After getting familiar with fitness, you will know that strength training is divided into two stages: muscle gain phase and fat loss phase.

During the muscle gain phase, we will synthesize a large amount of muscle, but fat will inevitably accumulate at the same time.

During the fat loss phase, our purpose is to eliminate the fat that has been stockpiled during the muscle gain phase.

Most fitness players adopt a large cycle, that is, muscle gain for a year, and weight loss for three months.

I even watched a video in which a big brother gained muscle for eight years and lost weight for six months.

However, for most people, I do not recommend adopting a large cycle muscle gain, but rather recommend adopting a small cycle muscle gain.

The drawbacks of large cycle muscle gain

Muscle gain for a year, and weight loss for three months, this way is generally suitable for fitness players with sufficient fitness time and high fitness level to adopt.

For ordinary fitness enthusiasts, it has drawbacks.

1First, it's difficult for you to stick to it for so long

The first aspect is that for veterans, fitness has become a habit, and some veterans even make a living from fitness, being 'trapped' by fitness.

So for him, muscle gain for a year or two is not a big deal, anyway he's always been training.

As a beginner, you may not necessarily be able to stick to fitness, because the premise of sticking to fitness as a beginner is to see results as soon as possible.

If your muscle gain shape has become significantly out of shape during the muscle gain phase, it may cause many people to lose interest and give up fitness because they can't stick to it.

2Secondly, fat gain is faster than muscle gain

For muscle bosses, whether it's their basal metabolism or exercise metabolism, will be very strong.

So when he gains muscle for a year, the body fat rate may only increase by about 10%, you don't see those people are very fat, they're actually just full of stomachs.

However, for ordinary fitness players, fat gain is generally easier than muscle gain.

Some people gain muscle in three months, and their body fat rate rises to 30%, at this time you should stop fat loss, instead of continuing to gain muscle.

3Finally, your muscle gain effect will not be very good

Next, the second point is that when your body fat rate rises to 30%, your hormone levels will be affected to some extent.

For example, testosterone will decrease, and estrogen will increase, and some fat guys may even have masculinization, such as 'big belly'.

If your body fat is too high, it will affect your muscle gain, so overall, a too long muscle gain phase is an inefficient behavior.

The characteristics of small cycle muscle gain

In conclusion, large cycle muscle gain is not suitable for beginners and ordinary fitness players.

So we should shorten the muscle gain phase and adopt a small cycle muscle gain.

So the characteristics of small cycle muscle gain are two.

1Control body fat between 15-25

First, your body fat should not be too high, for men, body fat control between 15-25 is the most appropriate.

Some players' small cycles even control body fat at 10-20, which is also fine, depending on what you can accept as the lowest body fat and when you consider it 'fat'.

Implementing this generally means three-month muscle gain and one-month fat loss, which is a small cycle.

For women, ordinary players don't need to gain muscle during the muscle gain phase, and annual fat loss is enough.

2Clean muscle gain

The second is that there are two ways to gain muscle, there is dirty gain with a lot of junk food, and clean muscle gain with strict control of diet.

Generally, small cycles are not for 'small', but to better control body fat, so during the small cycle, you need to achieve clean muscle gain.

That is, your diet should not have too much carbohydrates, and you need more protein and vitamins.

Small cycle muscle gain is currently a popular form of strength training, and more and more people, including some veterans, are turning to small cycle muscle gain.

Because this way of gaining muscle allows your shape to be good all the time, and the whole process is very relaxed, without too much hardship.