Is Lean Bulking a Good Idea Right Now? (17 Y/O)

Hi, I haven’t been on this forum for a while but I know from reading quite a bit that everyone here is very knowledgable and knows their shit, so I need advice. I really want to “lean bulk” and build strength and muscle. I’ve never committed to eating in a surplus since losing a lot of weight in the past and being scared of it. I’ve been looking at Wendler’s 5/3/1 and it looks really interesting to me and I want to gove it a shot but in order to do so I feel like I need to eat in a surplus to progress. The question is, should I “lean bulk” at my bodyfat levels, and if so, is it possible to minimize fat gain during this and how? Thanks!

Just train hard and eat a normal diet consisting of clean foods, there’s no need to intentionally ‘bulk’ as you’ll grow. If you’re asking this in regards to caloric intake/macros, just eat at a maintenance to a slight surplus of maybe 100-150kcals a day and do that until you stop growing. You’re in a very good position to gain muscle with minimal fat gain at this age/phase of your training.

you’ve asked similar questions before and good advice has been given to you.

You posted this a year ago and you look mostly the same. if you had followed those advice, you would already have a somewhat drastically different physique with new found strength to back it up.

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Well it was actually a few months ago but nonetheless you’re correct.

I’ll follow your advice man, I just gotta figure out what exactly my maintenance is haha! I got so focused on trying to lose fat but it’s ruined my confidence because my strength is lowering over time and I need to just stick to the advice given

My bad, must’ve misread the date but you get the idea. It’s been several months and you’ve made little to no progress. It’s better to do something than nothing.

As for finding out the maintenance, get one of those caloric calculators and key in your stats/activity level etc. Stick to whatever calories they give you for 2 weeks and record your weight regularly. You’ll have a rough idea how much more or less calories you’ll need by the end of it.

Thanks, I’ll find a calculator now and stick to it. I need to realise that I need to be patient and should just get stronger. I’ll do the Wendler’s 5/3/1 and stick at it. Thank you!

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Easiest way is bodyweight in pounds multiplied by 14 as your low end of maintenance and multiplied by 17 as your high end. You’re reasonably lean, so you don’t need to worry about using lean body mass to calculate, scale weight will do fine.

You could start out in the middle of your maintenance range and work up adding 100 calories a week until you find your sweet spot.

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Sound like a good plan. That would put me at 2790 calories starting off, so will go from there thanks :slight_smile:

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looks like you got some APT??? on the side picture??

Not sure man, maybe I do? Looked it up and honestly that could be the case. My lower back tends to feel sore sometimes not sure if that would mean something

go see a trainer at gym that specializes in muscle recovery he can tell you, this can harm your squat numbers even if you dont know it, do you sit a lot at work?

I go to college and am sitting a lot and used to sit around a lot before I went to the gym so that could be it. My squat does seem to be weaker than my other lifts as well

Got this from an article:

Sitting alot causes your hip flexors to “shorten in a way” f you have short hip flexors and stand up, your hip flexors will pull on the femur on one end and the hip, as well as the lumbar spine (lower back). This will cause the hip to tilt forward and the lumbar curvature to increase (excessive lordosis).

So basically, anterior pelvic tilt potentially leads to lower back pain, hip pain (because of the rotated femurs), knee pain (because of the knock-knee position) and flat feet. Further up the body anterior pelvic tilt will get you a stronger curvature of the thoracic spine, because otherwise you’d be leaned backwards all the time. That overemphasized kyphosis will put you at risk for neck pain, shoulder pain, headaches and many other fun adventures.

Additionally, this can hurt your deadlift and squat numbers a lot. The good thing is that its reversible. It is also a lot more common than you think if you go to gym you will notice it if you pay attention to peoples posture. We live in a day and age where everyone sits ALOT so it has become pretty common.

Funny enough I do get neck pain and headaches occasionally. I went to the doc and the left side of my neck is super tight! I’ll look into how to reverse this. I have noticed a few times people with thisnposture in the gym but never really took it into account on myself. Thanks for the help man, wouldn’t have realised without you!

A little off topic I know, and I should probably post this elsewhere, but it sounds to me like you’re very knowledgable. Do you think a 5-day “bro split” works? Say, Chest monday, back tuesday etc…
I’ve wanted to train more ‘bodybuilding style’ to focus on hypertrophy and looked into it but I’ve only ever trained p/p/l repeat. Thanks!