New workout for bulking

[tmalik70]

Hi,

I've been training for just over 6 months and have made some good gains mainly doing a full body 3x a week workout based on compound movements. I'm 5'10 and weigh 159lbs last time I checked but My goal has always been to get to the 180lb range. So I think now is the time for a major bulk and a proper change to my workout. I've been tweaking things every few weeks but now I wanna start a new routine. This is what I'm planning to do,

Wednesday

Bench Press - 7 Sets x 5 Reps (2 Min Rest)
Incline Bench Press - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Superset: Bent Over Rows/Wide-Grip Chin-Ups - 5 Sets x 10 Reps (2 Min Rest)
Superset: Barbell Curls/Skull Crushers - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (30 Sec Rest)
Lateral Raises - 3 Sets x 12 Reps (45 sec Rest)

Friday

Full Squats - 7 Sets x 5 Reps (2 Min Rest)
Squats - 4 Sets x 8 Reps (90 Sec Rest)
Glute-Ham Raises - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Calf Raises - 4 Sets x 12 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Shrugs - 5 Sets x 10 Reps (1 Min Rest)

Sunday

Bench Press - 3 Sets x Max Reps (around 70% of 1RM) (90 Sec Rest)
Wide-Grip Chin-Ups - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Military Press - 4 Sets x 8 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Superset: Front Raises/Lateral Raises - 4 Sets x 12 Reps (30 Sec Rest)
Upright Rows - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Superset: Hammer Curls/Dips - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (45 Sec Rest)

Now I took this off an article regarding bets workouts for bulking. Now I've taken a look at this and it seems pretty good but I've got a few questions.

1) There are no deadlifts here? Is that a major flaw in this plan or will it be ok without it? Or shall I add a set in?

2) No ab work here as well, I'm thinking off adding that in at the end of the workout. Would that be ok?

3) I'm not exactly sure what Supersets are so could someone please explain it to me?

Thanks for your help!!!

 

[goergen1]

1) There are no deadlifts here? Is that a major flaw in this plan or will it be ok without it? Or shall I add a set in?

Just add a second leg day. You are training upper body 2X. Train lower 2X also. Then you can have a day with deadlifts.

Another route to go is to rotate exercises. A simple way to do this is do exercise A. Keep doing it until you are unable to increase the weight. After that rotate the exercise.

Exercise B will train the same muscle groups but change the stimulus. Do that until you are no longer able to increase weight. Then switch back to exercise A. You will find that the weight you could lift there has gone up even though you did not train it for a while.

My advice would be to rotate exercises with every lift. If your weights are not going up it is time to change.

2) No ab work here as well, I'm thinking off adding that in at the end of the workout. Would that be ok?

Adding ab work is always smart. Make sure you add in low back exercises as well.

3) I'm not exactly sure what Supersets are so could someone please explain it to me?

A superset is just doing two exercises back to back with no rest.

Superset: Barbell Curls/Skull Crushers - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (30 Sec Rest)
Would be 10 curls, then 10 skull Crush, rest, repeat.

 

[AJP]

I don't understand how the notion of "bulking routines" started...anyway...my point was that bulking is a lot more a function of food than your lifting, yes the lifting is important, but really, it's all about the food.

I don't understand some of the reps for this. For example bench press is 7 X 5?? and then the upper pulling exercises are 5 X 10?? That's all over the place.

If you're gonna do an upper/lower, do 2 days upper and 2 lower like already mentioned.

yes, get deadlifts in there.

 

[NBS 4life]

I don't understand how the notion of "bulking routines" started...anyway...my point was that bulking is a lot more a function of food than your lifting, yes the lifting is important, but really, it's all about the food.

I don't understand some of the reps for this. For example bench press is 7 X 5?? and then the upper pulling exercises are 5 X 10?? That's all over the place.

If you're gonna do an upper/lower, do 2 days upper and 2 lower like already mentioned.

yes, get deadlifts in there.

EXACTLY, workouts dont have to be a "bulking workout" The result of bulking is through eating more calories than you are expending, choose a rep range and stick to it, if you must use two, 12 - 10 - 8 and 10 ,6, 6 are good.

 

[goergen1]

Bulking and Food

my point was that bulking is a lot more a function of food than your lifting, yes the lifting is important, but really, it's all about the food.

workouts dont have to be a "bulking workout" The result of bulking is through eating more calories than you are expending

The factors of nutrition and the factors of training go hand in hand. There is no more important. If the workout is not good all eating more than you expend gets you is fat.

choose a rep range and stick to it, if you must use two, 12 - 10 - 8 and 10 ,6, 6 are good

Reps will evolve differently for different exercises. If you pick a training weight and try to get more reps each week that is good. Once you cant do more reps increase the weight and drop the reps again or change the exercise.

Weight, sets, or reps should go up every week for every exercise, if that does not happen it is time for things to change. Rotate to another exercise or change the method of training the current exercise.

 

[tmalik70]

Thanks for your advice! I'm not sure if there is such a thing like a bulking workout but this workout will hit me a lot harder then my current full body workout so I'm hoping that and a change will help me improve. Anyway thanks to your advice I've come up with the following program adding in another leg day. Could you please tell me if this is a solid workout and if not I'd be glad to hear your advice!

Tuesday

Bench Press - 7 Sets x 5 Reps (2 Min Rest)
Incline Bench Press - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Superset: Bent Over Rows/Wide-Grip Chin-Ups - 5 Sets x 10 Reps (2 Min Rest)
Superset: Barbell Curls/Skull Crushers - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (30 Sec Rest)
Lateral Raises - 3 Sets x 12 Reps (45 sec Rest)

Wednesday

Full Squats - 7 Sets x 5 Reps (2 Min Rest)
Squats - 4 Sets x 8 Reps (90 Sec Rest)
Glute-Ham Raises - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Calf Raises - 4 Sets x 12 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Shrugs - 5 Sets x 10 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Stuff Legged Deadlifts - 4 sets x 10 reps (1 Min Rest)
Superset: Weighted Sit Ups/Cross-Body Crunch - 4 sets x 15 (30 Sec Rest)

Saturday

Bench Press - 3 Sets x Max Reps (around 70% of 1RM) (90 Sec Rest)
Wide-Grip Chin-Ups - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Military Press - 4 Sets x 8 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Superset: Front Raises/Lateral Raises - 4 Sets x 12 Reps (30 Sec Rest)
Upright Rows - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Superset: Hammer Curls/Dips - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (45 Sec Rest)

Sunday

Full Squats - 3 Sets x Max Reps (around 70% of 1RM) (90 Sec Rest)
Romanian Deadlifts - 4 Sets x 8 Reps (1 Min Rest)
Superset: Calf Raises/Shrugs - 4 Sets x 10 Reps (45 Sec Rest)
Glute-Ham Raises - 4 Sets x 12 Reps (45 sec Rest)
Cross-Body Crunch - 2 sets x 25 (30 Sec Rest)
Planks - 2 sets x 60 seconds

 

[NBS 4life]

The factors of nutrition and the factors of training go hand in hand. There is no more important. If the workout is not good all eating more than you expend gets you is fat.

I agree and disagree, I think that the nutrition is more important. But I dont have to justify it .

Ok I will, there is more margin for error in workouts than there is in nutrition. This is largely down to the fact that if you are overloading the muscle by form on resistance then it will adapt.

On the other side of the coin there is less margin for error in nutrition, if the macronutrients arent near bang on give or take 10% then training adaptations are limited.