Heavy Duty Bulking and Roasted muscles!
As some of you may know, I began a bulking phase at the beginning of September and outlined my anticipated angle of attack (AOA) here in a previous blog. After sitting down and contemplating my wants and needs for an April 2008 contest goal, I put together a very complicated plan of attack: Lift heavy and eat ad nauseum (took along time to come up with that btw). Well that plan, somewhere along the way, needed to be re-evaluated (as all good plans do) and with that the following blog is dedicated to rambling incessantly about my workout and nutrition plan as it currently exists:
1. Lift heavy and smart
2. Eat clean foods ad nauseum
I know, there’s alot to take in here with these, very complex and highly thought out adjustments….
Interestingly, when I first started my bulk, I really thought that I was so ready to just start throwing down any and all food. I had been dieting for four months straight, eating very clean, and watching my portions. So, at the onset of my bulking stage, a percentage of my inner-self, known as "self," was screaming, "Look out good people and pay attention to your limbs, because if they are in the way at the dinner table, they may just get gnawed on a bit: I will not be held responsible."
SIDENOTE: Wouldn’t that be a great bodybuilding T-shirt? "Mind your limbs, I’m bulking!"
At any rate, while that was a portion of my thoughts, a greater part of me really enjoyed the feeling of being cut, having ripped abs, and feeling just downright healthy. With this internal debate going on, I determined that a decision needed to be made, before I could progress. Analyzing the pro’s and con’s of beginning consumption of any and all foods versus beginning consumption of mostly clean foods but at a majorly increased rate took all of about two seconds. Here’s my reasoning behind choosing the "clean bulk:"
1. No doubts about it, it is the healthier option
2. Seemingly more good nutrients versus good nutrients with crap nutrients would provide a more fertile breeding ground for muscular development
3. Because I’m an elderly fellow (38), it just seemed like keeping it somewhat healthy, was the more prudent option. I’m a firm believer in the adage: Eat crap, be crap.
So with my new plan in place I set out to do the following in regards to diet and moving the heavy stuff.
Basics for both DIET and WORKOUTS:
-As a busy realist with other life interests outside of bodybuilding, my program’s must (MUST) be realistic and flexible.
-Quality over Quantity
-Must be geared so bulking goals will be attained
DIET
Because of the necessity for flexibility and for keeping it realistic, I decided on day one that I would not count calories, but would make a consorted effort to make incremental increases in my daily portions, as well as add one to two extra meals / snacks a day. With that, my basic menu items include:
Whole grain pasta’s, rice’s, and cereals, potatoes, vegetables, fruits, chicken (white and dark), beef (very lean), pork (lean), splenda sweetened yogurt, Almonds, Filberts, Pepitas, Pistachios, whey protein powders, and a myriad of different Detour and MET Rx protein and food bars.
Gallons of coffee, water and diet soda……….Calm down, maybe it’s not quite gallons……..
And that’s really all there is to it, I eat roughly seven to eight times a day….and yes, I do throw down the food rapidly most of the time. I do try to eat as much fresh food as I can, and if it’s organic and not too much more expensive, that’ll be my choice everytime.
WORKOUTS
When I sat back and gave an honest assessment of my physique at the end of my last cutting phase, I determined that my legs, calves, chest and back really needed some added thickness. So, to attain that goal, I drudged up the old faithful system of training that has worked very well for me in the past: Heavy duty training. This is a type of system that predicates itself with the theory of less is more (in a nutshell). Mike Mentzer developed this type of training and Dorian Yates probably more so than anyone made it famous. Way back in the early nineties I read an article by Dorian, promoting this type of training and decided to give it a try. The results were excellent right from the get go. I immediately went up in all of my lifts and my muscular development was of the very obvious variety.
My initial plan was as follows:
Workout five days a week with two days off, on a Chest, Back, Legs, Shoulders, Arms rotation. Complete four to five exercises per bodypart, with one working set for each exercise. Now, for those of you who do not know, Heavy Duty training promotes the one set theory which is basically:
With only one working set to accomplish, the body will much more easily reach muscle failure during the one set than if mulitple sets are completed. My friends and "also-readers" let me assure you, that if you go into an exercise with the notion that you only have one set to accomplish, you will create so much more intensity during that one set than you could ever possibly HOPE for with mulitple sets. I don’t know specifically how it works, I just know it does. I much more so fry out my muscle during one working set than I ever did trying to accomplish multiple sets. "Alright, alright, where’s the stinking catch" you are asking, right? Well there is one….ready…..During that one set, total muscle failure must be reached. Given that a muscle must be broken down to grow, that part makes sense. And so, typically for me to achieve that, I do decending drop sets and partials. This is the type of training I have followed for all the past years during my bulking phases. Remember this type of training is for muscle growth, not muscle refinement.
So with that in mind, I did a little more studying on the Mike Mentzer variety. And, his thoughts gear alot more towards recovery, and suggest accomplishing not just one set per exercise, but one set per body part. HHHhhmmm, now I’m skepticle. But, as I read the results of test subject after test subject, I decided that I would give it a try. With a couple of tweeks here and a couple wrench turns there, my workout program for the last month has looked just like this:
Reminder: Total muscle failure achieved during each set.
Day One……Back - One set of wide grip pulls and one set of deadlifts
Day Two……Chest - One set of incline bench and one set of decline bench
Day Three….Shoulders - One set of military press
Day Four…. Arms - One set of dumbell curls and one set of triceps extensions
Day Five…….Quads and calves - One set of Vertical leg presses and one set of vertical calf presses
Day Six……..Begin rotation again
I work on that rotation and do not take any rest days. My workouts take a maximum of 15 minutes per day and I am not doing any cardio, lest the dog walk at nights.
And the results are…….DRUM ROLLLLL…….
Weight : 202 pounds (up 12 pounds since September 1st)
Bodyfat : 12 % (Up 2% since September 1st)
All of my lifts have gone up, and my muscle density is seemingly also way up. So, for this one month evaluation, I give my current bulking cycle a two dumbells up!
That’s all for now….Please let me know if you have any questions or further thoughts regarding this type of bulking.
BodyAuditor out and please remember: Bulking phase in session: please do not let your children feed the animal.
October 10, 2007 at 3:28 pm
LOL Great Blog!!!!! I like the Tee Shirt idea !! you look amazing !! I gonna saunter on over to Bill’s page - to see what he did today LOL he feels neglected that I dont visit as often as I should LOL
Hes a "star" now– since I did his video - LOL
October 10, 2007 at 4:59 pm
That blog is absolutely hysterical Scott! On a more serious note the high intensity training sounds like it is paying off for you. I understand now why I didn’t hear back from you on your caloric intake…you don’t count ‘em. Best of luck to you during your bulk my friend!
October 10, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Going to come back to this blog after a night’s sleep and a day’s work, Scott, but wanted to say that, "Lift heavy and eat ad nauseum (took along time to come up with that btw)" had me laughing big time. (Hey, at least I can laugh BIG!)
And I like that t-shirt idea. Sell ‘em at Cafe Press! Set up your shop, man!
IMPORTANT NEWS: (Yeah, yeah, all about Scott, I know. Wait, it’s all about the Team!
) I met KatNap in person last Saturday at a NABBA contest in Middletown, PA. Suh-weet.
I’ll echo bb1968’s best wishes, too, of course. "Best of luck to you during your bulk my friend!" See?
Regards,
mister echo a.k.a. that guy that keeps taking the hits for the team
October 11, 2007 at 7:58 am
Just remember, when you get closer to contest time and start "cutting", lay off the diet sodas. They cause water retention, due to the artificial sweeteners. (Found that out the hard way *L*)
October 11, 2007 at 8:27 am
I sure have a tough time getting enough food with my crazy hours…… what would you recommend for a guy like me??….. no Iwont do hari keri…lmao I need to faten back up without the fat…… have to saty agile for all my cool ninja skills…lol
Kat…. now I see where you have been hiding….lol
October 11, 2007 at 8:42 am
Your blog is simply amazing - great results, amazing info. and funny as hell. Keep it up and best wishes during the bulk - thats smart to go with a cleaner bulk than "lemme eat anything, i’m bulking". that’ll make cutting "easier" (had to put easier in quotes!)
October 11, 2007 at 10:32 am
Awesome plan! I think it’s the smart way to go with a clean bulk, you won’t have to work so hard later on the cut.
Also, have you tried Quaker Oats Weight Control Oatmeal? it has 7g of protein/39g of carbs per packet. YUM.
October 11, 2007 at 10:50 am
Looking aesthetically pleasing is hot, but your grammar, vocabulary, and delivery is extra hott (but still not hotter than my pink racing stripe, sorry
). Glad to hear you had great results with the one month eval, can’t wait to hear how the rest of the bulking phase goes!
October 11, 2007 at 11:10 am
Eating another’s limbs during a bulk is a sign of respect and friendship!
October 11, 2007 at 11:32 am
awesome blog. i enjoyed reading it. i cant wait to see the final outcome. your plan is similar to one i tried not too long ago. it incorporated rest paused sets, one working set to total failure, but there was an added static set. i like your workout better because yo0u are only focusing on one muscle group whereas the one i tried had one working set per body part and it was split up to half your body one day an the other half another day so you end up working each boy part out 2X per week. Good luck on your progress. Looking forward to seeing the outcome! By the way, nice rear double biceps!
October 11, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Bwuh!? Cripe, I wish I could pack on 12 lbs in that much time… I’m not totally familiar with the training style and such. I assume you did some sort of warmups? Did you have a target rep range before having to start dropping or doing partials, and how many consecutive drops did you find yourself doing (Or about how many total reps before considering it "total failure"?) Thanks! (On a total side note, thanks for all the comments you leave for my fiance. I know she gets a good chuckle out of all of ‘em! ^_^)
October 11, 2007 at 3:25 pm
I wish you luck with training HIT style, its been the base of my training style for quite a while.
A tip I can give you to get the intensity at the needed level is to progressively increase the resistance on each excercise. You will either a)have recuperated and regenerated enough to be able to easily add 5lbs and get the same amount of reps or keep the weight the same, but add 1,2 or more reps, which leads to increased muscle, or b) you will not have increased that much from last workout, and to perform better than the previous workout you will be forced to go harder and strain yourself much more - just think of getting the desired reps no matter what. This, will lead (my theory) to muscle growth because your body wants to protect itself from such loads by preparing itself (growing musclz) for next round.
Over time, you will undoubtedly be able to generate much more intensity in that one and only shot youve got. When you only have one chance to prove to the excercise that you can do better than last time you can go beyond what you once thought was a hundred percent.
This way youll be able to gauge very easily what excercises are effective, as the results are going to be obvious.
Id reccomend you to try out new ways of training this way. I usually train more muscles in one workout since I need less time for each muscle.. I end up being with a two or three way split and can train each muscle more frequently (careful with overdoing it, gauge your progress carefully to find how much youre capable of).
You might know alot of this but I felt Ive got nothing to lose spreading what I learned through trial and error, perhaps someone else reading this might find it useful.
good luck bodyauditor!
October 12, 2007 at 7:50 am
Arthur Jones turned Casey Viator and the Mentzer bothers onto ‘one set to failure’ AKA Heavy Duty or HIIT. If you want to see your mass go up some more try this: Spread your workouts over 12 days. That’s right. Double your recovery days. It works. Ellington Darden, PhD, one of Jones’ main disciples, did this with some NFL players and thre results were wild. His theory is that as you get bigger the body needs more time to grow. He thinks recovery is the limiting factor in growth. to get bigger rest more. Its goes against the steroid work out mind set but if your natural it will work but takes incredible disciplne to stay out of the gym. I spent the time walking or reading. When you hit your next plateau try this and see what happens. It goes without saying that those workouts most be ‘puke your guts out’ intense. Jones had puke buckets all over his training facility in Fla.
October 12, 2007 at 7:52 am
I should have said ADD rest days. Dome the same thing spread out over 12 days.
October 12, 2007 at 11:48 am
Wow… Now in no way can I compare my body or results with you - but our thoughts on training and nutrition are very similar.
Last year I got a DVD from Marika Johansson who was trained by Dorian Yates. Shortly after I replicated the training style and with great success. A couple of months ago I fell back to another regimen, but the results weren’t as good, so now I’m back with the "1 set to failure" theory.
Regarding nutrition I also came to the conclusion that clean bulking had to be the way - however, I’m having a darn hard time resisting the old sweet tooth at the moment!
I hope your success with the program will continue, and I’ll be sure to catch the updates.
/Nic
October 15, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Can this 15 minute workout work for women too??? what would I do with all that extra time??? My laundry, my dishes and windows….wow… i must be dreaming???
October 16, 2007 at 7:58 pm
I’ll echo the "great blog" comments, Scott!
Mark Dugdale (NPC USA champ in ‘94, but DNP in this year’s Olympia though he was 2nd at the Iron Man Pro) follows a similar, uh, trainingology. He’s in and out of the gym with maximum intensity and maximum results. He mentioned somewhere that he was training with Dorian this year and that’d be on his next DVD. Driven - his first DVD - is kick@$$, btw.
October 19, 2007 at 7:23 am
Elderly?? That deserves an e-slap!! God, I can’t wait to bulk… I’m terribly jealous at the moment…