Very interesting....
Congrats on the marriage!
Thanks man.
You bulked to 210? That's nice...my body doesn't like to gain weight...
Yea, best bulk I've had yet.
but when i train without sufficient volume...the muscle gains trickle down to a halt also.
When I bulk, I bump volume way up from when I cut due to the increased capacity to handle it via more energy and recoverability.
I've completely altered my training technique for this experiment...or so you could call it.
#1: Ive thrown out the clean bulk. I'll eat 4500 calories and 300 g of protein everyday, I don't care what I have to eat to do it.
#2: I completely revamped my workout program. Ive changed my exercise order, my days off, frequency, and variation. Examples of this include 2-3 different exercise groups (comprising 3 exercises) for each muscle rotated on a 21 day schedule.
For example:
Chest 1: wide grip bench press, incline machine press, cable crossover flys
Chest 2: dumbbell press, decline press, pec deck flys
Ive altered my workout schedule to coincide with the size of the muscle group. Because im incorporating so many more isolation exercises I feel like I can train the muscle group within a certain period without having to worry about the catabolizing effect of over-training. Right now it is set up as: biceps/shoulders/abs every 3 days, triceps every 4 days, chest/back/quads every 5 days, hamstring/glutes every 6 days.
#3: I'm removing all cardio. I've severely limited my compound exercise volume. Before I'd do stiff-legged deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, deadlifts, hack squats, front squats, power squats (you get the idea). This has been altered to deadlifts and a few squat variations to more intense isolation exercises (curls/extensions/leg press).
Michael
See, you and I have very different training philosophies.
Our bulks are similar in that even though I increase my volume, I don't do so by increasing a bunch more compound exercises. My isolation exercises go way up compared to a cutting phase.
That said though, beyond that, we differ considerably. I've always trained to follow the recoverability of a muscle. My take: if you don't figure out when you are recovered from a bout, and you overestimate how much time is needed, you'll spend some time detraining and you'll be working suboptimally in that context.
I'm very "big picture" with my thinking, but at the same time I'm very much a utilitarian and value simplicity above all else.
My ideal hypertrophy program:
1. Creates sufficient tension with heavy sets and a low volume of work
2. Creates sufficient fatigue with light to moderate sets and a relatively high volume of work, in the form of high reps, short rest intervals, or dropsets.
3. Uses a gradual increase in weight on the heavy sets
4. Uses a rapid rate of increase on the fatigue sets
5. Hits each muscle group no less than twice per seven day interval
6. Allows for concentric failure no more than once in a given four-week period.
7. Emphasizes eccentric loading, especially on the "failure" or peaking weeks
8. Allows for a week of unloading and recovery after the failure/peaking week.
You can tweak and twist that any which way you'd like, but whatever I'm doing while bulking is going to fit these principles into the program.
Oh yea, and I threw that whole 'clean, slow bulking' out the window ages ago. It's futile. I've realized my best results in terms of hypertrophy eating to support my training. I worry about my essentials like protein and efas, and beyond that, it's pretty much fair game. Whatever can help me meet my caloric goals. The more calorically dense, the better!
I'm interested to see how your programs turns out. I'm sure it will be fine as long as you consistently keep you cals up.
I'm a Lions fan--I know all about losing...
