Terry's 12 Week Bulk

I'd be happy to send over the template. And/or, they aren't difficult to build. Excel does most of the work for you.

Currently, I'm putting on size. I'm still fairly lean, but expect to cut at the end of this bulk to get back below 10%. I've lifted on and off for a few years, but haven't been all that consistent with moves, new careers and getting my masters degree. Most of my knowledge comes from research. I worked as a correctional officer for a few years. The computers there only had access to government sites, so when inmates were sleeping, I spent most of my time researching fitness and nutrition on PubMed. So, while I have a good understanding of the mechanisms of muscle gain/fat loss, my experience is the gym is less developed.

I have a pretty in depth discussion going on over in the "Stronglifts for Hypertrophy" thread. All said and done though, being persistent is probably the most important factor and you did that. Would you have had better or worse gains if did something else? Who knows.. all you know is that what you did worked for you - and that's enough.

Week 6 Review: This marks the midpoint of my bulk so its a good time for a review. Instead of reviewing each graph as normal, I wanted to create new ones that highlights the changes from then to now.


In the 6 weeks that I've been bulking, I've increased weight by 11.2 lbs while body fat has increased by 0.5%. This results in about 2lbs fat and about 9.5lbs LBM (water, glycogen, muscle, etc). Not too bad.


Overall, I've increased measurements by 9.65". This breaks down to:

Shoulders: + 2"
Chest: + 1.35"
Hips: + 1"
Waist: + 0.6"
Thighs: + 1.55"
Neck: + 0.25"
Calves: + 0.4"
Biceps: + 1.7"
Forearms: + 0.3"


Lifts have increase nicely as well. I did include my max lifts over the 6 weeks, not necessarily my week 6 lifts. This is because I switched to ATG squats and my current squat numbers haven't got back to my week 3 numbers yet. I also posted my highest tricep numbers in week 3. I'm well on track to meet my goal to increase all lifts by 20%. In fact, I've already reached that goal with my bent over rows.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my progress so far. However, I have decided to switch to Stronglifts 5x5 for the second half of my bulk. I want to do a comparison between my current hypertrophy program and a strength-based program. I'm hoping to see similar gains in growth and explosive gains in strength

Week 7 Update: I switched to Stronglifts this week to do a comparison between my old hypertrophy program to this one. I don't want to make any judgments yet, so we'll just see how it goes over time.


I made a real effort to lower my fat intake this week since it was higher than I wanted. Fortunately, I was successful. Unfortunately, I didn't sufficiently replace it with carbs/protein to make up the difference so I was low on calories. That was reflected in my lack of weight gain this week.


Measurements were mixed, with gains and losses. Apparently, I do happen to have an ever expanding butt. It looks like everything I lost elsewhere went to my lower body. Thighs gained again as well, which I expect to continue since I'll be squatting every other day for the next 6 weeks.


Nothing too special on the lifts. Since its my first week doing the SL, there's nothing to compare to until next week. In theory, it will be a very linear periodization with no hiccups. The only thing of note is that I underestimated deadlifts after squats and ended up not making 5 reps. I'll try again this week and see how it goes.

That's the idea, but I only did 1 last time due to a pulling sensation in my lower abs. I had pulled 335 the week before and didn't fully set up for 275. Rookie mistake. I've been out of town for a few days, but tomorrow I'll give it another go.

Thanks Brent! This week was a total disaster, but I'm back on the wagon tomorrow