Thread by @CoachFHM

My bulking plan.

THREAD ⬇️

My cut finished 7 weeks ago and I've been slowly reverse dieting out of it until now.

Slowly adding calories and hanging around maintenance levels to let the metabolism catch up to avoid unwanted fat gain.

Now it's time to enter a slight surplus.

The main talking points.

-Training plan
-Macros
-Recovery
-Cardio
-Measuring progression

Let's dive into it.

1) Training plan.

First thing we've gotta ask is the main training goal?

I've still got an eye on strength so I want my hypertrophy/bulking phase to still be centred around the big lifts and their close variations so they can have a higher carryover when the time comes.

My split looks like this:

Monday - Push (Quads/Chest)
Tuesday - Pull (Hams/Back)
Wednesday - Upper (Chest, delts, arms)
Thursday - OFF
Friday - Lower (Quads/Hams)
Saturday - Upper (Chest/Back, arms)
Sunday - OFF

Hitting each muscle 2-3x a week with enough recovery in between.

What exercises am I using?

Variations of the big lifts that force me to use a greater ROM and lend themselves better to hypertrophy.

-Platz squats
-Pause squats
-High bar squats
-Close grip bench
-Larsen presses
-Incline bench
-Stiff legged deadlift
-RDL
-Snatch grip deadlift

Now obviously that's not all I'm doing.

Still utilising accessory work with machines, dbells and cables.

-Weighted dips
-Dbell presses
-Shoulder press machine
-Pull ups/Chins
-Smith machine squats
-Lunge variations
-Cable rows
-Tricep pushdowns
-Cable curls
-Ham curls

Again all of the above plays a big role.

All sets will be in that 6-20 rep range and taken close to failure in that 0-4 reps in reserve mark.

You'll never see me do a set with more than 4 reps left in the tank.

Completely pointless for maximal growth.

2) Macros.

Now these are my macros below.

Realise that I'm 6'4 weighing 220lbs/100kg with a lot of muscle mass who trains his arse off.

My maintenance is around 3500-3600 calories so I'm just in a slight 250-300 calorie surplus required for growth.

Let's go into the details.

I purposely want my carbs as high as possible as they're literally anabolic in nature and I'll have 350g of them based around my training sessions.

Protein at 1-1.2g per lb of bodyweight and I keep fat to a minimum level.

That's just the way I prefer to go about it.

Protein sources:

-Eggs
-Lean ground beef
-Sirloin steak
-Greek yoghurt
-Whey protein @CentenariusN

Fat sources:

-Fat from meat/eggs
-Avocado
-Olive oil

Carb sources:

-Plantains
-Sweet/white potato
-White rice
-Fruit
-Sourdough bread
-Pasta

That's my diet in a nutshell.

@CentenariusN 3) Recovery.

We don't grow in the gym and no muscle will be built if recovery isn't in check.

Sleep is vital, so focusing on 7-9 hours every night is what's needed.

Also got 2 full rest days per week which allow my body to recuperate from the hard training.

@CentenariusN I'm also a big advocate of deload periods every 4-8 weeks during a specific hypertrophy phase.

Just to take care of cumulative fatigue, joint stress, mental fatigue from weeks of overloading training.

So you can then come back for another productive block of training.

@CentenariusN 4) Cardio.

No, cardio doesn't make you lose your gains. 

It’s pivotal for optimal health and heart function.

When you think of it your heart is your most important muscle.

Plus, it’s gonna help your overall work capacity for your training sessions.

@CentenariusN It's also gonna improve overall recovery and you'll be able to eat more food which is anabolic in itself.

What type of cardio?

Personally, I just walk a lot. 

I hit a minimum of 10-15k steps every single day.

Keeps me in good condition while not interfering with hypertrophy.

@CentenariusN 5) Measuring progression.

The main thing we want is to be gaining as much muscle as possible while minimising fat gain.

Obviously some fat gain is inevitable but that's easily taken care of.

A good rate of progression on the scale is around 1% of body weight gain per month.

@CentenariusN So for me that will be around 1kg/2.2lbs per month give or take.

So if I'm around 100kg/220lbs right now, in 6 months time I'm gonna be around 105-107kg 231lbs-235lbs.

Any more than this and you're just getting excessively fat for no reason.

@CentenariusN Taking monthly progress pics to see changes in your body composition is also a good play.

You can see visual changes which may not always show up on the scale.

Also pay attention to how clothes are fitting.

T shirts fitting tighter and waist isn't getting bigger?

Good.

@CentenariusN But the telltale sign of progression is that your performance is improving in the gym.

-Lifting more weight than before
-Handling more weight for sets and reps
-Setting rep PR's in that 6-20 rep range

All stuff that you should be looking out fore to measure progress.

@CentenariusN If you're slowly gaining weight and none of this is happening?

Something isn't right and your training/recovery must be off.

These are the telltale signs of a successful bulking phase.

Keep an eye on them.

@CentenariusN Just throwing this out there so you can all see a bulking plan in action with the major things you need to focus on.

These phases are your best option if you trying to maximise your muscular potential...especially as a natural.

TIME TO BUILD.

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