Bulking Up

When people in the gym use the terminology ‘Bulking stage’ it generally means that they are in a stage where they only want to put on muscle and not focus on calorie counting or measurements so much. To ‘bulk’ is to put on muscle mass. Generally what is common in an individual’s cycle of training is bulking the cutting, cutting means burning remaining fat within the body, but that is another blog entirely.

If you are looking to gain mass, then personally I would not implement the term ‘bulk’ in your mind. I see the term bulk as a mental blockage. What I mean by that is, when people talk about bulking, they mean more calories consumed in the body than expended out of the body, with heavy weight training. This is indeed true and works however; you can do that whilst losing weight at the same time. You can have the right amount of protein in your body per day along with complex carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits and everything else. You need not bulk then cut, you can combine both together as one ‘stage’ and you will drop fat and gain muscle simultaneously.

Sure, the cutting phase within the cycle may take longer but in the long run itself, you will be doing one phase as opposed to two, which is more sustainable and long lasting. If you begin the cutting phase, it may become tedious to you and with the lack of carbohydrates and sugar from fruits, it depletes your energy levels.

My advice is to combine the two together into one. This way you save time and have a sustainable mental approach to your gains. Sure, you can tweak your diet to make you lose 1 lb more per week by cutting 500 calories per day whilst still lifting, but that is not a drastic change, it could be lowering your carb intake or having one less protein shake per day for however long you wish.

Bulking is lifting heavy weights 6-12 reps, depending on the exercise. (LIFT HEAVY!) Bulking is consuming 2500-3500 calories per day. Or if you are really serious you can consume up to 5000 calories per day. This is only recommended if you are used to a high caloric diet and have been training for more than 1 year consistently.