Bulking – A Complete Guide For Beginners

MrM27 wrote: »

You estimating that you were 11% then gained 25 lbs in 2 months and only gained 3% bf? Can you post current pictures?

MrM27 wrote: »

Cardio
Should I or shouldn’t I do cardio exercise when bulking?
That age old question.
Running on beach
If you enjoy running, there certainly is no need to stop doing it to bulk effectively.
Of course the answer is: it depends. If you are doing too much cardio, such as training for a marathon, or doing too intense of cardio, such as HIIT on your off days, cardio exercise could very well negatively impact your muscle gain. However some cardio, light to moderate volume and intensity, might actually keep your gains a little cleaner!
It is well established that low to moderate intensity cardio exercise primarily burns fat as a fuel source. Applying this fact to weight loss is misguided at best (overall loss will be dictated by calorie deficit).
However in the context of a weight gaining plan, this can actually be very useful as you can burn off some of the fat gain without compromising your surplus (assuming you aren’t fasting after your cardio exercise). At minimum it allows you to eat more overall for a given calorie surplus, ensuring that you are in fact building muscle around the clock.
As long as you eat enough to fuel your exercise, moderate amounts of cardio exercise will have little to no negative impact on muscle gains provided that it doesn’t interfere with your strength training or recovery.
I run about 8 miles a week and walk about 10 miles a week when I am bulking and am firmly convinced that it has a positive effect on muscle to fat gain ratio.
*****
What To Expect When You Are Bulking
What happens when you raise your calories into a surplus? Aside from having a lot of energy and a pep in your step, there are a few things to be aware of that you might not expect.
The Waves
The first has to do with the scale, what I like to refer to as the waves. Even with a constant calorie surplus, a consistent strength routine, and adequate rest, don’t expect weight gain to be linear.
Rather, the weight gain seems to ebb and flow, first the scale goes up at a frightening rate, then the scale gets stuck for a while, sometimes it even goes backwards. However to the tape measure these weight waves tend to be totally invisible.
The waves can make bulking very challenging mentally. When the scale is going up far faster than you expect (and sustaining it for weeks on end) it is really easy to second guess yourself. Then when it stops and just will not budge, it is just as easy to second guess yourself.
Don’t overadjust your calorie intake to the weight waves; overadjusting just exaggerates the effect. Try to stay calm mentally and ride it out, be confident that just around the corner is the other half of the wave. The overall trendline after a couple wave cycles should show your calorie surplus perfectly.
Weight chart
Weight chart from a bulk I did the fall of 2013, clearly showing weight waves. Blue dots are daily weigh-ins, white line is a weight trend line, red line is what my weight should have been based on my calorie intake. I was pretty much always in the midst of an ebb or flows of a weight wave; each wave lasting several weeks.
Measuring Progress
Piggybacking on the last point, the value of the scale for measuring progress when bulking is at times questionable at best. It can vary so much that it an be hard to make sense of; it helps to have a backup plan. This is where the tape measure especially is important.
With a soft tape measure you can measure both fat gain and muscle growth directly, especially in men and apple shaped women.
Waist measurements are absolutely key for measuring fat gain when bulking. No matter what the scale is doing, waist measurements tend to be quite reliable for judging fat gain. The waist is especially good because of how limited hypertrophy is in that area; almost all changes in body circumference will be due to body fat. In fact, using waist measurements for goal setting when bulking (total gain of 1″ for example) is much, much better way to do things than setting goals based off of the scale.
Unfortunately women, especially pear shaped women, will need more data points to measure fat gain. For women the hips (around the widest part of the glutes) and the upper thigh (each leg individually, as high as you can go with a thigh-only circumference measurement) should also be included, however be aware that these are both areas where significant hypertrophy will be observed, which will also be captured in the measurement.
For muscle gain, while we’d like “show muscles” to be the ones that grow, practically speaking areas like the forearms, upper arms, and calves show very slow growth and it tends to go in spurts instead of scaling linear with weight gain (1″ in the upper arm/calves per 15 lbs of muscle gain is a good rule of thumb). The areas where you will measurably gain muscle consistently is where the muscles are largest; the middle of the thighs, the chest, and the hips/glutes. When bulking these areas will often increase in size on a weekly basis.
Track a chest measurement and thigh measurement to verify that your muscle gain efforts are successful; do not measure your success (or lack thereof) using the upper arms or calves. Expecting consistent growth in the upper arms or calves will lead to nothing but frustration, you have to be patient with those areas.
Here is a good article/video from bodybuilding.com with good tips on how to measure various body parts.
Here is a good article with useful measurement charts for males to compare, for evaluating strengths/weaknesses. Sorry ladies, I’m not sure that anything like this exists for females.
Always remember, cutting is a battle of willpower, bulking is a battle of self-confidence.
Second guessing yourself is par for the course. It gets easier with experience, but never goes away. Try not to overadjust to and overanalyze things, have faith in your plan and stick with it.
When you are ready to cut and get rid of the fat gain, you’ll find that cutting following a bulk is a good bit easier than losing weight.
*****
Good Luck With Your Bulk!

FatMoojor wrote: »

Male, sorry forgot that bit of info.