Lifting programs for Mass & Bulk

[manjack]

Wondering what some of your guys workout programs day to day specifically look like for adding some mass? Any nutritional tips/diet plans are welcome as well.

[human project]

I find strongman trainning to be the best for adding pure weight... Always have a squat day and I try to train the full spectrum of reps from around 40 to final sets at 5 all sets too failure... Sometimes I obviously start heavy 5 reps and ending sets around 40. Any multi joint movements are key. Diet.... Write down what you eat.... Then the following week add food... See how your body reacts... Every two weeks or so adjust diet to consume more calories... After you peak with weight back off cals slightly and keep your lifts heavier then ever..... This is a basics mass outline for me...

[bigZthedestroyer]

I try to keep my calories anywhere between 3800 to 4200 a day. All my calories come from chicken, steak, white and brown rice, and various veggies. As far as lifts go...I start off at a moderate weight to get going and work my heavy sets to failure. I don't follow any strict routine with this. If I can push more weight, I do. If I can't, I move on to the next exercise. Lately my training has been pretty unorthodox. I see how I feel when I step into the gym an train what I think I need to bring up. It's a little crazy but it has been working for me! My workouts usually last around 45 minutes to 1.5 hours..I guess the biggest thing I would like to mention is consume the calories your body needs and work hard. That's how I get my mass!

I agree with HP's strongman movements. That's some good stuff!

[Bonaparte]

Pretty sure volume training is still the best way to go about gaining mass. But of course you still need a variety of training styles, or you just adapt and stop growing.

[Metalject]

Pretty sure volume training is still the best way to go about gaining mass. But of course you still need a variety of training styles, or you just adapt and stop growing.

I think it depends more on the person and what you define "Volume" as. Personally, high volume was never the best thing for me and I've seen more guys waste more time with it than not. A good example, two bodybuilders I've known for years, they do everything the same. They eat the same, they take the same everything and they train together. Their training is high volume by just about any definition. One has earned a pro card and has done fairly well. The other has been stagnant for several years now, it's almost as if his muscle look stringy. Don't get me wrong, he's bigger than the average guy, more muscular but his body has that over trained look. And what does he do? He just keeps beating his head against the wall with the same old routines.

[MIKE_XXL]

Yeah NO! volume training is not the answer at all...look up DC training if you want to get big...

[stirated]

I find no matter what style of training you prefer and I must admit im not a fan of massive amounts of sets per body part, intensity at which you train is the key. It was explained to me like this, if a man put a gun to my head and said walk and when I see you slow down im going to shoot you, how long do you think i could walk for. The answer, probably many hours maybe even days, now same man says I want you to run flat out and when I see you back off i'll shoot you, how long do you think i could go for know, answer probably only minutes tops.

The movement is basically the same, we are getting from point A to point B buy using our legs what changes is the intensity at which we use the muscles in our legs, sprinting is much more intense than walking and buy nature can only be preformed for a short time, were as walking is very mild on the muscles and can be done for hours.

Muscle damage may still occur from both but the sprinting will recruit the maximum amount of muscle fibres from the very first stride, this is what we want to aim for when training, to recruit the maximum amount of muscle fibres from the very first rep, read here intensity. Its this short sharp intense training that I feel results in the best gains, not only that its impossible to spend hours in the gym and train with 100% intensity, your simply not able to produce that much energy for hours on end. Less time spent in the gym means more time for recovery and we all know this is were growth happens.

I find this really works for me and is one of the best mass secrets I could share, although I don't know if its really to much of a secrete.

[Phoenix18]

^^ I really like that analogy! Good stuff man