How to bulk up?

[quiet_riot]

For arms, try this routine that I've been doing a couple of times.


Straight bar curls & french press, 4 sets, 10, 10, 8, 8 (add weight each set)
EZ bar skull crushers 4 x 15
Close grip bench press OR diamond push ups 4 x 15
Tricep pull down 4 x 15 (increase weight each set)

Incline curls 3 x 15 (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soxrZlIl35U" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soxrZlIl35U</a>)
Preacher curls 3 x 12 (1.5 reps per rep, <a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvcAsYEGD-c" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvcAsYEGD-c</a>)
Concentration curls 4 x 10 back to back (so you'll do all 8 lots without stopping)

 

[Richard]

So much great advice on this thread.

This has probably been asked before, but what would people suggest for those that carry a little stomach fat but would like to add muscle.

Cut down first and then bulk?

 

[Mrmcfc]

So much great advice on this thread.

This has probably been asked before, but what would people suggest for those that carry a little stomach fat but would like to add muscle.

Cut down first and then bulk?

IMO
Lose the weight first.

 

[decmancity]

DH- I am doing 5x5 properly and as I have said my lower core seems to be getting stronger and my chest and back but as sad as it sounds my arms are just not doing anything nor my abs.

I am thinking of doing some more specific arm workouts and for the abs just tweaking my diet and doing more ab workouts I guess?

Does that sound daft and I should just stick to 5x5 and the definition and muscle will come or?

Hiya mate, to get your 'abs out', it's all down to diet really bud, but I have no problem with one or two arm workouts with specific 5x5 routines, one I recommend if doing 5x5 is :-

Monday:-

Bench, overhead press, dips

Wednesday:-

Squat, leg press, leg curls (although I'd recommend these at a higher rep range, too easy to cause serious damage to the hamstrings if you get it wrong)

Friday:-

Deads, rows or chins and curls

The idea with 5x5 is that it isn't necessarily 5x5 all the time, it's more along the lines of 1x5. 1x5, 1x5, 1x4/5, 1x3/4, when you can do 5x5 with a given weight, then add a few kilos, depending on which bodypart you can add more normally, the rest is just eat, recover, and grow, just make sure you're progressing with added weight/reps on a weekly basis with this one and keep an eye on the mirror.

Yeah, need to still tweak my diet. Cut out more of the carbs I think. I just love bread!
Cheers mate, when I can get back to the gym I will follow that!

So frustrating not being able to find a local gym that has a squat rack etc and I can join for a few weeks before I go back to uni! FFS.

 

[southstander93]

How long do those push and pull sessions take you in the gym?
Seems like you do loads on those days.

I've been thinking of getting in one of my sessions twice a week like you do but I've not thought of a way that will work for me yet.
If were to do it like you do, I would be conscious that if doing tris, chest and shoulders all on the same day then I wouldn't be able to hit them as well from being too tired.

Push day takes a little over an hour, pull just under an hour, and legs about 45 minutes. I'd definitely say push day is the most tiring, but as the tricep exercises are rope based exercises (dips aside) you aren't doing the press motion you've used on the bench and shoulder presses, but instead an extension movement, so you don't hit failure. I tried at first to do a close grip bench for my triceps exercise, but could barely lift 50kg after all the other press exercises. You just need to alter it to make it best for you, sticking to a set program doesn't always provide the best results.

Tbh lads, if I'm reading that right, there's far too much volume in there, both of you, 5x5 is a tried and tested routine, and it's 5x5 for a reason, there's always the temptation to throw in a few supplementary exercises/sets, I don't particularly have a problem with that on the whole, but you get some people saying they didn't do well on 5x5, and when you push them, it turns out they've added numerous sets and exercises, never giving themselves a chance to recover, if you're doing 5x5 correctly, believe me, you won't want to do much else after that weights-wise.

My initial impression when I first mocked it all up was that there was too much in there mate. I did stronglifts 5x5 before I changed to this so my strength has improved a lot, but I made my best gains during the months leading up to christmas doing a push pull legs split, which push day consisted of chest shoulders tris, pull day back and bi's, and then legs. Each body part had a minimum of three exercises with varying rep ranges to hit all the volumes (this was all advice from a few blokes in my gym at uni, who are fucking huge). Wanted to go straight back into the 3 day split once I was done with stronglifts but didn't want to lose the strength progress that I'd achieved, thats why instead of doing bench on say 4x12 like I did before christmas, I do 5x5. You'd be surprised how easily you fly through it despite doing heavy lifts on the compound movements.

I think the most part of getting a decent routine is by trial and error anyway. For example, powerlifters concentrate purely on strength, and they are bulky as fuck, but how many of them would you say are taller than 5'6"? Very few, whereas I'm 6'3", strength exercises aren't enough for me to stack on size, I need to include high volume exercises with the strength work to improve in all directions. Just a matter of trial and error in my opinion. I've done full body, 5 day splits, three day splits, and stronglifts, and have found out what works best for me, and adjusted my routine accordingly. What works for me might not work for other people though, but I find that the routine I do at the moment is hitting both strength and size and giving me decent gains. Just my angle of advice anyway mate, I'm far from the biggest guy in the gym so there are probably much more reliable sources than me haha!

 

[Tanzeylee]

My metabolism is such that whatever I eat I can't seem to put on weight. I'm skinny and I want to bulk up, but I want to do it the healthy way. I don't like the idea of supplements because they seem unnatural to me and I don't want to put any undue strain on my body. I'm in my early 30's by the way. Some stomach problems mean I would struggle to simply double my meal sizes.

Is there a foolproof healthy way to bulk up? Do I need to get myself down the gym to do this? Wouldn't know where to start!

Gamma rays seem to work............... Oh BULK UP oops...

 

[Dirty Harry]

DH - I agree with you, I do too much volume and I actually meant to write that in my post.

I did consider doing the 5x5 routine as it should be done, but didn't for a few reasons.
Firstly, I think that if I was going to squat 3x a week, I would get bored quickly and end up not going.
The thought of doing squats and deadlifts on the same day makes me feel sick.
I play 5 football and I know that I wouldn't be able to squat the day before or after without one of them being affected. (maybe I need to stop plying football)

I'm actually quite pleased with my progress in the 6 weeks I've been doing this routine. I've added 10k to my bench and OHP, 30kg to my squat and 40kg to my deadlift.
My bench has plateaued but it is actually the most advanced when compared to the 'standards.' However, I do know that in about 2-3 weeks all of my main lifts will plateau and I will then need to change my routine quite drastically to push on.

Would it work if I went a bit in between my current routine and the proper 5x5...I'm thinking pick 6 or 9 (which would be better?) and do them as 5x5 3 exercises per day, 3 sessions per week.

Hiya mate and apologies, only just got round to this, and I never liked squats and deads in the same workout either lol ;-), ok, and this isn't a knock on SS or SL, on their own, they are brilliant routines, the problems start to arise when you incorporate other sports and activities into it all, then your daily activities like work etc (that's just with leaving the nutrition side of it out atm too), all will eat into rest and recuperation, both muscular and CNS.

You'll get away with it for so long, but eventually you'll ended up feeling jaded, that, and making little to no progress will be a good sign that you're not recovering properly in between, so, you need to ask yourself what's more important and why you're doing it, are you doing it to add a bit of muscle to play football , or, is the lifting your main focus ?

What people need to understand (and this isn't a dig at you or anyone else mate) it doesn't take a great deal of volume routine-wise in order to achieve an optimum level of hypertrophy (assuming diet is good), whether that be volume, set, rep range or whatever, plenty of reviewed studies show that as long as you hit a total volume per body part of somewhere between 24-45/50 reps using anywhere between a 3 and 15 (roughly) rep scheme, then you're in the right area, what is important is intensity, progression and consistency, the idea is to break down the muscle enough to cause optimum hypertrophy, and then give it time (and food) enough to promote growth and recovery, and not to annihilate the muscle, CNS etc etc.

So my only advice really is to choose a range and routine you enjoy doing as long as it fits into the above, sure there are debates about training a muscle group once, or three times a week, but in the grand scheme of things there's little difference, so, it's best just to keep it nice and simple, that's why I like the routine I posted earlier, it's easy to track, allows plenty of time for muscular, CNS and connective tissue recovery (again as long as diet is sufficient) and will suit anyone whether they be lifting as their main focus, or to supplement another sport.

Hope that helps mate

 

[Dirty Harry]

Tbh lads, if I'm reading that right, there's far too much volume in there, both of you, 5x5 is a tried and tested routine, and it's 5x5 for a reason, there's always the temptation to throw in a few supplementary exercises/sets, I don't particularly have a problem with that on the whole, but you get some people saying they didn't do well on 5x5, and when you push them, it turns out they've added numerous sets and exercises, never giving themselves a chance to recover, if you're doing 5x5 correctly, believe me, you won't want to do much else after that weights-wise.

My initial impression when I first mocked it all up was that there was too much in there mate. I did stronglifts 5x5 before I changed to this so my strength has improved a lot, but I made my best gains during the months leading up to christmas doing a push pull legs split, which push day consisted of chest shoulders tris, pull day back and bi's, and then legs. Each body part had a minimum of three exercises with varying rep ranges to hit all the volumes (this was all advice from a few blokes in my gym at uni, who are fucking huge). Wanted to go straight back into the 3 day split once I was done with stronglifts but didn't want to lose the strength progress that I'd achieved, thats why instead of doing bench on say 4x12 like I did before christmas, I do 5x5. You'd be surprised how easily you fly through it despite doing heavy lifts on the compound movements.

I think the most part of getting a decent routine is by trial and error anyway. For example, powerlifters concentrate purely on strength, and they are bulky as fuck, but how many of them would you say are taller than 5'6"? Very few, whereas I'm 6'3", strength exercises aren't enough for me to stack on size, I need to include high volume exercises with the strength work to improve in all directions. Just a matter of trial and error in my opinion. I've done full body, 5 day splits, three day splits, and stronglifts, and have found out what works best for me, and adjusted my routine accordingly. What works for me might not work for other people though, but I find that the routine I do at the moment is hitting both strength and size and giving me decent gains. Just my angle of advice anyway mate, I'm far from the biggest guy in the gym so there are probably much more reliable sources than me haha!

Hiya mate, not too sure what you're saying there lol , have a read of my previous post , but a couple of things, if you're saying these 'huge guys at the gym' recommended that routine to you, a few things to consider,

1/ These 'huge guys at the gym' are probably using PED's, and that's a whole new ball game and a complete game changer when it comes to training, people will gain on even the shittiest routines for a while because the body will respond and adapt, but there will come a point where that will slow down and halt (ie plateau), so don't be drawn into the ntion that because it's working for a while, that it is ideal or optimum :-).

2/ The bit in bold, look at that logically for a moment mate, that would suggest that taller people have a different physiology than that of shorter people ? If so, what are people at 5'8"-5'10" ?

I'm teasing of course there bud, but now I've put it like that, you can see that it isn't right, what you will find though, is that powerlifters will train using something like 8 sets at 3 reps and may include a few 1's and 2's, but guess what ? They're hitting that rep range of between 24 and 45/50 reps ;-)

Hope that helps

 

[southstander93]

Hiya mate, not too sure what you're saying there lol , have a read of my previous post , but a couple of things, if you're saying these 'huge guys at the gym' recommended that routine to you, a few things to consider,

1/ These 'huge guys at the gym' are probably using PED's, and that's a whole new ball game and a complete game changer when it comes to training, people will gain on even the shittiest routines for a while because the body will respond and adapt, but there will come a point where that will slow down and halt (ie plateau), so don't be drawn into the ntion that because it's working for a while, that it is ideal or optimum :-).

2/ The bit in bold, look at that logically for a moment mate, that would suggest that taller people have a different physiology than that of shorter people ? If so, what are people at 5'8"-5'10" ?

I'm teasing of course there bud, but now I've put it like that, you can see that it isn't right, what you will find though, is that powerlifters will train using something like 8 sets at 3 reps and may include a few 1's and 2's, but guess what ? They're hitting that rep range of between 24 and 45/50 reps ;-)

Hope that helps

Yeah it's quite hard to explain mate, basically when I was doing my push pull legs before christmas I was hitting high volume stuff and gaining mass quite well, but I was weak as fuck. That's why I started doing stronglifts, to gain strength, which I was doing, I doubled my deadlifts and squats and put 20kg onto my bench and rows, but I actually lost muscle mass, simply because I don't think my body type (6'3" and skinny) is best suited to gain mass purely on strength exercises, which is why I combined the two cause I don't want to be a big guy with nothing to show for it, if thats a bit clearer? It's worked for me. I always aim to complete 12 weeks and if I haven't hit a plateau I continue, if not I reassess and change it.

I get what you're saying about the steds mate, a lot of people in that gym are on the stuff, a lot of them are amateur bodybuilders so need it, which is why they are freakishly big, so maybe the blokes that gave me advice were on it, maybe not. Nothing wrong with trying out their advice though!

 

[117 M34]

Tbh lads, if I'm reading that right, there's far too much volume in there, both of you, 5x5 is a tried and tested routine, and it's 5x5 for a reason, there's always the temptation to throw in a few supplementary exercises/sets, I don't particularly have a problem with that on the whole, but you get some people saying they didn't do well on 5x5, and when you push them, it turns out they've added numerous sets and exercises, never giving themselves a chance to recover, if you're doing 5x5 correctly, believe me, you won't want to do much else after that weights-wise.

My initial impression when I first mocked it all up was that there was too much in there mate. I did stronglifts 5x5 before I changed to this so my strength has improved a lot, but I made my best gains during the months leading up to christmas doing a push pull legs split, which push day consisted of chest shoulders tris, pull day back and bi's, and then legs. Each body part had a minimum of three exercises with varying rep ranges to hit all the volumes (this was all advice from a few blokes in my gym at uni, who are fucking huge). Wanted to go straight back into the 3 day split once I was done with stronglifts but didn't want to lose the strength progress that I'd achieved, thats why instead of doing bench on say 4x12 like I did before christmas, I do 5x5. You'd be surprised how easily you fly through it despite doing heavy lifts on the compound movements.

I think the most part of getting a decent routine is by trial and error anyway. For example, powerlifters concentrate purely on strength, and they are bulky as fuck, but how many of them would you say are taller than 5'6"? Very few, whereas I'm 6'3", strength exercises aren't enough for me to stack on size, I need to include high volume exercises with the strength work to improve in all directions. Just a matter of trial and error in my opinion. I've done full body, 5 day splits, three day splits, and stronglifts, and have found out what works best for me, and adjusted my routine accordingly. What works for me might not work for other people though, but I find that the routine I do at the moment is hitting both strength and size and giving me decent gains. Just my angle of advice anyway mate, I'm far from the biggest guy in the gym so there are probably much more reliable sources than me haha!

Hiya mate, not too sure what you're saying there lol , have a read of my previous post , but a couple of things, if you're saying these 'huge guys at the gym' recommended that routine to you, a few things to consider,

1/ These 'huge guys at the gym' are probably using PED's, and that's a whole new ball game and a complete game changer when it comes to training, people will gain on even the shittiest routines for a while because the body will respond and adapt, but there will come a point where that will slow down and halt (ie plateau), so don't be drawn into the ntion that because it's working for a while, that it is ideal or optimum :-).

2/ The bit in bold, look at that logically for a moment mate, that would suggest that taller people have a different physiology than that of shorter people ? If so, what are people at 5'8"-5'10" ?

I'm teasing of course there bud, but now I've put it like that, you can see that it isn't right, what you will find though, is that powerlifters will train using something like 8 sets at 3 reps and may include a few 1's and 2's, but guess what ? They're hitting that rep range of between 24 and 45/50 reps ;-)

Hope that helps

Thanks for the reply.
Just had a look back at the workout you suggested and it is pretty much what I had in mind, although I would probably change a couple of the exercises.

Just one thing, will it make a great difference which are done on the same day as each other? i.e. you put bench, OHP and dips on the same day. Therefore, your shoulders and triceps will be hit before actually coming to the main tricep work. Would it make sense to split it up or not?
Also, would you always stick to the same order on each day? i.e. would it always be bench, followed by ohp followed by dips or would you rotate each week?