Start bulking again in the summer or wait till autumn?

[james_shier]

I haven't been lifting since last July (2003), when I lost patience with it.

Since then I've been eating healthily, ie no choc bars or potato chips, and stayed active through swimming but have lost around 2 stone/ 26 lbs. I want to get back into bb'ing again but with summer coming up, its probably not the best time to start bulking, I'd rather wait till about september to start that.

What I want some advice on, is what balance between cardio and weight training should I have and what kind of diet should I go with until I start bulking. I'm 18, 6'2" and somewhere around 160lbs(30lbs down on this time last year), with a bf% of around 11%. I want to get back up to between 180 and 190 before September.

This is my diet at the moment:

7:30: 1/2 cup of oatmeal with 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup water and tspoon of sugar. With this I have glass of O.J. and an orange.

mid morning snack: protein shake blended with whole banana

12:30 :chicken, turkey or ham sandwich with salad followed by yoghurt and chocolate biscuit bar/ choc-chip cookie.

mid-afternoon snack: chicken or turkey salad. 1 cup of oat krunchies cereal with 1 tspoon of sugar

6:30 : chicken breast with pasta, rice or potatoes and veg(carrots&broccoli) followed by yoghurt or rice pudding

evening snack(9:30 ish): apple, banana, yoghurt or meat leftovers from dinner.

Pretty amateurish with plenty of cheat foods, but I'm saving for a car so I can't spend like I want to.

At the moment I'm working back and biceps on mondays, chest and triceps on wednesdays, and legs and shoulders on fridays. I cycle to school and back every day( about 4 miles in total, 10 mins there/10 mins back) and go cycling on sundays aswell where I go on 10/15 mile round trips.

Any suggestions on whether to bulk through summer and winter and improvements on current diet would be welcome.

 

[beachdog]

At first, I would have said wait on the bulking, but you're tall and at 170 and only 11% bf, eems like a little extra "bulk" wouldn't look bad at all on the beach, if that's why you wanted to wait till fall for that. I'd go ahead and put on some weight. Just my opinion.

 

[BOOEY]

It's like asking someone over the Internet if you should get a haircut or not ... you need to decide and then ask for help on making the appropriate changes in your diet.

 

[james_shier]

Ok, good point.
For the first few months I'll just train 3 days a week based on the compound exercises like bench press, squats and deadlifts. By then it'll be getting on for fall when i can start bulking properly.

I'm thinking something like this kind of training breakdown.

Monday - Chest and Triceps
Tuesday - Back and Biceps
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - Legs and Calves
Friday - Shoulders and Traps

So when I start back with the basics, how does this diet sound?

Breakfast - Oatmeal mixed with apples, raisins & protein powder mixed in
Mid-morning snack - Protein shake with banana blended in
Lunch - Grilled Chicken with rice and veg
Mid-afternoon snack - tuna salad
Dinner(Pre-workout meal) - Grilled chicken or steak with baked potato and veg
(Post-workout meal) - Egg whites with cottage cheese.