Bulk-Up / Mass Gain Routine

Overview

This bulking up, or mass gaining, routine is aimed at people with 6, or more, months of training experience behind them. If you have absolutely no experience with training with weights we would recommend that you go back and follow the starting out with weights program for the first six months of your training experience where you will see more than satisfactory results. 

In this recommended mass gaining program the workout is brief, but demanding, to stimulate growth whilst allowing recovery. The routine should be performed for no more than 2-3 months. Once you have gained some substantial weight and strength you should go back through your goal setting processes and decide what you want to do next. Remember there should be a short period break where your body can catch up with its new muscle gain, in order to build all of the blood supply and lymph tissue etc. And a period of calm to reset the body's natural set point (the homeostasis need to stay the same). On this program it is essential that you are eating 500-1000 calories per day above maintenance level to fuel muscle growth. We would recommend you look into some of the mass gaining diets on the nutrition section such as the weight gain diet.

There are two different workouts in this routine, and you will need to train 3 days per week on none consecutive days (this means you really should leave at least one days rest between each workout) for 30-45 minutes per workout. Your training sessions should last no longer than this. If they are then maybe you are taking too long between sets or talking too much. Remember, after 45 minutes, anabolic hormones begin to decline and catabolic hormones begin to rise sharply the further the stress you place upon your body.

Each exercise should be performed in a strict style, for the first 6 reps, such that you are in control of the weight when both raising and lowering the weight. Remember to lift through the concentric portion with a little faster tempo and really lower the weights through the eccentric phase under good control. This will increase the time under tension and cause maximal muscle stimulation. The final 1-2 reps can be performed with a small swing to get the weight past the sticking point. At no point should you sacrifice form for extra weight though in an effort to speed up your results. You are more likely to speed up your chances of getting injured. Stay focused and sensible and work with weights that really cause you to work out hard, with the first 4 -5 reps as strict as always.

As each exercise is a 'compound' exercise on this program, using a heavy weight, the training tempo should be 2 seconds to raise the weight and 3 seconds to lower the weight for upper body movements and 4 seconds for the lower body. Taking note of the pointers above. Try and train heavy at all times.

The target weight to use for each exercise is one that is 10-15% heavier than you can handle for 10 reps in strict style (ie your 10RM). It is suggested that you pick 10% for your first workout to make sure you hit the rep range, ie 6 strict reps and 1-2 reps with a small element of cheating.

Drop the weight by about 5% on the second set, and a further 5% for the third set to ensure you can maintain the rep count.

This routine places heavy emphasis on progressive overload as this is what causes muscle adaptation and growth, so its important to keep your rest periods constant at 2-3 minutes between sets. Do not exceed the target rep count and do not add more exercises or perform additional sets. All overload should come from increasing the weight at each workout, keep this increase really small, eg 0.25-0.5 kilo's at a time. If you begin changing more than one exercise variable or loading parameter such as adding in more sets or reps or whatever then you lose your ability to effectively measure progress and recovery and are doing yourself a huge disservice. If you do this and fail to see results, remember that this is why. One exercise variable at a time.

Normally strength levels peak around late afternoon, early evening, and therefore working out after school/work is an ideal time. You will probably also have an empty stomach at this time, which is also ideal for a workout. Finally, after the workout you would be going home for your evening meal which is also good for post workout recovery.

Having said this, you can workout any time of day, but try to ensure you haven't eaten for 60 minutes beforehand and that you will eat within an hour or so of finishing. Eating before training can have a number of bad effects depending upon the person and the foods eaten. Your stomach may feel full and bloated and cause discomfort during training. If you chose poor food choices your blood sugar may drop. Blood will rush to your stomach to digest food instead of to the muscles that you are training. And if you train too intensely you may even feel sick and have to terminate your training session.

Muscles repair and build during rest, not during the workout, and therefore it's important to get adequate rest. In general you should aim for 8-9 hours sleep per day, longer if you have a physically demanding job. It takes up to 5 days to recover from this sort of workout such that your strength levels exceed what they were at your last workout. If strength levels don't increase, look to get more sleep, more rest through the day, and a few more calories in your diet. Strength levels should then begin to increase on a regular basis and you should feel well rested before each workout.

After 2-3 months consistent training you should follow a more traditional routine, such as a split routine, with slightly higher rep schemes, slightly higher volume, and weights about 10% lower than you are currently using. Possibly changing your diet back to the standard athletes diet.

After following this routine for two to three months you should notice a steady buildup in your competency to use and handle much heavier weights and a dramatic increase in learning how your unique body is responding to the stimulus that you place upon it. So long as your exercise selection and execution is of good quality and you supply your body with all of the nutrients that it needs to repair itself and grow, you should notice a rapid increase in strength and muscle size. You will may notice a slight decrease in muscle tone and definition without a sound nutrition plan. We would recommend that you follow one of the specified bulking diets from the weight gain section of the web site.