able to, you know, get. Get all those calories in before my workouts. And what I found was, like, there's a tolerance. There's. There's a point where, like, I have insane gastral distress I'm like, running to the bathroom. It's like there was like a. A sweet spot where it's like, I could actually hold the food for the whole day. But it was like, it was volatile. And, like, going back, in hindsight, if I just kept that at a certain amount and consistently, and then obviously with, like, better food choices, it would have been awesome. Dude, I would have gained so much more muscle and, like, had so much more progress. I was, like, constantly fighting, fighting and battling this distress.
B
Yeah. So let's talk about, like, how much body fat you would gain in a clean bulk. So it depends on how lean you are. So if you're really lean, like, if you're a guy and you're, you know, 9% body fat and you go on a clean bulk, you should gain some body fat. Okay. Because walking around at 9,9% for most men is a little too lean to walk around, and you're not going to build much muscle at 9% body fat. But if you're a guy and you're walking around at 15% body fat, you can gain muscle and maintain 15% body fat. Oh, totally. So what I mean by that is this. As your body weight goes up, you are gaining some body fat. But as your lean body mass goes up, metabolism goes up and also outpaces the fat that you gain. Because remember, 15% of your body weight, that's a higher number as your weight goes up. So you can still gain body fat with the muscle because the muscle is outpacing it, body fat percentage stays the same. If you're a woman and you're listening, you're like, ooh, I gotta, you know, I need to go in a bulk. I'm always in a deficit. And you're walking around in the teens with body fat, you're gonna have to gain some body fat. Okay? But if you're walking around the low 20s, you could totally go into clean bulk, get your metabolism to boost and your body fat percentage not budge that much at all. So just wanted to be clear with that, because there are cases where people do need to gain body fat if they want to build muscle. But if you're listening and you're at a kind of athletic body fat percentage anyway for guys, mid teens, for women, you know, low 20s, you could totally do this the right way and not gain any body fat.
D
Just to use the female example, since you went that way too. You know, this is what happened with Corinne and I. What her body obviously needed to get higher body fat percentage before it was going to respond. And Build muscle. We're doing all the right things. We're adding calories, you know, and seeing strength gains happen. But then when we did the body fat test, we, according to the test, we hadn't put on that much muscle, but it was also, she's coming out of a 17 to 18 body fat.
B
She needed to gain body fat.
D
Yeah. So her, her body needed to gain body fat before it's going to respond and build muscle. And, and so to your point, if you're really lean, male or female, many times you do have to get a little bit of body fat before the body really starts to pack the muscle on. But if you're already kind of in a, a, you know, healthy place body fat range, so mid teens for men, low 20s for women, then you can kind of maintain it while you clean bulk. And that's to me, where, where, where I got in, in competing, I never let myself teeter too much higher than about the 11 12% range. And that would be like a big bulk for me was allowing the body to go back up to about 11:12 and then come back down. And what was nice about that, when it, when it's time to switch to the other direction and lean out, you're never that far off from this, this, this direct or this cut or this look or whatever it is that you're trying to achieve versus the what I think the traditional way was before we talked about reverse. Just gain as much weight, put on as much muscle, then you'll worry about it later and cut, cut, cut body fat. And what ends up happening is you just keep gaining and losing the same fat and muscle through that process and never really build or keep any of that.
B
That's right. So the first thing that's important to, to consider here is you obviously got to lift weights, right? So if you bump your calories and we'll get there, we'll get to the food part. But if you just eat more and you're not lifting weights, you're just going to gain body fat. Your body doesn't build muscle unless it thinks it needs to. So I know this goes without saying, but you need to lift weights and you need to lift weights properly. So here's there's this interesting mentality around bulking and cutting that is, especially with cutting, that is opposite of what actually works in the real world. So here's what this is what I think a lot of people believe when they cut their calories, they think they need to dramatically work out more. I'm trying to lose weight, so I Need to work out way more opposite. And when they bulk, they're like, well, I need to work out less because I'm trying to build the truth. Is the time to increase the volume of your training, the time to add more sets and stuff like that within reason is when you're in a bulk, this is when your body will adapt better to higher levels of stress because you have more nutrients in your body. So when you're in a bulk, if you're ever going to add exercises or add sets, again within a reason because you could overtrain in a bulk. There's a saying that says you never overtrain, you just under eat. That's not true, but there's some truth to it, but it's not entirely true. So when you're in the bulk, this is when you can increase the volume. This is when you can train a little harder.
A
Why?
B
Because you have extra calories that help with the recovery and that, I mean
D
this is, in my opinion, this is the only time it makes sense.
B
That's right.
D
And this is the mistake I think so many people make is they. And because we know we don't, not everybody, it's the over generalization. But a lot of people are, are familiar now with progressive overload. I think that wasn't a term that, that we used as frequently in the 20 years ago, but I think more and more people understand progressive overload, which would be increasing volume over time. And this is what makes the body change, this is what builds muscle. And so people grasp that. Especially if you listen to a podcast like this. Most people understand progressive overload is important to building muscle. But so many people understand that. But then they will do that while in a deficit because they don't want to, you know, oh, I'm trying to compromise. So they're, they're progressively overloading in their workout, but they're all, but they're reducing caloric intake. It's like counterproductive. So you know, in those times when you are, you're progressive overloading, you, you need to be in a calorie surplus. You're, you're, you're overloading the body more than what it's used to handling. So you're sending a signal, tell the body, say we need more muscle. He's increasing volume, he's increasing intensity, or he's increasing sets, however you want to say it. Therefore, I need more material to go build this tissue. But what ends up happening is when people do that while also in a deficit. And it's like, that's a terrible Time to do it. You're putting more stress, more demand on
B
the body and this is the time to do it. So to give an example, with our programs, if you listen and you follow maps programs, you know, let's say you're following maps anabolic or, or ppl. A good program to go to that would be similar while you're increasing your calories for a clean bulk would be our new program Maps Upper Lower. Upper Lower has a slight increase in volume. This is the time to do it with your strength training, is when you're increasing your calories, the next thing is to hit your target body weight and protein. This is true if you're cutting or bulking. But here's the difference. When you're cutting, your target body weight is less than what you currently weigh. When you're bulking, your target body weight is more than what you currently weigh. So by the way, be realistic with this. So don't think to yourself like I want to gain 100 pounds of muscle, it's not going to work. But realistic would be like, okay, I want to gain 8 pounds of lean body mass or 10 pounds of lean body mass or 20 pounds of lean body mass over this period of time. That's your new target protein intake. So if you're a 200 pound guy, you want to weigh 215, hit 215 grams of protein. So you're going to be eating more protein than you probably already do. And this will only help contribute to the muscle building process. It definitely doesn't hurt.
D
Oh yeah.
B
But in my experience this makes a difference.
D
Well, and it makes more sense. You're increasing volume, you need more material to recover and adapt. And so what a better time than to now increase protein also.
B
That's right. And then increase your calories. So here's where people get weird. How much do I increase my calories for a clean bulk? You don't need a ton. Yeah, you don't need to eat a ton extra calories. Now you could definitely make the case, especially if somebody's really step walk your way up. Yeah, somebody who's really, really lean. You know, typical fast metabolism person, you know, they can make the case for more calories. But on average, in my experience training people, the average person will have a nice lean body mass gain at about 500 calories above maintenance. Okay. So whatever calories you need to eat to keep your body weight the same, add 500 calories to that. By the way, there's data on this and the data shows that more calories don't build more muscle. They just tend to add more body fat. Now, again, for somebody who needs to gain body fat, if this is a young woman coming to me that I finally convinced to go on a bulk who's walking around 13, body fat, has hormone issues, I'm going to try and have her eat more calories. The limiting factor there is what she's comfortable with. If I'm talking to a Guy Walking around 8% body fat, I may do the same thing. I may go up to as much as 800 to 1,000 calories. But the average person, it's about 500 calories more than what you're currently eating. You don't need a ton of extra calories to build that extra muscle.
D
Yeah, I was going to say another. Another kind of generic way to say that is if you're in that kind of healthy body fat range you already talked about, then 500 is perfect. If you're in that lower percent than a thousand.
B
Yep.
D
If you need to gain body fat and you're going into a bulk, you could easily surplus a thousand and be totally fine. And. And even. And even if that's a little high, say better to be around 750 or 800, it's not so much over that. You're going to see pounds of body fat go on. You know, you're talking about. Yeah, we take quite a while. And arguably by that time that those extra calories are will. You will feel them in the workouts and your strength will go up and then you'll end up adapting and building.
B
You know, just to touch on that. Adam, when you're walking around too lean, you could gain body fat and have an increase in your performance and strength without even gaining much muscle. That's what happened to Corrine. I know. And so again, a lot of times people are like, oh, I want a clean bulk. You know, I'm 8% body fat. I just want to gain muscle and not gain any body fat. You're probably not going to. Good luck. You need to gain some body fat to build some muscle, and that extra body fat will make you stronger and feel better in that particular situation. But if you walk around a relatively healthy body fat percentage, like I said, man, you're a guy mid teens, you're a woman, you know, low 20s, 500 calories above. Watch yourself gain muscle with minimal to no increase in body fat percentage, which is pretty expected. Next, keep your daily activity high. Now, notice I didn't say tons of cardio. That's not what I'm talking about but there is this mentality sometimes, especially with those that really want to gain weight where they need to be like I can't move at all throughout the day. I got to conserve calories. This can actually be counterproductive because being idle and super sedentary is actually counter muscle building. Now I'm not also saying when you do the extreme where you're going to do tons of cardio outside of the gym, but what I am saying is walk.
C
Yeah, the body systems just work better.
B
That's right.
C
Yeah. When you add movement and that doesn't need to be intense movement. But yeah, if you take a nice, nice light walk like digestive system, everything else was going to be able to shuttle. You know, blood's going to circulate more efficiently. Everything like vital for healing tissue. It's all going to happen.
B
So I build more, I build better muscle. Everything being the same when I'm averaging 8000 steps a day versus for sure
D
4000 steps more, more movement, more oxygen, more blood flow, more nutrients, better muscle, better, better, better recovery, better digestive. And, and, and in this context where we are increasing volume, increasing calories, this makes a huge difference. And I don't know, I'm not familiar with any studies that we have to really highlight how effective this is. I mean I've just experienced it not only with all my clients but especially on at the high levels of competing and watching this so diligently like it makes a big difference when, when I increase or I would take this for a client or me where I increase volume like this. So they're doing more workload, increasing calories, always moving them up in steps always help this process so much better. And I the theory is that exactly what we're saying is just more blood flow, more oxygen, more nutrients getting to the muscles going to facilitate recovery faster.
C
It's also this like you said, synthesize everything better.
B
It's also this like you send a signal to build muscle. When you strength train, you're feeding yourself properly. The strongest lose muscle signal you could send besides starving yourself is not move to not move beat.
D
A catabolic irony of that.
B
You could lift weights so perfectly and hard today and let me put. You could do crazy set of. You could do squats today we're gonna do squats and deadlifts and leg press. We're gonna get, we're gonna really work your legs well and then what I'm gonna have you do until the next time you're supposed to train your legs, let's Say it's a week from now, lay on the couch, I'm gonna make you bedridden. You're not allowed to get up off the bed. You would actually come back weaker.
D
Whenever we talk about this, we used
B
to believe that 100.
D
I did.
B
It was dumb.
D
So I. My first. My first trainer job was across the street from 24 Fitness. I lived my grandma across the street. I could just walk across the street.
B
And.
D
And this was like a dream come true for the kid trying to bulk, you know, so. And this is not only gonna lay down, not only did I dirty bulk, but I would. I would dirty bulk, eat as much as I could, and then I would go lay down and I would literally watch, set my alarm for when my next client was grow. Yeah, you just lay there, middle of the day, two o' clock in the afternoon, sun's out, I'm laying in a bed, you know, after a 2000 calorie, you know, cheeseburger type of lunch, you know, waiting. Waiting for my next client, and wait five minutes, forgot to be there, alarm goes off, and then I'd run across the street to go to. And just while thinking that I'm, like, trying to give myself as much recovery, like, such a terrible, terrible approach to not only dirty bulk like that, but then to pair it also with less movement, because I'm just trying to recover.
B
The reason why I'm communicating this, this is more for the, like. Like, really, the people are really eager to gain size. You know, like, I'm talking to myself. As a kid, I thought, well, every calorie I burn. Yeah. Is taking away from the calories that
C
go in, my body gains.
B
And so I did the same thing, Adam. You know, as a kid, I'd lift, I'd eat like crazy. I'd sit on the couch as much as I could. Oh, gotta let the muscles grow. If I move them too much, they're not gonna grow. I just sit here and let them grow. And I'll never forget, I've talked to you guys, I've told this story. I haven't told the story in a long time, but there was a summer where my cousin and I had bought BMX bikes. And so throughout the day, we go ride these bikes. So this was like a summer where I wasn't just sitting around trying to build muscle. And at this point, I was trying to learn how to bunny hop. And when you don't know how to bunny hop, you yank on the handlebar
C
too hard with your arms.
B
Yeah, and my arms grew. And I remember being like, and I was afraid, I'm like, oh my God, all this work on my arms, they're not going to grow because I need to let them recover and they built. And I've tracked this throughout the years. Like I said, I know we don't do a lot of steps because, or I don't take a lot of steps because of what we do for work. So if I let that happen, I'm hitting 4,000 steps in a day. That's it. If I consciously move and walk, I can get myself up to about 8,000, 10,000 could be hard except for on our off days or whatever. But I know when I'm trying to build and get stronger, the difference between, there's a big difference in how I build when I'm taking 8,000 steps between or 4,000 steps. So now the key isn't to go, you're not going crazy activity. I'm not telling you go work out all the time, but move. So those people are afraid of that. Go and walk, get those steps.
D
The other thing, I'd add to that, to that demographic of people because these are the same people that are dirty bulking and stuff like that because they need to eat as many calories as they can. The other thing that I, I real didn't realize at first, but then later on once I started tracking was I was eating all these calories because I could eat more calories through junk food and dirty bulking. But what I also recognized when I actually started to track diligently was I was super high on calories but low on my protein intake.
B
All your calories were from fat and carbs.
D
Yes, I know. And, and that was like the real eye opener for me was like I felt like I had to eat all this food just to get the kids calories up to 4,000 plus calories. But then I struggled to hit 130, 150 grams of protein and I needed to be somewhere towards 200. And so it really shifted. I was like, oh man, I got at least go get the good calories first. And that alone kind of organically made me clean bulk.
B
And that's the last point, which is avoid garbage food. Garbage food, processed food, junk food, yes, you'll hit high calories, you're probably not going to get really, really good protein. So hard is not good in protein and it affects your digestion and it makes you feel lethargic and it makes you hold water. So now you're, you're gaining weight on the scale. Am I gaining muscle? Probably not. It's probably water loaded. Yeah. So you still want to avoid garbage food. Now the occasional, in a, you know, you know, in a clean bulk, the occasional pizza burger is okay. I also think that's okay in a cut as well. The person where I allow that to happen more is a person that really, really struggles to get those extra calories. They've already hit their protein. They really struggle and like man, I don't know if I can eat anymore.
C
And I'm like something tasty to help.
B
Could you have a burger? Yeah, I think I could do that.
D
Well my, that's my hard gainer advice used to be this because I, I would have considered myself in this category. Trained a lot of people in this category. That would just be like man, I just, I struggle to keep the calories consistently up there. And so the goal was always go get your protein intake through a whole natural foods. After that then I would allow you to do exactly the french fries, the shake, the whatever, whatever, whatever you needed to that was palatable to boost the calories. But go through and, and that. That advice worked really well for myself when I was, when I was a hard gainer. It worked really well for clients that also were like that was otherwise. What ends up happening is you do. You end up getting it a bunch of calories through saturated fat and through carbohydrates and you end up putting on as much or more body fat than you do muscle because all your surplus is coming from that.
B
Totally. Look, so here's what we have, right? So we have coaches and trainers now that work for Mind Pump. And what we have is a nutrition call or appointment where you can get on with a coach with a Mind Pump certified coach or trainer. And they'll walk you through this. They'll organize this for you. They'll organize how many calories, proteins, fats, carbs. They'll give you advice on your workouts. It's mindpumpnutrition.com if you use the code MP50, you'll get this appointment for half off. So again, mindpumpnutrition.com, talk to a personal trainer that works for Mind Pump, trained and coached by us. Use the code MP50 for the 50% off. You can also find us on Instagram. It's mindpumpmedia. We'll see you there.
A
Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com the RGB Super Bundle includes Maps, Anabolic Maps, Performance and Maps Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos. The RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30 day money back guarantee and you can get it now. Plus other valuable free resources@mindpumpmedia.com if you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five star rating and review on itunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. Family, we thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.
Hosts: Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews, Doug Egge
Release Date: July 23, 2026
This episode tackles the realities of clean bulking—gaining muscle mass without accumulating excess body fat. The Mind Pump crew draws from decades of collective coaching and personal trial-and-error to offer listeners actionable, science-backed strategies. The hosts break down the misconceptions of bulking, dirty versus clean protocols, gender-specific considerations, and step-by-step methods for optimizing muscle growth while controlling fat gain. They also pepper the episode with personal anecdotes (and their trademark humor), cementing the lessons with real-world experience and memorable takeaways.
“A good, clean bulk looks like you’re building muscle, not just gaining a bunch of sloppy weight.”
—Sal (05:36)
“He ended up winning because he built more muscle, he gained more lean body mass. I put on more body fat.”
—Adam (06:33)
“The time to increase the volume of your training... is when you’re in a bulk... This is when your body will adapt better to higher levels of stress because you have more nutrients.”
—Sal (13:40)
“You don’t need a ton of extra calories to build that extra muscle.”
—Sal (16:30)
“The strongest lose muscle signal you could send besides starving yourself is to not move.”
—Sal (21:05)
1. Set Realistic Target Body Weight
2. Daily Protein = Target Weight (in pounds)
3. Calorie Surplus
4. Lift Heavy, Train Smart
5. Keep Daily Movement High
6. Prioritize Whole, Nutritious Foods
Sal on why clean bulks matter:
"A good clean bulk looks like you’re building muscle, not just gaining a bunch of sloppy weight." (05:36)
Adam on learning from mistakes:
"He ended up winning because he built more muscle, he gained more lean body mass. I put on more body fat." (06:33)
Justin on dirty bulking drawbacks:
"There’s a tolerance. There’s a point where, like, I have insane gastral distress... If I just kept that at a certain amount and consistently, and then obviously with, like, better food choices, it would have been awesome." (08:31)
Sal on training volume:
"The time to increase the volume of your training... is when you’re in a bulk... This is when your body will adapt better..." (13:40)
Adam on progressive overload:
"In those times when you are... progressive overloading, you need to be in a calorie surplus." (15:00)
Sal on caloric needs:
"You don’t need a ton of extra calories to build that extra muscle." (16:30)
Sal on the importance of movement:
"The strongest lose muscle signal you could send besides starving yourself is to not move." (21:05)
The hosts endorse their Mind Pump nutrition coaching (discount code MP50 at mindpumpnutrition.com) for individualized guidance.
For anyone serious about muscle gain without unwanted fat, this episode offers both science and real-life experience to craft your optimal clean bulk strategy.