Jun
7
Reader Q&A - Bulk up exercises?
Filed Under Building Muscles, Reader Q&A, Work Out
NOTE - I have a few more questions to answer, so will be doing that for the rest of the week, and then it’s back to the normal 60 in 3 series next week.
Today’s question comes from a reader in Asia who asks about bulk up exercises, or exercises that make your muscles larger. To be honest, I don’t know much about this since bulking up was never one of my goals. So I did a bit of reading and came up with the following:
High Weight, Low Reps
Essentially, bulking up uses the same exercises as normal fitness workouts. The only two big differences I found were in the weights used and the reps. People who want to bulk up typically do a lower number of reps with much higher weights. So for example, where I usually do 10 reps per set, they would do 5 reps but with 50 to 100% more weight.
This is an important tip for women by the way, who typically avoid weight workouts because they’re afraid they’ll bulk up. A normal fitness workout with sets of 10 to 15 reps will NOT bulk you up. It will simply make your muscles look more toned and defined. You’ll lose the flab without putting on huge muscles.
Protein, The Basic Building Block of Muscles
One other note for those who are trying to bulk up. Your diet is going to be slightly different. Building muscles takes a lot of calories, especially protein. It’s actually difficult if not impossible to build muscles while losing weight. So make sure you have the correct goal in mind when you design a fitness routine. If you’re looking to build big muscles then you’re going to be adding protein to your diet and not doing as much cardio.
Summary
Again, always know what your goals are before you design your fitness routine. Are you trying just to lose weight? Are you looking to tone up? Bulk up? These are all different goals and require different diets and workouts to achieve. For you folks looking to bulk up, it seems like the basics are low reps, high weights and lots of protein.
If there are any body builders out there who know more about this than I do, would love to hear your opinions and advice. Please feel free to add information in the comments.
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Comments
12 Responses to “Reader Q&A - Bulk up exercises?”
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I find with me that doing my normal 3 sets of 10 reps works fine for bulking up. The one thing that I don’t like when I did do say 4×6 sets is that my muscle endurance ending up taking a dive. For those that want to maintain muscle endurance and bulking up, continue a 3×10 workout and tweak your diet to do a bulking meal plan.
Hi Tyler, thanks for adding your comment.
In what way did you tweak your diet? Is there anything specific you would recommend for people looking to add muscle mass?
Hi Gal,
For those that would like to bulk up more relying on a diet as opposed to more sets, lower rep routine, I suggest taking a good look at your caloric intake. Remember, skimping on calories while trying to build muscle mass does not work or is, at least ,VERY hard to do without extreme diet and exercise precision.
The following has worked for my body type when trying to add muscle mass: 205 lbs, 6′3″, semi-fast metabolism, thinner boned.
Increased my overall caloric intake 1.5-2 times of what I eat normally (normal meaning during summer staying cut but not to the point of having no energy). Protein is the #1 thing your body needs to build muscle mass. I eat about a gram of protein per pound of body weight (in this case, around 200 grams of protein). Quality proteins like chicken, fish, eggs and lean beef are all good. Soy and other veggie proteins are just not the same. Whey protein is also decent. I also eat a healthy amount of good fats (around 86g) and carbs (420 g). I eat lots of veggies - no limit on amount. Also, drink a ton of water - your body needs water to repair muscle and flush out the bad stuff. It also eases the pressure on your liver (liver works hard when it has a lot of protein thrown at it). Make sure all the foods are quality ingredients and make sure to watch the glycemic index of your foods. Stay away from high fructose corn syrups (HFC’s) and trans fats. I recommend every guy here to read “The Abs Diet.” The author is putting out a version for women very soon!
Everyone will have to experiment with what works. There is such a wealth of information on diets, exercises etc on the net that I’m sure you’ll find a meal plan that works. For me, sticking to a meal plan and not deviating from it helps me know EXACTLY what nutrients I am getting everyday without having to calculate it everyday. Do it once and you’re good to go!
Remember, building muscle mass is 80% diet and 20% exercise.
Thank you Tyler, I appreciate the information.
Gal
[...] information in regards to bulking up. You can find his advice in the comments to yesterday’s post about bulking up. If you have advice of your own to share, please feel free to add it into the [...]
I think if you really want to bulk up, you should, train twice a week the most three time a week, and concentrate on compound exercices, like bench presse, squat, and deadlifting, do 4 sets of 6 reps, increase your calories. cardio shoud be no more than 3 times a week and no more than 20 minutes, this cardio should be moderate one, make sure you sleep no less than 8 hours. good luck
Hello amady, thanks for stopping by. Do you repeat the same exercises every day?
Gal
[...] Essentially, bulking up uses the same exercises as normal fitness workouts. People who want to bulk up typically do a lower number of reps with much higher weights.2 [...]
i am 15yrs old and trying to bulk up i have used alot off your advise and was wondering after every set do you add weight or keep the same heavy weight consitently
many thanks
luke
Hello Luke,
These days I do 1 set per exercise per day. However, I change the weight per day. So on Monday I do 10 reps with a normal weight, on Wednesday I do 5 reps with 150% of the weight and on Friday I do 20 reps with 50 to 75% of the weight.
In general, I think working to failure is more important than increasing weight but increasing (or decreasing) weight is one good way to work towards that failure point.
I wrote a post about this today. You can find it here:
http://www.60in3.com/2008/10/22/increase-or-decrease-weight-by-set/
hi gal thanks for the reply you help alot many thanks again
luke
hi gal thanks for the reply you helped alot many thanks again
luke