57 Year old wanting to bulk

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Replies

  • ricka1962
    ricka1962 Posts: 84 Member
    Sounds like you want to add muscle and loose fat at the same time. I think that's counter to "Bulking". If you're on a diet program stick to your diet but increase your calories. Not by a lot but by 150-300 per day. Also try some higher rep/shorter rest exercises. This will keep muscle growth, but keep your heart rate more elevated than if you just did 5 reps per. Also allows you to target specific parts of each muscle. Higher reps to failure will also stimulate muscle growth, especially if you slow down on the eccentric portion of the movement.

    Good luck
  • ricka1962
    ricka1962 Posts: 84 Member
    Oh yeah, regarding your mid section, you may want to focus on ab work. It won't shed belly fat, but will tighten up the core and bring out some of the muscles there as well, that would make what you got more ascetically appealing. To make your waist look slimmer you can also increase your lat and shoulder size to give you a better taper.

    I've also started doing Stomach Vaccuums as well. This is an old body building routine where you basically suck your gut in as hard as possible and hold it for as long as you can 10-20-30 seconds or more. It basically strengthens your inner ab muscles and makes the core tighter overall. Search for Stomach Vacuums on YouTube and you'll get tons of info on it. It's weird but works!
  • Deacap
    Deacap Posts: 23 Member
    Ricka
    I will work on these suggestions
  • PowerliftingMom
    PowerliftingMom Posts: 430 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    It's not that your fat intake is too high - it's your calories that are too high.

    As a fellow 57yo would agree with the above posters that bulking is a poor choice. At our age our ability to gain muscle has slowed to a crawl compared to our younger selves and the vast majority of a calorie surplus will end up as fat - unfortunately we still have the same ability to get fat as we did as a youngster!

    If you priority was aesthetics I would say a very small calorie deficit but as you state your goal is to add muscle then eat at maintenance.

    I turned 59 last month and have been bulking since October 2016 and gained a significant amount of muscle. You CAN add muscle if you diet correctly and keep the weight gain to no more than 1/2 lb./week. I'm a powerlifter and literally added 60 lbs. to my total in competition in only 3 months and over 100 lbs. in a year!
  • billkansas
    billkansas Posts: 267 Member
    The older you get the more conservative you need to be in bulking and in adding weight to the bar.... stating the obvious here. Maybe go for half pound per week to both :D.
  • Z_I_L_L_A
    Z_I_L_L_A Posts: 2,399 Member
    I'm 51, yes belly is the last to go. I can have striations everywhere and still have fat in the belly. I'm at 259 lbs, 6'3 with jean size 36. I was at 220 with a 6 pak, now with a 2 pak,lol. I'm probably 25% fat, I just don't see 75 lbs of belly. Workin my way back down after bulk, hoping to settle at 230-235.
  • Deacap
    Deacap Posts: 23 Member
    Thank you all for the feedback. Been maintaining right now at 189 so lets see what happens

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