[Distilled Water]

I know there are a lot of guys out there that want to bulk but keep the abs. Ok pretty much every newb between the ages of 18-24. I myself have experimented with many different bulking diets over the course of the last 5 years or so. I can not eat a lot of carbs and I finally have it all down (for myself everyone is different)

I am making this in hopes to help and refer a lot of the Newb's that come on here and for reference. I know there are a lot of other people, more knowledgeable than myself, who have done similar threads. I'm just trying to help the community.

Im not going to go into the science of things or how they work. 1 because its alot of reading some people dont understand and 2 Some of it I dont understand and im going with what gives me results.

Chapter 1: Diet

Carbs

You dont have to be afraid of them just know how and when to use them. I have used WMS, Dextrose, Malto etc... before and they seem to work well I get the same benifits and stay leaner using brown rice and oatmeal. Try and stick the bulk of your carbs in the morning, pre and post workout. It's ok to fit some in between but try and keep them lower. I usually try and get between 30-50gr at each of these times. Working my way up to 75 and usually capping it there. I also like to stick to low GI carbs. Since Im sensative to insulin my body doesn't need that huge spike of blood sugar really to drive those nutrients

Example of how I'd run a 12 week bulk using no insulin modulating supps after coming off a low-carb diet (cutting).

Meal 1 (8am)
week 1-4: 35gr carbs
week 5-8: 45gr carbs
week 9-12: 55gr carbs

Pre-Workout (2-2:30pm)
Week 1-4: 35gr carbs
Week 5-8: 45 carbs
Week 9-12: 55 carbs

Post Workout
Week 1-4: 30gr carbs
Week 5-8: 40gr carbs
Week 9-12: 50gr carbs

Post Workout Meal Meal(1 hr after post workout shake/meal)
Week 1-12: 40gr carbs

*Help from AM's StrategicMove

Now adding carbs between these meals is ok to. Infact I do! I usually keep it to a 1/4cup (dry) brown rice. Which gives me about 35gr of carbs. You can also add some beans to your rice to increase fiber and lower the GI of the carbs.

I dont really like to take in carbs after about 7pm there is much debate about this but I just dont do it...period. Usually my post workout food meal is at about 6:30 and leaves me good for the rest of the night with carb cravings.

Types of carbs

These are the carbs I stick to which work best for me. I listed them with a measure to give you an idea of how many carbs your getting from each. ALL MEASURES ARE DRY

Oatmeal: 1 cup=~50gr carbs
Brown Rice: 1/4cup=~35gr carbs
Sweet Potato: med=~40gr carbs
Pinto Beans: 1/4cup=~20gr carbs

I like sweet potatoes with some splenda, cinnamon and spray butter for a change up.

I will sometimes add blueberries or other fruits to my oatmeal in the morning for a nice change up that wont really effect my blood sugar and are pack'd full of good anti-oxidents.

Protein

Well again I've tried 1gr/1.5/2gr per lb of bodyweight. I found my sweet spot is about 1.5-1.75gr per 1lb of bodyweight for bulking or cutting. I try and get an even amount with each meal. I opt for shakes in the morning to get that quick hit of protein after being fasted for 8 hrs.

Types of protein powders

Whey: digest rather quickly and is enexpensive. Great for morning, pre and post workout.
Taste: ATW has some great taseting stuff. Highly Advise it

Egg: Medium digestion here. Great for anytime of the day price is slightly higher than Whey last I knew.
Taste: Well its egg protein so everything taste kinda eggy. Good to add to a blend. Look at Trueprotein.com

Casien: Slower digestion protein. Great before bed or inbetween meals. Price also is about on par with egg.
Taste: Thick and creamy (no homo) Optimum Nutrition choc. taste great.

Milk: 80/20 blend of Casien and Whey. Great for before bed and between meals.
Taste: Bland and kinda chalky.
Gemma Pea: Medium digestion and lactose free. Good for inbetween meals for those who dont handle lactose well.
Taste: Well its hit or miss. Kind of a slight vegtable chalky taste. Less liquid used the better it taste IMO

Great Food Sources of lean protein
About 8oz of each will equal about 50gr of protein
Chicken
steak
ground beef
tuna
talapia
turkey

eggs (regular size)
-whole egg equals 6gr of protein, egg white is about 4gr

Fats

I try to keep my fat intake medium. I try and keep them away from my 2 post workout meals completely. With breakfast I try to get between 10-15gr and the rest of the meals 5-10. Before bed I will usually do some fish oil (2gr) Cla (2gr) and 1TBS of Flax Oil (14gr)

Being natural it is important to keep fat intake up to help support health testosterone and hormone levels. cholesterol is the building block of testosterone. It's not evil!!! Egg yolks are great IMO. I usually throw 1t of olive oil in with my meals for a little flavor and healthy fats.

Good Fats
Flax Oil
Fish Oil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Grapeseed Oil
Safflower Oil
egg yolks
coconut oil (steveoph )
natty pb (motiV )

Total Calories

You need to find your maintenance range. You can do this using google and searching "Maintenance Calories" It will ask you a few questions and give you AN IDEA of what you need. to maintain your current weight. Since we are trying to add mass we need to be in a caloric surplus to help build muscle. I usually do 500 cals above my maintence for about 4 weeks then bump up another 500cals.

Take measurements and gauge your progress in the mirror to asses if you need to bump cals or maybe even drop to just a 250 surplus.

Cheat Meals are also ok!!!! 1-2 a week shouldn't hurt your progress of obtaining lean muscle mass. Say one sunday and wed should be fine. Remember your bulking, so dont be a total diet slave.

Example Diet 1st 4 weeks

This is using Insulin Manipulaters

Meal 1
4 egg whites
2 whole eggs
1 scoop Whey in skim milk/soy/water
1 cup Oatmeal

Meal 2
8oz chicken
1/4 cup Brown Rice
1/2 cup green beans
2t EVOO

Meal 3 (Pre-Workout)
2 scoops Whey
1 cup Oatmeal
OR
1/3cup Brown Rice
2t MCT oil

Post-Workout
2 scoops Whey
1/2 cup Brown Rice White Ric mix (stil total of 1/4 cup)

Post Wokrout Meal
8oz Chicken
1/3 cup Brown Rice
1/2 cup Green Beans
2t. EVOO

Meal 6
1 scoop Casien
1 cup FF Cottage Cheese
OR
4 egg whites & 2 whole eggs
1TBS Flax Oil

Totals
Protein: 315gr
Carbs: 225gr
Fat: 80gr
Calories: ~2,900

[Distilled Water]

Chapter 2: Training

Geeze there are a ton of "bulking" routine's out there.

DC Training
Max-OT
HST
German Volume Training (GVT)
5X5
Westside

and if I didn't name your favorite I apologize.

There are a varity of rep ranges to train in and I feel that mixing them in is great. Always keep your body guessing. You will also what to change up your routine ever 6-8 weeks. For some guys they have to every 4 weeks because they're body adapt very quikcly. Well mine is stupid so I can do something for 8 weeks before gains start to slow.

Now you can't expect to gain as much as you did in the beginning as at the end or when your switching routines. If you didn't we'd all be benching 400+lbs for reps.

Switching up your routine may be as sublte as just changeing rep ranges or order of you split. I reccomend changeing exercises for example going from Barebell to dumbell to smith machine. Dumbell flys to machine to cable crossover etc....

Before starting any workout it is important to warm up. Doing 5min walk on the tredmil followed by 3-4 warm up sets should do. Useing a weight you could easily do 50 times for say 2 sets of 25 then putting on a little more and completing 20 reps. these should not tax you AT ALL. Just get the good juices flowin'

For myself I find a 6 day split the best. Here's what my workouts consist of

Monday: Chest
Incline barbell Bench
Flat Dumbbell Bench
Weight Dips leaning forward
Dumbbell Flys
-Usually completing 3-4sets per exercise in the 12-6 rep range

Tuesday: Back
Weighted Pull Ups
barbell Rows
T-Bar Row
Rack deads or Back extentions
-Usually completing 3-4sets per exercise in the 12-6 rep range

Wednesday: Shoulders
Standing Over-heard barbell press
Side DB raise
Rear Delt Machine
Wide Frip Upright Rows
barbell Shrugs
-Usually completing 3-4sets per exercise in the 15-8 rep range

Thursday: Triceps
Close Grip Bench Press
Over head DB Extentions
Reverse Grip Press Downs
-Usually completing 3-4sets per exercise in the 12-6 rep range

Friday: Biceps
Standing barbell Curls
Close Grip Preacher Curls
Seated Dumbbell curls
Hammer Curls
-Usually completing 3sets per exercise in the 12-6 rep range

Saturday: Legs
Barbell Squats
Good Mornings
Leg Extensions
Stiff-legged Deadlifts
-Usually completing 4sets per exercise in the 12-6 rep range

Sunday: OFF

Ab and Calf Training
I will usually do a mon/thur and tue/fri split with these. Doing about 6 sets for each muscle

Ab exercise
Weight Rope Crunches
Decline Bench Sit ups
Swiss ball sit ups
Floor Crunches
Jack Knife sit ups

Calf
Seated calf raise
standing calf raise
Hack squat calf rasie
-basically anything to push up with your toes

When I decrease reps I increase weight by 5-10lbs so for example is I bench 100lbs for 12 reps on my first set, next set i'll do 105-110 for 10 reps.

Cardio

Yes even though bulking its stil a good idea to keep up on some cardio. Keep that metabolism high and keep that fat away. I recommend doing some low intesity cardio for 20min 2-3 times per week.

Something as simple as a bike ride or evening walk would work great.

I usually will hit the gym and walk on a 5 incline and 3.0 speed for 20min's. Seems to work well.

[Distilled Water]

chapter 3 Supplements

The holy grail :evil: no not really They may account for 10% maybe 15% at the very most of your gains. So if your looking to add 10lbs and do so successfully 1lb probably came from your supplementation. Some people may arugue "well than why did so and so get X from supplement Y" Well either A.) the person is lieing of 2.) That person's diet and training are on point 100% and probably have been for 3 months or so. THATS WHY!!!!

Now I'm going to give you the basic shake down on these. Not support it with any medical journals or anything like that. You all know how to "google" and "webMD". I'm going to go in order of which I think are of the utmost important, to me

1.) Creatine Monohydrate (I'll refer to it as CM below)
-I love this stuff, I eat this s h i t with a spoon....literally Nothing has more positive science behind it that CM. There are alos many arguements about how to take it and how much. I have tried a few things and found this is what works best FOR ME.

Dose 1: 5gr Just before Breakfast
Dose 2: 5gr just before my Pre-Workout meal
Dose 3: 5gr Post workout with my shake
Dose 4: 5gr before bed.
-sometimes this keeps me up, sometimes it doesn't maybe its the CM maybe not.

You might say 20gr a DAY!!!! Why so much. Well because I keep seeing a positive return from taking that much. It's cheap to NP has 1,000gr for $13 so whatever. On non-workout days I'll just do 5-10 in the morning and 5-10 later in the day ~8hrs or so.

I DO bloat up while on this, pretty bad in fact but I dont care Im bulking and to lift and extra 15-20lbs to have a few lbs of water is ok by me. Keep the water intake high and you should be alright.

I also do not purposely cycle CM. I run it until I run out then wait to put an order in so sometimes I'll go off of it for a month or so. I dont really see a need in cycling it personally but this is all personal preference IMO.

2.) Glutamine

I know I'll probably get ripp'd for this one but I DONT CARE. Some say its a placebo effect but whatever. I feel a noticeable increase in recovery while using it and less loss of LBM when dieting. I've done both cutting and bulk with and without it. I will stick with it. 60% of free-form amino acids floating in skeletal muscles is L-glutamine and levels are significantly lowered after training so why not have as much as possible

*I dose this with my creatine

3.) Insulin manipulators.

I have used P-Slin, Neovar (both), Anabolic Pump, ALA, Vanadyl Sulfate and chromium picolinate.

The last 3 do give me hypo symtoms and I feel have their place. They are cheaper, less effective IMO, alternatives to the first 3. If in a pinch with $ I think a combo of the 3 taken with breakfast and post workout would work well. You can pick up 2 months worth of all 3 at NP for about $20. All of these will help keep blood sugar levels more stable and push nutrients into the muscles.

The first 3 are new aged products. I like all three of them. Being carb sensitive they are great to keep carb intake high and glycogen stores full to help add some nice size and incredible strength. I'd opt for the Pslin last as it is only used pre-workout or as a stack with AP or NeoVar.

As for NeoVar and Anabolic pump I take in the morning, pre and post workout. I take those with my Creatine and GLutamine. The fullness and strength gains are insane. The biggest thing is that my waist stays down while using these products.

4.) Fish Oil

Extra Calories It only gives you a few but that was mainly a joke. I use this to help with joints, anti-oxident, healthy skin, and as an EFA to aid in being anabolic. I recently mega-dosed this (30gr/day) and added a few extra lbs than I thought I would have during my bulk. I had zero joint issues and slightly oily scalp (more than normal my scalps usually dry). I probably wont mega-dose again but keeping your fish oil intake higher,IMO, can only help you. I am now doseing 2gr with each meal (excludes post workout) for 10gr/day.

5.) Multi-Vitamin

I know some people say it's most important but if your sticking to your diet with greens your not in too much trouble. IMO its not going to make or break the bulk. However they are cheap like $10 for NOW's multi and it's awesome so no real reason not to pick it up. You can afford 10

Total Cost
Creatine Mono 1,000gr (50days @20gr): $13.00
Glutamine 1,000gr(50days @ 20gr): $24
Insulin Modulators
-AP: $42
-NeoVar: $24
ALA300mg/100+VS10mg/100+CP200mcg/100(50days)= $19
Fish Oil 1000caps..100days @ 10gr): $25
Multi Vit (60days): $15
GRAND TOTAL: $96-119

Thats not bad for 2months of supps that WILL give results.

Ohh and almost forgot

DIGESTIVE ENZYMES

Make sure your getting all you can out of your food and keepin things moving.

[smshannon001]

i have been doin the 5x5 for... 4 weeks now? and i plan on keepin it up til the end of this week and one more.. (then a 4 day vacation) and ima try somethin along the lines of trainin you got goin here but i was thinkin doin each body part 2 times a week still with a 12-10-8-6 or so breakdown on reps

[Inarius]

great advice!!! Bookmarked fo' sho

[Manimalia]

this was a truly selfless act, typing all this up the way you did. you're showing how to keep it basic. thank you, sir.

[Botch]

Nice work D-Dubs, I know this will help out a lot of people!

[Inarius]

thanks and a bump for the new info...
Im not sure about glutamin but i know that wal mart sells it rather cheap... Any thoughts on this?

[Distilled Water]

Originally Posted by Inarius

thanks and a bump for the new info...
Im not sure about glutamin but i know that wal mart sells it rather cheap... Any thoughts on this?

Yea its a love or hate type supplement. I advise everyone to at least try it out. You can get 500gr at NP for like $15 and thats a months worth of a higher dose. Not to bad IMO. From there you can decide if its worth buying again.

[Inarius]

Thanks for all the info... I'll be getting my hands on some glutamine soon

[Distilled Water]

Originally Posted by Inarius

Thanks for all the info... I'll be getting my hands on some glutamine soon

It has a lot of soild anti-catabolic properties but I think needs to be dosed higher to see results I really dont think your gonna see much from just 5gr a day or even 10gr. 20 seems to be the minimum for myself.

[metroba]

awesome thread! This needs to be stickied