I feel like i wanna reiterate what Luki was saying a page back. Only because we hear from a TON of guys on here who are truly trying to grow.
The best way to grow, it to get fucking lean first. The MOST amount of tissue you'll ever put on is watching yourself transform from under 7% up to say 12% in that rebound/beginning offseason phase.
it sucks and i get it, not everyone is a competitor here. But if the goal is to actually GROW, you truly have to swing the pendulum heavy to one side. I remember back in the day DatBTrue had a sticky written up about this and it was a goldmine. But again... get leannn. Once a year, spending 10-16 weeks in a hard diet will do fuckin WONDERS compared to you going to 9..then 13%...then 10...then 12%. You end up running on a treadmill going no where. Steps forward then steps back. Getting that fuckin lean also completely redistributes your body fat as well. You literally change HOW and where you store bodyfat. I admittingly took a looong competitor in my 20s and i regret not at least dieting, just for a little bit. I feel like i wouldve gotten to my end distance quiiicker by rebound several more times in my 20s.
I think what scares most guys is you reallly get to see how much tissue you are actually holding. And its probably a lot less than what you thought. Its probably the touughest for those guys in the 230-260 range. Very big guys....when they are walking around at 12-15%. But when you peel it off and you realize you're a light and odd shaped heavyweight, its crushing lol