Bulking is Basic

     “Bulking is basic.  Remember that.  If you try to do too much or get too clever… you’re not going to make the kind of progress that I’ve typically seen.” ~Dan John

     I was reading Pavel and John’s book Easy Strength when I came upon that quote above.  That first sentence is so true that I don’t know why I never came up with it myself.  But, like a lot of the ideas for articles that I’ve written over the years, I figured that I’d use it for an essay of my own.  Which you’re now staring at on your computer screen or tablet or phone or, well, whatever-the-hell it is that you use to read my blog.

     By the way, and before we get into the gist of this article outright, if you want to know about a lot of the ideas that I’ve stolen over the years—that’s correct; I’ve stolen a lot of good stuff—then check out an essay I wrote last year aptly entitled “Stealing Good Ideas.”  Anyway, back to our current subject…

     Bulking is basic.  I mean, it really is.  For some reason, we as a human species just like to complicate things, I think.  Lifting’s really no different.  I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve received an email from a reader who desperately wanted to gain muscle and couldn’t figure out why the routine they were following from Mr. Super Steroid Galaxy’s 20-set per muscle program replete with all sorts of cable and pulley movements and complicated isolation exercises, not to mention supersets and tri-sets and “down-the-rack” sets, wasn’t working for them.  Keep it simple, folks.  It really isn’t that difficult.  I don’t mean to imply that you don’t have to work hard.  You do.  But designing a bulking routine shouldn’t be hard.

     What follows are some of the elements of what constitute a good bulking program.  I’ve covered quite a lot of this before in various articles and essays, so some of what follows is definitely not original—if it was, then I can guarantee you it wouldn’t be any damn good.  But a couple of the ideas are unique, or at least not what I always write about, and even the stuff that I’ve covered before, I hope to do so in a slightly distinctive way.  So, even if you think you’ve heard it all before, read on.  You may find something new.

You Gotta Squat!

     Okay, I have without a doubt discussed squatting before—heck, it’s quite possible that at least half of my articles discuss the almighty squat!  But there’s a reason for that.  If you ain’t squatting, you ain’t gaining.  It’s that simple.

     You still can’t beat the 20-rep squat program for building heaping amounts of muscle.  It’s been putting bulk on lifters for almost a century now.  However, there is an issue that a lot of lifters face.  They aren’t capable of using a heavy enough of a load for the program to be effective.  High-rep squats—along with high-rep deadlifts (of various types) and high-rep shrugs—will only be truly effective if you can move heavy iron whilst doing them.

     If you have yet to build a lot of strength, then use a combination of high-rep and heavy, low-rep sets.  Tom Platz—if anyone knows how to build a pair of massive thighs, it’s that guy—used to recommend a program where you started with “pyramid” sets, followed by a set or two at the end for high reps, usually to failure.  He suggested doing 10s, followed by 6s, then triples.  When you’re done with your heaviest set of 3 reps, drop down in weight and do a set until “exhausted.”  Let’s say that you can squat 315 for a max triple.  In this case, your squat workout using Platz’s method might look like this:

135x10

185x10

225x6

250x6

275x3

300x3

315x3

225 to exhaustion

     Don’t discount all of those sets working up to your heaviest weights.  As I argued recently in my essay “Heavy and High,” it’s the total workload of a program that really builds mass.

     Although the barbell back squat is the primary squatting movement most lifters utilize, other squatting exercises can be just as effective.  For strength, assuming you have the flexibility to do them, I love the bottom-position squat.  The front squat might be 2nd to the back squat.  For some lifters, it can be even better.  Not only does it build overall bulk to the entire body, it also works the quads more efficiently than does the back squat.  And, if you have access to weights that are heavy enough, the dumbbell or kettlebell goblet squat are good selections, as are double kettlebell front squats (my new personal favorite).

     Old-school lifters—going back to the 1930s and ‘40s—believed that the key to making high-rep squats work was to combine them with deep breathing between reps and high-rep straight-arm pullovers between sets of squats.  If you attempt this approach, then, between each rep of squats, take 3 or 4 really deep breaths.  Breathe in through your nose as deeply as possible and then breathe out through your mouth.  On the in-breath, expand your chest and rib cage as much as possible.  (This, by the way, is different from how you should breathe when meditating or during martial arts practice, when you need to bring calm to your body.  In that case, you should breathe into your stomach, expanding your lower belly outward on the in-breath.  Anyway, that is neither here nor there, so back to our essay…)  As soon as you are finished with your set of squats, head to the bench for a set of straight-arm pullovers.  The pullovers can be done cross-bench with a dumbbell or along the bench with a barbell.  Keep your elbows bent slightly, and do a set of 15 to 20 reps.  These don’t have to be heavy—they can, in fact, be quite light.  Get a deep stretch at the bottom of each repetition and, as with the squats, take a deep breath between every rep.  Old-school ‘builders believed this technique expanded the rib cage, allowing you to pack on even more mass to your upper body when combined with other upper-body movements.

Stick to a Simple Program

     You will always do better on a bulking routine when you use a limited number of exercises.  Get stronger on a handful of movements—with your reps somewhere between 3 and 8—and you will get bigger.  You really don’t need anything more than a squatting movement, a deadlift exercise, an overhead press, a bench press of some sort, and a variation of the quick lifts, whether it’s the clean, the snatch, or a high pull.  Perhaps add in a curl and a loaded carry and you’re good to go.

     We’ve already covered squats—they’re so important that they deserved a section all their own—so let’s look at the other lifts.

     Deadlifts are always a good lift for strength, power, and bulk-building.  The only issue with deadlifts, due to the direct lower back work, is that they take the longest to recover from, especially when training all-out.  You can do squats, quick lifts, and overhead pressing with heavy, high-volume workouts and you can actually do them frequently.  But with deadlifts, you either need to back off the volume or the intensity or you just need to train them less frequently.  Nevertheless, they should be a part of your bulking regimen.  Also, you can get away with more frequent deadlifting, even relatively heavy ones, when you use an exercise such as the sumo deadlift.  It takes the load directly off the lower back and puts it more on the legs and even the upper back.  If you’ve never done a set of heavy sumos before, you’d be surprised at how sore your traps can get.

     You should overhead press, really, as much as you want.  Your shoulders can handle a lot of work, perhaps more than any muscle groups, with the exception, possibly, of your calves and abs.  You should do military presses, push presses, behind-the-neck presses, and dumbbell presses, both two-arm and one-arm.  In fact, I think one-arm dumbbell overhead presses might be the best overhead movement of them all.

     Quick lifts are not used enough by the majority of trainees, if at all.  But they’re great mass builders, especially when they’re done without “bumper” plates.  There was a time when the greatest bodybuilders in the world were also some of the greatest Olympic lifters, such as Tommy Kono, Marvin Eder, John Grimek, and John Davis.  Kono was an Olympic gold medalist, 6-time world weightlifting champion, and Mr. Universe.  I think part of the reason that weightlifting built such muscle mass in those days was that the weightlifter had to control the eccentric, or negative, portion of the lift.  No weightlifters dropped the weight after the concentric portion was completed, unlike modern weightlifting—there was a time when rubber plates didn’t exist.  But you can still take advantage of this by training with standard barbells on cleans, snatches, and high pulls.  Dumbbell and kettlebell versions of the same lifts also build a good deal of mass.

     Using a handful of the above lifts during the week can build a lot of muscle.  The lifter doesn’t need much more than 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 8 reps on these exercises along with a couple of high-rep “finishers.”

Use Complexes

     I discovered complexes a few years ago.  I mean, I knew about them before that, but I always considered their use better for fat-loss or “conditioning” programs.  But then I read an article by Dan John where he said his athletes had great success with them in the off-season as a component of their bulking program.  But I should have known better.  When you think about it, it makes sense.  Without setting a weight down, you’re able to really increase your time under load and still use fairly heavy weights.

     Complexes are good with barbells, dumbbells, or kettlebells.  I recently wrote about them as part of my Metabolic Muscle-Building program.  When using them, start with the exercise you can get the least reps on and move toward one at the end where you can get the most reps.  Do at least 3 movements back-to-back.  Four or 5 would be even better.  Here are some suggestions:

Barbell complex:

Military presses, power snatches, back squats, front squats, deadlifts

Dumbbell complex (2 ‘bells):

Overhead presses, curls, flat-footed cleans, stiff-legged deadlifts, shrugs

Double-kettlebell complex:

Overhead presses, cleans, squats, deadlifts, swings

Putting it All Together

     Okay, let’s see what an example program would look like using everything that we’ve discussed so far.  This is a 3 days per week program.  However, you will utilize 4 different workouts, an A, B, C, and D workout.  The first week, you would do A on Monday, B on Wednesday, C on Friday.  Then, the 2nd week, you would start with workout D on Monday, A on Wednesday, and B on Friday.  Then, the 3rd week would be C, D, and A.  And so on and so forth.  You really don’t need anything more complicated than this.

Workout A

• Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps; 1 set of 20-30 reps.  Work up over 5 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps.  The last set should be all-out.  Once you’re finished with the last set of 5, rest several minutes, reduce the weight to about half of what you used on your final set, maybe less, and do 1 exhausting set for 20-30 reps.  On the high-rep set, use the deep breathing as discussed earlier.

• Straight-arm pullovers (barbell or dumbbell): 1 set of 20 reps.  As soon as you are finished with the high-rep squats, head to a bench and do a set of pullovers.  Get a deep stretch and take a deep breath between each reps.

• Bench presses: 5 sets of 5 reps.  Work up over 5 progressively heavier sets of 5 reps, the same as the squats.

• Power cleans: 5 sets of 5 reps.  Here, do 5 straight sets of 5 reps.  Select a weight where you could 8 reps for one all-out set.  If you get 5 reps on all 5 sets, add weight at the next A session.

• Barbell curls: 3 sets of 5 reps.  Same methodology as the cleans, but only 3 sets.

Workout B

     This is your first complex workout.  Here, you will do barbell complexes.  You will probably be sore from your last workout.  That’s fine.  Even though you will be doing big, compound movements, the nature of the workout will make it “light” because you won’t be able to use much weight on the complexes.  Select a weight on the barbell where it would be really tough to do around 10 military presses with that weight.  Now, do the following:

• Military press the weight 8 times

• Power snatch the weight 8 times

• Lower the bar to your back and do 8 back squats

• Put the bar back over your head and do 8 front squats

• Finish with 8 deadlifts

• Repeat 2 more times

Workout C

• Sumo deficit deadlifts: 5 sets of 5 reps; 1 set of 20-30 reps.  Use the same technique here as the squats from Workout A.  I have long touted this movement as the best exercise that no one ever does.  It’s probably second only to the barbell squat.

• Straight-arm pullovers (barbell or dumbbell): 1 set of 20 reps.

• One-arm dumbbell overhead presses: 5 sets of 5 reps (each arm).  Do 5 progressively heavier sets.

• Weighted chins: 3 sets of 5 reps.  Straight sets.

• Farmer walks: 3 sets.  Select a weight that will be hard for about 50 yards.  Try to go the same distance on your 2nd and 3rd set as the 1st.  If you get the same distance on all 3 sets, increase the weight of your dumbbells (or kettlebells) at the next session or increase the distance and use the same weight.

Workout D

     This is another complex workout.  For this one, you will be using kettlebells.  As with the barbell complex of Workout B, use a pair of kettlebells where 10 overhead presses are really difficult.  With that weight, do the following:

• Overhead press the kettlebells 8 times

• Clean the kettlebells 8 times

• Do 8 front squats

• Deadlift the kettlebells 15 times

• Finish with 20 double kettlebell swings

• Repeat 2 more times

Some Final Thoughts

     Stick with this program for 6 weeks straight at least.  8 weeks might be even better.  If you’re still making gains by week 8, you can continue for another 2 weeks after that if you want.  10 weeks would be about the limit of making this program work, however.

     On workouts A and C, try to push the weights up at each workout.  On the complex workouts, try to decrease the rest between each complex.  If you reach the point where you’re only taking 30 seconds or so after each complex, add weight at the next session.

     If you would like, you can start or end each workout with 1 or 2 sets of situps or hanging leg raises for your midsection.

     Eat 3 meals a day and have 3 snacks in between each meal.  You need food when bulking.  You can’t go wrong with Vince Gironda’s tips on what to eat.  Here’s his advice: “Include a lot of broiled meats, baked potatoes, stewed fruits, eggs, brown rice, thick soups, stews, nuts, and natural grains. Be sure also to include lots of green and yellow vegetables.  If you take your lunch to work, be aware that the best sandwiches for gaining weight are made with 100 percent whole wheat, pumpernickel, or rye breads. Ground beef patties, tuna with mayonnaise, turkey, meat loaf, avocado and bacon, peanut butter and bacon, and cream cheese all make excellent high-protein, high-calorie sandwiches.”

     You also can’t go wrong with the standard “GOMAD” approach—a gallon of milk a day.  If you can only eat 3 meals a day, then try drinking 3 large glasses of milk in between meals or however many you need until you manage to drink the entire gallon.

     Take your recovery seriously.  Get plenty of sleep.  Go for walks if you want, but do very little activity outside of that.  This is the one time that you can live like the “typical American” by sitting around and watching TV or movies half the day (or all day).  I would prefer that you read books, but, hey, I’m an avid book reader and I don’t understand folks that don’t like to read.  (At least you’re reading this, huh?)  The bottom line is that you need to take it easy and relax as much as possible while not lifting.

     Bulking really is basic.  Do your best on this program and you’ll understand the truth of that statement.