Starting to Bulk - Looking for Advice, Ideas, Suggestions?

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Hi all, I'm starting to bulk and am looking for some advice/critique. My diary is open to all in case you want to check that out.

First off, I feel very good about where I am now, which is 160-163lbs at 5 foot 10 and a half and 37 years old. I'm fairly lean (around 12-14% bodyfat) and am just lifting (dumbbells at home), no carido. I lift 3 times a week, splitting legs/lower body and arms/upper body. I'm fairly sedintary outside of lifting (desk job). That being said I would always like to improve myself so adding some extra lean mass would be nice!

Previously I was as high as 200lbs at my worst about 3 years ago (at what I'm guessing was around 25% bfat), with no working out at all, but usually I floated around 190ish (20% bfat). In mid 2012 I started to try and cut my weight a little, but didn't count calories or macros and with no real workout plan was probably floating around 185ish, just by generally "eating better" (2 beers instead of 3, or one chocolate bar instead of two).

But starting in December 2012 I started to get serious. I first did a hard cut while counting calories, without much exercise at all (maybe a little cardio). I'm not sure what my old maintenance was but I am guessing it was around 2000 calories a day. My biggest change to my diet was that I used to drink a lot of sugar, but I first tried to cut that down a lot, and then within a couple of months mostly switched that out for jasmine tea. I also switched to skim milk instead of full fat milk and tried to eat lower sugar in general (my biggest weakness is my sweet tooth). I also cut down on alcohol a fair bit. I was running about a 500 calorie deficit average per day (around 1500 calories total per day) in my cut and within about 4 months after watching my calories, doing a deficit and cleaning up my diet I'd dropped about 15 pounds (into the 170lbs range). I should say this was a very "dirty" cut in that I wasn't lifting, and wasn't really paying attention to macros, just calories.

Once I hit 170lbs (around mid March 2013) I started to lift 3 times a week with a focus on my upper body/arms to build up some muscle and started to bring my calories up to around what I thought was maintenance at the time of around 1850 calories. I started taking creatine (5grams a day), and really started to pay attention to my macros, mostly with a focus on getting my protein up to around 1grams per lb. I also made sure to drink alcohol less and only on days when I wasn't working out. I started to add in whey protein as a supplement to make sure I was hitting my protein and pretty quickly dropped another 5lbs or so within a couple of months down to about the 165lbs range. I kept increasing my weights/reps and watching my macros and saw good physical improvement (more definition, smaller waist/hips) as well as pretty steady strength gains. I also made sure to drink lots of water/tea to get my 3 liters a day, take some omega 3 fish oil, and get at a good rest between workouts.

I then started to hit a strength plateau around mid September when I went travelling for about five weeks and was restricted to hotel gyms (working out about once a week) and an "on the road" diet. That being said I was pretty aware of my calories and managed to come back at about the same weight, albeit a bit weaker. Despite having developed more lean muscle I was still thinking my maintenance was around 1900 but in fact I was still running a deficit and had dropped to about 160lbs by mid November. I also foolishly tried to pick right up pretty close to where I left off with my lifting and mildly strained my left shoulder in early December (I'm a strong right). I decided that 160lbs was as low as I wanted to drop in order to avoid losing any further lean muscle and eventually found that my new maintenance was around 2300 calories so I tried to hit that while lifting to try to regain some strength. I continued to lift at slightly lower weights/lower reps after a couple of weeks pause to let my shoulder heal. I also added in legs and lower body in to the lifting rotation and have seen some good strength gains there. I've also started to track fibre and upped that a bit, as I noticed I struggle to hit my recommended daily on that.

I am now back to where I was strength wise before I left to travel in September 2013 (and stronger in legs/lower body). I have hit what is very much feeling like a strength plateau in that I just can't lift at higher reps. I usually start at 6 reps and increase to 12 for some exercises and start at 10 and increase to 20 for other exercises, 3 sets. Once I hit 12 and 20 I increase weight and drop the reps back down, gradually bringing them back up. I'm stuck at 8 and 12 right now and feeling like I'll need some extra mass to push through to higher reps/weight.

Ideally I'd like to gain about another 5lbs of lean mass (bringing my weight to around 165-168lbs at the same bodyfat %), but would like to do it as efficiently as possible as well as avoid injury so I am looking for some advice. The only thing I've thought of for sure to add in is working in some stretching on my rest days to improve flexibility and prevent muscle strain, everything else is up for grabs. Is 5lbs lean mass a realistic target? Should I try and gain more/less? Assuming my maintenance is around 2300 calories, what do you think my target calories should be (I'm thinking around 2600-2700?) and at what weight should I start looking at a cut if adding 5lbs muscle is my goal? What sort of timeframe do you think it will take? Should I up my workouts (I worry about overtraining)? Should I vary up my workouts more (I've been thinking about getting a barbell for some different exercises)? Any point to throwing in cardio?

Any tips, ideas, questions or suggestions are very much welcome!

kdiamond

If you're bulking, you should be lifting at way lower reps, like 4-6 reps per set. A lot of people like the 5x5 routines. I can't imagine why you'd ever feel the need to do 20 reps...that's the reason you're not progressing on your strength.

You'll need to take in a minimum of 300 extra calories over your maintenance per day. Couple that with a good lifting program 3-4 days a week and you should be on your way. Don't overthink the macros just yet, just make sure you're getting enough protein to support muscle growth. And I wouldn't bother with cardio either, just provides more deficit.

waldo56

Trust the process and don't overreact. Bulking can seriously mess with the mind and cause you to really question everything. Overadjusting is a good way to kill progress.

Expect periods where you gain way faster than you are supposed to be and periods where it seems the scale refuses to go up.

Just stick through it consistently and see your way through it. Wait at least a month before making any adjustments, and at least a month after you make an adjustment before you make another.

tomebradley

Hey man.

Although the majority of the bulking is done in the kitchen it's not going to work with out the gym side. I would try and hit it 5 times a week if you can. Break the body down to:

1.Chest
2. Back.
3. Arms & Abs
4.Shoulders
5.Legs

As for sets and rep ranges - change it up. Aim to hit each body part with 4 - 5 exercises. And as for your rep range. Drop it!!!!

On your basic compound movements like

1.Bench Press
2. Deadlifts
3. Shoulder Press
4. Squats

Start light and go heavier with each set aiming to have your last set in the 4-6 rep range. If you can, do a fith set in the 4-6 range. Example:

12-15
10-12
8-10
4-6
4-6

I would recommend the above rep ranges for the compound movements. I personally see no point in doing that kind of rep range for body parts like arms; medial deltoids; calves.... the smaller body parts you tend to isolate. In my experience they grow with a pump. That's not to say go light by the way :noway: What I would suggest for anything other than compound movements would be something like this

15-20
12-15
10-12
8-10

All of the above I'm assuming you would take that to failure - ie. You hit the desired rep and you physically can't hit another rep (really important)

You'll find that different rep ranges work for different body parts. I find that as soon as I started going lighter on my medial delts and doing 10 sets of drop sets y shoulders blew up. That wouldn't work on my chest; it's just trial and error

Good luck man. It's a lot of fun. All of the above is just my opinion and what worked for me. I know everyone's different. I know the most important thing is consistency though!

jwdieter

May want to invest in some equipment if you have room at home. Especially if your dumbbells max out at 45 or something. Just going higher and higher reps isn't optimal for building.

If there are no other options, I'd suggest focus on full muscle contraction at lower reps.

aaronlawrenc

eat

aaronlawrenc

a lot

NRBreit

Your story, weight patterns, and goals are very similar to mine. I've done 2 bulks (15 weeks and 20 weeks) gaining approx. 15 lbs. each time. I'm currently at 176 lbs. cutting to 170 on 2,000-2,200 cals/day. My maintenance is 2,500-2,700 cals. I start my bulks at 3,000 cals and work up to 3,200-3,300 when the scale stalls. I do a combination of heavy compound lifts (5-8 reps) along with dumbbell and bodyweight work with a personal trainer. Find a good progressive resistance workout plan that you like and can stick with and eat like it's your job. If you are fairly lean, I wouldn't think twice about gaining 15 pounds and then cutting back.