Rats end of year mega BULK!

Rats! · 30-Sep-05, 12:21 PM

Bulking for these past 4 months has been successful. I've gained about 70 lbs. on my bench, and 60 lbs. on my squat and deadlift. My morning weight went from 167 lbs. to 175 lbs. at 13% body fat. Now I think it's time to change it up a bit.

For this final quarter of the year, I am going to do a mega BULK. I'm changing my split completely. I will be eating approximately 3000-3500 calories a day (25-35% protein, 40-50% carb, 20-30% fat) spread over 6-8 meals. My goal is to hit 185 or even 190 lbs. by the end of the year, at 15% body fat.

My split will be as follows:

Day 1 - Chest, Biceps
Day 2 - Legs, Delts
Day 3 - Rest
Day 4 - Cardio
Day 5 - Back, Triceps
Day 6 - Cardio
Day 7 - Abs

Any comments, criticism, tips, donations are gratefully accepted!

Klinger · 30-Sep-05, 02:15 PM

Good luck, man. Track your calories religiously. You can steal Maverick's diet; I'm sure he wouldn't mind. I think he was taking in nearly 4,000 cals a day during his bulk.

Make sure the cardio is short bursts, like HIIT, or just walking. Too much cardio will eat up energy that you're trying to store in the form of muscle/fat.

Rats! · 30-Sep-05, 03:41 PM

Yeah, I read Maverick's journal all the time. And I'm planning on doing only HIIT cardio.

Rats! · 30-Sep-05, 09:21 PM

Today's workout was killer. I've never done back with triceps before, and I even threw in forearms for good measure.

Chin-ups
8x-60lbs.
9x-66lbs.
9x-78lbs.
11x-90lbs.
12x-96lbs.

Bent-over Rows
12x95lbs.
10x100lbs.
11x95lbs.
11x85lbs.
12x75lbs.

Seated Cable Rows
12x70lbs.
9x70lbs.
12x60lbs.
8x60lbs. DS 5x50lbs.
12x50lbs.

Lat Pulldowns (Machine)
5x160lbs.
8x145lbs.
10x130lbs.
12x115lbs.

Reverse Curls
10x32.5lbs.
15x27.5lbs.
15x22.5lbs.
15x22.5lbs.

Skull Crushers
12x22.5lbs.
12x37.5lbs.
8x37.5lbs.
12x32.5lbs.
12x32.5lbs.
12x22.5lbs.

Cable Pushdowns (Rope)
12x50lbs.
8x50lbs. DS 6x40lbs.
6x50lbs. DS 6x40lbs.
12x40lbs.
12x40lbs.

Seated DB Extension
12x20lbs.
9x25lbs.
8x25lbs. DS 6x20lbs.
8x25lbs. DS 6x20lbs.

then off to the showers
and kitchen!

**cursor** · 01-Oct-05, 08:16 AM

43 sets? WOW!

armorforsleep · 01-Oct-05, 02:03 PM

killer workout dude. i did a cycle where i worked my tris with back. it really lets you put more overload on the tris as opposed to back/bis since your bis are alraedy pretty flushed from the back workout. im curious as to how you are calculating the weights though - on your chin ups for example, are you carrying those weights you listed? or is it some type of assisted machine

Rats! · 01-Oct-05, 03:33 PM

cursor!

armorforsleep: yeah it's assisted.

gcs118 · 01-Oct-05, 03:38 PM

If you're gonna do that many sets each workout you'll need more than 3000 calories.

Rats! · 01-Oct-05, 04:08 PM

Oh yeah. I didn't realize how intense this workout would be. Luckily we had a huge dinner yesterday.. pitas, hummus, beef rice veggies noodles, I ate a lot of everything. So I can safely say I got at least 4000 calories in yesterday.

I aim for no less than 500 calories per meal, with pre- and post- workout meals being closer to 650. So on lifting days I might get around 300 more calories than non-lifting days.

**cursor** · 01-Oct-05, 11:33 PM

Sounds like some smart logic there Rats!

**maverick** · 02-Oct-05, 05:53 PM

How did you determine where those drop sets would be in your workout? They seem almost randomly placed.

Rats! · 02-Oct-05, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maverick

How did you determine where those drop sets would be in your workout? They seem almost randomly placed.

I did them when I couldn't get more than 8 reps on the lift and I still feel like I can squeeze out a few more at a lower weight.

gcs118 · 02-Oct-05, 10:05 PM

Shouldn't you pretty much always be able to do more reps at a lower weight? :confused:

**maverick** · 02-Oct-05, 10:07 PM

Oh, I knew there was a pattern I was missing. Good luck with the bulk. I had initially planned to go for 200 pounds, but I couldn't handle the amount of food I needed anymore. Right now I'm using that to my advantage and doing a short cut, maybe just another 2 or 3 weeks to shave a few pounds of fat off.

Just have a lot of calorie-dense food sources available. I know that I couldn't have eaten as many calories as I did CLEAN unless I had my daily portions of peanuts, flaxseed oil, olive oil, egg yolks, and EFA salad dressing. Keep us posted on how many calories you are taking in and how you adjust it to maintain growth. I'd like to see how someone else does.

Rats! · 03-Oct-05, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gcs118

Shouldn't you pretty much always be able to do more reps at a lower weight? :confused:

Correct. But I only knock the weight down one notch for drop sets. For the lifts where I got less than 9 reps and didn't do drop sets (first set of chinups and first 2 sets of lat pulldowns), I didn't feel like I'd be able to do more good reps at the next lowest weight. So yeah, it is partially random.

I can't do drop sets for barbell exercises, either. I work out alone, and by the time I take the weight off, put lower weight on, and get back in position, like 30 seconds have already gone by.