First time BULKERS apply here ;)

[IrishLassie78]

I'm doing PHAT right now and I love it. I tried to do it a couple of years ago on a cut and that didn't work out so well. I think it's a great option for maintaining/recomping or bulking though. You definitely need adequate food intake to help with the recovery because the volume is pretty brutal. What worked for me was to start on the low end of the recommended rep and set ranges and then working my way up. The other thing you can do when you first start out with it is take out some of the accessory work and then as your body adjusts to the volume, you can add them back in.

[Novesia]

I'm doing PHAT right now and I love it. I tried to do it a couple of years ago on a cut and that didn't work out so well. I think it's a great option for maintaining/recomping or bulking though. You definitely need adequate food intake to help with the recovery because the volume is pretty brutal. What worked for me was to start on the low end of the recommended rep and set ranges and then working my way up. The other thing you can do when you first start out with it is take out some of the accessory work and then as your body adjusts to the volume, you can add them back in.

That is great advice. I'll definitely start on the lower end of things. How do you incorporate deadlifts into the program? Layne Norton says not to include it on the Lower Power day but I was thinking about substituting them with SLDL that day. Or do you just alternate between squats and deadlifts?

[IrishLassie78]

I've been doing dead lifts on the lower power days either instead of squats or doing them and also doing a squat variation just with lighter weight to work on form. I'm going to switch things up after this little deload I'm taking now and going heavy with squats and then doing a lighter variation with the dead lifts.

[sigen92]

Aaaaand of course I managed to get sick. Currently sporting a blocked nose, high fever, and a perpetual headache. There's no way I'm gonna make it the gym. However, nothing is wrong with my appetite (I guess that's my superpower, I'm always hungry ), so I was wondering what you guys would advice me to do. I stepped on the scale this morning and was down 1lbs, which I attribute to simply being water-weight. I really don't want to lose my progress, though, so should I keep eating my bulking calories while I'm ill, or should I take it down to maintenance and then bump them up again once I'm better and can work out again?

[Novesia]

Aaaaand of course I managed to get sick. Currently sporting a blocked nose, high fever, and a perpetual headache. There's no way I'm gonna make it the gym. However, nothing is wrong with my appetite (I guess that's my superpower, I'm always hungry ), so I was wondering what you guys would advice me to do. I stepped on the scale this morning and was down 1lbs, which I attribute to simply being water-weight. I really don't want to lose my progress, though, so should I keep eating my bulking calories while I'm ill, or should I take it down to maintenance and then bump them up again once I'm better and can work out again?

I would take it down to maintenance while you're not going to the gym. You won't lose your progress from not lifting for a couple of days and eating less food. Hope you're feeling better lady I felt sick pretty much all weekend too but am of course better now that the week has started. Ew!

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Edit: Just thought about this a bit more. I would probably not count at all while I'm sick and just eat when I'm hungry (even if that means that I'm going over my calories). Your body will need the food to get better.

[sigen92]

I would take it down to maintenance while you're not going to the gym. You won't lose your progress from not lifting for a couple of days and eating less food. Hope you're feeling better lady I felt sick pretty much all weekend too but am of course better now that the week has started. Ew!

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Edit: Just thought about this a bit more. I would probably not count at all while I'm sick and just eat when I'm hungry (even if that means that I'm going over my calories). Your body will need the food to get better.

Thanks! Yeah, I've not counted at all. Making sure I include some protein with all my foods, but apart from that, I can't be bothered to count when I'm ill. My fever seems to have broken, though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm all better tomorrow. I have a nasty habit of feeling slightly better during the day, only to have the fever come back with a vengeance at night.

Sorry to hear you were ill too! It's truly the worst... Especially when you're so ill you don't even feel like watching TV or reading, only lying in bed in some sort of semi-comatose state

[CRascoll]

I would take it down to maintenance while you're not going to the gym. You won't lose your progress from not lifting for a couple of days and eating less food. Hope you're feeling better lady I felt sick pretty much all weekend too but am of course better now that the week has started. Ew!

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Edit: Just thought about this a bit more. I would probably not count at all while I'm sick and just eat when I'm hungry (even if that means that I'm going over my calories). Your body will need the food to get better.

Agreed.

[CRascoll]

Ah, I see! Will do! How do you work it around training? I think you mentioned earlier that you work out in the morning. It's pretty eye-opening that you still get great results even though you don't eat a post-workout meal! Been so used to the mindset of 'having' to eat right after my workout...

I take aminos afterwards and don't eat til the afternoon-it's a personal preference- and I haven't lost strength, the catabolism demons haven't snatched my muscles. I actually hit a 195lb deadlift yesterday, 200+ is coming soon. I think what helps me is the sheer amount of carbs I eat at night, which are readily available for my morning lifts. I used to think that eating right before I trained would give me instanly available carbs, but it just doesn't work like that when your body is still digesting, IMO.

Completely unrelated, have you ladies ever heard of the PHAT routine (Power Hypertrophy Adaptive Training)? Anyone ever tried it? It looks really interesting but the volume scares me a bit.

I liked PHAT a lot, and ran it for a bit. The volume isn't bad, just rest as needed; sometimes people try to do high volume and barely rest or try to circuit, which is retarded.

[CRascoll]

Probably flirting with 140 right now and damn I got some hip and lower belly squish. I can't bring myself to cut yet, though. I'm finally starting to see gains in almost all moves by either weight or reps. The only lift that has stalled is my squat, but that's due to 2 disc issues in my back that completely messed my form up. Now it's almost like I have to start from scratch, but the back squats bother my back way too much lately. Been going heavy with DL's and pulled 195 yesterday

[Novesia]

I take aminos afterwards and don't eat til the afternoon-it's a personal preference- and I haven't lost strength, the catabolism demons haven't snatched my muscles. I actually hit a 195lb deadlift yesterday, 200+ is coming soon. I think what helps me is the sheer amount of carbs I eat at night, which are readily available for my morning lifts. I used to think that eating right before I trained would give me instanly available carbs, but it just doesn't work like that when your body is still digesting, IMO.

I liked PHAT a lot, and ran it for a bit. The volume isn't bad, just rest as needed; sometimes people try to do high volume and barely rest or try to circuit, which is retarded.

Agreed - it's probably less volume than what I'm currently doing so I'm not too concerned about it. I"ll definitely take the 2 days completely off or just come in for foam rolling/stretching that day.

Probably flirting with 140 right now and damn I got some hip and lower belly squish. I can't bring myself to cut yet, though. I'm finally starting to see gains in almost all moves by either weight or reps. The only lift that has stalled is my squat, but that's due to 2 disc issues in my back that completely messed my form up. Now it's almost like I have to start from scratch, but the back squats bother my back way too much lately. Been going heavy with DL's and pulled 195 yesterday

Yeah, don't cut yet! Don't leave us Seriously though - as long as it's as nasty and cold and snowy outside it's not cutting weather season! Ride the gain train couple weeks longer!

[CRascoll]

Not for nothing, but my biceps HAVE to be the weakest part of my body. Not that I do it much, but my curl game is laughable!

[sigen92]

Whoop! I'm back! So, lost a kilo, but I'm fueling properly now that I'm slightly better. Also, the rest was really good for me, went to te gym and absolutely smashed most of my PBs! My squat is now 57.5kg, never thought I'd lift that much in such a short amount of time to be honest! Just a few more kg, and I'm squatting my bodyweight!

[chelseaspinos]

Hi everyone!

So 2 weeks ago I injured my left hip flexor (fairly minor but still have been unable to train lower body). I was bulking beforehand and planned to continue bulking for another 2 months. However, I have been advised to not jump back into high volume training or high intensity training right away, as I have to slowly ease into training to prevent a re-occuring injury.

This concerns me since I know you have to go hard in the gym while bulking to see results and I just won't realistically be able to do that for another month or two

Should I begin cutting a bit of fat while trying to get back into training? Or could that be detrimental to maintaining muscle?

Any advice would be well appreciated!

[sigen92]

Hi everyone!

So 2 weeks ago I injured my left hip flexor (fairly minor but still have been unable to train lower body). I was bulking beforehand and planned to continue bulking for another 2 months. However, I have been advised to not jump back into high volume training or high intensity training right away, as I have to slowly ease into training to prevent a re-occuring injury.

This concerns me since I know you have to go hard in the gym while bulking to see results and I just won't realistically be able to do that for another month or two

Should I begin cutting a bit of fat while trying to get back into training? Or could that be detrimental to maintaining muscle?

Any advice would be well appreciated!

I wouldn't start cutting, how much can you actually do with lower body? You can still hit upper body hard, while training lower body with lighter weight/less volume, no? Correct me if I'm wrong, I don't want to just assume what you can and can't do

But yes, I believe that if you really don't like the idea of bulking while you're injured, at most I'd go bak to maintaining. How long would it take for the injury to heal?

[bulkingprincess]

I wouldn't start cutting, how much can you actually do with lower body? You can still hit upper body hard, while training lower body with lighter weight/less volume, no? Correct me if I'm wrong, I don't want to just assume what you can and can't do

But yes, I believe that if you really don't like the idea of bulking while you're injured, at most I'd go bak to maintaining. How long would it take for the injury to heal?

Agreed--either switch to maintaining or slightly above maintaining if you can still work upper body hard.

[Spark77]

Hi everyone!

So 2 weeks ago I injured my left hip flexor (fairly minor but still have been unable to train lower body). I was bulking beforehand and planned to continue bulking for another 2 months. However, I have been advised to not jump back into high volume training or high intensity training right away, as I have to slowly ease into training to prevent a re-occuring injury.

This concerns me since I know you have to go hard in the gym while bulking to see results and I just won't realistically be able to do that for another month or two

Should I begin cutting a bit of fat while trying to get back into training? Or could that be detrimental to maintaining muscle?

Any advice would be well appreciated!

I had basically the same question a couple months ago, only it was my upper body that was hurt. Every single thing I read on this forum and elsewhere said whatever you do, do NOT cut! Totally agree with the others who have answered your post.

Another piece of advice I read was to view your injury as an opportunity to really hit the non-injured body parts hard. I totally buy into this. In a way, my upper body injury was the best thing that ever happened to my glutes!

I would not worry about "going hard while bulking to see results" when it comes to working out the injured area. Speaking from experience, it's incredibly hard to be patient, but patience will pay off. If you hurt it worse, you most certainly won't see results. And once you are feeling better, it's surprising how quickly the results will start coming in spite of the delay.

Best wishes for a quick recovery!

And to those of you who have been sick/recovering from being sick, hope you are all at 100% soon!

[chelseaspinos]

Thanks ladies for your responses! I'm going to eat very slightly above maintenance for now since I really need to bring up my delts! Today I did some occlusion training for legs during isolation exercises (leg extensions, ham curls, cable kickbacks, cable pull throughs) and felt no pain but got a good pump! Hopefully I will be fine as long as I continue to slowly increase intensity and volume... Patience is hard but I guess you gotta be sensible!

[mariannej5]

Probably flirting with 140 right now and damn I got some hip and lower belly squish. I can't bring myself to cut yet, though. I'm finally starting to see gains in almost all moves by either weight or reps. The only lift that has stalled is my squat, but that's due to 2 disc issues in my back that completely messed my form up. Now it's almost like I have to start from scratch, but the back squats bother my back way too much lately. Been going heavy with DL's and pulled 195 yesterday

I'm curious about how long you've been bulking and where you started. I am also 5'8 and have no idea how long I should go for. I figure I still have a year left because I started at 118lbs

[Spark77]

The answer I keep seeing over and over is "as long as you can stand it." I'm currently 5'5-1/2" and 136 and still have a ways to go. Started a bulk around March 2014, got alllllll the way up to a gargantuan 128 pounds in August, and freaked out and did a cut for 6 weeks. Dumb, dumb, dumb. All I did was waste valuable time that would have been better spent building muscle.

Have currently been bulking since last Sept., so 5 months so far. I'm trying to get up the gumption to keep bulking through the summer. I'm one of those people who live in a swimsuit when it's warm out, so it's gonna be tough, but it will be worth it if I can see it through.

As I posted in another thread, I have successfully wrapped my mind around being perfectly OK with some extra fat in order to gain the muscle...during the cold months. Still worried about being mistaken for Shamu during June, July, and August, though.

[mariannej5]

Yeah I've only been bulking since November truly. I think I have accepted the fat gains well so far. My hubby is really supportive and we have a young toddler so I'm at home a lot of the time anyway. Literally living in sweatpants. I think I'm just impatient to see what I will look like.

The truth really is though WE are so much harder on yourselves than anyone else. You might think that you look like a shamu, but no one else is thinking it.

[midnightisolde]

I've been taking a rest week this week as I've been working out consistently for 8 weeks so I felt like taking a few days extra rest. It was timely too actually as I got a bad cold so I've been staying at home the last few days. I feel better now and did a lower body bodyweight workout yesterday and upper body today with my suspension trainer. Looking forward to getting back to the gym next week and hopefully seeing some improvements thanks to the extra rest.
My appetite has not been affected though! I've just eaten as desired this week seeing as I wasn't well. My weight seems stable or perhaps a slight loss at the moment, but I increased my calories as of last week to 2000kcal so I'll monitor that for a couple more weeks before making changes.

[vhenley164]

I've been taking a rest week this week as I've been working out consistently for 8 weeks so I felt like taking a few days extra rest. It was timely too actually as I got a bad cold so I've been staying at home the last few days. I feel better now and did a lower body bodyweight workout yesterday and upper body today with my suspension trainer. Looking forward to getting back to the gym next week and hopefully seeing some improvements thanks to the extra rest.
My appetite has not been affected though! I've just eaten as desired this week seeing as I wasn't well. My weight seems stable or perhaps a slight loss at the moment, but I increased my calories as of last week to 2000kcal so I'll monitor that for a couple more weeks before making changes.

Staying in is always the best option with a cold

[CRascoll]

I'm curious about how long you've been bulking and where you started. I am also 5'8 and have no idea how long I should go for. I figure I still have a year left because I started at 118lbs

I started this one on September 1 at 130lbs. I'm 140 now with great gains, especially on my upper body which was very small before. Training day calories are 2700. I'm just going until I can't take it anymore. Probably 2-5 more pounds. I feel like I have a solid muscle base at this point, so I can afford to push it.

[sigen92]

Finally back in the gym properly! Last week was an unplanned rest week of sorts, as I had some sinus issues and just generally felt lethargic and tired all the time. However, I'm back now and started this new program, Power, Muscle, Burn. Here's the link if you'd like to check it out: http://www.muscleandstrength.com/wor...out-split.html

I've been doing 5x5 3 times a week till now, but it reached a point where I just couldn't recover properly between the workouts, so I figured a split routine might be a better option. Weight is up to 131 this week, so happy about that! However, you still can't see any gains, I still have small sticks for legs and a flat stomach, so I'm happily eating away!

[midnightisolde]

I've also been back in the gym this morning since taking last week off due to fatigue starting to set in and cold related illness as well Sigen. I did Workout A from Strong Curves weeks 5-8 (I'm currently in week 7 this week). I did 3 sets of Barbell glute bridges with 35kg/77lbs - I've done higher weight than this before Christmas on my first round of SC beginners but I've gone back with the weight a bit as I want to make sure I'm getting maximum activation. Also did 3x8-10 of one arm dumbbell rows with 14kg/30lbs and incline dumbbell bench press with 20kg/45lbs, as well as deficit reverse lunges (18kg/39lbs) which I hate! lol But they feel more effective than ordinary reverse lunges, so I persevere with them. My weights are not big numbers compared to others, but they are challenging for me and I set a PR for the rows and I get stronger pretty regularly as I'm still a newbie.
Also did some rack pulls for 3x10-12, starting with 30kg/66lbs and up to 40kg/88lbs and 45kg/99lbs. I was scheduled to do RDLs but the bar wasn't available (seems to have vanished!) and I don't like doing them with the fixed weight ones, so I used the rack and its bar as it was free and the gym wasn't busy. First time doing the rack pulls, but I understand how to do them and am pleased with my starting numbers for them.
As for meals, so far I've had:
1- whey protein, banana and almond milk shake mixed with some cottage cheese which works oddly enough.
2 - protein bar and BCAAs. Cappuccino with semi-skimmed milk
3 - salad with two boiled eggs, smoked salmon, oat flour bread slice and 50g linguine pasta.
4 - porridge with berries, nuts, Greek yoghurt and a plum
5- Dinner will be a grilled chicken breast with sweet potato and veggies, and I may have some ice cream after

[CRascoll]

[QUOTE=midnightisolde;As for meals, so far I've had:
1- whey protein, banana and almond milk shake mixed with some cottage cheese which works oddly enough.
2 - protein bar and BCAAs. Cappuccino with semi-skimmed milk
3 - salad with two boiled eggs, smoked salmon, oat flour bread slice and 50g linguine pasta.
4 - porridge with berries, nuts, Greek yoghurt and a plum
5- Dinner will be a grilled chicken breast with sweet potato and veggies, and I may have some ice cream after [/QUOTE]

You're not hungry with shakes and protein bars? I would starve on your diet! :-)

[CRascoll]

Don't be afraid to feed the machine! I want to give a friendly example of what some of my training day meals look like at 170p/320-350 c/70-80f (2700 cals)

250g sweet potatoes, 8-10 oz chicken, avocado

80 g oats, honey, 5 oz turkey on some type of sandwich, apple, skim milk

150 g pasta, 8 oz chicken or fish or flank steak, olive oil, parmesean cheese

A whole bunch of Cheerios because I love them. With milk and PB sandwich.
Ice cream In my oatmeal to fill calories. And because it's delicious.

These are just a few of some common meals I eat, and I add or subtract food to hit the above macros. I'm just trying to make a point to anyone here that is afraid of blowing up- this is the only way I have been able to build my body. It seriously takes this much food, and then some

[midnightisolde]

You're not hungry with shakes and protein bars? I would starve on your diet! :-)

Ha ha!
The shake I made as a pre-workout as I don't like training with too much food beforehand, but I like to have something at least. It was more of a banana smoothie really with whey protein added. I don't have protein bars that regularly, it was just as I had a lecture at 9am to day so I just brought it in case I didn't have time to go back home to have something after my workout. Usually I prefer to have a more substantial meal afterwards.
I am hungry right now actually as I matter of fact I have been steadily increasing my calories so I'm at 2000 at the moment, and then I will increase some more depending on how that goes.

[midnightisolde]

Don't be afraid to feed the machine! I want to give a friendly example of what some of my training day meals look like at 170p/320-350 c/70-80f (2700 cals)

Ice cream In my oatmeal to fill calories. And because it's delicious.

Ice cream in oatmeal sounds amazing - why didn't I think of that? I love oats and I love ice cream - what could be better than combining them? lol Thanks for the suggestions CRascoll, I will definitely try this.
My meals usually add up to 130g protein/220-240g carbs/60-70g fat for 2000 kcal.

[CRascoll]

Ice cream in oatmeal sounds amazing - why didn't I think of that? I love oats and I love ice cream - what could be better than combining them? lol Thanks for the suggestions CRascoll, I will definitely try this.

Just be sure to put the ice cream in when the oatmeal is super hot..and you'll probably have to nuke it for another minute after