How to Bulk Up

The magic question on this site is how do you bulk up? Well bulking up as you know has to do with how much you eat and how many calories you consume. I personally haven’t bulked up in about 3 years but the biggest I’ve ever been was about 235 to 240 and I was still under 10 percent body-fat. What I did to bulk-up was I ate about 5 solid meals a day and I took about three to four protein drinks a day. I made sure I followed a very high protein diet and I still consumed my carbs but I never overdid it. Some of the sources of the protein I ate during my bulking up phase was mainly chicken, turkey, steak, and fish. I made sure I was eating somewhat clean but with lots of protein that was high in calories. I was big on counting calories because it helped me know how much I needed to consume to be at my maximum desirable weight.

The protein drinks I took were each about 600 calories. So with just protein drinks I was consuming 2,000 to 2,400 calories a day. Also during that time I took No-Explode which was a great supplement to take for incredible pumps during your workout. I also took K3, Kre-Alkaline which is similar to creatine without the bloating and I also took glutamine which was great for recovery purposes. All of the supplementation I took together allowed me to push harder in the weight room which helped me achieve great muscle growth along with the heavy eating. I probably averaged over 4,500 calories a day during this bulking up phase.

My weightlifting routine while I was consuming all of these supplements and food were all heavy lifting. I never lifted more than 10 reps on any set and everything was about power-lifting for me. It is important to know that when you bulk up and put on a lot of weight within a short time you will put on more fat and water than muscle. My advice to anybody that is bulking up and that is concerned about putting on lean muscle is to do it gradually and slowly.

Make sure you are doing your cardio even when you’re bulking up. The cardio doesn’t have to be that long but you still want to be able to burn fat while bulking up. Your cardio intake should be about 15 to 20 minutes. It is important to know that bulking up has to do more with supplementation and eating then lifting weights.

So remember if you don’t eat you won’t grow. It is also important to make sure whatever protein you take that the fat intake is 0 grams or minimal fat. It doesn’t make sense to take a protein supplement that has loads of fat. The protein drink that I would consume when I was bulking up is a protein called Big Max that is sold at Max Muscle. Per a 16 ounce drink it was about 600 calories.

I would advise you to do a body-fat test before you start bulking up and after you reach the maximum weight for yourself. The body-fat test will determine how much true muscle you really put on after you bulked up and how much fat you put on during that bulking up phase.