Long story short, i play club ultimate and am in desperate need to get faster, and a couple inches on my vertical wouldn’t hurt either.
So the most obvious thing to do is to start seriously gaining some weight in my legs in an effort to get faster on top of practice.
This summer i seriously started hitting squats hard. My squats went from > 135 max, to now 235 1RM and counting.
So now i’m kicking it into high gear to really get stronger and faster, and my real question is
did you try to bulk while in season, and if so:
how much fat did you gain?
did it slow you down?
did it affect your cardio?
are you in a speed dominant sport?
did you mind looking like a tub and bulking in summer instead?
tips?
Never tried to bulk while in season but I think I may have a few answers.
Fat gain is a near certain side effect of bulking. For someone who has numbers and recent progress indicative of a beginner to intermediate beginner, it shouldn’t be a problem.
weight gain will slow you down based on a couple of things. Whether or not you were underweight to begin with (adding functional strength equaling propulsive muscle mass will improve a skinny guy. Someone who’s more or less into the intermediate-advanced stage may or may not be improved by muscle gain)
Cardio is likely to be affected in the short term.
Nope.
No need to look like a ‘tub’ when bulking.
Tips: In-Season your sport should take precedence. Extra work should only be added to the point that recovery will allow (kind of an obvious and stupid statement, but necessary in this discussion).
Keep volume low in terms of extra work. Think some power work (one arm dumbbell snatches are good, as are hurdles and box jumps), followed by squatting, front squatting, rear foot elevated split squats (read Mike Boyle’s article on getting stronger one leg at a time- I think that’s the article actually) and something like one leg RDLs. When you say club ultimate for your sport I’m guessing frisbee? More one legged stuff would be best for your strength/hypertrophy stuff if you ask me.