Carry On Bulking?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
21

[quote]Bricknyce wrote:
People have to watch the use of the word “cut”. There’s a difference between dieting down to sub 10% bodyfat and just keeping your body composition in order and getting it back in check from time to time. That’s not “cutting up”. It’s monitoring things while you’re on the way up. [/quote]

Exactly. That is why I started calling it “damage control”, since you still have newbs on this forum dieting down every two weeks because they think everyone is supposed to maintain some insane body fat percentage year round.

Unless you have held any new gains for MONTHS (if not a full year in extreme cases where you break some huge weight barrier), expect to lose more when dieting if you approach this like you are trying to reach contest condition every few weeks.

22

[quote]Davinci.v2 wrote:
Clean up your diet and start lifting harder…[/quote]
exactly. Figure out how many calories you are consuming right now while you feel you are gaining a lot of fat, then try cutting it down by 200 calories for a week and see how you feel. Make sure you arent putting in empty calories.
whats your typical diet?

23

OP displays a rather feminine pattern of fat accumulation. It seems as though you may be experiencing some excess aromatase activity. I’m just speculating here, though. I just brought up the observation so that others - some people here are real subject matter experts - may interject.

Aside from that, you seem to be somewhat carb intolerant/insulin resistant. If I were in your position, I would clean up my diet - revise my ratio of P:F:C - and incorporate some heavy deadlifting and squatting in my routine. You seem to be favoring OHP and bench pressing given your upper body proportions.

An additional exercise that may be of value - at least as a short term undertaking - is logging your food intake on a daily basis, just so that you have a more clear picture of what your nutritional breakdown is really like. The aforementioned makes a huge difference given the generally wide discrepancy of how we think we’re eating and how we’re really eating. There are many tools to do this, e.g., Fitday, Daily Plate, etc.

Best of luck!

24

Sorry, I hope not to cause any complexes lol, you are doing well for your age :slight_smile:

Was just linking the core thought in with what I guessed was true, that there seemed to be a lack of big movements - for example deadlifts and squats (something that has just recently been implemented). Also chin-ups/pullups (along with bringing up the back/biceps), tend to work the abs well.

If you do these bigger movements it tends to give you a more favourable hormone balance for muscle gain while keeping fat gains low.

Don’t worry about your abs, I don’t want to see you doing a million exercises for them now lol. Like I said, building up your core strength via the big exercises will bring them up again. It also depends on genetics, some peoples abs stick out at a certain bf, and others don’t.

If we could see your routine it would be better…

Just a quick note about the squats/deadlifts - don’t overdo them, otherwise you’ll drastically cut into recovery. There may come a point where you can’t squat twice a week (like once you’re strength has “caught up” to recovery).

25

Listen to the senior guys here. You’re not fat (I’ve definitely been fatter during a mass phase and plan to be again in the future.) If you’re truly worried about getting too fat or just wanna do a little “damage control,” clean up your diet, add in a conditioning day or two and lift heavy and frequently. There’s a lot you can do before worrying about some insane pre-contest type cutting diet.

26

[quote]HBSBound wrote:
OP displays a rather feminine pattern of fat accumulation. It seems as though you may be experiencing some excess aromatase activity. [/quote]

Based on what? How does he display a “feminine pattern of fat accumulation” that you can see based on 2 upper body pictures over the Internet?

I’m a biochem major and I can’t see anything about those pictures that would lead me to believe he has a “feminine pattern of fat accumulation and excess aromatase activity” - unless maybe you are qualified to diagnose gynecomastia over the Internet. If so please enlighten me, I can always learn something new…

27

Just popping in. There’s a lot of good advice in this and you have a lot to consider. Damage control aint a bad idea. It might give you some time to reflect on the best diet for yourself. They often say the best diet for losing fat is the best diet for gaining muscle, you just have to adjust cals.

I don’t completely agree, but it’s a good rule of thumb. So if you’ve been gaining too much fat, do a little “damage control” for a few weeks, experimenting with better timing and choice of carbs, then apply that new-found info when you go back to bulking. Also don’t be afraid to read a lot about diet and ask questions about your diet in the meantime. Good luck and you’re looking better than most for 17. Keep it up.

28

[quote]SkyNett wrote:

[quote]HBSBound wrote:
OP displays a rather feminine pattern of fat accumulation. It seems as though you may be experiencing some excess aromatase activity. [/quote]

Based on what? How does he display a “feminine pattern of fat accumulation” that you can see based on 2 upper body pictures over the Internet? [/quote]

x2 - ignore that negative BS.

IMHO you look fortunate to have broad shoulders and small waist. Soft but not fat, clear beginnings of trap, chest and shoulder development. Clean up the diet, cardio, lift harder and you’ll be a monster by 21.

Lucky bastard. I should send some hate your way too.

29

People are calling this fat ? I’m fatter than this at my leanest ! LOL He must have been near anorexic if he put on “quite a lot of fat”.

30

This is why posting pictures on this site can be dumb. People go on about the most idiotic details.

31

My diet has kind of been all over the place lately so i’m going to start logging my food intake to make sure that I am eating right and then I’ll post it on here for you guys to check over.

So if I start seeing improvements which I’m sure I will whilst logging my diet I’ll carry on bulking but will hopefully get leaner due to the better diet.

32

[quote]SkyNett wrote:

[quote]HBSBound wrote:
OP displays a rather feminine pattern of fat accumulation. It seems as though you may be experiencing some excess aromatase activity. [/quote]

Based on what? How does he display a “feminine pattern of fat accumulation” that you can see based on 2 upper body pictures over the Internet?

I’m a biochem major and I can’t see anything about those pictures that would lead me to believe he has a “feminine pattern of fat accumulation and excess aromatase activity” - unless maybe you are qualified to diagnose gynecomastia over the Internet. If so please enlighten me, I can always learn something new…[/quote]

SKY: That’s “Poliquin-speak”.

33

[quote]Bricknyce wrote:
SKY: That’s “Poliquin-speak”.[/quote]

Ha ha…right, forgot about that for a sec Brick…

34

I don’t know about anyone else, but the OP does not look fat at all. Just continue to do what you’re doing. Hit the weights hard, monitor carbs and overall calories and you should be fine.

35

Keep at it, you’re not fat. Sure, do some damage control if you feel that you need it but don’t get carried away. You’re at a great age for making fast progress, DON’T waste that! Trust me, now that I’m becoming an old fuck (relatively, lol) I really wish I would’ve been more serious and consistent at your age.

36

Was keeping a food log on my ipod but I had to restore it cause it crashed and lost a weeks log. Anyway I’ve cleaned up my diet and have already started to some improvements.

I’m starting this split today

Back

Rear delt flyes-
Deadlift-
Pullups-
Seated row-
Chin ups+BW rows-

Chest

Bench press
Incline db bench
CGBP
Push ups

Legs

Squats-
BB Lunges-
Hams-
Calf raises-

Shoulders

Seated press-
Front raise-
Cable raises-
Shrugs-

Arms

CGBP-
BB curls-
Extensions-
Seated curls-
Cable pushdowns+curls-

Back + Cardio

BB rows-
BB Complex-
Deadlift, rows, clean, press, squat

Any advice on the program I’ve put together would be appreciated

Thanks in advance

37

[quote]Getting Closer wrote:
Was keeping a food log on my ipod but I had to restore it cause it crashed and lost a weeks log. Anyway I’ve cleaned up my diet and have already started to some improvements.

I’m starting this split today

Back

Rear delt flyes-
Deadlift-
Pullups-
Seated row-
Chin ups+BW rows-

Chest

Bench press
Incline db bench
CGBP
Push ups

Legs

Squats-
BB Lunges-
Hams-
Calf raises-

Shoulders

Seated press-
Front raise-
Cable raises-
Shrugs-

Arms

CGBP-
BB curls-
Extensions-
Seated curls-
Cable pushdowns+curls-

Back + Cardio

BB rows-
BB Complex-
Deadlift, rows, clean, press, squat

Any advice on the program I’ve put together would be appreciated

Thanks in advance[/quote]

I take it each muscle is being trained on a separate day yeah?..which makes this a 6 way. Why are you specialising so much? You will get better results at an early stage if you go hard on a handful of exercises done relatively frequently. Training muscle groups relatively frequently and intensely (e.g. like you would in a two or three way split), is one of the best ways of getting that hormone balance, and balance between stimulation and recovery (for a newer trainee). This may be the reason why you have been getting fatter with not enough muscle gains - you haven’t reached the stage where the ability for intensity is so high that it creates enough stimulation (hence why you should use a split designed for newer trainees). If you have enough stimulation, chances are, it’s hard to keep up “food wise”. The body uses all it’s got to build muscle (provided carbs aren’t too high which tends to put fat on no matter what when bulking).

Pick two exercises per body part (e.g. one compound and one ‘isolation’), and a few more for parts like back. This may not seem like enough, but if (for example) you’re doing chest on Mon, and again on Fri, you don’t need to cause as much fatigue. Plus, at least start off with the minimum and build up from there (according to developments and what your body needs).

Many are big fans of 3 way splits such as:

Day 1: Chest + Arms
Day 2: Legs
Day 3: off
Day 4: Back + Shoulders
Day 5: off
Day 6: Repeat

OR

Day 1: Chest + Back
Day 2: Legs
Day 3: off
Day 4: Shoulders + Arms
Day 5: off
Day 6: Repeat

I like this types of split because there’s very little overlap of muscle parts during workouts (my preference). Where it says legs, you may do squats etc, but where it says back, I wouldn’t do full range deadlifts because of leg day done recently, so something like rack pulls/stiff legged deadlifts would be appropriate. Off days are flexible (take more or less depending on schedule/fatigue).

Another popular type of split is where you’d purposely have overlap (within the workout), it would be a type of push/legs/pull one, for example:

Day 1: Chest + Shoulders + Triceps
Day 2: Legs
Day 3: off
Day 4: Back + Biceps
Day 5: off
Day 6: Repeat

Same applies to back and legs again (I wouldn’t do full range deadlifts shortly after squats).

Are you familiar with ramping? If so, ramp up in the 6-8 rep range, maybe higher for legs/back. Or, if you like low reps, ramp up in 3 - 5’s, and finish off with a high rep max set or two.

A note on the cardio/back day: Why? I never like to mix cardio with weight training. Focus on one goal at a time…

38

Where I put cardio plus back the cardio is just the barbell complex nothing extra so its still weights really.

I am ramping on all of the exercises but was wandering if that would be enough work for me to grow as I’m not lifting very heavy weight?

I would prefer to train more often and focus on one body part so that I can put all of my effort into those lifts rather than mixing up body parts so much and making it a longer workout as by the time I get to the last body part of the workout I will already be tired and won’t be able to perform at my max which will hold those muscles back, at least that is what I have experienced in the past.

39

Complexes are good for general fitness and fat loss, but you’ll severely limit the weight you can lift on the strongest movement.

As regards doing “too many body parts per session”, you won’t go over 3…2 body parts on average. And an average of 2 exercises per body part (maybe 3 or 4 for large parts). You simply don’t need to do many exercises per body part (you would feel too fatigued if you did the same amount of exercises per session as in your example, and more body parts).

Ramping is adequate, so long as you’re last set leaves your target muscle feeling worked…you wouldn’t stop ramping until this happens (the guideline of 6-10 sets is only a guideline, if you find you’re having to do 10+ sets frequently, then start at a higher starting weight). You could always do a drop set or two if you don’t feel fully worked after just one ramp set (you’d drop weight by about 20% after the ramp, and do another set or two of as many reps as possible).

40

6-10 sets! Really? I’m sure I read a thread about ramping where Professor X said that he just does 3 sets also when Ronnie Coleman does bench he does 5 sets and thats with working up to 500lbs! Today when I did chest for bench press I ramped up to 102.5kg for 5 reps by doing-

20 kg for 20
60 kg for 10
60 kg for 12
90 kg for 5
102.5 kg for 5

I thought that would be enough?
I should probably say also that for most exercises I am ramping up to a 10 rep max although on Deadlift, Bench press, Squats and CGBP arms day I am ramping up to a 5-7 rep max.