3 Months Bulking - Feedback Requested

[JoeMyBro]

Ok so I've just did some measurements and I'm feeling as though fat gain not optimal. I've been sticking to eating 3500-4000 calories daily, but I feel maybe 3000 should be my goal here? I'm fairly sure my weight gain went up by over 2lbs again in one week, same as last week, and theres no way even half of that is muscle so obviously the fat level is too high??

Ideas? Thoughts? Thanks

 

[dabuffguy]

Ok so I've just did some measurements and I'm feeling as though fat gain not optimal. I've been sticking to eating 3500-4000 calories daily, but I feel maybe 3000 should be my goal here? I'm fairly sure my weight gain went up by over 2lbs again in one week, same as last week, and theres no way even half of that is muscle so obviously the fat level is too high??

Ideas? Thoughts? Thanks

3500 calories is just fine.

You don't need 4000 and I don't recall suggestin you eat that much.

Again, you aren't going to become a fat cow so quit worrying about it.

The scale went up. That's the goal. If you are gaining weight, that means you are probably gaining as much muscle as possible.

How's the workouts going?

 

[JoeMyBro]

Squats: 70kg x 15 reps, x 13 reps, x 12 reps and then x 10 reps.

I haven't made progress with the other exercises, I'm typically exhausted after squats. Especially last workout, I basically didn't try hard on the other exercises after squats because I felt I should only worry about increasing the weight/reps with the squats, maybe that's the wrong attitude but its hard to increase weight on dumbbell lunges, crunches and leg raises. With the stiff-legged deadlifts, I am aware I need to fix my form on that exercise in particular.

What should I aim for next time in regards to squats? 70kg x 15 for all sets? It might be possible, but If I do get stronger that'd mean holding back on the first set since I would go beyond 15 reps.

...and yeah I am getting fat my hips are 2 inches larger (my ass) and my stomach 1 inch in a period of just 1 month. Interesting though my biceps appear to have gone up 0.5 inches but I'm unsure. My chest seems to not want to grow but I can understand as I don't lift very much yet do I!

Definitely gaining fat, no idea if I am gaining ANY muscle. Steroids seem appealing at this time but I am going to avoid them... I think I can reach my goal physique without resorting to them... it's just going to be one hell of a battle.

Goal Physique:
http://burnfatfeedmuscle.org/images/tom-venuto1.jpg

This would be my goal physique... but everyone is different I will look much different to tom venuto but you get the idea of the kind of size and leanness I am aiming for here... hopefully in 10 years I can reach something like this at my peak. I'm just so far from my goal it gets very frustrating and causes me to question everything I do over and over, especially when all I can see is fat gain. Hopefully I'll see some improvements now though...

 

[dabuffguy]

Squats: 70kg x 15 reps, x 13 reps, x 12 reps and then x 10 reps.

I haven't made progress with the other exercises, I'm typically exhausted after squats. Especially last workout, I basically didn't try hard on the other exercises after squats because I felt I should only worry about increasing the weight/reps with the squats, maybe that's the wrong attitude but its hard to increase weight on dumbbell lunges, crunches and leg raises. With the stiff-legged deadlifts, I am aware I need to fix my form on that exercise in particular.

What should I aim for next time in regards to squats? 70kg x 15 for all sets? It might be possible, but If I do get stronger that'd mean holding back on the first set since I would go beyond 15 reps.

Let's stay at 70kg for one more week. If you can do more than 15 reps you first set, then good, and do it.

Yes, squats should be your main focus with legs.




What about upper body lifting?



Oh, and how often are you working out each body part?

 

[JoeMyBro]

Let's stay at 70kg for one more week. If you can do more than 15 reps you first set, then good, and do it.

Ok will do.

Yes, squats should be your main focus with legs.

Good to know, doesn't this make the rest of my workout a waste of time? I end up going for about 1 hour 10 minutes each workout... maybe its best to cut out some "less important" exercises to try to get my routine down to 45-60 minutes?


What about upper body lifting?

I have to get back to you I have my chest workout later today...

Oh, and how often are you working out each body part?

Maybe refer to my workout routine, remember how you helped me change it to be more intense? I believe the answer would then be I work each body part out once per week.

 

[dabuffguy]

Maybe refer to my workout routine, remember how you helped me change it to be more intense? I believe the answer would then be I work each body part out once per week.

I just couldn't remember. Sorry about that. I was in a hurry and didn't have time to scan through all the replies.


Yeah, just do an hour. Do your squats as the main focus, and then whatever other excercises you feel will help you improve.




You are also doing deadlifts, correct? But on a different day than squats (back day)? I think I put you on a 5X5 variation for these.

Let's take a look at those deadlifts too and get a similar type of weight/rep progession going. We aren't aiming to hit failure on these but still lifting heavy; increasing reps, then increasing weight.

 

[dabuffguy]

Bump

 

[SuperStrong]

Hmm ok...

1). My diet is like this most of the time:

Meal 1: Cereal + Whey Protein Shake in Soy Milk (I'm lactose intolerant so soy is my option)
Meal 2: Oatmeal + Tuna in olive oil
Meal 3: Oatmeal + Whey Protein Shake in Soy Milk
Meal 4: Oatmeal + Tuna in olive oil
Meal 5: Oatmeal + Tuna in olive oil
Meal 6: Toast + Peanut Butter + (sometimes) flaxseed oil+extra virgin olive oil combo + Whey Protein Shake in Soy Milk

I haven't read through all the many pages lol, so this may have been addressed already, but this caught my eye and thought i'd give my two cents.

First of all, how many calories are you eating? I would recommend at least 20x your weight since you like you might be somewhat of an ectomorph (body fat isn't much of a concern) and so 20xWeight is just a starting point and you probably will have to increase it as you go along. And if you want to go further you might want to break it down to the calories consisting of 40% protein / 30% carbs / 30% fat. give or take.

Calipers are great to measure, i recommend simple plastic caliper, and just do the one site measurement. It's not accurate per se' in terms of actual % reading but the point of measuring is just to see if your skinfold is increasing (gaining fat), decreasing (loosing fat), or staying the same. Then you can have a decent idea on whether the weight of your scale reading is progress or not. Good thing you seem to be taking pics, i would take them every 2 weeks at least.

Last but not the least, I would not make canned tuna my main source of protein. Canned tuna for the most part is very high in methyl mercury and your body only has a gradual elimination process of it..meaning if you keep eating canned tuna it just further accumulates in your system, not good. There is a canned tuna that advertises "lowest mercury" and i think the brand is King's Tuna or something, best bet is to find it online, and if you are going to use tuna regularly then you should use that.

Also, why soy milk? I personally wouldn't add that to my diet. I believe Raw, organic cow's milk is much better and much healthier - this can be ordered online too if you don't have access to a supermarket that sells this.

Sean's program seems decent especially for natural lifters. So the problem might be in your diet. If you're trying to bulk you need to be eating enough cals. The diet you layed out could be too little cals. How many cups of oatmeal do you eat? Heck I just throw in 3-4 servings into my blender for a shake and drink it in an instant, but I know people like to cook it and that will make you feel full even though 1 serving is like only 20g of carbs...great for cutting but you need more for mass gain.

SS

 

[SuperStrong]

Squats: 70kg x 15 reps, x 13 reps, x 12 reps and then x 10 reps.

I haven't made progress with the other exercises, I'm typically exhausted after squats. Especially last workout, I basically didn't try hard on the other exercises after squats because I felt I should only worry about increasing the weight/reps with the squats, maybe that's the wrong attitude but its hard to increase weight on dumbbell lunges, crunches and leg raises. With the stiff-legged deadlifts, I am aware I need to fix my form on that exercise in particular.

What should I aim for next time in regards to squats? 70kg x 15 for all sets? It might be possible, but If I do get stronger that'd mean holding back on the first set since I would go beyond 15 reps.

...and yeah I am getting fat my hips are 2 inches larger (my ass) and my stomach 1 inch in a period of just 1 month. Interesting though my biceps appear to have gone up 0.5 inches but I'm unsure. My chest seems to not want to grow but I can understand as I don't lift very much yet do I!

Definitely gaining fat, no idea if I am gaining ANY muscle.

This is why you measure using calipers, which I was under the impression you are doing.

Pictures help too. Cuz you can evaluate weekly or biweekly progress.. if you depend on just looking at the mirror it's sort of like watching grass grow, you see it every day so you can't catch the significance of the growth. Snapshots are great in this regard so you can see before&after.

When you are first starting out - don't try to chase two goals, meaning don't try and gain muscle AND loose fat. Focus on one at a time. Sean probably says the same? But the old proverb applies, "he who chases two rabbits catches none."

When you gain muscle you will be gaining fat, so usually you go on a muscle/bulk phase for 12 weeks then take 2 weeks break then resume 12 weeks and you may want to loose fat at the second time around and you adjust calories accordingly and add cardio.

And everyone and anyone will have a different training methodology or oppinion on how to train. I would stick with one and follow it to the T. If you are going to do Sean's then stick with it and follow it through. Just make sure you abide by the fundamentals - diet is in check, you are progressing both in weights and thus calories, form is correct.

Which brings me to exercise form... if you are just starting out you will be building your mind muscle connection. Make sure you are feeling it in the muscle that you are supposed to be working. Concentrate on that muscle maybe even visualize it working as you perform the exercise. Just because you are lifting "heavy" weights doesn't mean you are working the muscle, lift heavy but not too heavy where you are no longer focusing on that muscle. I like to train to failure, but you can even train one set less than failure (and those who advocate that say it's easier on your Central Nervous System thus you recover better) - the important thing is that your numbers increase over time. You should be recording your weights in a journal which i'm assuming you are doing.

SS

 

[JoeMyBro]

Sorry I took so long to get back... lately I've been really concerned with my gains. Visually, there's still no difference, other than fat gain. To be honest, I haven't made an attempt at low calorie days like I should... I find it hard enough getting to 3000 calories even when including some chocolate bars, and with up to 60% of calories from carbs. Perhaps this is the cause of my problem lately...

Since last week, I hadn't gained any weight except 0.1kg lol... most days it was 3500 calories, but admittingly I had half of the week where I went as low as 2400 calories. Still I would think more than 0.1 kg.. it might just be the timing of when I took my weight measurement.

Anyway, here's my workout results so far (note, I had 1 week off, as I have 1 week off after every 8 weeks):

Squats: 70kg x 14, 8, 10, 15
Lunges: skipped it
Stiff Legged Deadlifts: skipped it (I hurt my back doing it.. can't figure out the proper form... I know its as simple as looking it up but I cannot figure it out, even still.)
Calf Raises, Crunches, Leg Raises etc. all standard not really progress on these.

Took 50 mins to complete that workout... I think I'll probably be skipping stiff legged deadlifts until I can figure out proper form. Besides, squats completely wipe me out every damn time.

... and then the following week


Squats: 70kg x 15, 15, 12, 12
Lunges: skipped
Deadlifts: skipped
Calf Raises, Crunches, Leg Raises etc. all standard not really progress on these.

Took 42 minutes this time. I admit I was shotty with the form in squats, I avoided going low most reps because I was scared (literally) of injuring myself... my breathe is taken from me after the first set of 15 reps!!


... since I have chest workout today, and back on saturday, I can only post the previous weeks workouts:

Deadlifts: 85kg x 5, 5, 5, 5, 7
BB Rows: 20kg x 14, 12, 12, 14
DB Rows: 10kg x 15, 15, 15
Shrugs: 62.5kg x 14, 12, 12
BB Curls: 20kg x 17, 12, 9
DB Curls: 20kg x 26
Wrist Curls: 27.5kg x 13

1 week off... then next workout:

Deadlifts: 90kg x 5, 5, 5, 5, 7
BB Rows: 20kg x 14, 14, 14, 12
DB Rows: 10kg x 17, 15, 15
Shrugs: 62.5kg x 15, 15, 10
BB Curls: 22.5kg x 16, 9, 10
DB Curls: 20kg x 28
Wrist Curls: 27.5kg x 14


And for chest workout:

Flat BB Press: 40kg x 14, 12, 10, 13
Incline DB Press: 17.5kg (per dumbbell) x 12, 13, 12, 8
Dips: 77kg x 9, 6, 5
Overhead DB Press: 10kg x 15, 15, 13, 13
DB Side Laterals: skipped
DB Skull Crushers: 10kg x 16, 11, 10
Overhead DB Extensions: skipped

...then 1 week off and next workout:

Flat BB Press: 40kg x 15, 13, 11, 11
Incline DB Press: 17.5kg (per dumbbell) x 13, 10, 8, 7
Dips: 78kg x 7, 6, 5
Overhead DB Press: 10kg x 15, 12, 12, 13
DB Side Laterals: skipped
DB Skull Crushers: 10kg x 16, 10, 10
Overhead DB Extensions: 7.5kg x 10, 10





............. as you can see, I'm not doing so great. I feel like I'm making small improvements on the first exercises. I don't really care much for the others, I just feel like I'm doing them for the sake of it... perhaps I'm better off with a workout revolving around purely the big compound movements? ...then I have shorter workouts?

I am 78kg now. Considering I was, like, 68kg about 4 months ago, gaining 10kg of fat and no muscle to show for it is REALLY making me want to start cutting... I just feel dissapointed overall in my results. I'm not sure if this is how slow it is for others, but in 4 months time I'd have liked to have had something to show, instead of an incredible amount of fat gain... I'm just getting depressed and I'm not sure how good it is for my workouts because of it. I think my limit would be 90kg, since it would take me 6 months to cut down... it will already take me about 4 months to cut down again from this weight... yikes!!