10 Valuable Lessons I Learned While Bulking
- bradleyhaag
- Dec 28, 2014
- 3 min read
It’s easy and hard to eat a lot
For roughly the past five years I’ve been eating a 90% paleo style diet. In a nutshell, that means I eat a lot of veggies, healthy fats, and animal protein. The problem I face with eating this way while bulking is that eating nutrient dense food can make it hard to eat a lot. For example, when I eat a huge omelet filled with vegetables for breakfast I’m not hungry again until the afternoon. On the contrary, I notice when I eat “less” nutrient dense foods it’s easy to over consume (even for someone trying to gain weight). As with anything it took some experimenting and balancing to find an effective way to take in calories. For me, the secret was my post work out meal. I found I could take in the bulk of my calories then, even with nutrient dense foods such as sweet potatoes, grass fed steak, and leafy green vegetables.
Counting calories/macros just works.
Given the problem above I decided to use a calorie/ macronutrient tracking system to get a better idea of what exactly I was putting into my body. As any bodybuilder will tell you tracking what you eat just “works” (assuming your macro-nutrients are balanced). During my 6 week bulking protocol I aimed for 3200-3600 calories a day (higher end on workout days) with 50-60% of those calories coming from healthy fats 20-30% coming from Carbs and lastly 15-25% coming from protein. As with everything on my blog, this is what works for me and isn’t a prescription for you. This being said, I tend a find almost everyone trying to bulk can get a good estimate of calorie consumption by simply multiplying their body weight by 20.
Protein powder is overrated
When tracking my food, I quickly find that eating “real” food provided plenty of protein. As I explained in the this article, you don’t need nearly as much protein as many meatheads would have you believe. The RDA recommends .8 grams per pound of bodyweight, I rounded up to a gram and always met or exceed this number with real food.
It’s one or the other not both (strength or cardio).
When I started this bulking program I intended to “maintain” my triathlon fitness by swimming, biking, and running once a week in addition to bulking workouts. Within 2 weeks of starting this program, I found that this simply didn’t work. My legs would be too sore the day after weight training for cardio or If I did cardio the day before a weight session I wouldn’t be as fresh for the workout. I had a feeling this would happen but like most stubborn triathletes, I had to learn the hard the way.
Rest days or a must.
When you're doing 50 barbell back squats in a row with more than your bodyweight, you're going to need a rest day, period.
You can’t afford “bad” days
While in triathlon training there are many days when you can “work through” a workout even if your sleep or nutrition aren’t perfect, or you’re just not feeling 100%. When it comes to bulking workouts you have to be 100% ready for every work out, no exceptions, no outworking a lack a sleep or poor nutritional choice.
Dan John is truly a genius.
With respect to Dan John’s work I won’t disclose his entire program (although you can see a sample workout here), but let me say he is truly an expert. Like seriously, he’s knows his stuff. As a personal trainer who has coached a few dozen guys in bulking programs, I tip my hat to Dan John and can honestly say his program brought me to levels I might not have achieved following my own program. I’m now implementing many of his methods with my current clients (with permission from Dan John).
Bulking can be depressing for fitness addicts.
Given the fact I’ve been a triathlete for the past 6 years and was a gym rat before that, I’m used to training 7-10 times a week instead of 3-5. I found having to literally do nothing on rest days to be kind of depressing.
Power naps are an amazing thing.
On workout days I will always give myself a 90min block for the workout. 45min for the actual workout, 15min for cleaning up, and 30min for a power nap. After each workout I slip into a coma like state which I found really helped with recovery. In addition to eating a lot, I would say that power naps contribute to gains.
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