Bulking up is something that I see many naturally skinny people struggle with. They are always saying "Im trying to bulk up" but they always seem to struggle with achieving any increased muscle growth. Bulking up is very difficult for many people because they don't know how to do it. The common perception of what it means to bulk up is eating anything and everything in an effort to get bigger. This is a very old concept of bulking out and will only be effective in a select few body types. If that is you than you probably don't need to read this blog. I would, however, suggest that anyone interested in the things that this blog talks about continues reading. Even if your goal is not to bulk up there will still be a great deal of useful information in this post. I would also suggest that you read my post called "Dieting- What to Eat" because much of the information in that post will be useful here.
Increased Caloric Intake
The goal of bulking up is to put on a significant amount of muscle mass with minimal fat increase. Some degree of fat increase is however inevitable because one part of bulking up is an increased caloric intake (eating more food). By eating more food you provide your body with more nutrients to build muscle. The food you eat, however, must be good food or it will only be stored as fat and not muscle (see "Dieting-What to Eat" post to learn what to look for in food). An increase of Proteins, Carbs and Fats are all necessary for affective bulking up. Proteins are the most important because they are directly responsible. 30-40 grams of protein per meal is a good goal, anything over 40 will send you into fat production. Carbs are also important for muscle growth for two reasons. 1) They give you energy to fuel your workout. 2) They increase insulin levels, which move amino acids to your muscles. Fats are also very significant factors o muscle growth. Fats are important for the production certain hormones. Fats from avocado, almonds, olive oil, and flax seed are all very good for the production of hormones that build muscle. They also support brain function.
Eating Frequency
In order to affectively increase muscle, with minimal fat increase, it is important very important to eat many meals spread throughout the day. Most people, especially in college, are eating only 2-3 meals a day. In order for bulking up to be affective you must eat between 6 and 8 meals a day. This may sound like an extreme commitment but this is something that is a fundamental of all dieting and, when done in combination with the principals of the "what to eat" post, this will give you the best results in loosing fat or gaining muscle. When you only eat a few meals a day your bodies' metabolism (food digestion) slows down, and what happens is many more of the calories you consume are stored as fat instead of burned as energy or used to build muscle. By eating frequently your body uses all the nutrients so you stay much healthier and build muscle.
Exercise
When bulking up it is imperative that you are working out at least 4 times a week and a maximum of six times a week. Working out is key to bulking up that many people who are not dedicated to building a better body miss, and it is so important because working out is what causes muscle growth. Each time you go to the gym you should be doing at least 24 sets with 3-5 sets per exercise. All of this should be done within 60 minutes because any time you go over can cause your testosterone levels to suffer. Their are a variety of different exercises to do for bulking up and a variety of different ways to break up your work outs. For example I do back and biceps on day 1, legs on day 2, chest and triceps on day 3, and I rest of the 4th day. Many of the exercises are valid and many of the break ups are valid as well. I will not go into the specifics of that in this blog post because it is long enough as is but what you need to know for bulking up is that you should stick to movements that use mostly one body part at a time. You also want to focus more on doing high weight and lower reps. Always keep good form but rather than doing between 8 and 12 reps per set, do between 4 and 8 reps per set. This will cause you to build bigger muscle.
More Information
For Further Reading visit these two webpages which provide excellent detail on bulking up.
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