Starting a light bulk

Shicky

Shicky

Shicky

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Joined
13 Jan 2007
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Belfast,Northern Ireland
This is a post i made on a fitness website i first began learning about the gym and what all i need to start doing there etc. Thought i'd post here as well to double my efforts of good advice. So here it is:

Hey all i appear to have returned! Taking things a bit easier than in the past so im making sure i enjoy life more.

As the title suggests im looking to start into bulking, unfortunately im still a bit chubby in parts, my manboobs remaining in part. But on the other side i currently weigh 62kg (64kg after a hideous night out drowning my sorrows after the CL final)
having a 30inch waist and being considerably veiny in the arms. The plan is to bulk lightly for 6months or so, see where i am at that time and cut to gain the shape/definintion i want with a much more pleasing weight. ( i consider myself disguistingly light though i would rather shed my remaining fat)

Anyways so as people know i've continued gyming it up on my SOB gym plan, 3 times a week and with the same exact disciplines. I wish to continue the 3 times a week with a new, bulking plan.

Therefore...

Eating - Using the thread with tips i work out my moderately active rate as 2392.58, so was gonna round it to 2400 and add 300kcals, so 2700kcal per day it is. In my mind i had it as a 700/200 split main meal/snack wise - is this good or would 600/300 be better? I also wonder is it best to continue drinking 6 litres ice cold water a day or is this burning calories i need? I really want to bulk with MINIMAL fat gain.

So there you are, im just looking a few tips on the eating front there, i know fairly well what to eat food composition wise from the advice thread and past experience. And therefore i just need a good bulking gym plan, 3 days a week.

Any help would be MUCH MUCH appreciated as im clueless outside cutting. Must say just today i've been passing blood in the urine and generally a very bad digestive system. This could easily be due to my hideous night out which im hoping it is, so if im okay in 2days time i'll be straight onto this plan on Monday if i have one.

Again thanks for any help u can provide.
 
ignoring most of your post unfortunately...

you mention a calorie target, what will your actual diet be?
how many carbs, fat, protein?
 
how tall are you?

im not sure what you mean by 'light bulk', either you are bulking or you are not

you have to be prepared to gain some fat too, it sounds to me like you're still undecided whether to get rid of the remaining fat or go for a bulk...
 
Shicky said:
60% carbs 20-25% fat 15-20% protein
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what will your actual diet be? 15% protein doesnt sound like much protein at all (~400kcal from protein, 4kcal per g of protein = 100g protein, thats very low for a bulk).

you should be aiming for 1-1.5g of protein per lb of bodyweight, so you should be having somewhere near 200g of protein a day.
 
im 5ft 7, been cutting for ages and though im still a bit chubby in bits i want to bulk for a good while in order to gain some weight/mainly muscle then cut again long in the future to get a lot more defined.

As to the protein yes around 100-120g a day. Based on plenty of research i've discovered your body needs a max of 1.8g per kilogram of weight. The reason most people think u need huge amounts is due to research backed by supplementary companies.

And i am sure i want to bulk, just want it to involve minimal fat gain as that means more work later.

Cheers for any help u can provide
 
that is for sedentry people, so yes it would be right. you however are not sedentry ;]

plenty of things to read about the use of protein in building muscle.

go look on any bodybuilding forum, none of them will tell you to work with 1g/kg and thats well trained people and people with plenty of qualifications (ie James on MT also writes in Muscle & Fitness).

also, i would take government recommendations with a pinch of salt, they are generally rubbish when it comes to nutritional breakdown and RDA's.
 
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Shicky said:
And i am sure i want to bulk, just want it to involve minimal fat gain as that means more work later.

Cheers for any help u can provide
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if you do a lean bulk, will you not put on as muscle, meaning an even longer 2nd cycle of bulk and cut before you get to a size closer to what you wanted.
 
Well the protein advice i took from a personal trainer who wrote as the fitness editor for Mens Health and did all their wee fitness challenges. He also got me from 75kg to 64kg in less than 3months and im down to 12.5% BF now so im inclined to believe him, given hes shown me the research as well.

Surely bodybuilding websites are bound to give out that advice because they'll be backed by huge supplement dealing companies like L.A Muscle and all that.

Your point about a proper bulk does have me wondering but i suppose i'd be best off starting light and building up (i gain weight VERY easily.)
For example i got wasted on wednesday night there as my team lost and went up 2.5kg on the scaled on the friday! I realise this is mainly waste but its happened before and it takes me a good week of a cutting diet and 3 workouts in the gym to get back near my original figure.

Do you have any suggestions on the actual gym routine side of things?
 
if the person who did your diet for your cut can also do a weights routine, i would be inclined to seek his advice first, sounds like a good place to start.

was the diet in conjunction with weights, trying to keep muscle loss to a minimum, or just a pure weightloss diet coupled with some cardio? (which most people could do for you for nothing ;])

otherwise, have a look at gordyr's sticky, that is a good base to start with when starting a routine, be careful though, all routines on websites are backed by supplement companies ;] hehe

make sure you are doing the main compound exercises, then add in some isolation where needed :]


while most bodybuilding forums have sponsorship in terms of adverts, not many sites are actually backed by the supplement companies ;]
 
my cutting was based on a 3times a week full body weights routine, i did 4 times a week at times based on how often i was working.

Heh sorry im just a bit suspicious as to why he'd be so adamant i really dont need so much protein, as it would be odd for a personal trainer to want me to minimise results as such. I'll keep on reading up but as a point of view do you not think the supplementary industry would take a huge hit if all the bodybuilding websites etc were not recommending so much protein in your diet?
 
he wanted you to lose weight, which he has achieved, now you want to build muscle and protein is essential to rebuilding muscle.

do i think that the companies would be hit - to an extent any company that people stopped recommending for anything would take a hit if the recommendations stopped. people dont recommend things for nothing though :]
 
oh, its a good thing that you are doing lots of research into what you are eating, a lot of people go into bulks / cuts with their eyes closed and thinking they know everything there is to know.
we are all always learning, be it new diets or supplements or even exercises and routines.

the more you know about what you are doing, the easier it will be for you to see what is working and what isnt and from that be able to change things to make it work better :]
 
Hey gonna up the protein intake as per your advice. 1 gram per pound of mass reasonable enough yea?

Is my general diet okay in the 700/200 meal/diet split or **** i change it to 600/300...does this really have much impact?

Gonna start Hypertrophy training, gonna try and get the weight right today and the rest of the week, take a week break then start into an 8week programme of it. Gonna stick with 2700 a day and alter it from there depending on results, i used to be a fatass so im very keen to avoid it again.

I'll post the routine up later and see what you think.

Also you seem like a very knowledgeable guy, what do you find the most effective way to get in your good fats?

Cheers
 
You should seriously consider seeing your doctor about passing blood into your urine.

Seriously, it's a primary indicator of kidney failure, and is never a good sign. Better to be safe than sorry.
 
heh that turned awfully serious! It was just for a 36-48hour period, nothing bad since. Think it was just a result of a hideous night, my body has adapted to me behaving myself it seems.

Anyway this hypertrophy stuff works by advancing in terms of dropping the reps and increasing the reps. So for my first 2 weeks im basically doing all these exercises for 15 reps and varying weights until i hit my Maximum possible on the sixth day (3 day a week workouts).

Squats
Stiff legged barbell deadlift
Incline Bench press
Chinups (wide grip)
Upright Row
Dumbbell shrugs
Shoulder press
Lateral raise
Rear delts
Dumbbell Curls
Dumbbell pullover
Calf raise
Ab crunches

Bit of a long list, need to work on form A LOT especially considering i work on a 5 second up/5 second down plan. The slow burn was IMMENSE today, in a bad way! Seems a bit high on the number of exercises, might work towards cutting some out.
 
Shicky said:
heh that turned awfully serious! It was just for a 36-48hour period, nothing bad since. Think it was just a result of a hideous night, my body has adapted to me behaving myself it seems.
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I don't know how you can explain it away so casually...

There is no "normal" behavior which would result in blood in the urine. In order for blood cells to pass through the nephrons in the kidney (which are designed to filter out large molecular-size objects, not entire cells!) and into the bladder, something has to be seriously wrong.

Honestly, see your doctor asap, and don't just assume this was a one-off event. I can't stress this enough. It's the ignoring of signs such as these that turn treatable conditions into serious and sometimes even life threatening issues.
 
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