A begginers guide to bulking

[Pembo]

Bulking (putting on muscle size)

There are some essential points to note for successful bulking:

 Bulking and increasing fat mass go hand in hand. It is impossible to bulk without putting on fat.
 More *kcals (see bottom of article) need to be consumed than expended.
 At least 5 meals a day with 40g protein at each meal.
 Post workout nutrition
 Compound lifts (lifts using a lot of muscles) should to be done instead of isolation lifts (lifts using one muscle group).
 6-10 reps, 2 minutes rest between sets and no more than 20 sets per workout.
 Don’t train each part of the body more than once a week.
 Split body parts so they get a good rest during the week.
 Progression in weight lifted.
 At least 8 hours sleep every night.

*Bulking and increasing fat mass go hand in hand. It is impossible to bulk without putting on fat.*

When bulking a person must consume more kcals than they expended. The extra calories are turned into both fat and muscle. It is impossible to put muscle mass on without fat unless steroids are being used. Therefore do not be put off by losing muscle definition and putting on a bit of waste line when bulking. The definition will be restored and enhanced when you cut (lose fat, increase muscle definition (see article)) after bulking.

*More calories need to be consumed than expended.*

The most important part of bulking is eating (eat, eat, eat and then eat some more). To build muscle at least 500kcal extra on top of what the body normally expends a day should be consumed. What the body normally needs will depend on height, weight. Here are some guidelines:

5’7, 75kg = 2,600kcal
5’7 85kg = 2,900kcal
6’, 85kg = 3000kcal
6’, 95kg = 3,300kcal

Therefore a person 6’ tall weighing 85kg requires a diet that provides 3,500kcal a day in order to bulk. A 5’7, 85kg person requires 3,400kcal in order to bulk.

*At least 5 meals a day with 40g protein at each meal*

What type and when food is consumed is just as important as how much. There is no point in eating all kcals for breakfast and nothing else for the rest of the day. The food needs to be distributed evenly. A bulking diet should consist of 50% of kcals from carbohydrate, 30% of kcals from protein and 20% of kcals from fat. Each meal should contain the above percentages and the calories should be split into at least 5 (6-8 preferable) meals throughout the day 3 hours apart. For example a person requiring 3,500kcals a day should have an eating plan like:

8:00 = 600kcal (40g protein)
11:00 = 600kcal (40g protein)
2:00 = 600kcal (40g protein)
5:00 = 600kcal (40g protein)
8:00 = 500kcal (40g protein)

At least 5 meals are essential so that the muscles have a constant supply of protein (40g per meal) so that they can grow.

Examples of meals that constitute the 50%/30%/20% split:

Porridge mixed with 2 scoops of protein powder.
Rice, 1 tin of tuna, vegetables
Steak, potatoes and vegetables
Chicken, rice and vegetables
2 Tuna sandwiches.
Bowl of cereal and a protein shake
Scrambled egg on toast.
Cottage cheese and salad.

This is not an exhaustive list use imagination and invent.

*Post-Workout Nutrition (after workout)*

The most important meal of the day, search for the article entitled ‘Post-Workout Nutrition’.

*Compound lifts (lifts using a lot of muscles) should to be done instead of isolation lifts (lifts using one muscle group).*

When bulking the muscles need to be stressed fully so they get microscopic tears and need to be repaired leading to an increase in size. Doing isolation lifts (e.g legs = leg extensions, chest = chest fly’s, shoulders = lateral raises) will not cause as many tears as compound lifts (legs = squats, chest = chest press, shoulders = shoulder press) therefore the more compound lifts that are included in workouts the greater the increase in muscle mass.

*6-10 reps, at least 2 minutes rest between sets and no more than 20 sets per workout.*

6-10 reps causes full muscle usage at maximum stress (the last 2 reps should be extremely hard, may need a spotter). 2 minutes rest is required between sets so the muscles have enough time to recover. No more than 1 hour should be spent lifting. No more than 12 sets on major muscle groups (chest, back, thighs, shoulders), no more than 8 sets for minor muscle groups (biceps, triceps, calfs). Hence no more than 20 sets per session (work a major and minor muscle group in the same session).

*Progression in weight lifted*

When a weight is lifted that puts the muscles under stress they adapt by increasing in size so the weight can be lifted without stress next time. Therefore if the weight lifted or repetitions done are not increased from week to week, once the body has adapted there will be no further increase in muscle size. It is essential that the weight lifted or repetitions completed are increased each session to ensure continuous muscle growth. The increase doesn’t have to be massive maybe an extra 1 or 2 reps than the previous week or an extra 2.5kg. Easiest way to monitor progression is record what was lifted (log book).

*Don’t train each part of the body more than once a week*

Muscles need a weeks rest to repair and grow fully. Therefore training chest 2 or 3 times a week will not allow full muscle growth. All body parts need to be trained once a week. The body parts are chest, abdominal, biceps, triceps, shoulders, back, thighs and calfs. People who don’t train all muscle groups will not achieve full muscle growth and will look out of proportion. Don’t train more than 4 times a week the muscles need rest and you need a life outside of the gym.

*Split body parts so they get a good rest during the week*

Splitting the body parts up throughout the week is essential to give muscles required rest. There are several variations but this is one of the best:
Day 1: Chest and biceps
Day 2: Thighs and abdominal
Day 3: Back and calfs
Day 4: Shoulders and triceps

*At least 8 hours sleep every night*

Sleeping is the main time for muscle building (when growth hormones are released (REM sleep)) and 8 hours is essential in order to get full growth.

*Supplements*

Whey protein is essential for post workout (see article).
Creatine will improve strength and should be taken post workout (see article). It will enable more weight to be lifted and therefore cause more muscle tears.
Mutli-vitamin is an essential so muscles have all the necessary components to grow and to ensure good health.
GABA useful when taken before bed (increases REM sleep)

Stay away from Fat burners because you have to put on fat to increase muscle size and taking fat burners will slow down muscle growth.

*Kcals are units of energy.
1g of protein = 4kcal
1g of carbohydrate = 4kcal
1g of fat = 9kcal.
Look on the back of food packets to see what amount of kcals it contains and what the percentage split of it is. Ideally a split of 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein, 20% fat.

This isn't eveything but is a good start if you are doing all of this you should obtain some bulk.

[sav22]

Excellent post!

[Little Jonah]

great post man it helped me a lot!

[vinh]

Pembo man, when you say do heavy reps for 6-10 reps.. how strict should form be? give me a guide lines on how strict it sohuld be for say bicep bar curls.. a video floating around if you have one that shows what kind of strictness should be... i gotta get a ideal! Becuz i cant go 90-100% strict if i go heavy.. i need to maybe go down to 60-80% strict..

[Pembo]

Be strict as you can possibly be. Because if you start cheating you will not be working the muscles your supposed to be. Maybe cheat a little on the last 2 reps to ensure you get the full workout. Try to workout with a partner so they can help you whilst you keep your form strict.

[zwarrior99]

awesome post!

[tt333]

Good post

[Pembo]

The post workout nutrtion post is actually titled

"An explanation of what to have immediatly after workout and why"

[metzger66]

Awsome posts everyone!

[Pembo]

SGfuryZ great addition. Variation is essential once plateau has been reached. More useful comments like that need to be added to give everyone the best chance to get the best results.

[The French Curler]

Cheating can sometimes go a long way, Vinh.

[manny]

what's the stuff you can take before bed to help aid in more REM sleep?

[Pembo]

GABA (Gamma Amino Butyric Acid ) you can buy it from bodybuilding gyms, health shops and on the internet. Do a search for GABA on this site, there's loads of useful info. GHB also increases REM sleep however this is a bit of a tricky substance do a search on that aswell.

[Jimmy_Bravo]

I heard of a different routine for gaining lots of bulk. I haven't used it yet, tell me if it will waste my time.
Monday- Full body workout
Tueday- Rest
Wednesday- Full BW
Thursday-Rest
Friday- Full BW

I know, You work very muscle 3 times a week. Seems like they won't get enough rest. I didn't make this schedule up, I read it in the Layman's book, and also heard it somewhere else. Anyway, input on this would be appreciated.

[Pembo]

Your muscles will not get time to grow. Plus doing a full body workout to get a sufficient pump on all muscles would take 3hrs. Don't spend any longer than 1hr 15 mins working out. When bulking your muscles should be sore cause you've worked tham that hard. There's no way you could do three times a week if you were lifting properley. Hope this has helped.

[thegame01]

great post guy's for newbie's or not. bump this baby to the top

[trimunex]

good info.
9

[Jimmy_Bravo]

Thanks, that's kinda what I thought.

[Pembo]

Variation of lifts is always key to keep the muscles guessing!!!

[BLOOD]

Most informative.

[Aragorn]

I'm putting this back to the top in case some have missed it or just have the naive thought that only steroids alone will do the trick.

Aragorn

[Pembo]

Bump this baby to the top for anyone new who wants some good solid basic starting points

[BIG TEXAN]

Bump!!!!!

[BASK8KACE]

Excellent post.

Bump.

xxample

[painintheazz]

I am bumbing this for the question on better sleep. ZMA (Zinc, Magnesium, B-6) is a good combo to take to add in sleep.

[Pinch]

This post isn't so great....

it is possible to bulk without gaining very much fat (if any)...

you only need to eat about 500 cals overmaintence...

excess calories will only be stored as fat... IT IS POSSIBLE TO BULK AND STAY LEAN ALL YEAR LONG

[thebrain]

Originally posted by Pembo
Bulking (putting on muscle size)

There are some essential points to note for successful bulking:


 Compound lifts (lifts using a lot of muscles) should to be done instead of isolation lifts (lifts using one muscle group).

Pembo....i was always taught to work one muscle group a week but am interested in trying compound lifts but i just dont see how doing compound lifts could bulk you faster ...this is my work out

chest
back/biceps
shoulders/triceps
legs(including calfs)

i do this every week i was only 150 lbs 9 months ago and have gained 15-20 lbs of mostly muscle over the last 9 months and i want to get really serious into lifting and bulking more (i am cutting right now for the summer but i want to bulk more after the summer)
but i dont understand how you can work more than one muscle with the same intensity could you you help me and describe the workout you have mentioned

[BIG TEXAN]

thebrain- he's meaning to do say squats (compound movement) compare to solely doing leg extensions and leg curls which are isolation lifts. When bulking stick to the basic lifts: squat/deadlifts/bench and create your workouts around those 3 main lifts.

[rexboy]

Ok, first off, to Pembo, thanks for the great read, there are many partially true facts, that if followed will lead to increased muscle size and strength. Compound movements, when performed using strict form,
with progressive overload, will cause the diameter of a typeII muscle fiber to grow, thus allowing for an increase in strength.
In our lab here we have done numerous underwater weighing/2 part body compartment analysis. (the two part body analysis is Fat free Body Mass, and Fat Mass) We have bodybuilders from the area come in and request to get their BF measured. Tomake a long story short, and to skip boring scientific details, he came in for first measurement with the following stats-

height: 5'9" 175.26 cm 1.7526 m
weight: 216 lbs. 98.1 kg
Body Comp: 10% Fat 90% fat free (results are from Underwater weight)
Fat Mass: 21.6 lbs Lean Mass: 194.4 lbs.
BP 110/70 (healthy)
Resting HR: 50 bpm (very good)
His rupted maxes (i don't always trust these, but he did not want to undergo a max test?)
1rm Bench :320
10rm Squat :405

Ok, so, what all this is leading up to...
He was going into a contest prep
He kept me dialed in atleast once a week on what he was eating/how he was doing.
He ate extremely clean, did an alternating intensity cardio program I've been working on, and had the following results. after 4months,

Weight: 205 lbs. 89.1kg
Body Comp: 4% Fat 96% fat free (same tests)
Fat Mass: 8.2 lbs (!!!) Fat Free: 196.8 lbs
BP 140/80 ( a little close to hypertensive )
Resting HR: 60 (eh...I think I know why, Hot GA took his pulse)
We got to perform 1RM maxes this time on bench:
1 RM BENCH: 360 lbs.

He had a net loss of 13.4 lbs fat, with a net gain of 2.4 lbs muscle!
With a gain of 40 lbs on his Max rep bench, during a cardio/fat loss program.

What does all this lead us to believe?
That excessive overeating is not needed to add muscle mass.
KCALs in (how much you eat) minus KCALs out (basal metabolic rate, energy of movement) = positive number, you can grow.

I just wanted to post this to show that excessive overeating is not needed to gain muscle mass, remember, once you get a fat cell, you cannot get rid of it unless it is forcefully removed from your body. (liposuction).

I plan on making some posts to help ppl calculate protein needs, based off scientific qualitative data. Then a calculation to help find total calroic intake needed based off of that protein intake.

This is no way meant to insult other posters, infact in some ways it actually supports the claims that you need to eat a lot to gain muscle.
Btw, that bodybuilder's blood tests came back negative for anabolic steroid testing. Which leads me to 1 of 2 conclusions... 1) He infact is genetically blessed, 2) They fucked up the test or he was taking something that couldn't show up on the test.

-Rexboy

[flexgolf]

eat eat eat, or u dont have to overeat. what a dilemma. whatever happened to the arguement of good things to eat. tell me that...what are the best things to eat to build muscle. i can skip all the useless food and woof down nutritous food all day. any favorite foods of some hard gainers?

[Vibrantred94gt]

I thought that you were only supposed to wait a minute to a minute 30 seconds max before the next set....when tring to bulk?

[hoss827]

Kickass post man...I learned alot from it, thanks.

[Mclaren_v12]

Good post

[Sorken]

Begginer or not.. this guide is greate, even for a pro(i think)

[BullDogg20]

Excellent Post, Probaly one of the most Imformative posts i have read on AR in a very long time.

Th one thing i must say is eating 500 Cals over normal isnt exsesive at all its sufficient and needed.


Maybe someone here with alot of Knowledge can make a post about nutrtion. I would but their is alot more people here who know more then me and they can be more scientific.

Great post though.

[Zeus10]

I personally like to w/o 3x a week working each muscle twice a week...I read a good article about frequent (not excessive) training leads to more mass while not as frequent leads to more strength....

[Sorken]

Excellent Post, Probaly one of the most Imformative posts i have read on AR in a very long time.

Th one thing i must say is eating 500 Cals over normal isnt exsesive at all its sufficient and needed.


Maybe someone here with alot of Knowledge can make a post about nutrtion. I would but their is alot more people here who know more then me and they can be more scientific.

Great post though.

I think 500cals is good.. because the rest will be fat.. i not sure, but that what i think...

But yes.. a good post about nutrtion would be greate.. Hope Swolecat, can post something about greate nutrtiion

[TheGoose]

I heard of a different routine for gaining lots of bulk. I haven't used it yet, tell me if it will waste my time.
Monday- Full body workout
Tueday- Rest
Wednesday- Full BW
Thursday-Rest
Friday- Full BW

I know, You work very muscle 3 times a week. Seems like they won't get enough rest. I didn't make this schedule up, I read it in the Layman's book, and also heard it somewhere else. Anyway, input on this would be appreciated.

This is a good routine if done correctly. Full body workouts with 1-2 sets per bodypart. It is extremely thought out and tested. For the read up on this method, check out Hypertrophy-Specific.com. Take the time to read it, it is very interesting.