Help me design my first bulk plan?

_namaste_

I'm coming off a training lay up in the next couple weeks (surgery, dammit) and ready to bulk for the first time ever. I am below goal weight and although I have decent muscle tone I feel too damn skinny. I seem to be maintaining (123lbs, 5'6) at around 2100 - 2300 or so calories per day, give or take.

I have tried googling but come up with a lot of articles that don't really help or are geared towards men. I figure you all might be able to help me design a plan of attack that will work for this first ever bulk.

I'd like to gain slowly between August 1st through end of December and then start cutting in the new year again.

What sort of macro percentages should I be aiming for during a bulk, and how many extra calories per day? Any specific strategies that would be helpful? I feel pretty out of sorts with trying to figure it all out. I've got cutting down pat but actually putting on weight is not something I have ever thought much about before... lol

I was doing stronglifts 5x5 prior to surgery (plus running and lots of hot yoga) and at this point am not sure if I want to get back into stronglifts (would be starting from square one again after the surgery) or whether I want to start something else. I plan to keep up my hot yoga 5+ times per week but limit the running or cut it out all together for a while. At this point I want to put on muscle and focus on weights as much as possible so any energy I would have used for cardio in the past I'd like to use for lifting instead.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

n3ver3nder

Add 100 calories to your diet a week. Stop adding when you get to the point where you are gaining weight at a pace you like with satisfactory LBM gain and acceptable fat gain.

If you're regaining lost ground, linear progression like SL 5x5 will give you quick progress to the point where you can start an intermediate program. Personally I'd do 3x5 though, squatting 3 times a week, alternating bench and ohp like stronglifts, and doing deadlifts day 1, rows day 2 and power cleans day 3.

Sarauk2sf

Tagging. Myself and/or SideSteel will respond to shortly.

_namaste_

Thanks very much. I am looking forward to as much advice as you guys want to lay on me. I'm really looking forward to getting more serious with my lifting and making it my main focus from here forward. I can't wait to put on some awesome muscle mass.

I am SOOO itchy to get back into everything but being very cautious. I am supposed to wait until 6 weeks post surgery to start lifting again but hoping I might be able to do something between now and then (6 weeks post will be July 27th). Doc gave me clearance to go back to yoga at 4 weeks (this Thursday) but I'll have to modify/avoid a large majority of postures and moves - any forward folds, back bends, twists, pushups, arm balances, etc. Whatever, I'll do what I can and forget the rest until it starts to feel OK.

And in case it helps at all with ideas for where to start back to - I had major abdominal surgery (multiple repairs, massive scar) so anything that will put load on my core (everything? LOL!) I need to go slow and steady with. I am feeling like stronglifts or something similar will allow me to start light again with only the bar and add weight in such a way that I will be getting stronger/gaining strength as I get further into my surgery recovery.

Sarauk2sf

You mention that you seem to be maintaining. How long has this been for at that level and what has your activity been like during that time?

_namaste_

I maintained while away for about 3 weeks in May and I was not tracking for 2 of those weeks but was eating 3 huge meals per day with about 4 deserts per day and guessing (I know guessing is not ideal, but I'm a pretty good guess since I've been logging for so long) I would guesstimate having been eating between 3000 - 4000 cals per day and burning between 500 - 1000+ per day. My activity level while away was high.

I also took several maintenance breaks in the last many months when I was actively trying to lose where I would eat in and around 2000 and most of the time I still lost a tiny bit over time, but stayed close enough to where I was that I was OK with it. I was also really scared to gain so I didn't test eating a tad more. I suspect I can eat a "range" within a couple hundred calories before actually starting to put on and keep on weight. That's what it seems like, anyways.

I have been working at maintaining since my surgery 3.5 weeks ago and first was losing at 1800 - 1900 cals per day (the first week) but once I upped my calories to 2100 give or take I seem to be maintaining or potentially losing very, very slowly but I know I won't know for sure for a while longer. I did lose 1lb in the first week after surgery, possibly more since I am still very swollen which could be offsetting any scale losses with the extra fluid from the swelling.

I do know that I lose between 1lb and 1.5lbs per week when eating 1650 net cals per day as I did for a long time while cutting (between breaks) which leads me to believe my maintenance would be somewhere around 2100 - 2200 or so based on the 500 cal deficit per day = 1lb or more loss per week.

Since my surgery my activity level has been extremely low. Mostly resting with feet up, some general wandering around the house and the occasional short walk. Nothing much.

I don't know if it helps or matters but my body fat seems to be around 18-19% approx. right before my surgery based on measurements. I plan to get tested with bod pod sometime in the near future for a more solid number but so far I've been tracking based on the measurement system since December. I seem to have lost several % points since then based on measurements.

Sarauk2sf

Thanks. We should be able to respond tomorrow.

_namaste_

Thank you!

_namaste_

No rush at all of course, but am excited to hear your thoughts whenever you have time.

How are the last few days of your bulk going? They look rather yummy to me!

SideSteel

No rush at all of course, but am excited to hear your thoughts whenever you have time.

How are the last few days of your bulk going? They look rather yummy to me!

Since you've indicated that you may want to take a break from SL which is fine, so we'd suggest you take a look at All-Pros beginner routine. Here's a thread with useful information. We'd recommend performing the program as is for the most part.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=4195843&page=1

Please take at least as much time as recommended by your physician for surgery recovery before you begin, and start out light. You may want to give yourself a few weeks of just lifting with minimal weight (warmup sets) since you're recovering. In other words, don't just rush in and jump under a loaded barbell.

We'd like you to stay at your current (roughly maintenance) caloric intake until after you've taken those two additional weeks to get your feet wet performing warm-up sets/light work with All-pros. At that point when you're ready to load the barbell and you don't have to worry about popping out any stitches or whatever else, then we can look at your caloric intake and discuss incrementally increasing it.

At this point however, it's not going to make sense to increase food intake beyond maintenance levels in the absence of heavy lifting.

_namaste_

That sounds good and makes perfect sense. I was planning on starting back with the bar only and adding 5lbs per session just like I did with stronglifts. I will definitely check out the link provided though, and maybe go a different direction.

Once I'm there I'll hit this thread back up.

I am feeling much better and have the all clear to get started again in 10 days. I am away camping on that "all clear" day so will be starting back on Friday the 26th.

Sarauk2sf

Locking this thread for now so that we can keep track of active threads better. Please PM either myself or SideSteel, including a link to this thread, when you are ready to update/ask more questions and we will unlock the thread.