Do I Need Maintenance Phases After a Bulk?

Today’s episode features a crazy (and historic) Feat of Strength, which leads into a discussion about whether or not sumo deadlifting is cheating. After that, Eric answers a few questions from listeners about topics including easy vegetarian protein sources, how to deal with a tendency to procrastinate, how long a weight loss phase can last, and whether or not you should have a maintenance phase immediately after a bulking phase. Finally, to close out the show, Greg discusses his recent article about how oral contraceptives impact (or don’t impact) training adaptations, along with a brief discussion about some good (and absolutely terrible) television show endings.

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TIME STAMPS

Intro/Announcements (0:00)

Road to the Stage / Road to Athens (1:37)

Feats of Strength (9:42)

• Krzysztof Wierzbicki

Is the sumo deadlift cheating? (11:50)

• Is The Sumo Deadlift Cheating? (Jeff Nippard video)
• Should You Deadlift Conventional Or Sumo?

Q&A (34:46)

Considering the road to enlightenment: is there a vegetarian variation of the culinary shredded chicken staple? (35:05)

Any insight on dealing with procrastination? (37:21)

If you intend to lose a lot of weight, should you break the cut into 12-week increments with some maintenance periods in between, or lose it all in one continuous cut? (54:14)

• More info on diet breaks

Do you need to do a maintenance period after a bulk to effectively retain the newly added muscle mass? (57:47)

SBS Article Discussion: Do Oral Contraceptives Affect Your Gains? (1:04:45)

• Do Oral Contraceptives Affect Your Gains?
• Molecular markers of skeletal muscle hypertrophy following 10 wk of resistance training in oral contraceptive users and nonusers

To Play Us Out: Endings of television seasons/shows (1:17:34)

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• BulkSupplements: Next time you stock up on supplements, be sure to use the promo code “SBSPOD” (all caps) to get 5% off your entire order.
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