How do i get big?
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Patients. How old are you? Age can make a huge difference, as you're metabolism is burning at a certain rate and your testosterone levels vary depending on age. Not to mention the entire process takes awhile. You should start monitoring your body fat so that you don't gain more fat than muscle. Perhaps 4,000 might be a bit too aggressive, yes you want to be in caloric surplus, but it doesn't have to be extreme. As for lifting, don't do cardio as stated above and push some more weight and challenge yourself in some way each week. You won't get stronger each week though but at least challenge your muscles every week if that makes sense to you? Also focus more on the big body groups and not so much on things like arms, people get way too hung up on trying to build arms, yet arms come mostly from compound lifts anyway.4
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I had success in my first two bulks with the following two programs, was doing PHUL during my first bulk, then the bodybuilding.com program during my second. Managed to put on muscle and stay relatively lean.
https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/phul-workout
https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/12-week-daily-bulking-trainer.htm
I have since bulked a bit too much, struggling with trying to cut while progressing on 531, so I keep having a few good days with food and then eating like I haven't seen food in a month for a few days. I think I need so stop letting my pride in big numbers get in my way and back off and cut so I can see all the muscle I have put on.
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Patients. How old are you? Age can make a huge difference, as you're metabolism is burning at a certain rate and your testosterone levels vary depending on age. Not to mention the entire process takes awhile. You should start monitoring your body fat so that you don't gain more fat than muscle. Perhaps 4,000 might be a bit too aggressive, yes you want to be in caloric surplus, but it doesn't have to be extreme. As for lifting, don't do cardio as stated above and push some more weight and challenge yourself in some way each week. You won't get stronger each week though but at least challenge your muscles every week if that makes sense to you? Also focus more on the big body groups and not so much on things like arms, people get way too hung up on trying to build arms, yet arms come mostly from compound lifts anyway.
Totally agree with this.... There are several core exercises you must do, to get bigger, Bench press, incline press, deadlifts etc etc but to name a few. I am now past that stage and do more singular workouts, ie: Tri day is 7-8 different exercises that just do the tri's and it bloody works. I set aside 1 day for cardio out of the 6 that I train, so i never mix with weights. Having said that I am trying to loose a bit of weight at the same time any way.1 -
You have to train for muscle hypertrophy to put on size. That means multiple sets with high reps (7-18 reps per set). Renaissance Periodization has an excellent men's physique program that's designed for putting on size. Google Renaissance Periodization Male Physique, and run the program at a caloric surplus. You will absolutely put on some solid muscle with this.2
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sewbank2934 wrote: »just to add to this, go out and read "TOTAL RECALL" by arnie, bloody good read and gives you an idea of the kind of work he was putting in and what protein he was taking. He based his on for every pound of weight he was it was equal to 1g of protein, hence he was on 250g a day.
Does he also detail his anabolic steroid stack/cycles? Because any discussion of how he got that big is hugely lacking without that aspect factored in.4 -
sewbank2934 wrote: »Way too many cals. Im on 2.1k cals a day but having like 240g of protein, via shacks and food. Don't do any cardio work at all whatsoever, and maybe change your sets. Leg press yesterday i did 8 sets, set of 20, 12, 10,10,10,8,6,4. 4 was my PBest. That was just after 7 sets of squats on the smith machine. I workout 5/6 days a week about 1hr-2hrs in each session depending what i'm doing. Triceps day is pretty quick 1hr, whereas legs is 1hr 40mins. You should see jumps in muscle mass if you come away with week arms or legs. Also I do a different set of muscles each day, which allows the set trained to rest, ie:b legs last night and now will probably do them again on Friday.
Because you eat 2100 cals you're assuming OP is eating too many?
Did you miss where he's currently maintaining on 3500......?
Also, you mention that you're "past that stage (compound movements) and do more singular workouts...", ok, sure... but for a beginner an entire workout devoted to triceps is not the most optimal way to go about it. Smaller muscles recover quickly and can be trained several times per week.2 -
sewbank2934 wrote: »Way too many cals. Im on 2.1k cals a day but having like 240g of protein, via shacks and food. Don't do any cardio work at all whatsoever, and maybe change your sets. Leg press yesterday i did 8 sets, set of 20, 12, 10,10,10,8,6,4. 4 was my PBest. That was just after 7 sets of squats on the smith machine. I workout 5/6 days a week about 1hr-2hrs in each session depending what i'm doing. Triceps day is pretty quick 1hr, whereas legs is 1hr 40mins. You should see jumps in muscle mass if you come away with week arms or legs. Also I do a different set of muscles each day, which allows the set trained to rest, ie:b legs last night and now will probably do them again on Friday.
You do realize that you are highly undertraining muscles if you only do it once per week, which will limit your gains?4 -
sewbank2934 wrote: »Way too many cals. Im on 2.1k cals a day but having like 240g of protein, via shacks and food. Don't do any cardio work at all whatsoever, and maybe change your sets. Leg press yesterday i did 8 sets, set of 20, 12, 10,10,10,8,6,4. 4 was my PBest. That was just after 7 sets of squats on the smith machine. I workout 5/6 days a week about 1hr-2hrs in each session depending what i'm doing. Triceps day is pretty quick 1hr, whereas legs is 1hr 40mins. You should see jumps in muscle mass if you come away with week arms or legs. Also I do a different set of muscles each day, which allows the set trained to rest, ie:b legs last night and now will probably do them again on Friday.
Are you male or female? I lose weight on 2100 calories.2 -
I was cutting at 3000 calories and loosing weight @ 2100 I would be a legit twig.0
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sewbank2934 wrote: »Way too many cals. Im on 2.1k cals a day but having like 240g of protein, via shacks and food. Don't do any cardio work at all whatsoever, and maybe change your sets. Leg press yesterday i did 8 sets, set of 20, 12, 10,10,10,8,6,4. 4 was my PBest. That was just after 7 sets of squats on the smith machine. I workout 5/6 days a week about 1hr-2hrs in each session depending what i'm doing. Triceps day is pretty quick 1hr, whereas legs is 1hr 40mins. You should see jumps in muscle mass if you come away with week arms or legs. Also I do a different set of muscles each day, which allows the set trained to rest, ie:b legs last night and now will probably do them again on Friday.
I LOVE ME SOME PROTEIN SHACKS! YUM!
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The basic premise of gearhead's post was right though, eat big and lift big. Heavier weight, fewer reps works for me when bulking. Keep quality calories higher than you're burning, high protein intake and try to add more weight to your workouts. Don't feel obligated to stick to a timeframe adding weight though, you don't have to add some every week but when you feel like you're knocking out 6-8 reps with some ease it's time to increase the weight.
Agree with not feeling obligated to a set time frame, but OP should track and have a reasonable expectation of increased lifts on a progressive overload program. If missing lifts consistently or not progressing, OP needs to adjust. Also, when bulking (depending on the amount of calories/calorie surplus), eating only "quality" calories may make it hard to hit overall caloric intake goals, since nutrient dense foods increase the feeling of satiation. Protein intake doesn't need to be as high either.
OP, as others have stated, follow a progressive overload program, and be aware that with any bulk you will also gain fat. You can limit fat gain by focusing on a lean vs dirty bulk. I'd recommend lowering protein to .8g/lbs as well. 1.5g/lbs in a bulk isn't necessary. As for cardio, I wouldn't listen to advice NOT to do it. Cardio will obviously increase calories out, but cardiovascular health is important, no matter in a bulk or cut. Factor cardio into your caloric intake - doesn't feel good to be out of breath climbing a flight of stairs.1 -
dieselbyte wrote: »The basic premise of gearhead's post was right though, eat big and lift big. Heavier weight, fewer reps works for me when bulking. Keep quality calories higher than you're burning, high protein intake and try to add more weight to your workouts. Don't feel obligated to stick to a timeframe adding weight though, you don't have to add some every week but when you feel like you're knocking out 6-8 reps with some ease it's time to increase the weight.
Agree with not feeling obligated to a set time frame, but OP should track and have a reasonable expectation of increased lifts on a progressive overload program. If missing lifts consistently or not progressing, OP needs to adjust. Also, when bulking (depending on the amount of calories/calorie surplus), eating only "quality" calories may make it hard to hit overall caloric intake goals, since nutrient dense foods increase the feeling of satiation. Protein intake doesn't need to be as high either.
OP, as others have stated, follow a progressive overload program, and be aware that with any bulk you will also gain fat. You can limit fat gain by focusing on a lean vs dirty bulk. I'd recommend lowering protein to .8g/lbs as well. 1.5g/lbs in a bulk isn't necessary. As for cardio, I wouldn't listen to advice NOT to do it. Cardio will obviously increase calories out, but cardiovascular health is important, no matter in a bulk or cut. Factor cardio into your caloric intake - doesn't feel good to be out of breath climbing a flight of stairs.
Doesn't feel good to be limited on your lifting capacity by *kitten* lungs either. Trust me.2 -
That is a lot of volume in the Viking program - on Day 1&3 in the Full Body I would just do the 1st 3 By the time you complete all the sets/reps in the Squat, Bench & Row IF you are using a heavy enough weight you should be crawling of of the gym. If you get the 3X8 or 4X8 add weight untill you can't finish the last 1 or 2 sets. stay at that weight until you can. add some curls & triceps if you want - on day 2 I would add weight to the DL and cut the reps - maybe do a 5x2 5x3 or a bunch of singles - the some overhead press - pull ups & some tris & bis if you want.
I personally like full body programs - that is how most of the greats did it before steroids - Hit the whole body 3X per week - great stimulus for growth. Stick to the basic compound exercises - hit them heavy for reps - squat- - eat & sleep - Eastcoast Jim0 -
sewbank2934 wrote: »just to add to this, go out and read "TOTAL RECALL" by arnie, bloody good read and gives you an idea of the kind of work he was putting in and what protein he was taking. He based his on for every pound of weight he was it was equal to 1g of protein, hence he was on 250g a day.
Does he also detail his anabolic steroid stack/cycles? Because any discussion of how he got that big is hugely lacking without that aspect factored in.
Every bit of this. The roids greatly impacted the recovery needed to put in that work load with success.0 -
Does it matter if I hit any specific numbers for my macros besides protein? I have been getting 1.5g protein per pound.
Ah ha!! Need less protein, more carbs. That extra protein isn't going to muscle beyond about 0.8 g/lb, and carbs are a must for bulk.
Try 0.8 g/lb body weight (min), 2g/lb carbs (min) & some good fats 0.45 g/lb (min)
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Previous posters said everything... So:
Nice lats!!!0 -
Op, how far along are you with lifting? Consistently? Muscle protein synthesis (mps) plays a huge role in size gains and determining where you are in stages (novice, intermediate, advanced) helps determine the rate of mps. Most people have a 72-96 hour mps time frame, which means that hitting each muscle group twice a week, and not to complete exhaustion, illicits more hypertrophy then following a 5 day split where you obliterate each muscle. Also, are you familiar with periodization? It is essential2
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Op, how far along are you with lifting? Consistently? Muscle protein synthesis (mps) plays a huge role in size gains and determining where you are in stages (novice, intermediate, advanced) helps determine the rate of mps. Most people have a 72-96 hour mps time frame, which means that hitting each muscle group twice a week, and not to complete exhaustion, illicits more hypertrophy then following a 5 day split where you obliterate each muscle. Also, are you familiar with periodization? It is essential
I have been lifting for 2 years now. My current routine is broken down into upper, lower, pull, push, and legs so basically everything gets hit twice a week.1 -
Eat big, lift big , leave a big coffin.1
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