Best Bulking Program?

iBulk

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Hey guys-

I'm no stranger to bodybuilding.com but this is my first post at Anabolic Minds.

I'm 20 years old and I've been lifting for 3 and a half years, with extreme dedication. I gained about 20 pounds in the first 2 years, but I've been plateauing ever since. I've just recently gotten extremely serious about my diet. I'm 6'4, 190 lb and cleanly bulking at about 3500 calories a day.

I'm just wondering what the consensus is on the best bulking plan. I'm thinking of trying Derek Charlebrois' "Bulking for Ectomorphs". Has anyone tried that program? If so, what were your results? Anyone have a better program?

Thanks in advance.
 
PumpHouse

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There really isn't a "best". Just get a program that looks solid, fits your training level & schedule. And EAT!!
 
benmayro

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Hey guys-

I'm no stranger to bodybuilding.com but this is my first post at Anabolic Minds.

I'm 20 years old and I've been lifting for 3 and a half years, with extreme dedication. I gained about 20 pounds in the first 2 years, but I've been plateauing ever since. I've just recently gotten extremely serious about my diet. I'm 6'4, 190 lb and cleanly bulking at about 3500 calories a day.

I'm just wondering what the consensus is on the best bulking plan. I'm thinking of trying Derek Charlebrois' "Bulking for Ectomorphs". Has anyone tried that program? If so, what were your results? Anyone have a better program?

Thanks in advance.
200-300cals above maintenance everyday day
 
iBulk

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@Rodja- Not sure if that was a joke or not, but as I said I'm clean bulking, not piling on fat. I also said I had my calories and diet in order, but I wanted to know the best program to add to that. Anyone actually have any helpful advice?
 
iBulk

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There really isn't a "best". Just get a program that looks solid, fits your training level & schedule. And EAT!!
Ok, thanks brother. I'll probably just go with Charlebrois plan then and eat my a$$ off.
 
rockme

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You got the right idea. Keep increasing your calories slowly. You should definitely be able to get more cals than 3500 at your height. You are also young, so muscle maturity will keep piling on provided you keep training and eating well. But no, don't eat bacon double cheeseburgers in your quest to make gains. Eating like that might make you stronger, but you won't like the way you look
 
iBulk

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You got the right idea. Keep increasing your calories slowly. You should definitely be able to get more cals than 3500 at your height. You are also young, so muscle maturity will keep piling on provided you keep training and eating well. But no, don't eat bacon double cheeseburgers in your quest to make gains. Eating like that might make you stronger, but you won't like the way you look
Maybe I should try for 3750 or so? I've been gaining about a pound a week with 3500 though. But thanks for the solid response, yeah Big Macs might get me gains but not the ones I'm looking for haha.
 

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If Rodja was making a joke, I missed it. AHAHA
Anyway my biggest gain in BW up from say #185 to #250 was done by eating quite a bit more than I was ever used to. And doing a strong heavy regular regimen of the big 7 compound exercises. Move the largest muscles groups ie; legs, hips, back, shoulders, chest and eliciting the greatest propensity for growth thru out the body, and then feed the needed body for recovery and gains.
 
asooneyeonig

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@Rodja- Not sure if that was a joke or not, but as I said I'm clean bulking, not piling on fat. I also said I had my calories and diet in order, but I wanted to know the best program to add to that. Anyone actually have any helpful advice?
he wasnt joking. neither am i. if you want to bulk, eat. if you are not bulking up down the road do NOT look at your training. look at your diet first, then your training.

here is a great story from dave tate on how to gain bulk:


There was a time at the Old Westside gym where I couldn't gain weight to save my f-g life.

There was this dude who trained there who could just put on weight like f-g magic. He'd go from 198 to 308 and then to 275 and back down to 198. And he was never fat. It was amazing.

I finally asked him one day how he did it.

"You mean I never told you the secret to gaining weight? Come outside and I'll fill you in."

Now remember, we're at Westside Barbell. And this guy wants to go outside to talk so no one else can hear. Think about that for a minute. What the hell is he going to tell me? This must be some serious s-t if we have to go outside, I thought.

So we get outside and he starts talking.

"For breakfast you need to eat four of those breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds. I don't care which ones you get, but make sure to get four. Order four hash browns, too. Now grab two packs of mayonnaise and put them on the hash browns and then slip them into the sandwiches. Squish that s-t down and eat. That's your breakfast."

At this point I'm thinking this guy is nuts. But he's completely serious.

"For lunch you're gonna eat Chinese food. Now I don't want you eating that crappy stuff. You wanna get the stuff with MSG. None of that non-MSG BS. I don't care what you eat but you have to sit down and eat for at least 45 minutes straight. You can't let go of the fork. Eat until your eyes swell up and become slits and you start to look like the woman behind the counter."

"For dinner you're gonna order an extra-large pizza with everything on it. Literally everything. If you don't like sardines, don't put 'em on, but anything else that you like you have to load it on there. After you pay the delivery guy, I want you to take the pie to your coffee table, open that f-kr up, and grab a bottle of oil. It can be olive oil, canola oil, whatever. Anything but motor oil. And I want you to pour that s-t over the pie until half of the bottle is gone. Just soak the s-t out of it."

"Now before you lay into it, I want you to sit on your couch and just stare at that f-kr. I want you to understand that that pizza right there is keeping you from your goals."

This guy is in a zen-like state when he's talking about this.

"Now you're on the clock," he continues. "After 20 minutes your brain is going to tell you you're full. Don't listen to that s-t. You have to try and eat as much of the pizza as you can before that 20-minute mark. Double up pieces if you have to. I'm telling you now, you're going to get three or four pieces in and you're gonna want to quit. You f-g can't quit. You have to sit on that couch until every piece is done.

And if you can't finish it, don't you ever come back to me and tell me you can't gain weight. 'Cause I'm gonna tell you that you don't give a f-k about getting bigger and you don't care how much you lift!"

Did I do it? Hell yeah. Started the next day and did it for two months. Went from 260 pounds to 297 pounds. And I didn't get much fatter. One of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, though.
 
napalm

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And cheese, lots of cheese. When I went from ~180 to my current weight, I was eating a 2 lb block if sharp cheddar a week....that's close to 10k calories...

Sent from my iPhone using Am.com
 
rockme

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he wasnt joking. neither am i. if you want to bulk, eat. if you are not bulking up down the road do NOT look at your training. look at your diet first, then your training.

here is a great story from dave tate on how to gain bulk:


There was a time at the Old Westside gym where I couldn't gain weight to save my f-g life.

There was this dude who trained there who could just put on weight like f-g magic. He'd go from 198 to 308 and then to 275 and back down to 198. And he was never fat. It was amazing.

I finally asked him one day how he did it.

"You mean I never told you the secret to gaining weight? Come outside and I'll fill you in."

Now remember, we're at Westside Barbell. And this guy wants to go outside to talk so no one else can hear. Think about that for a minute. What the hell is he going to tell me? This must be some serious s-t if we have to go outside, I thought.

So we get outside and he starts talking.

"For breakfast you need to eat four of those breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds. I don't care which ones you get, but make sure to get four. Order four hash browns, too. Now grab two packs of mayonnaise and put them on the hash browns and then slip them into the sandwiches. Squish that s-t down and eat. That's your breakfast."

At this point I'm thinking this guy is nuts. But he's completely serious.

"For lunch you're gonna eat Chinese food. Now I don't want you eating that crappy stuff. You wanna get the stuff with MSG. None of that non-MSG BS. I don't care what you eat but you have to sit down and eat for at least 45 minutes straight. You can't let go of the fork. Eat until your eyes swell up and become slits and you start to look like the woman behind the counter."

"For dinner you're gonna order an extra-large pizza with everything on it. Literally everything. If you don't like sardines, don't put 'em on, but anything else that you like you have to load it on there. After you pay the delivery guy, I want you to take the pie to your coffee table, open that f-kr up, and grab a bottle of oil. It can be olive oil, canola oil, whatever. Anything but motor oil. And I want you to pour that s-t over the pie until half of the bottle is gone. Just soak the s-t out of it."

"Now before you lay into it, I want you to sit on your couch and just stare at that f-kr. I want you to understand that that pizza right there is keeping you from your goals."

This guy is in a zen-like state when he's talking about this.

"Now you're on the clock," he continues. "After 20 minutes your brain is going to tell you you're full. Don't listen to that s-t. You have to try and eat as much of the pizza as you can before that 20-minute mark. Double up pieces if you have to. I'm telling you now, you're going to get three or four pieces in and you're gonna want to quit. You f-g can't quit. You have to sit on that couch until every piece is done.

And if you can't finish it, don't you ever come back to me and tell me you can't gain weight. 'Cause I'm gonna tell you that you don't give a f-k about getting bigger and you don't care how much you lift!"

Did I do it? Hell yeah. Started the next day and did it for two months. Went from 260 pounds to 297 pounds. And I didn't get much fatter. One of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, though.
Ummm...don't know if this is a joke or not, but eat like this and you can expect to contract various ailments in no time. High blood pressure, high choleterol, fatigue, mental fog, sleep aberrations, etc. The guy who said this to Tate was either joking or on AAS. For us nattys, this type of undisciplined eating would surely result in calamity.

To the OP, just research some of the proven methods out there. Layne Norton knows his stuff. Your avi looks like you got some decent development, so you could simply multiply your BW by 3 and eat that in the amount of carbs per day. For protein multiply by 1.5, and for fat multiply by 0.5.
 
asooneyeonig

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Ummm...don't know if this is a joke or not, but eat like this and you can expect to contract various ailments in no time. High blood pressure, high choleterol, fatigue, mental fog, sleep aberrations, etc. The guy who said this to Tate was either joking or on AAS. For us nattys, this type of undisciplined eating would surely result in calamity.

To the OP, just research some of the proven methods out there. Layne Norton knows his stuff. Your avi looks like you got some decent development, so you could simply multiply your BW by 3 and eat that in the amount of carbs per day. For protein multiply by 1.5, and for fat multiply by 0.5.
the point is to eat more. way too many times i see people asking how to get big but are not willing to put the effort forth to get big. some of those people have been trying to bulk for years. and they still weigh 150lbs. eat more! dont worry about being single digits bodyfat and having abz.

same thing happened to me. i was 140 lbs at just shy of 6ft. i wanted to be bigger. i thought 3K calories was enough. when i started eating 1 meal with that many and several others with 1-2k calories i started growing. my first powerlifting meet was in the 220 weight class. now i am just under 200 and still eat about 4k a day and i only train 3 days a week and have a deskjob.
 

PaulBlack

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Yeah, I don;t think it is a good idea to just eat anything in sight. Sticking to a more regimented strict diet, albeit perhaps eating more, is a good start to bulk and then making it a habit of eating good foods. Just eating what tastes good, ie: downing pizzas and burgers, is not gonna be a good long term solution at all and once you eat yourself to the next shirt size, you pretty much have to keep doing it to keep your weight up, or your body will settle back to a more normal weight for you. After a while or as you get older, it becomes easier to add weight, but many times itr can be too easy or unwanted.
Another thing to remember or at least keep in mind is, this is not exactly the healthiest way to walk around. It can have more risk attached to it, than say staying leaner and keeping fitter all around.
 
hvactech

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since when does a double bacon burger directly add fat?
 
PumpHouse

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I just finished a pizza and now I want a double bacon burger.
 
hvactech

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i know right, i know what dinner for tonight is...
 
Rodja

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@Rodja- Not sure if that was a joke or not, but as I said I'm clean bulking, not piling on fat. I also said I had my calories and diet in order, but I wanted to know the best program to add to that. Anyone actually have any helpful advice?
Where did I say it had to be of the fast food variety? That was an assumption on your part and an erroneous one at that. Ground sirloin burgers are a staple of my diet and have been for quite some time now.

You say you have your diet in check, but also said that you've hit a plateau. That is a direct contradiction and shows that you don't have your diet as immaculate as you'd like to believe. If you've hit a plateau, that means that you're not consuming enough substrate for your body to create more muscle and/or fat. Anyone with a great deal of experience knows that diet is the most important aspect when it comes to hypertrophy.
 
rockme

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Bottom line: EAT. You want to keep it clean, but also know that you won't make bulking gains on chicken and brown rice. I'm currently bulking myself, and am going through a gallon of skim milk every 3 days, tons of oats, coconut oil, beef, beef, and more beef. I'm even hitting up Red Robin 1-2 x wk for their monster burger, fries , and shake. It's working. Went from 165-176 in 4 weeks. Still wearing same pant size, but have put on some fat, which is to be expected. Don't be afraid to put on a little fat, you can take it off later and you will have a more finished result
 
iBulk

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I really appreciate all of your guys' input. I'm not overly worried about fat gains but I'm also not gonna be adding oil to pizza and eating at Mickey D's. I'm not a vet but i'm certainly not a beginner either and I realize that eating is the name of the bulking game, I just was wondering what workout plan might best to pair with a solid bulking diet.
 

PaulBlack

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I just was wondering what workout plan might best to pair with a solid bulking diet.
Nutshell, moving the largest muscle groups with compound exercises 2-4 times per week and using 75%-80%-85% loads for multi sets/reps.
That said...
5x5 or proven routines along those lines, with squats, deads, rows, BP's, OHP's, and throw in some arm & ab work
 
rockme

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Hey what up bro...I discontinued the 5/3/1. Ran it for 3 weeks and it just didn't fit. I am currently lifting under the soviet peaking plan, by professor verhoshansky. I did these programs about 6 or 7 years ago, and they delivered. Who the heck knows why it took this long for me to reintroduce them! Probably just got wrapped up in the bodybuilding methodology :sad3:
 
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3 and a half years and ur just getting serious about diet.....fail
 
iBulk

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3 and a half years and ur just getting serious about diet.....fail
I've eaten clean for the last 2 1/2 years at least but just got real serious about my bulking diet and measuring macros, etc
 
iBulk

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Hey what up bro...I discontinued the 5/3/1. Ran it for 3 weeks and it just didn't fit. I am currently lifting under the soviet peaking plan, by professor verhoshansky. I did these programs about 6 or 7 years ago, and they delivered. Who the heck knows why it took this long for me to reintroduce them! Probably just got wrapped up in the bodybuilding methodology :sad3:
Thanks brother, I'm gonna go look this up right now.
 

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