It’s fall, and that means that most people will be starting up their bulking cycles– \u00a0I know I will be soon. \u00a0Why fall, though, and why bulk at all? \u00a0Well, to start, physique competitions take place in the spring, summer, and early fall, so you use fall and winter to bulk, and spring to cut down.<\/p>\n
Great, but why bulk?<\/strong><\/p>\n Bulking is an opportunity to add muscle mass, which is what will provide your body with muscle tone when you lose body fat. \u00a0Also, you can bulk if you want to increase strength and body mass, which have many benefits, including increased metabolic rate, and increased performance. \u00a0It’s not just for men, either– \u00a0Both men and women can benefit from a bulking cycle, whether short or long. \u00a0It’s very easy to make mistakes while bulking, though, and here are some helpful tips to help keep you on track!<\/p>\n Tip #1: \u00a0Keep your calories in check.<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s very easy to say, “I’m bulking” while you scarf down pizzas and milkshakes. \u00a0However, many organizations recommend an increase of just 200 to 300 calories above maintenance requirements per day to bulk. \u00a0Bodybuilding lore says 500 calories above maintenance so you gain a pound per week. \u00a0Either way, bulking is not an excuse to eat whatever you want– \u00a0It’s almost a guarantee that you will gain fat while bulking, but eating an excessive amount of calories will increase the amount of body fat you accumulate, which will make your cutting cycle more difficult. \u00a0Aim to eat between 200 and 500 calories above maintenance, and stick to it! \u00a0If one day you end up going crazy, that’s fine– \u00a0It’s just a day. \u00a0Try not to make a habit of it, though, or you may be angry about it down the road. . .<\/p>\n Tip #2: \u00a0Focus on compound movements.<\/strong><\/p>\n Work efficiently in the gym. \u00a0The big compound movements are fantastic for mass building, and they’re also good at training multiple muscles at once– \u00a0Why do triceps press, pectoral flyes, and dumbbell front raise, when you can just do the bench press? \u00a0If you spend all of your time doing isolation work, you run the risk of your training sessions stretching out way too long, which could lead to muscle catabolism, which is the exact opposite of what you want during a bulking cycle.<\/p>\n Tip #3: \u00a0Adjust your calories as you go.<\/strong><\/p>\n Remember that as you gain muscle, your caloric needs will increase. \u00a0Be sure to weigh yourself regularly, measure body fat regularly, and adjust your calorie and macro nutrients accordingly. \u00a0This is especially important if you only eat moderately above maintenance, instead of the 500 or more calories above.<\/p>\n Tip #4: \u00a0Keep a workout journal.<\/strong><\/p>\n While increasing the resistance \/ load isn’t the only way to increase muscle mass, it is an important factor. \u00a0Keep a workout journal as you exercise so that you can track how many reps at what resistance you’re doing. \u00a0If you repped out last time you did Squats at 185 lbs., it’s time to add weight. \u00a0Without a workout journal, it’s very easy to not know how much weight you did last time. \u00a0You can also use this to keep track of how you felt during certain exercises, different settings you used on selectorized machines, and much more. \u00a0While we’re at it. . .<\/p>\n Tip #5: \u00a0Don’t go to the gym to “workout.” \u00a0Go to “train.”<\/strong><\/p>\n What’s the difference between working out and training? \u00a0If you workout, you spend just as much time chatting as you do lifting. \u00a0If you workout, you saunter around doing whatever exercise you think feels like a good idea. \u00a0If you workout, you may or may not warmup. \u00a0If you workout, you do 3 sets of 10 on everything.<\/p>\n If you train, you’re going to go into the gym with a plan. \u00a0You will warm up, and will have clear goals. \u00a0You will monitor your rest periods, know what weight you should be lifting, and and will track your progress. \u00a0You will know how many sets you plan on doing, what rep scheme you should be doing, and will train to failure (or near to it) rather than reach an arbitrary number and call it a day. \u00a0You will remain focused.<\/p>\n Training is effective. \u00a0Working out is a chore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s fall, and that means that most people will be starting up their bulking cycles– \u00a0I know I will be soon. \u00a0Why fall, though, and why bulk at all? \u00a0Well, to start, physique competitions take place in the spring, summer, and early fall, so you use fall and winter to bulk, and spring to cut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-body-building","category-fitness","category-nutrition"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3DfsS-dd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":820,"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions\/820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devinephysiques.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}