two questions

[KungFuHustle]

i'm hoping to start a habit of going to the gym come next school year, and i have some questions

1. when people go on their bulk/cut cycles, how long are the bulking or cutting phases?

2. why do people need to devote specific workout days to specific sections of their body? have "leg day" and all that? wouldn't it be easier to just work out your entire body and then take some rest days off?

[SCWolf]

Originally Posted by KungFuHustle

1. when people go on their bulk/cut cycles, how long are the bulking or cutting phases?

Honestly, it's however long you want. When you're a beginner, I'd recommend bulking for at least a couple years. If you're not planning on competing, there's no real reason for you to cut unless you just really want to. Cutting not only eliminates time you could be spending actually building muscle, but the overall diet change may have an adverse affect on your mood, as well as your energy levels (only really noticeable when you start reaching lower body fat levels).

2. why do people need to devote specific workout days to specific sections of their body? have "leg day" and all that? wouldn't it be easier to just work out your entire body and then take some rest days off?

The main reason there are different days dedicated to usually 2 different areas of the body is mainly so that you're not in the gym for 3 hours working your entire body. You'd end up pretty fatigued, not really making the best of your time in the gym, or possibly skimping on certain areas of the body due to fatigue levels.

Having splits allows you to focus more on those specific areas of the body that you're working on that day with less fatigue. You get more out of your workout essentially.

There are other reasons as to why splits exist, but for simplicity's sake this is what you get.

[Reach]

To elaborate on what Chris said

1. It depends a lot on how hard you bulk too.

He doesn't have a big appetite, so he can pretty much bulk continuously because he almost never gains any fat. I, on the other hand, can easily overeat by a large margin, so after 9-12 months I start getting pretty fat and need a cut.

Really, it depends on preference and how your body responds to bulking/how fat you get. I would recommend bulking for no less than 6 months at a time though since your body needs some time to respond to caloric surplus. Some people cycle bulks/cuts on a much shorter cycle than that, but I don't recommend that for beginners.


For 2:

Full body programs are pretty good for gaining strength. Lots of guys just bench, squat and deadlift 3 times a week on each session. Works pretty well, actually.

But as Chris said, for bodybuilding these programs are problematic if you have a life or a job because you won't have enough gas to finish a full body bodybuilding program with sufficient volume for optimal growth.

[SCWolf]

I'd never recommend getting fat on a bulk. It's fairly easy to control how fat you get. Some people go HAM with their bulks and it's really not necessary. Just eat enough to consistently build muscle. Adjust as you gain.

[Reach]

My definition of pretty fat isn't really fat though.

I don't recommend getting fat on a bulk either. But putting on 5-10 lbs of fat isn't that big a deal if you're putting on 10+ lbs of muscle, IMO.

But going full out ham planet mode is a really dumb idea. I've seen a few guys on bodybuilding sites that ate jars of nutella and shit and became obese.