Quick Questions

[DarkAdonis5]

I'll be finishing up my first cycle next week, and I have a couple of questions for you guys.

First is I've been bulking during this cycle and a little bit before, for about roughly 12 weeks or so. While I've made some gains, I havent gotten to the weight or general size I want yet.

I've heard that bulking is more effective after cutting, so i was wondering if perhaps the longer i bulk the less effective it might be? So i do a long cycle of cutting before bulking again?

As far as the weights for my second cycle, should i just test my maxes again or do some kind of added weight increment to the numbers from my first cycle?

Thanks!

 

[Totentanz]

The only reason bulking becomes less effective is because your calorie requirements go up. If you simply increase your calorie intake as you become larger, you can continue to gain weight steadily. If you haven't hit your weight goal, just run a couple more cycles as bulkers. I would probably recommend going a bit beyond your goal weight, that way when you cut down, you will remain closer to your goal weight after you are lean.

Don't retest your maxes for your second cycle. When you get to your 5 RM this cycle, then on the next workouts keep increasing the weight until you find your new 5 RM. Use your new 5 RMs to build your next cycle.

 

[Lol]

<div>
(Totentanz @ May 04 2006,00:58)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Don't retest your maxes for your second cycle.  When you get to your 5 RM this cycle, then on the next workouts keep increasing the weight until you find your new 5 RM.  Use your new 5 RMs to build your next cycle.</div>
Yeah, and once you know your new 5RMs just increase your 15RMs and 10RMs by about 5 or 10lbs (depending on the exercise). If your 5RM for a particular exercise has gone up a lot then a little more than that might be OK but don't push it too far too soon. When you reach your next 15RM and 10RM workouts make a note of how easy or hard it is to get the reps. This will give you a guage for how much to increase them next time around.

If you make these increases then over the course of a year you will be adding at least 25-50lbs to your lifts. Could be considerably more though if you started out untrained. My squat 5RM has gone from 235lb to 315lb in 3 cycles which means I've been able to add 40lbs a cycle so far!