First time bulk

I am starting a bulk to gain strength and size. Doing a 5x5 program, eating 1/2 pound surplus per week, with some cardio thrown in for good measure. I am basing my workouts off of this http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/wotw56.htm, Madcow's intermediate workout. I'm not looking to gain too much. Maybe 5 pounds or so. I realize I may get a few different answers here, but how long did it take for you to get your desired results from your bulk? Any tips would be helpful since this is my first bulk attempt. Thanks for the non-sarcastic responses. I prefer facetious responses instead.

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unknown

I've noticed since I've started this 5x5 program and bulking, my muscles feel a little more solid. Harder. Anyone else notice this? Am I weird?

unknown

Wow! Do I suck at deadlifts. I never really did a bunch of them when I was younger. Just bench and squat and such. I can feel it working my body though.

unknown

Absolutely lost my *kitten* at the first 4 replies LMAO
that is all

unknown

I have never had the confidence to bulk. At least not yet. I am interested and seeing where it takes you. I have had enough gains and "happiness with results" on maintenance calories so I haven't seen the need, but I know that will wear out soon.

unknown

Hornsby wrote: »

I have never had the confidence to bulk. At least not yet. I am interested and seeing where it takes you. I have had enough gains and "happiness with results" on maintenance calories so I haven't seen the need, but I know that will wear out soon.

I'm taking it slowly. I started at a surplus of 250 calories last week and upped it to 500 this week. I'm lifting hard and will be monitoring the results based upon measurements and lifting gains. I read that the scale can do all sorts of nasty tricks. I'll weigh myself weekly as normal. But ultimately, I'll see where I am after about 9 or 10 weeks with that SOB. I'm really interested in strength gains cause when I lost all that weight, I became a bit of a wuss. We shall see Zur.

unknown

Deadlift is by far the biggest mass builder out there. Whoops squat completely for muscle groups engaged.

My personal preference when bulking isn't to go for strength programs for long durations (which will give you your desired effect, but won't be as fast) - instead going for a split of strength, hypertrophy, and power cycle.

So if you were setting out...

8 weeks madcow (to build up base strength)
8 weeks GVT (don't kill yourself on the first go at this!).

I look to develop power after that, I go to my countdown drills at about 65% 1RM, where I do 10 reps of a round of 5 different exercises (example is bench, deadlift, bent over row, standing military press, upright row), 10 seconds rest... 9 reps of that circuit, 9 seconds rest, 8, 8 seconds, and so on till i'm at 1 rep. I find if I go at that as fast as possible I build up endurance and can eventually up the weight to 70-75% 1RM after about 4 weeks... Then it's start all over again after recalculating what my new 1RM is.

I find after a while I can compress most of this into a 12-week cycle - 4 weeks madcow, 4 weeks GVT, 3 weeks power, 1 week rest.

Don't underestimate that power cycle. Fast-twitch muscle fibers are large. Which is exactly what you're looking for if you want to bulk up and gain definition.

Let me know how it goes if you decide to give it a whirl

unknown

Shadowsan wrote: »

Deadlift is by far the biggest mass builder out there. Whoops squat completely for muscle groups engaged.

My personal preference when bulking isn't to go for strength programs for long durations (which will give you your desired effect, but won't be as fast) - instead going for a split of strength, hypertrophy, and power cycle.

So if you were setting out...

8 weeks madcow (to build up base strength)
8 weeks GVT (don't kill yourself on the first go at this!).

I look to develop power after that, I go to my countdown drills at about 65% 1RM, where I do 10 reps of a round of 5 different exercises (example is bench, deadlift, bent over row, standing military press, upright row), 10 seconds rest... 9 reps of that circuit, 9 seconds rest, 8, 8 seconds, and so on till i'm at 1 rep. I find if I go at that as fast as possible I build up endurance and can eventually up the weight to 70-75% 1RM after about 4 weeks... Then it's start all over again after recalculating what my new 1RM is.

I find after a while I can compress most of this into a 12-week cycle - 4 weeks madcow, 4 weeks GVT, 3 weeks power, 1 week rest.

Don't underestimate that power cycle. Fast-twitch muscle fibers are large. Which is exactly what you're looking for if you want to bulk up and gain definition.

Let me know how it goes if you decide to give it a whirl

Great information! Thanks! Yeah, holy craphole those countdown drills must get you gassed pretty damn fast!

unknown

asflatasapancake wrote: »

Shadowsan wrote: »

Deadlift is by far the biggest mass builder out there. Whoops squat completely for muscle groups engaged.

My personal preference when bulking isn't to go for strength programs for long durations (which will give you your desired effect, but won't be as fast) - instead going for a split of strength, hypertrophy, and power cycle.

So if you were setting out...

8 weeks madcow (to build up base strength)
8 weeks GVT (don't kill yourself on the first go at this!).

I look to develop power after that, I go to my countdown drills at about 65% 1RM, where I do 10 reps of a round of 5 different exercises (example is bench, deadlift, bent over row, standing military press, upright row), 10 seconds rest... 9 reps of that circuit, 9 seconds rest, 8, 8 seconds, and so on till i'm at 1 rep. I find if I go at that as fast as possible I build up endurance and can eventually up the weight to 70-75% 1RM after about 4 weeks... Then it's start all over again after recalculating what my new 1RM is.

I find after a while I can compress most of this into a 12-week cycle - 4 weeks madcow, 4 weeks GVT, 3 weeks power, 1 week rest.

Don't underestimate that power cycle. Fast-twitch muscle fibers are large. Which is exactly what you're looking for if you want to bulk up and gain definition.

Let me know how it goes if you decide to give it a whirl

Great information! Thanks! Yeah, holy craphole those countdown drills must get you gassed pretty damn fast!

Yep. Just after you get to 5 reps hahaha! But once you can develop that endurance and power... Not only will you look bigger but you'll actually feel much stronger than if you just did a basic bulk which will predominantly make you heavier and less powerful.

unknown

asflatasapancake wrote: »

Hornsby wrote: »

I have never had the confidence to bulk. At least not yet. I am interested and seeing where it takes you. I have had enough gains and "happiness with results" on maintenance calories so I haven't seen the need, but I know that will wear out soon.

I'm taking it slowly. I started at a surplus of 250 calories last week and upped it to 500 this week. I'm lifting hard and will be monitoring the results based upon measurements and lifting gains. I read that the scale can do all sorts of nasty tricks. I'll weigh myself weekly as normal. But ultimately, I'll see where I am after about 9 or 10 weeks with that SOB. I'm really interested in strength gains cause when I lost all that weight, I became a bit of a wuss. We shall see Zur.

If you want to see what the scale does you should click through my update thread. It will wreck your brain. It usually shoots up about five pounds higher than where I thought it would be and then kind of tails off, except for when it straight up plateaus and except for when it goes down for four days in a row.

I record all of my weigh-ins (daily) in Excel and have a 21-day rolling average going. That's what I'm using to track my progress. That's what's I'm using to gauge if I'm gaining too fast. I figure 21 days of weigh-ins should be plenty to get an accurate picture and smooth out the day-to-day gains and losses of food, water weight, and etc.

unknown

Hornsby wrote: »

I have never had the confidence to bulk. At least not yet. I am interested and seeing where it takes you. I have had enough gains and "happiness with results" on maintenance calories so I haven't seen the need, but I know that will wear out soon.

So the elusive "recomp"? What's your general strategy? Just heavy weights + maintenance calories?

unknown

keithcw_the_first wrote: »

Hornsby wrote: »

I have never had the confidence to bulk. At least not yet. I am interested and seeing where it takes you. I have had enough gains and "happiness with results" on maintenance calories so I haven't seen the need, but I know that will wear out soon.

So the elusive "recomp"? What's your general strategy? Just heavy weights + maintenance calories?

Yea, pretty much. Eat around maintenance, go over some days. Go under some days. Weight stays the same. Measurements go up in the good places, down in the bad places. Good enough for me now, but I will ride out newb gains as long as possible. It's been a bit over a year since I started lifting.