Gambit's First Bulk

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Gambit’s First Bulk

If it’s okay, I’d like to use this thread to ask a lot of questions and perhaps log a bit in the hopes you experienced folks will help out from time to time.

Background.
Been trying to ,lose weight, since I was 15 or so, found T-Nation maybe four months ago and dropped a little over 10 lbs and perhaps 10-15%BF using t-dawg2.0. [edit] and improved training methods thanks to this site…including TBT in recent weeks.

Now, I’m small and I want to stop starving myself and start putting on some good weight through some hard, hard training. Hope you folks will help.

Questions:

Any advice regarding a first bulk would be great. I’ve been trying to read up on it using Shugart and Christian Thibaudeau mostly.

Since I’ve been on the T-dawg for the last four or so months, I should go into the bulk slowly, right? How slowly? I think I?m going to bump up my calories to close to maintenance for this week along with adding oatmeal in the morning. Then add around 250 calories every week and a little carbs every other week and keep track of my results. How does this sound?

Workout plan:
Day: morning, evening

Sun: Jog before breakfast; lift
Monday: Jog bb, abs and stretch
Tuesday: Stretch bb, Lift
Wednesday: Rest Day
Thursday: Rest, Lift
Friday: Jog bb, Stretch and abs
Saturday: HIIT, Rest

Note1: I?ve been having some lower back pain, so the abs/stretching are there to try to fix that problem. Anyone know any articles or have any advice regarding this would be much appreciated.

Training plan: Waterbury?s Total Body Workout http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=508031 I?m on week 6 now and I haven?t decided what I?ll do when I finish it?although I might just try it again (this time correctly hopefully, I made some noob mistakes this time through). Any suggested plans would be great.

Meal plan: 6 meals a day + 2 snacks. Meal #1 is a little bigger than the others and Meal #6 is a little smaller. Lots of chicken, beef, and eggs along with whey, oats, cheese, and milk

First week:
Meal #1: Shake (2 servings) +45g oats
#2 : 4 eggs + veggies
Snack: (50g lean meat or 1 serving whey)
#3 170g chicken breast + veggies
#4 170g chicken breast + veggies
snack: (50g lean meat or 1 serving whey)
#5: Ground beef 100g + veggies
#6: cheese 30g (94/8/0/6) + chicken 60g
gym#6: Whey 1 serving + carb drink (oj normally)

I?ve a few other meals to swap in there when if I need to.

And maybe it should be said here that I am a short mother-fucker who doesn’t weigh much, I estimate my base metabolic rate at around 2200.

This is my first bulk and I?m trying to think of what I should know. So that is probably my biggest question: what did I forget?

Thanks in advance for the help and letting me think out-loud on the forum.

2

Stop running so much. You won’t put on any muscle.

Even if you’re really bad about gaining fat when eating a surplus of calories you shouldn’t be jogging that much.

And throw more carbs in. All those veggies are good but you need some simple sugars and complex carbs in there.

3

[quote]Ghost22 wrote:
Stop running so much. You won’t put on any muscle.

Even if you’re really bad about gaining fat when eating a surplus of calories you shouldn’t be jogging that much.

And throw more carbs in. All those veggies are good but you need some simple sugars and complex carbs in there. [/quote]

Thanks for the advice about the jogging, I’ll cut it down a bit. I’ll also be throwing in more carbs as the weeks go on, I figured this diet out to be a “transitional” one between the Tdawg…maybe a poorly designed transition…anyway, I’ll add a few carbs next week. Thanks again.

4

10/11/06

Yesterday I did: (all weight in kg)

goals was 2sets by 12 reps, 90sec rest

lat pulldowns 55kg/12, 55/12
squats 95kg/12, 95kg/12
bench 60/12, 60/11
db millitary press 42/9, 38/8+28/4
Deadlift 73/12, 73/12
p. curl 28/12, 28/12

I’m not sure what happend with the db press

5

Massive Eating

Trying to read up on the massive eating articles, I read them when I first came to T-Nation, but now I realize I didn’t understand them at all before. Hopefull I can use this next sunday for some planning time to incorporate some lessons learned.

===================================

today I did TBW week 6 #1 (antagonistic)
2 by 18 with 120sec rest

A1 Smith 50kg/18, 50/18
A2 Rows 60/18, 60/18
B1 DB straight-legged deads 60/18, 60/18
B2 incline hammer curl 28/18, 28/18
C1 Squat 75/18, 75/18
C2 DB seated millitary press 28/18, 28/18

I might have to lower the weight on the deads and focus on form.

6

10-13-06

30 min jog before breakfast

7

10-15-06
Yesterday = 20min HITT, Jogging + eight 30sec sprints

Today:

TBW week 6 #2 2sets by 8reps 60sec rest Antagonistic

A1 Good Mornings 58kg/8
a2 Dips bodyweight (65kg)/8
a1 58/8
a2 65/8

b1 incline db bench 60kg/8
b2 pull-ups bodyweight/8
b1 60kg/10
b2 65kg/5

c1 squat machine 105kg/8
c2 bi curl seated 15kg db/8
c1 105/8
c2 15/8

10min bike

8

Massive Eating.

I’ve been trying to make a massive eating plan, but I feel like I’ve no real idea what I’m doing. I’d really appriciate it if anyone could lend a helping hand in it’s construction. Here’s how it stands now:

New plan

non-training day

7am P+C; whey + oats 390/3/37/51
9am P+f; 4 eggs + whey 375/25/4/34
12 p+c; chicken+ bread 372/7/21/51
3 p&f; ground beef 340/23/0/31
6 optional (one of the two meals above)
9 p&f; tuna salad 362/24/3/34

totals= 2200/107/64/231
45%/12%/43%

Training Days

7 p&c whey and oats
9 p&f 4 eggs and whey
12 p&f; ground beef
3 p&f; tuna or beef
6 (gym); whey and sugar 354/2/50/36
9 p&c ; chicken & bread/rice 492/8/42/56

totals = 2291 / 83 / 132 / 239
34% 24% 43%

I’m feeling lost but like I made a decent plan. How did I do? Can you give me any hints to improve it?

Thanks a lot

9

20 min before breakfast jog

10

10-18-06

morning abs 4 sets of
a1 “wheels” by 10
a2 wood choppers db 10/15kg
a3 oblique bends db 10/15kg per side
a4 plank

evening
tbw week 6 day 3 2sets x 12 reps 90sec rest
Antagonistic

A1) Smith bench 60/12, 60/12
A2) Rows 60/12, 60/13

B1) Deadlift 78/12, 78/12 (very hard)
B2) DB curls (standing) 24/12, 24/14

C1) Squats 80/12, 80/12 (hard)
C2) Shrugs 32/12, 32/14

11

10-19-06 (th)
TBT week 7 day 1
goal= 3x18 120sec rest

incline smith: 40kg/18, 40/15+30/3, 30/18
deadlift: 58kg/18, 58/18, 58/18
millitary db: 28kg/18, 28/18, 28/11+ 24/5
Rows: 60/18, 60/18, 60/13 + 45/5
Machine Squats: 75/18, 75/18, 75/18
incline db hammer curls: 24/18, 24/18, 24/18

12

Starting weight = 65kg
Now =66kg

Eating:

My previous meal plan didn’t work at all. I was still very hungry and I ate more…clean, but much more. I was gunna keep the plan for one more week before uping the calories, but finding myself literally dizzy on Wednesday, I figure I have to up the calories now. One strange thing I noted was that at the point when I felt dizzy, I had already consumed more calories than I had been consuming in a whole day during my cutting phase, so my metabolism must have picked up quite a bit.

Anyway, I re-worked the diet. I kept the same food choices basically just played with the numbers. I tried to match the numbers up with “Massive Eating” recommendations of between
15-30%carbs/40-50%protein/30-35%fat.

I also re-checked “The Truth About Bulking” and noticed that my calories are now in line with the table provided there. I’ll hopefully be able to try this one out for a couple of weeks and check my progress.

13

10-22 morning

before breakfast 25min jog

Evening:
TBT week 7 #2
goal= 3x8 60sec

smith squat 90kg/8, 90/8, 90/8
smith bench 70/8, 70/8, 70/8
good mornings 58/8, 58/8, 58/8
dips" Body Weight/8, bw/8, bw/8
pull ups bw/8, bw/7, bw/4
db seated curls 30/8, 30/8, 30/6

cardio bike 35min

10-23
20min before breakfast walk

14

10-23

20 min Before breakfast walk
20 min Stretching

10-24

TBT week 7 #3 goal=3x12 90sec rest

Bench 60/12, 60/12, 60/9
Deadlift: 78/12, 78/12, 78/9
Dips: BW/12, BW/12, BW/12
Pulldowns: 54.5/12, 54.5/12, 54.5/10
Squat: 80/12, 80/12, 80/12
DB curl: 28/12, 28/12, 28/8 + 20/4
A1: woodcutters, 14kg/10, 14/10
A2: Plank 60sec, 60sec.
10min bike
10 min stretch

15

10-26 20min before breakfast walk and stretch

10-26 (thu)…I got sick
10-27 (Fri)… I worked-out anyway but didn’t finish

TBT week 8 #1 goal= 3x18 120sec rest
Antagonistic

A1 DB bench, 52/18, 52/18, 52/18
A2 Rows 55/18, 55/18, 55/18

B1 DB straight-legged deadlift 60/18, 60/18, 60/15

B2 DB hammer curls on incline bench. 30/13, 24/18, 24/18

And I stopped here after some stretching.

16

Could you please clear this up for me. You said you were on the TDawg diet for 4 months. During that 4 months were you training?

17

[quote]onewall wrote:
Could you please clear this up for me. You said you were on the TDawg diet for 4 months. During that 4 months were you training?
[/quote]

yeah, I was using that time to teach myself how to lift. I started with “my own plans” (not so good ones in retrospect) and then moved on to TBT at the end. I did hitt a couple of times a week and at the end I did before breakfast jogs a few times a week. I started this log in the middle of TBT and I think I’ll go through one more cycle of TBT after this one.

why do you ask?

18

From reading your post it sounded like you first dieted to lose weight without training, then immediately switched to bulking, which altogether would be strange. That is why I asked.

Also, I think that maybe other people are also confused by your thread because you have really gotten any responses which is strange. So if you want help you might need to start a new thread.

19

[quote]onewall wrote:
From reading your post it sounded like you first dieted to lose weight without training, then immediately switched to bulking, which altogether would be strange. That is why I asked.

Also, I think that maybe other people are also confused by your thread because you have really gotten any responses which is strange. So if you want help you might need to start a new thread.
[/quote]

Thanks for your imput man…maybe I should edit the first post a bit if you got that impression, I’ll look at it.

I’m a bit surprised I’m not getting many responses either, If I come upon a biggish question and no replies come I’ll definately start a new thread. Until then, I’ll just use this one so that if I find myself asking a qustion like “why isn’t my strength here progressing” Someone might be kind enough to look back on this and tell me why.

I’m hoping that the reason I’m not getting a lot of replies is because I’m doing a decent job and don’t need too much of a kick in the teeth to get going, but maybe not. Anyway, appriciate the posting.

20

10-29 skipped workout to heal up from illness.

10-30 20 min before breakfast walk

10-31 20 min morning strethch, then in evening:

TBW week 8 #2 goal 3x8 60sec rest Antagonistic

A1 deadlift 88kg/8, 88/8, 88/8
A2 db millitary standing 34/8, 34/8, 34/8

B1 Smith Bench 72.5/8, 72.5/8, 72.5/8
B2 Cable rows 65/8, 70/8, 70/8

C1 Tri extention 27.5/8 27.5/8, 27.5/8
C2 preacher curl 28.5/8, 28.5/8, 28.5/8