“For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
Tis the season of winter, we have all felt the change in weather and noticed the change in daylight time, but more importantly we are all getting ready for the bulk season. Where gains are made and the amount of food consumed is off the textbook. But to those of you who feel they can never get their bulk phase correct, or to those of you who may have never done it before, Focus Fitness have broken down for you in this blog post mentioning the best way to bulk up without loosing gains. Lets get into it.
There are three phases when it comes to achieving a desired physique, they are:
- The bulk phase
- The cut phase
- The maintenance phase
Each phase achieves a different look and follows a different plan, depending on your goals and perhaps the time of the year, you may fluctuate between all three. But during the winter season, post summer/competition season, many enter the infamous “bulk phase”. During the bulk phase you are in a caloric surplus, where your caloric intake exceeds your body metabolic rate and you consuming enough calories to gain weight. Although this may seem easy to some, the idea is eat clean calories in surplus, to help build healthy muscle and not just put on fat (consuming empty calories).
What is your goal?
Do you want to build more muscle and get stronger? If so, then you should defininitely be bulking, because when your calories are in a surplus so are your strength and muscular gains. The most important aspect to consider along with your caloric intake is your protein intake, you should essentially be aiming for 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kg of body mass. The amount of protein you consume has a direct positive correlation to building muscle, therefore the correct amount protein consumption is imperative during the bulk phase.
Tracking progress
Another fundamental key of bulking is tracking progress, the aim during this phase of training should be muscle gain with a 0.25-5% increase in bodyweight. Furthermore your strength in the hypertrophy rep range should be increasing too, but to ensure you are progressing positively, you should consider noting your daily food consumption in a weekly log and checking your stats at the end of the week to see what is/isn’t working for you, this will create specificity in your program and help you tailor your outside general knowledge to suit you.
Training
During a bulk phase, the best form of training should be “heavy strength training”, a basic guideline would be to follow the 5×5 sets and reps range on your compound/strong lifts to ensure you are utilising your increased muscle mass to generate power and strength. Focus on moving up the weight for your lifts over time as you progress through the bulk phase, aiming to go as heavy as possible at the peak of your bulk for quality reps, the goal is to be the strongest at your heaviest. Also don’t forget to add in strategic rest days, those are just as important as your training days.
Written by Daniyal Siddiqui.