How to Bulk?

darreneatschicken

Thanks everyone for your advice!

I think I'm going to start with StrongLifts.

So correct me if I'm wrong, but the workout routine would look something like this...

Monday: Workout A

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Workout B

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Workout A

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Rest

Monday: Workout B

...and then on and on.

So what should I do for a warm up? 5 minutes on the bicycle?

And what would be the best way to learn how to do overhead press? Schedule a private personal training session and do the entire workout with a trainer? Or just ask the trainer at the gym to help me for a few minutes? Or do the same workout with a friend who has been going to the gym for a while?

Also, what are micros and macros?

livingleanlivingclean

macronutrients - protein, carbs and fat
micronutrients - vitamins, minerals

MisterDerpington

...ahem... where's the leg work?

The guy in pink could do legs, he has decent calves. The guy in blue's aren't that bad either but yeah, out of proportion to his upper body. The guy in yellow is just sad, sad.

I'm sorry, but no. If they even squatted their bodyweight, their quads wouldn't look like that.

AverageUkDude

Thanks everyone for your advice!

I think I'm going to start with StrongLifts.

So correct me if I'm wrong, but the workout routine would look something like this...

Monday: Workout A

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Workout B

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Workout A

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Rest

Monday: Workout B

...and then on and on.

So what should I do for a warm up? 5 minutes on the bicycle?

And what would be the best way to learn how to do overhead press? Schedule a private personal training session and do the entire workout with a trainer? Or just ask the trainer at the gym to help me for a few minutes? Or do the same workout with a friend who has been going to the gym for a while?

Also, what are micros and macros?

for me a warm up would be some dynamic stretching and mobility work, plus foam rolling. But that's because i have a ****ed up back and have lots of muscle imbalances etc.

JoRocka

strong lifts will be a good start.

I do KB swings often as a warm up- recently I started doing a 3 minute interval
30/30 seconds
Swings
Box jumps

Micros and macros
Macro-nutrients = protein, fat, carbs- the things you MUST consume to survive
Micronutrients = also important but 'micro's aren't something you need to spend your time worrying about- if you eat a variety of foods- you'll usually hit your minimum requirements of micros.

Typically you'll see 40/30/30 or 40/40/20 or some arrangement- those are percentages- I always list protein first- people will list them in various ways- but it's very trial and error based- if you are bulking protein and carbs are you friends- I was 40 P/40 F/20 C but I changed to 40P/30F/30C to accommodate my bulk- I hit that fairly consistently.

You just really need to play around with it and figure out what works for you there is no RIGHT answer ever on this one.

darreneatschicken

how long should rests between sets be (for Stronglifts)?

MinimalistShoeAddict

I would want to do Stronglifts more though, because it only takes 45 minutes, and would be good, since I am quite busy these days. The problem is that I don't know how to do an overhead press properly. Should I ask a person working at the gym to teach me how?

Starting Strength also has an exercise called power clean that I don't know how to do.

So in conclusion, I would really like to do Stronglifts, but I don't know how to do the overhead press properly. So, should I go with Jason Blaha's workout? I know all his exercises, and would be playing it safe. The only downside is that it takes twice the time of Stronglifts, but I'm willing to accept that there are no short-cuts in bulking. What do you guys think?

All 3 of those programs look fine to me. For the record I am almost your same weight and height. I started Stronglifts 5x5 in January had some initial success, took it easy for a while during marathon training. No I am focusing on it again while eating at a surplus which I did not want to do until after my marathon.

I had not done OHP or Power Cleans before either. There are tons of videos on YouTube you can watch over and over again to compare against video of yourself in order to perfect your form. I am not lifting a lot of weight yet but feel like my form has improved drastically by recording my lifts to compare against the examples online.

OHP video (Stronglifts)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro3Mh9o7JPU

Power Clean video (Starting Strength)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF_15q2vaEk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tXcS0Xp1aE

Good luck!

zipnguyen

OP's new to lifting so a couple of things. You're tracking macros, nice. Hopefully tweaking them from a week to week, month to month basis.

Since you're new to lifting focus on the main lifts: squat, deadlift, bench and secondary lifts like military press, and various rows. Try to minimize (not eliminate) accessory work. Over say a period of 3-5 years you can reevaluate your physique and add more volume to otherwise laggy body parts. As in, maybe you're tricep dominant and triceps on you tend to grow relative to chest, so add more accessory work for chest.

When I started (15 years old) I was 145lbs 5'8"; still 5'8" but I'm 36 now.

FitnessFanatic556

you said in one of your posts dat dis program doesnt have any leg work? you squat every workout!!