Re: New Year Goal: Gaining Muscle

[Guest guest]

Hey Maggie,

I've done a " bulk " like you describe and had great success. In fact, I

love the increase in weights, being stronger, etc. The hard part for

me was mentally getting over the fact that I would " gain weight " . I

did in fact gain some fat but most of the weight gain was muscle so I

felt overall it was successful. In order to do this, you have to

increase your calories some. I didn't go way high, because I also

decreased my cardio so together, that worked best for me. I bulked my

calories to 1800-2000 daily, kept a free day, stuck with cardio 3

times a week for 1/2 hour but the intensity was no where near HIIT or

anything like that. Just a brisk walk or the eliptical. I also found

that I did really well on a different lifting split than the classic

BFL but I've always liked more interesting splits than upper/lower so

that might have something to do with it too. Personally I found the

best gains doing chest/biceps; legs; chest/triceps; shoulders/calves.

You may have to play with where you put shoulders depending on if they

get sore from either back or chest day. I like 4 sets of 6 reps. If I

can get 6 reps on my last set, the weights too light. Sometimes I have

1 rep sets

In terms of calories though, keep in mind that I've messed with my

metabolism some by going way too low in calories before so someone

else who hasnt might find their CUTTING calories to be 1800-2000 and

while bulking could need 2500.

Hope that helps.

Jackie

> With the new year looming just around the corner, I was wondering if

> anyone else here was already at or near maintenance weight and setting

> a goal of JUST gaining muscle instead of the usual " I'd like to lose

> (*NOT* -loose-) fat and gain muscle at the same time " that we all

> start out declaring when we begin BFL.

>

> I've been doing maintenance level calories since November 29 in order

> to feed my muscles enough to encourage growth. I feel as if I only

> had noticeable muscle growth in the first month or two of BFL (the

> usual newbie muscle gain that comes from starting a weight training

> program for the first time, or, in my case, coming back after a long

> hiatus), and after that, it was more of a fat loss process that

> *revealed* my muscles and firmed them up as the fluff marbled through

> my muscles and padded under my skin melted away. The weight training

> was preserving my muscle mass, not increasing it while I was

> functioning at a caloric deficit. The general consensus seems to be

> that after the initial newbie gains, the only way to really increase

> skeletal muscle mass is to eat at maintenance or above.

>

> I realize it goes against the grain to say I want to get bigger, but I

> would love to have some seriously jacked arms, and sticking with the

> low BFL calories would only give me lean, stringy arms that were

> totally out of proportion with my Quadzilla thighs. There are women

> who can use just BFL to cut down to goal weight and find themselves

> with buff shoulders and arms and lean, slender legs, but I'm not one

> of them. Even when lean, my legs are WAY more muscular than my

> arms, making my proportions seem off.

>

> I'd love to hear from more experienced ladies about their experience

> with maintenance/bulking. Have you been able to gain muscle while

> sticking with the BFL cutting diet, or did you have to increase your

> calories/portion sizes? If you go by palm-fist, your portion sizes

> will never change, which means that you'll ALWAYS be eating 1300-1700

> calories a day, six days a week, with just one higher calorie free day

> a week. Assuming that most women working out 6 days a week have a

> total daily energy expenditure of 2000-2400 calories, this is a

> permanent deficit, right? Have you changed your work outs to

> something besides BFL pyramids to improve muscle gains? What has

> worked for you? If you haven't changed your routine at all from core

> BFL, are you still satisfied with your gains, or are you thinking

> about modifying things?

>

> Maggie

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the advice, Jackie!

I'm probably averaging 1900-2000 calories a day at this point with

free days at 2200-2400. As of today I've gained about 4 lbs since I

started, but I think some of that is water weight from holiday

overindulgence and PMS. Once my system settles down I'll have a

better idea of what I need to consume. I'm kind of worried that I

spent too much time at 1300-1400 calories in the past 6 months,

particularly when I was doing turbo cardio about 2 months ago and

running a deficit of over 1000 calories a day. Since I didn't track

intake before starting BFL, I have no idea how much I can get away

with eating now and NOT gain weight. On the positive side, I can tell

that my arms have gotten more muscular already. I guess I *was*

starving them before, poor things.

I'm finding the weight gain part a bit tough psychologically, too.

It's hard to see the scale climb when it's been falling for the past 6

months. I was 136 lbs this morning, just 6 pounds away from my BFL

start weight of 142 lbs. I was 128 a month and a half ago (on a very

dehydrated, post-cardio, NOTHING in my tummy day). Of course, I am

136 lbs now in size 4 jeans and small tops, so I'm not freaking out

yet.

I've dropped the regular BFL split/pyramids and am doing Max-OT style

lifting with a split of chest/shoulders/traps, back/bicepts/abs, and

legs/abs alternated with three days of HIIT cardio and tai chi. The

heavy weights and short sets are great, even if I wind up making some

very scary faces when I'm trying to do those last reps. I might

try doing non-HIIT cardio for a bit as well. As things stand now, I'm

leery of doing a 4 or 5 day split because I know that my HIIT runs

completely wipe me out. If I didn't have to conserve energy for a 10

mph sprint, a 4 or 5 day split would be more doable for me.

How long did you bulk before cutting again? I was planning on

sticking with this through the end of January, and then going back

into familiar fat loss mode again in February. I've learned from my

past mistakes and am going to " cut " at 1700-1800 with extra cardio vs.

dropping my calories down to 1200-1400. I never want to be that

hungry again!

Maggie

>

> Hey Maggie,

> I've done a " bulk " like you describe and had great success. In fact, I

> love the increase in weights, being stronger, etc. The hard part for

> me was mentally getting over the fact that I would " gain weight " . I

> did in fact gain some fat but most of the weight gain was muscle so I

> felt overall it was successful. In order to do this, you have to

> increase your calories some. I didn't go way high, because I also

> decreased my cardio so together, that worked best for me. I bulked my

> calories to 1800-2000 daily, kept a free day, stuck with cardio 3

> times a week for 1/2 hour but the intensity was no where near HIIT or

> anything like that. Just a brisk walk or the eliptical. I also found

> that I did really well on a different lifting split than the classic

> BFL but I've always liked more interesting splits than upper/lower so

> that might have something to do with it too. Personally I found the

> best gains doing chest/biceps; legs; chest/triceps; shoulders/calves.

> You may have to play with where you put shoulders depending on if they

> get sore from either back or chest day. I like 4 sets of 6 reps. If I

> can get 6 reps on my last set, the weights too light. Sometimes I have

> 1 rep sets

>

> In terms of calories though, keep in mind that I've messed with my

> metabolism some by going way too low in calories before so someone

> else who hasnt might find their CUTTING calories to be 1800-2000 and

> while bulking could need 2500.

>

> Hope that helps.

> Jackie

>

[Guest guest]

> a week. Assuming that most women working out 6 days a week have a

> total daily energy expenditure of 2000-2400 calories, this is a

> permanent deficit, right? Have you changed your work outs to

> something besides BFL pyramids to improve muscle gains? What has

> worked for you? If you haven't changed your routine at all from

core

> BFL, are you still satisfied with your gains, or are you thinking

> about modifying things?

>

> Maggie

I have always stuck to the BFL eating, it seems to work for me. I do

sometimes increase my portion sizes. I have not made any major

changes to my weight in a year and a half. But I did change my

weight lifting routine and I feel like my arms have gotten bigger. I

am really happy with the size of my upper body muscles. I still get

sour from my work-outs. Anyway, I lift weights 4 days a week. When

I originally made the change, I worked my chest/biceps on Mondays,

legs on Tuesdays, shoulders and abs on wednesdays and back and

triceps on Fridays. Then I changed to doing back and chest on the

same day and triceps and biceps on same day. I really liked that

change.

Using dumbbell chest press as an example, my first set is a warm up

set. For my warm up set I do 12 reps at a lower weight like 15 lb

dumbbells. Then, I use as high a weight as I can lift and do as many

as I can. when I can't do anymore I switch to the next lower weight

and do as many as I can. I continue this routine until I have done a

total of at least 10 reps. For example, first I use 35 lb dumbbells

and can do 3 reps, then I use 30 lb dumbbells and can do 7 reps.

Since I have done 10 reps, I am done with this part. If I had only

done 5 or 6 reps, I would have moved on to 25 lb dumbbells and done

as many as I could. Then I do a cooldown set with 15 lb dumbbells

(12 reps). I follow this same routine with all my exercises. I try

to do 3 different exercises per body part. Often though I only have

time to do 2 exercises per body part. I still get sore following

this routine. I have noticed that my biceps and triceps have gotten

bigger. I have gotten stronger, too. I have been doing this for

about 5 or 6 months.