Rest days during bulking phase

leanmuscleway wrote: »

Bit of a different subject but can anyone give me a steer:

i can only fit my workouts in between 3.30am and 4.30am on the 5 weekdays but can get one in around 8am saturday. For my early workouts i struggle to eat anything before it and doing heavy compounds (as i'm trying to bulk) by half way through my workout i'm pretty shot and i do get to the end of it but i dont feel i'm working to my full potential for the full 60 minutes. I do have a preworkout before i start but i dont feel it makes a huge difference although does help a bit.

I have started eating fruit, either a bannana or some dried mango about half way through to give me some fast carbs to keep the effort i put in to maximum. Is this a good idea - are there better carbs i should have? I would buy carb shake (dextrose or maltodextrin) but i cant really afford it - is it much better?

Fruits are fine to eat prior/during. Or an energy drink. Or a pop-tart

leanmuscleway wrote: »

My last meal before the workout would be around 8pm and would be a protein shake and 100g oats and honey.

One thing to note - if you train fasted you may want to try to get a protein heavy meal within a shortish time (no need to slam a protein shake as soon as you put down your last weight), but do not leave it to long. To be safe (and to help with energy as well), I would have some milk and/or a protein shake prior to/during your workout. Its really a CYA than a necessity.

leanmuscleway wrote: »

yes - i do try and have a shake and oats/blueberries within 30mins - 1hr.

So eating fruit during then doesn't have the wrong affect on my insulin? (I'm not actually sure what affect i want to have on it though - do i want a spike or a low?) trying to learn

I would not worry about insulin in this context. Work your food around what gives you the best energy.

Layne Norton has a vlog that discusses the futility of trying to manipulate at the acute level. Will link when I find it .

Sarauk2sf wrote: »

leanmuscleway wrote: »

Bit of a different subject but can anyone give me a steer:

i can only fit my workouts in between 3.30am and 4.30am on the 5 weekdays but can get one in around 8am saturday. For my early workouts i struggle to eat anything before it and doing heavy compounds (as i'm trying to bulk) by half way through my workout i'm pretty shot and i do get to the end of it but i dont feel i'm working to my full potential for the full 60 minutes. I do have a preworkout before i start but i dont feel it makes a huge difference although does help a bit.

I have started eating fruit, either a bannana or some dried mango about half way through to give me some fast carbs to keep the effort i put in to maximum. Is this a good idea - are there better carbs i should have? I would buy carb shake (dextrose or maltodextrin) but i cant really afford it - is it much better?

Fruits are fine to eat prior/during. Or an energy drink. Or a pop-tart

I would highly encourage you to grab some fast acting carbs before your workout, and continue to eat the fruit (banana) or yes, a poptart, mid workout if you can't eat all that much. Quick oats work great, and don't sit on the stomach that bad. But a fasted/mostly fasted heavy compound workout is tough. Very tough.

If you want a fast acting carb gummies are as good as anything for pre and post.

Forgot to add, if you can do any body part twice in a routine, then you are not using enough weight and working it hard enough. You should do no more then 10 reps and 4 sets for anything and if enough weight is used and enough effort put into it . You should be plenty sore or maybe just healed when it rolls around again. Also I always avoided hitting the same muscles when doing 2 groups a day. EXP- If you do chest then tris , your tris are already wasted from doing chest. I know you should switch it up once in a while, but I always tried to keep my routine doing opposite muscle groups, for the most part, to isolate and work them harder.

MrM27 wrote: »

JohnRHII wrote: »

I'm 6'1" and bulking up to 220. I am at 206 now. I was doing chest and bis- back and tris - legs and shoulders. Calves with legs and abs every two days. That kinda burnt me out. I find a five day workout is better for healing and growing, especially if you do manual labor or are older like me. The 3 day routine is for professional body builders who can workout twice a day and do nothing else. Chest - back- shoulders- legs - bis and tris. You can work your muscles harder-push more weight when rested properly and heal (grow) faster. Abs every two days, lower and upper , unless too sore. Calves twice in the 5 days once they can handle what you throw at them. seated , donkey and standing . Been doing the 5 day plan for many years and it always seemed to work fine.

You're actually pretty wrong there. Twice a day, who told you that? Nothing better to do? Advanced bodybuilders actually do the bro splits you are recommending to a beginner. You have everything completely backwards.

So basically what I'm saying is I disagree with all of your advice.

LOL - but I agree with your disagreement.

What's your training split look like currently?

Dude as long as you're hitting your caloric needs "clean, not Burger King 3 times a day" with enough protein and carbs you're on the right track. With your training schedule/programme, I'd hit legs twice a week with a different compound lift for each session "as said, deads for say Tuesday, squats for Friday"

I was advised not to squat and dead in the same session because they are the two main compound lifts. You want to be on form and be able to put all of you're energy into both of these lifts, for example if you start with squat then move onto deads after, your deads will suffer "BIG TIME" if you have gone as hard as you can on squats.

On training these "compound lifts" and with bench aswell. I'd advise 5 sets of 5 reps progressively getting heavier "if you only manage 2 reps on your last set, you're doing it right" this is for targeting your strength gains, and then after drop the weight and go for 3 sets of 10 reps "of possible progressively getting heavier" and this will do the job for gaining size... Guessing you do want to get strong as well as big lol.

So for example for a chest day "bench";

5 reps of 85kg
5 reps of 90kg
5 reps of 95kg
5 reps of 100kg
2 reps of 110kg

10 reps of 65kg
10 of 70kg
10 of 70kg

Work to whatever you can do but give this a go, it is a brilliant way to train "your main/first lifts"
Peace