Most intense bulking weights program (not on gear)

[Sim882]

Hey, I've had a shitty year weights wise (after starting training in Feb 2007), and the culprit has been found and eliminated (anti-depressants), which saw my strength deplete by 30%+ on most exercises.

Fortunately, 2 weeks off anti-D's, and most of this is back.

I'm writing to ask what is the most intensive weights training program that will achieve good gains. Yes, I have read the stickies.

My problems with that is I like to eat. I was planning to do far less cardio than before, and expect my maintenance to drop from 3.5-4K to far far less. Cardio is why I think my bench has at times exceed my squatting, but if I do no cardio and 5x5, I will have to eat far less than I'm accustomed to or become a fat-ass

Further, I really like exercising, so I the 2 things combine and I would like an exercise regime more intensive than say 5x5

I have had a squiz around, and wondered what people thought of some of the more demanding programs on the net, e.g., Layne Nortons split

1. Power Upper (Coupounds, low reps, heavy weight)
2. Power Lower (Coupounds, low reps, heavy weight)
3. Hypertrophy Chest/Arms (Higher reps, more sets)
4. Hypertrophy Shoulders/Back (Higher reps, more sets)
5. Hypertrophy Legs (Higher reps, more sets)

Arnie's split etc

 

[OneBreath]

What are your stats? You look really lean. Do you know your BF%? What formula did you use to calculate your calorie maintenance?

Once we have this we can get more detailed but essentially you want to do something more than the 5x5 but with a 5x5 flavor. The great thing about the 5x5 is its simplicity. All of your energy goes to just a few compound exercises. This concept with a calorie surplus is the key to bulk.

Don't worry about gear, based your your pics with the right diet, program, and rest you will blow up.

For diet, add 500 calories a day to your maintenance. If you don't gain a lb the first week, add 250 more each day until you do. (going up slow to prevent the fatass!)

For cardio, take a break for 2 weeks to see what happens. If you feel a little bloat, throw some in on a couple of the off days. Remember, this is a delicate balance with the diet above and lifting below. If you are gaining too much fat, reduce the calories, not enough weight, up the calories. Cardio can just be used for that detailed fine tuning in the middle. Make sense?

For a routine take a look at this (note the focus on compound movements):

* keep all reps 8-12 going as low as 6 on the heaviest set
* keep intensity high!

Day 1: Chest / Tris

- 4 sets incline dbs
- 4 sets flat bench
- 4 sets weighted dips
- add in triceps as you feel the need

Day 2: Back / Bis

- 4 sets barbell row
- 1 set widegrip pullup to failure
- 1 set medium grip pullup to failure
- 1 set closegrip underhand pullup to failure
- 4 sets deadlift
- 3 sets db curls (add in more bis as you feel the need)

Day 3: off

Day 4: Legs

- 5 sets squats
- 4 sets stiff leg deadlift
- 4 sets leg press supersetted with calf extensions (go high reps here, 15 - 20 and go to failure)
- add in calves as you see fit (go high reps)

Day 5: Shoulders

- 5 sets Standing DB Military
- 4 sets hang clean and press
- 4 sets plate front raises leaning back against wall to prevent cheating
- add in other presses as needed to reach failure (use smith machine)

Day 6 - off

Day 7 - off

BTW, today is first day off the lexapro. Got my fingers crossed.

 

[SouthernLord]

Squats and Milk lol. Seriously Super Squats has been around forever and it works. If you haven't heard of it (how could you have not?) just google it. Or..... You could try WS4SB roughly translated as Westside For Skinny Bastards. This is a sick program with lots of options. It will make you super strong and quite the hoss if you eat for it. Coach DeFranco trains everyone from high school female soccer players to NFL stars. his program is no joke. Here is a link to his site....

http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/articles.htm

 

[Sim882]

Thanks 5'6, 71kg 12% bf (I was in better shape in the pic b4 lexapro)

My main focus was always going to be compound movement. I am just looking forward to seeing my squat weight move up now I won't be playing endless tennis, running etc

Maintenance on one hour exercise programme of weights would be like 2800. It is hard to estimate because I've tended to do 2 houors of exercise per day, and hence been eat a lot


How can supersquats work? The exercises are though but volume is (very) low
he workout:
- Parallel Squats: 1 x 20
- Chest Pullovers: 1 x 20
- Bench Press: 2 x 12

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

It works because you train hard as hell on the squats and every exercise and really push to add weight every week.

Personally I would recommend the classic Bill Starr 5x5 program and bust your ass on it for 4-6 months.

 

[Sim882]

What I'm thinking of is as follows

Day 1 & 4:
Morning Back, Abs:
(1) Bent Over Rows; Wide Chins; Narrow Chins; T-Bar Rows; Hyperextension and various abs
Evening, Chest/Traps:
(1) Barbell, Bench; Incline DB Bench; Flys; Dips; Shrugs

Day 2 & 5 : Shoulders, Arms
(1) Standing military; side raises; front raises
(2) Seated tri-cep dips; skull crush; push down machine
(3) Preacher Curl; hammer curl; reverse curl

Day 3: Legs; Abs
(1) BS, FS, Hack Squat, Glute Ham Raises
(2) Abs

Day 6: Legs, Lower back
Deadlift, Back Squat, Front Squat, Overhead Squat, and abs.

I was thinking of ramped sets, low reps for the first exercise of the day (basically using it as my bench mark of progress), and shorter rester periods, and higher reps thereafter.

I've never really worked shoulders (except of OH press), abs, arms properly.

PR's: I have relatively strong chest (5x110kg) and 5x45? for weighted dips (haven't done dips for a while so can't recall precisely), back (5x25kg weighted wide chins, although much weaker on bent over rows), Ok deadlift (5x145), poor squat (5x110 - but that's b/c of too much running I think), but not strong shoulders (5x55), and well...arms, 5x37.5, and really bad for tris (don't even really know). Just started overhead squat - 5x55, but I imagine this improves more quickly as balance improves

Bench and back seem to progress best twice per week last year (before anti-depressants) so I'm thinking I should do the same for the whole body. My progress was never linear though.