1st serious Bulking cycle

R

ratty

New Member
Hey everyone,

Ive been reading alot in the nutrition section and ive figured no-one will know exactly how many calories you should eat when you bulk!

Its down to trial and error to nail the right amount of calories needed to put on 1-2 lbs a week...

Now my situation is this...

I was dieting (1600 cals) prior to starting this bulk 8 days ago...

Ive read bryans ''eating for size'' and i have followed what he has suggested (slowly ramping up calories).

I started eating 2000 and over the last 8 days and ramped it upto 2300..ive noticed 1-2lbs increase in weight over the last 3-4 days so ithink im gonna stick to this amount for at least a week to see how my body responds...

My workout is whole body 3x week 2 sets short of failure and i increase the weight every week..e.g. for the squat..

Week 1 45kg
week 2 50kg
week 3 55kg etc..

2 questions!

1) During the lighter weights for weeks 1 and 2 (15's 12's) i am burning more calories and glycogen right? compared to the later weeks when i am lifting heavier loads for e.g. 2 sets of 5 reps??

2) So therefore if i am burning less calories as the cycle progresses would it be sensible to cut back 100-200 calories once i get to the 5-8 rep range?? assuming prior to this i was gaining 1-2 lbs of weight a week.

Thankyou in advance for any advice/ suggestions.

Matt.
 
imo

1) the amount of cals expended during lifting (regardless of rep range) is not signifigant (as per your example of cutting 100-200) so its not worth worrying about. your daily intake/expenditure will fluctuate by much more then that on any given day no matter how closely you track it.

2) no. see above.
the hardest part about bulking is keeping your progress on track. not too much or too little. unless youve been doing this for quite a while the only real way to know for certain that your gaining about 1lb a week is to lift and eat for 3-4 weeks and see that youve gained 3-4lbs. it doesnt have to be exact (like trying to manip. 1-200 cals a day) to be effective. just keep close enough tabs on intake, wgt and w/o sched. so that after a month youve havent gained too little (1lb or under) or too much (closer to 10lbs or something).........unless, or course, thats what you were shooting for but your post didnt sound like that so no real need to address it.

other thoughts....

ramping cals slowly is good idea. just remember not to obsess over your wgt too much and allow your diet and w/o plan to "work" over time. if your planning to gain 1lb a week, then how much should you be gaining each day? see my point.

you mentioned in your post 2 set of 5s. this probably is not going to get it done as far as putting muscle on. personally, i feel that 1x15s, 2x10s and 3x5s is a MINIMUM amount of work for growth on a 3x a week plan unless you are a rank beginner or have a whole bunch of exer. your doing.

i hope that is some help, good luck.
 
Cool thanks for your opinion bluejacket!

Yeah perhaps your right maybe 100-200 cals wont make a difference so not worth thinking about..

Another reason why i asked this is because i remember reading a post by bryan saying that if you grow during the 5's but not the 15's then they prob didnt eat enough during the 15's (which is why i presumed the higher reps burn more carbs/calories).

Also 2 sets of 5's feels right with me, ive felt a little overtrained and fatigued with 3 sets before although i plan to take out arm iso's and drop frequency to 2x week when i get to 5's so maybe i will perform 3 sets for the main compounds...

Any other opinions guys....
 
<div>
(ratty @ Dec. 03 2009,4:30)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Cool thanks for your opinion bluejacket!

Yeah perhaps your right maybe 100-200 cals wont make a difference so not worth thinking about..

Another reason why i asked this is because i remember reading a post by bryan saying that if you grow during the 5's but not the 15's then they prob didnt eat enough during the 15's (which is why i presumed the higher reps burn more carbs/calories).

Also 2 sets of 5's feels right with me, ive felt a little overtrained and fatigued with 3 sets before although i plan to take out arm iso's and drop frequency to 2x week when i get to 5's so maybe i will perform 3 sets for the main compounds...

Any other opinions guys....</div>
do what you feel works best for you.

personally ive always felt the heavier wgts (10s and 5s) produced the greatest strength and size increase so i tried to maximize my efforts when in those rep ranges. that being said if something like 3x5, 3 times a week feels too much then perhaps it is.

one concern i would have is this. 15x1, three times a week would equal 45 reps a week for any given exer./body part. 10x2, three times a week would produce 60reps per exercise. the problem is when you hit the 5s at 2 sets per w/o three times a week that leaves you with 30 reps total for the week. granted it would be at a heavier wgt. but after a couple week run up of the above mentioned amount of work im just not sure that many reps is going to be taxing &quot;enough&quot; to get the growth youd like. the 10s would prob. be more actual work........just not quite as heavy.

anyway, food for thought.  hopefully some others will chime in with some thoughts for you.

good luck
 
I agree with bluejacket and think the volume drop is too great. You can manage 60 reps a week per exercise in the 10 rep range but drop to 30 on the 5 rep range. Maybe try to identify why you feel overtrained when you are on the 5s, see if the starting weight is too heavy or if you are overreaching on the 10s and the fatigue is carrying over. I don't think you need to keep the same number of reps but dropping it in half might be going too far. Of course in the end of the day you are the best judge of how your body responds.
 
i see your point guys the volume would literally half wouldn't it!

hmm maybe ill do 3 sets of 5 ill see anyway...

Guys what do you think to the drop in calories???

or perhaps i should just keep it as it is throught out the 5's as well and then i will know for next time 'whether to drop the calories or not'....

Has anyone ever experienced extra fat gain as you approach the 5s because of less carb depletion???
 
This is a very subjective topic, and some will say they see greater gains during 15s and 10s, while others will say during the 5s and negs. The glycogen-depleting high rep phases of the 15s and 10s necessitate a higher carb and calorie intake if you want to stay in a surplus to build muscle. During the lower volume, lower rep phase of 5s, you may decrease carbs if you notice fat gain. People who notice most of their gains during 5s most likely didn't eat sufficiently during 15s and 10s.

Please remember that the stimulus for growth has nothing to do with any specific rep count or rep range, but has everything to do with the frequency, progression, and effective SD as per the HST principles. So in theory you should be growing at a constant rate throughout the cycle, but this doesn't always happen due to the way people eat and implement the HST program.

- Blade


aha..this was the post i was talking about it was in FAQ section....
 
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