New to bulking need help

So I have been cutting for a long time and I have finally started bulking up.

I have already decided to up my calories by 300 for starters to 2500.

 

Now I don't know how I should set up my macronutrient ratios. Is 40/40/20 good? Carbs/protein/fat. I want to make this a clean bulk and put on as little fat as possible. Also, how much of my allotment of carbs should I eat in the morning/ around my workout?

Go read  The Truth About Bulking, Nutrition for Newbies, Part 1 and Nutrition for Newbies, Part 2 from Christian Thibadeux for some general principles, 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks from Dr. Berardi for one sample meal plan, and basically everything Berardi's ever written for more about nutrition and sports than you'd ever want to know ;)

thanks, there is a lot of good advice in there. As far as the first article goes, I never intended on eating bad foods. I always planned on eating more of the healthy foods I was eating while cutting.

 

I'm trying to figure out now the timing of macronutrients so that I put on the least amount of fat. Like can I have oatmeal/fruit in the afternoon if my workout is in the morning. Stuff like that.

 

And on a side note, whats your opinion on cardio while bulking.

 Received wisdom from bodybuilder circles says that more than 90 minutes of cardio a week makes it hard to put on muscle, anything below that doesn't seem to matter. So a little helps - if you do HIIT or sprint training it might even help with the nutrient partitioning and be a slight positive influence on muscle building.

 Berardi's the go-to guy for sports nutrition - check out Massive Eating - Part 1 and Massive Eating - Part 2 for more on meal timing and such. Though those articles are kind of old and he's refined his thinking lately they're still the basis of Berardi's recommendations for muscle-building nutrition. 

1. High-intensity training: The human organism vehemently refuses any unnecessary change since it feels best in a constant condition, a homeostasis. In order to lure it out of its passivity, several efforts and exertions must be made. The signal that the body needs in order to build up strength and muscle mass is triggered by heavy, hard, and intense training routines. These should consist of relatively few sets. Five to eight sets for large muscle groups and three to four sets for small muscle groups are completely sufficient when every set is carried out until muscle failure.

2. Training with relatively low repetitions: The body has two different types of muscle fibers: Since the muscle hypertrophy almost completely occurs in the fast-twitch white muscle fibers of type 2, a sensible bodybuilding workout must be developed in a way that these are sufficiently stimulated. For this purpose relatively few, heavy reps in the range of 6-10 are suitable.

3. Training with progressively heavier weights: In order to build up massive muscles they must be challenged and exposed to regular progressively-higher resistances. This can be achieved when the athlete continuously increases the weight during exercises. The stronger the muscles the larger their appearance. There is no mass without power. The basic exercises such as squats, bench presses, presses behind the neck, rows, barbell curls, dips, etc. are the most suitable.

4. Sufficient rest periods: The muscles are stimulated through training but only grow during their rest phase. The higher the intensity, the higher the damage of the muscle cell and the longer the resting phase. When you train with adequate intensity you simply cannot train each and every day nor should you attack a muscle twice a week. Learn to accept rest and recovery as important factors of your training success. Every day you train in the GYM should be followed by a complete off day. Bodybuilders who are interested in an optimal strength and muscle gain should train every muscle once very intensely every 7-8 days.

5. Plateau and phase training: The body can be put under maximum stress only for a limited time. If this time is exceeded, development comes to a stop and if continued the performance will regress. For this reason the intensity and extent of the training program should be changed every 6-10 weeks. The athlete should enjoy several days off training and then change to a several-week long maintenance training (plateau training).

Here is a decent workout schedule.  It is pretty high intensity though. 

Eight-Day Training Cycle: One day training, one day rest
(One day on, one day off)

Day 1: Chest, biceps
Bench presses 3 sets 6- 8 reps
Incline bench presses 2 sets 6- 8 reps
Dips with added weights 2 sets 8-10 reps
Barbell curls 3 sets 6-10 reps
Dumbbell curls 2 sets 6-10 reps

Day 3: Thighs
Squats 3 sets 6-10 reps
Leg presses 2 sets 8-10 reps
Leg curls 2 sets 8-10 reps

Day 5: Shoulder, triceps
Presses behind neck 3 sets 6- 8 reps
Upright row 2 sets 8-10 reps
Side laterals 2 sets 8-10 reps
Lying triceps presses 3 sets 6-10 reps
Triceps pulley pushdown 2 sets 8-10 reps

Day 7: Back. calves
Chins with added weight 3 sets 8-10 reps
Lat pull to neck 2 sets 8-10 reps
Barbell bent-over row 2 sets 6-10 reps
Seated cable row 2 sets 6-10 reps
Standing calf raise 3 sets 8-12 reps
Seated calf raise 2 sets 8-12 reps

Original Post by yountsmonster:

4.  The higher the intensity, the higher the damage of the muscle cell and the longer the resting phase. When you train with adequate intensity you simply cannot train each and every day nor should you attack a muscle twice a week. Learn to accept rest and recovery as important factors of your training success. Every day you train in the GYM should be followed by a complete off day.

If that's the case, am I doing my body more harm than good? I work my upper body and lower body every other day, taking 2-3 days off/week. I lift the max weight I can and still finish my planned sets & reps. For example, today I did lower body which included:

- standing calf lifts; 3 sets of 10 reps @ 100 pds

- squats; 3 sets of 10 reps @ 50 pds

- good morning; 3 sets of 10 reps @ 50 pds

- romanian deadlift; 3 sets of 10 reps @ 60 pds

I normally do this 2-3 times per week. According to what you said, should I only be lifting twice a week, one upper body day and one lower body day?

I'm a bit limited because I don't belong to a gym, just using my bench and free weights.

Nah, the 1-week thing is based on one-factor theory of performance; two-factor theory states that while it's true that it can take up to a week to recover completely, complete recovery is not neccesary for a training effect to occur as long as you deload every now and again.

 You're still overtraining of course, but you're doing it with awareness and purpose. As long as you plan your periods of overreaching and undertraining and work with your body's capacity, you're going to see better results than if you stay at the same relative percentage of maximal effort all the time.

Original Post by melkor:

 Received wisdom from bodybuilder circles says that more than 90 minutes of cardio a week makes it hard to put on muscle, anything below that doesn't seem to matter. So a little helps - if you do HIIT or sprint training it might even help with the nutrient partitioning and be a slight positive influence on muscle building.

 Berardi's the go-to guy for sports nutrition - check out Massive Eating - Part 1 and Massive Eating - Part 2 for more on meal timing and such. Though those articles are kind of old and he's refined his thinking lately they're still the basis of Berardi's recommendations for muscle-building nutrition. 

I just skimmed the articles right now, and I didn't catch anything on timing things. Like how much of my carb allotment is in the morning vs. the evening.

 

Also, when I was cutting, I loved make a Whey/Milk/Natty Peanut butter shake. And I lost weight. Would that snack be considered a no-no because of the carbs in milk. Or, is the gist of what he's saying is dont have a slice of white bread a loads of un-natural peanut butter?

I have an excellent bulking diet but I can't access the website right now because my office has it blocked... otherwise I would've posted it earlier.  I'll do it when i get home.

i got a suggestion. Actually, this is the suggestion of 90% of bodybuilders I compete with. To assess the amount of calories necessary to gain weight( bulk is a very horrible word.. it implies fat gain and that is not the goal) you want to first find out how many calories you burn each day. For a weightlifter/bodybuilder this calorie burner on this site is VERY incorrect because intense weightlifting drastically alters your metabolism and hormone levels. To assess the amount of calories you need to maintain every day you will want to start with a diet that consists of 2000 calories (average daily caloric intake). You want to do this for a week, eatting the same foods everyday to see whether or not you lose or gain weight. If you lose weight, add 100 calories per day per week until you maintain weight. The extra calories should come from high quality protein sources and green vegetables. When you have established your maintainance caloric intake, add 300 calories of quality protein and green vegetable per day. This should insure muscle growth with minimum fat gain. Realistically you can read anything you want too, but this is the only sure fire way to find out EXACTLY what YOU need. As for when you should consume your macronutrients follow the below schedule.

Breakfast
High carbohydrates >40/<20 (wheat bread, oatmeal, cream of wheat, brown rice)
Mid protein >30/<20 (Eggs, Cottage cheese.... no meat for breakfast)
Low Fat >5

Lunch
High carbohydrate >40/<20 (wheat bread, oatmeal, cream of wheat, brown rice)
Mid protein >50/<30 (Chicken breast, Fish, Eggs, Turkey breast)
Low Fat >5

Dinner
Low carbohydrate >20 (Vegetables only, preferably green)
High Protein >70/<40 (chicken breast, fish)
Mid Fat >10

Post Workout
High Carbohydrate >50/<30 (Fruit juice only.. take with creatine)
High protein >55/<40 (Whey protein shake)

Snacks (each one, once a day, whenever hungry)
1.Protein Shake containing low fat/carbs/>230 calories/<40 protein
2.Raw/Steamed vegetables with salsa as dressing
3.Baked chicken breast 6oz. or baked Tilapia 6oz. with 1 cup brown rice

This should provide RIGHT around 2000 calories. It also keeps your blood glucose levels down around bed time to help prevent the storage of fat. Good luck.

Original Post by melkor:

Nah, the 1-week thing is based on one-factor theory of performance; two-factor theory states that while it's true that it can take up to a week to recover completely, complete recovery is not neccesary for a training effect to occur as long as you deload every now and again.

You're still overtraining of course, but you're doing it with awareness and purpose. As long as you plan your periods of overreaching and undertraining and work with your body's capacity, you're going to see better results than if you stay at the same relative percentage of maximal effort all the time.

So, if I'm understanding it correctly, work out hard and every 4th week, work out with less intensity? How long does it take your muscles to recover? Obviously soreness is not an indicator, as I am never sore. Is it possible to completely recover if you're not taking in enough protein?

BMX, sorry for the aside on your topic here!

Original Post by queenmedia:

Original Post by melkor:

Nah, the 1-week thing is based on one-factor theory of performance; two-factor theory states that while it's true that it can take up to a week to recover completely, complete recovery is not neccesary for a training effect to occur as long as you deload every now and again.

You're still overtraining of course, but you're doing it with awareness and purpose. As long as you plan your periods of overreaching and undertraining and work with your body's capacity, you're going to see better results than if you stay at the same relative percentage of maximal effort all the time.

So, if I'm understanding it correctly, work out hard and every 4th week, work out with less intensity? How long does it take your muscles to recover? Obviously soreness is not an indicator, as I am never sore. Is it possible to completely recover if you're not taking in enough protein?

BMX, sorry for the aside on your topic here!

It's ok. I'm always looking to sbsorb more information on this stuff anyway.

Original Post by melkor:

Nah, the 1-week thing is based on one-factor theory of performance; two-factor theory states that while it's true that it can take up to a week to recover completely, complete recovery is not neccesary for a training effect to occur as long as you deload every now and again.

 You're still overtraining of course, but you're doing it with awareness and purpose. As long as you plan your periods of overreaching and undertraining and work with your body's capacity, you're going to see better results than if you stay at the same relative percentage of maximal effort all the time.

I do agree with what you are saying melkor, but I don't think it applies to someone who is new to muscle building.  I'm only saying this because, when someone first begins, they don't have the awareness to plan properly and know when they might be doing too much training.  I suffered a pretty severe catastrophic injury in the gym three years ago from overtraining and friends of mine have suffered a few injuries caused by training when their muscles hadn't healed yet.  All in all, after a month or two you begin to know how much your muscles can take.  At this point, pick one-factor theory or two-factor theory based on which you like more.

So, how do you know how much your body can take? Is it through trial and error or through time and experience? I've been lifting on and off for a year now (admittedly more off than on).

Is it a matter of listening to your body, backing off if something doesn't feel right? For example, I've had soreness in my left shoulder the last few times I've bench pressed. Should I lift a significantly lower weight until the soreness is gone, or just once a week until recovered?

Trial... yes.  Error... hopefully not!  I change my routine up every 5 weeks.  When I start a routine, the first week I do weight I KNOW I can do without hurting myself.  Then I adjust each week to push myself.  ALWAYS listen to your body.  If you start to do a rep of curls and your tendons and muscles in your biceps and/or elbow are tight, maybe you should do something else.  Trust me, it isn't worth it to risk injury.  I tore my shoulder trying to do too much and it cost me 4 months of lifting upper-body.