I began lifting in August 2024 when I started med school and Jeff has had a big positive influence on my training. Despite optimizing the major variables, I feel dissatisfied with the results of my recent bulk/cut and would appreciate advice from more experienced lifters on what I should do next.
For context, I am 5'9" and ended my first year of training in August 2025 with a cut to 155 lbs. From August 2025 to late February 2026, I gained 10 lbs in a lean bulk, followed by a cut back to 155 lbs currently.
Upper body focused comparison photo. Left: August 2025 at 155 lbs. Right: last week also at 155 lbs.
Since I am a relatively beginner lifter, I expected to gain mostly lean mass. However, the only difference I can convince myself of between the comparison photos (which are at the same bodyweight) is slightly lower body fat. I got ~10% stronger during the bulk, adding 1 rep every 1.5-2.5 weeks, but my frame size looks essentially the same after the cut.
Here's a breakdown of my approach:
Training:
During the bulk, my schedule was push, pull, push, pull, rest (light cardio) with 3 sets per exercise (first 2 taken to 1-2 RIR, last set to failure with partials). On the cut, I did push, pull, rest with 2 sets per exercise both taken to failure with partial reps. Leg and accessory exercises were split evenly between days. My main exercise selection were as follows:
- Push: smith machine inclined bench press, cable overhead triceps extension, cable lateral raise
- Pull: vertical and horizontal pulling variations with cable machine, Bayesian cable curl
- Legs: machine leg extension (with the seat all the way back per Jeff), machine leg curl, smith machine squat/machine hack squat, calf raises using a seated horizontal leg press
- Other: dragon flags (progressed to 10 well controlled negatives)
Nutrition: ~160g protein/day from high quality sources (Greek yogurt, eggs, chicken, lean beef, salmon, shrimp/scallops), high fiber, essentially zero added sugar, zero alcohol, reasonable sodium (~2300 mg/day). Daily weights and 99% of my meals are tracked in MacroFactor.
Supplements: 5g creatine/day
Sleep: 6.5-7.5 hours
I am considering making the following changes:
Starting additional safe supplements like HMB, beta-alanine, etc. I know the evidence isn't strong individually, but I'm hoping targeting multiple different mechanisms (decreased mTOR inhibition, increased pH buffering, etc.) could lead to a significant cumulative effect.
Trending my muscle growth directly with the ultrasound scanners at my med school so I can re-evaluate if I am gaining too much fat.
Increase volume by 1 set for major compound exercises
Continue the cut to 145-150 lbs to try and optimize the lean mass partition ratio for the next bulk
OR
- Bulk/cut from 155-160 lbs for the next year until I hopefully reach <15% body fat at 155 lbs.
I would appreciate any advice, anecdotal or science-based, on what I can further optimize to get more tangible progress on my next bulk. Thank you!