Eat More. Lift Heavy. Build Her… Welcome to Improvement Season!

Girl. It’s time to talk.

And I promise you that before you get into the depths of this. I get it.

I understand (you’ll see the pics below).

The thought of intentionally putting on more weight… that is scary.

That is crazy scary for women who have spent day in and day out cutting and restricting and measuring the progress that they have made by how small they are. How much little space they might take up.

I KNOW. That was me.

I lost 135 lbs and at the end, I didn’t like my shape.

But I was also terrified of regaining. I was terrified of just maintaining.

But girl… being smaller does not automatically mean looking the way you actually want to look.

Muscle does that.

Muscle is what gives your body shape.

It is what creates the curves, the definition, the fullness in all the places you want it.

Think about the physique you admire… the shoulders, the glutes, the arms with that beautiful definition. That shape is not found at the bottom of a calorie deficit.

It is built.

Literally sculpted, rep by rep, meal by meal, over months of intentional growth.

You cannot diet your way into that.

You have to BUILD it

And that is exactly what improvement season is all about. It is not about getting bigger for the sake of it. It is about giving your body the fuel and the stimulus it needs to actually change shape. To fill out. To become the version of you that you have been working toward this whole time.

If you are coming from a dieting or fat-loss phase, this can feel uncomfortable at first. This article pairs really well with my calorie phases post if you want that contrast spelled out more clearly…

Check out: Diet, Weight Loss, Fat Loss & Calorie Deficit

What Bulking Really Means

Okay so first things first… bulking is so often misunderstood and I need us to clear the air on this!

It is not a free-for-all.

It is not an excuse to eat everything in sight.

And it is absolutely not about gaining as much weight as possible as fast as possible.

A proper bulk is a structured, intentional period of muscle growth. It is fueled by a calorie surplus, guided by progressive resistance training, and supported by adequate recovery. That is it!

Muscle growth… also called hypertrophy… happens when three things work together consistently 😊

Muscles are challenged through training. They are repaired through nutrition. They adapt during rest and recovery.

Remove one of those and progress slows or stops altogether. So we need all three!

Think of it like a sprouting plant. The soil is your habits and your foundation. The sunshine is the intensity of your training. But without water… without enough calories to actually fuel the growth… the soil and the sunshine alone cannot make anything grow. Muscle needs all three. And that is exactly what this season is about.

How Long Does It Actually Take?

Gahhh! This is where I really need you to set realistic expectations because muscle gain is SO much slower than most people expect… especially as training experience increases.

While you might notice some small changes after six to eight weeks, meaningful visual muscle growth usually takes four to six months or more. And I want to be honest with you about that up front!

Short, aggressive bulks rarely lead to sustainable results. They often create unnecessary fat gain and mental burnout without actually delivering better muscle growth. So we are not doing that.

Most effective bulking cycles fall somewhere between four and six months on the shorter end and up to a full year on the longer end.

Longer cycles allow your body to adapt to increased training demands and energy intake.

Thank goodness we are in this for the long game!

How Fast Can You Grow?

Approximate monthly weight gain rates that tend to favor muscle over fat look like this!

Beginners: up to 2% of body weight
Novice lifters: up to 1.5%
Intermediate lifters: up to 1%
Advanced lifters: up to 0.5%

Knowing these ranges matters so much.

Unrealistic expectations are one of the fastest ways people abandon a bulk too early.

Muscle growth takes time, and patience is not optional here. I pray you hold onto this when things feel slow!

Training for Muscle Growth

Not all workouts stimulate muscle growth equally… and this is something I really want you to understand!

Quality matters more than quantity. To build muscle, training must be challenging enough to force adaptation. That means prioritizing compound movements, using full ranges of motion, and lifting weights that bring you close to failure while still maintaining good form.

REPS, SETS, AND HOW HARD TO PUSH

A solid starting point for most people is around ten challenging sets per muscle group per week, spread across multiple sessions.

Sets should generally land within zero to three reps in reserve… meaning you stop a rep or two before you truly could not do another. This is also called RIR (Reps in Reserve) and it is such a useful way to gauge effort without ego lifting or grinding out ugly reps!

For rep ranges, the sweet spot for hypertrophy is typically somewhere between six and twelve reps per set. That said, you can absolutely build muscle outside of that range as long as the effort is there.

Sets of fifteen to twenty reps done with real intention and proximity to failure are just as effective.

The rep range matters less than the effort and the consistency.

TRAINING SPLITS

This is where I get a lot of questions! There is no single perfect split… the best one is the one you will actually follow consistently and recover well from. Here are the most common options!

Full Body: You train every muscle group every session, typically three days per week. This works really well for beginners and for people with unpredictable schedules. You get more frequent muscle stimulation which is a huge bonus early on!

Upper / Lower: You alternate between upper body days and lower body days, usually four days per week. This is one of my favorites because it gives you decent frequency while still allowing good recovery between sessions.

Push / Pull / Legs (PPL): You split your training into pushing movements (chest, shoulders, triceps), pulling movements (back, biceps), and leg days. This is typically run as a six day split but can be adapted to three days.

Body Part Split: You dedicate each day to one or two muscle groups. This one is often called the “bro split” and while it gets a lot of flak, it can still be effective as long as your volume per muscle group is sufficient over the week.

The honest truth is that all of these can work. Pick the one that fits your life and lets you train consistently!

PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD

This is the principle that ties everything together and I hope and pray you do not skip over it!

Progressive overload simply means that over time, you are asking your muscles to do a little more than they did before. That progressive increase in challenge is what forces your body to keep adapting and growing.

This does not mean you need to add weight every single session. That is not realistic or sustainable!

Progressive overload can look like this…

Adding weight to the bar
Completing more reps with the same weight
Adding an extra set
Reducing rest time between sets
Improving your form and range of motion on an exercise

Any of these moves the needle forward. The key is that over weeks and months, the demand on your muscles is gradually increasing.

If your training looks identical six months from now as it does today, your body has no reason to change. Thank goodness there are so many ways to make progress without just piling on plates!

And just as important as training… is recovery!

Muscles do not grow during workouts. They grow between them.

Poor sleep, excessive stress, or insufficient calories can stall progress even when training looks absolutely perfect on paper.

So please do not skip the rest days!

Nutrition: Fueling Your Growth

Before we talk macros, meal plans, or food quality… one concept needs to be crystal clear!

WHAT A CALORIE SURPLUS ACTUALLY IS

A calorie is simply a unit of energy. Your body uses energy to keep you alive, to move, and to recover from training.

When you diet, you eat below your body’s needs and pull from stored energy.

Bulking is the opposite!

A calorie surplus means eating more energy than your body burns in a day. When paired with resistance training, that extra energy is used to repair muscle fibers and build new tissue.

This is where the magic happens.

Without a surplus, your body does not have the resources to prioritize muscle growth… even if your training is incredibly intense.

HOW BIG SHOULD YOUR SURPLUS BE?

This is such a good question and honestly one that trips people up a lot!

More calories does not mean more muscle.

Once you are eating enough to support growth, adding even more food on top just accelerates fat gain without improving muscle gain. Your body can only build muscle so fast… remember those growth rate ranges from earlier!

Most productive bulks use a modest surplus somewhere around 5 to 20% above your maintenance calories.

That usually works out to roughly 200 to 500 calories above maintenance for most people.

Enough to support growth without unnecessary fat gain!

But I will say that I don’t always guide the women that I take through a bulk up to the extent of 500 cal. It’s a little bit of a mind trip. And your head has to be in the game. If we move a little bit slower, so be it. Again, it is the quality over the quantity that matters.

This is also why tracking intake during a bulk really does matter more than people expect.

During a fat loss phase, a day of overeating slows things down temporarily.

During a bulk, consistently eating too far above your target can shift that muscle to fat ratio in a direction we do not want.

Thank goodness tracking gives us that visibility!

MACROS DURING A BULK

Here is a common starting framework that I love!

Protein repairs and builds muscle tissue… aim for around 0.7-1 gram per pound of body weight. Carbohydrates fuel training and recovery and contribute to fuller looking muscles… aim for around 1 to 2 grams per pound, adjusted for training demands. Fat supports hormones and overall health… aim for roughly 10 to 15% of total calories from quality sources.

Thank goodness we do not have to fear any of these anymore!

DIFFERENT WAYS TO BULK

There are three common approaches and I want to walk you through all of them!

A relaxed bulk minimizes tracking and prioritizes simplicity… but often comes with more fat gain. It works best for people who just want to eat and train without overthinking it.

A lean bulk prioritizes staying very lean… but progress is incredibly slow and hard to measure. I rarely recommend this for most people if I am being honest!

A controlled or slow bulk balances muscle gain with manageable fat gain. This approach tends to be the most sustainable and predictable over time and it is my favorite approach by far 🙌 This is the one I typically recommend to my clients.

Mindset Matters

This is often the hardest part and I so deeply apologize if this is where you are struggling right now… But holding tight to a good mindset around improvement season means that you’re going to have to face some of these things that face a lot of us like the fear of the scale going up and what’s your body and skin might look like.

The Scale & Fear of Gaining

After years of dieting, seeing the scale go up can trigger discomfort, fear, or second-guessing. That reaction makes complete sense.

We are not taught how to gain weight intentionally and calmly… and that is not your fault!

But scale weight and body fat are not the same thing. I hope you really let that land!

When a bulk is done correctly, roughly 75 to 80% of the weight gained is lean tissue, glycogen, and associated water.

Fat gain happens… but it is smaller and so manageable. Thank goodness!

Experience helps so much here. Once you have been through a bulk and seen how your body responds, the scale loses some of its emotional power. Until then, understanding how muscle growth works can help quiet the fear.

This is exactly why I call bulking… improvement season.

It is about building the foundation that makes future fat loss, strength, and confidence possible. And I pray you start to see it that way too!

Let’s Talk About the Skin. And the Stretch Marks. And the Cellulite.

You do everything right. You lose the weight. You hit the goal. And then you look in the mirror and you see loose skin. Stretch marks. Cellulite that did not disappear with the pounds. And suddenly the finish line you were running toward does not look the way you imagined it would.

I am so sorry if that is where you are right now… I really am.

Here is what I want you to know. When you lose a significant amount of weight, your skin does not always come back in. That is not a failure. That is just biology.

Skin that has been stretched over years does not simply snap back because the volume underneath it changed. For some people it does partially. For others it does not. And there is no amount of cardio or “clean eating” that is going to change the structure of your skin.

That is the honest truth and you deserve to hear it.

But here is what changed everything for me mentally…

I stopped trying to shrink my way out of it. And I started building instead.

When I made the decision to fill my skin with muscle… to actually grow into my body rather than keep trying to make it smaller… something shifted. The loose skin did not disappear. The stretch marks did not disappear.

But the shape started to tell a different story. The muscle underneath started to create definition and fullness and curves that no deficit could have ever given me.

The cellulite did not go away either. Thank goodness I stopped waiting for it to.

What I have learned is that you can spend your life at war with the parts of your body that carry the evidence of where you have been… or you can build something so strong and so beautiful that the story becomes about what you created, not what you survived.

That is what improvement season gave me.

And I hope and pray it gives you the same thing.

And one more thing I want you to hear before we move on…

Do not get rid of your bigger clothes

I mean it!

Improvement season is a season.

Your body is going to change during it. Some of the clothes you have not worn in a while might actually fit again… and that is okay. That is not a step backward. That is just your body doing exactly what you asked it to do.

When the time comes and you move through a shredding season… leaning out to reveal all of that beautiful muscle you built… your body will change again.

The clothes will fit differently again.

But right now, in this season, grace is the whole point

Tracking Progress

Progress during a bulk is not just scale weight… and this is SUCH an important mindset shift!

Track strength increases.
Take measurements.
Notice how clothes fit.
Pay attention to training performance.

Aiming for roughly 1 to 3% body weight gain per month is a reasonable guideline for most people. Small wins matter so much here! Heavier lifts, improved endurance, and fuller muscles are all signs things are working.

Transitioning into a Bulk

If you are coming from maintenance or a calorie deficit, please ease into a surplus rather than jumping straight in!

Gradually increase calories over several weeks.
Let hunger normalize.
Let training performance improve.
Support the transition with consistent meals, adequate protein, quality carbohydrates, healthy fats, and enough sleep. Thank goodness there is no rush here!

Stress management and recovery matter just as much as macros during this phase. Please do not skip this part!

Common Mistakes to Avoid

I hope and pray you avoid these because they are so common and so unnecessary!

Gaining weight too quickly
Treating bulking like a free-for-all (I know the temptation is real 🤣)
Neglecting recovery and sleep
Ignoring cardiovascular health and mobility
Failing to track progress and make adjustments

A thoughtful and measured approach prevents most of these issues.

You have got this!

Final Thoughts

Bulking is not easy mentally… but it is incredibly powerful when done well ♥️

It is a season that builds muscle, confidence, and resilience. Progress may feel slow, but the payoff lasts far longer than any short-term cut ever could. Thank goodness for that!

Trust the process. Respect the timeline. And remember that growth… by definition… requires patience 🙌

I hope and pray this improvement season is everything you deserve it to be!

With love, Coach Nik

Eat More. Lift Heavy. Build Her… Welcome to Improvement Season!

What Bulking Really Means

How Long Does It Actually Take?

How Fast Can You Grow?