Best set/rep routine for bulking

[tnarmyng]

I'm not on any gear because I'm overseas and I can't get pins here, but I ordered a few things from uniquechemicals which should be here soon. I'm 21, 5' 10", 165 trying to bulk. I'm recording my food intake and I'm at about 3200 cal a day and 190-200g protein a day, the rest is hard to measure at the dfac (chow hall). I take creating mono, a weight gainer 1x, and a protein shake 1x a day, fish oil, multivitamin, and jack3d micro for a preform out. I've gained about 15 lbs in the past 10 weeks and I workout hard with a guy much bigger than me for motivation. He does 4 sets plus warmup on bench, squat, deadlift etc anything major like that and does 12, 10, 8, 6 12 being first set and so on. I was wondering what the best rep/set routine would be the best for bulking. I know I've got a lot of room forgot and I'm looking for the most effective one. Any help is appreciated. Thanks guys

 

[3J]

how long have you been lifting?

i personally love the reverse pyramid routine... all set to failure 12, 4, 6, 8... but if your just starting out then a 12, 10, 8, 6 might be better for you

 

[donjob]

look into a basic program lik 5x5 and focus strictly on your big lifts. squat, bench, deadlift, clean & jerk or clean and push press. also some type of row. eat more. (side note pull your deads in singles, if you do say 80% for 5x5 reset each rep.)

 

[tnarmyng]

3j- About a year straight now. You gave me a diet plan last year and I've stuck with it as best as I could since I deployed but didn't have the resources to follow up with you. I'm still trying to bulk up, but natty this time (last time I spoke to you via email I was on test/deca) like you told me. Gain weight first then cycle. Anyways I've been doing the 12,10,8,6 and it seems ok, but I feel like my strength is increasing but I'm not bulking as much as I could.

Donjob with the 5x5, what do you mean by do deads in singles? You don't mean 5 sets of 1 right?

 

[donjob]

if you're not growing then you are just not eating enough. period. and when i say singles in the deadift i mean don't touch and pull. if you want to do 5x5 with the deads, or 8 sets of triples, or whatever... you reset between each rep. 5 reps is a set but after you pull and then drop it, don't immediately lift it again. reset, take in another good breath, push your belly out, reset your grip and your feet. pull again. that's 2 reps of one set.

 

[tnarmyng]

Ok I got you. Ill try that cause I've been doing more of a touch and pull. And I think ill try 5x5 for a week and see how I like it and if not ill try 8x3. As far as my diet, I'm literally eating as much as I have the opportunity to. I might be able to throw in an extra snack but I'm deployed and I work 12 hrs everyday so I can only eat at certain times and I take my protein shake and weight gainer shakes to work with me.

 

[Avenger87]

Ok I got you. Ill try that cause I've been doing more of a touch and pull. And I think ill try 5x5 for a week and see how I like it and if not ill try 8x3. As far as my diet, I'm literally eating as much as I have the opportunity to. I might be able to throw in an extra snack but I'm deployed and I work 12 hrs everyday so I can only eat at certain times and I take my protein shake and weight gainer shakes to work with me.

That's all you need at work, so long as you get a solid breakfast/lunch/dinner in. ~900+ cals each on your meals with a good macro split.

 

[donjob]

Ok I got you. Ill try that cause I've been doing more of a touch and pull. And I think ill try 5x5 for a week and see how I like it and if not ill try 8x3. As far as my diet, I'm literally eating as much as I have the opportunity to. I might be able to throw in an extra snack but I'm deployed and I work 12 hrs everyday so I can only eat at certain times and I take my protein shake and weight gainer shakes to work with me.

that's right i forgot you were deployed. do you have a 24hour sandwich bar at one of the dfacs there? eat as much as you can do set an alarm for 2am or so and head to the sandwich bar, then go back to sleep. or if you have a weightgainer use tht at 2am or so every night to get more calories in. continue trying to gain but i'd just be more concerned with keeing the weight you have, you'll be back then you can work on gaining. also as far as either 5x5 or doing triples goes, you're not doing this for every exercises. just your big ones. and if doing triples there's nothing saying that's what you have to do every week. i like to work in triples for the squat because beyond that your form will startbeaking down. the reason for not touch and going on the deadlift is you're getting that bounce so it's not like actually pulling 100% of that weight. also your form will be completely fucked up, that can lead to injury. always reset between reps on deads.
if i was you i woul stick strictly to heavy compound movements and oly lifts if you can. your job probably takes a lot out of you in the first place, i'd hit the gym 3 times a week, 4 times max. if you feel you must do curls or some type of iso shoulder work, i wouldn't go over 2 sets, maybe 8 reps max. moderate weight, focus on the stretch and the contraction for hypertrophy purposes. honestly i would just do deads, squats, bench, clean and jerk/press, horizontal rows and vertical rows, 5x5 with 80% of your 1rm, on the last set do more than 5 reps if you can. take as much rest inbetween sets as you need to, remember you're pushing 80% for 5 sets of 5+. what do your macros look like? can you post how many calories and how many of what kind you are getting?

 

[tnarmyng]

We do have a sandwich bar but I can't go during shift except main meals and I work nights. What do you mean macros? Sorry man just some net terminology for me. Yea I can but its not exactly specific because the dfac only shows cal and % fat on everything. Ill hae to post it a little later.

 

[donjob]

macros are your protein/carbs/fats. if i shows calories and % of fat you can do some simple math to figure out how many of those calories are from fat. now you're left with calories from protein and carbs, depending on what type of food it is you can guess the protein and carb content. let's say after taking the fat out of a 250 calorie sandwich, you're left with 190 calories. it's probably more carbs than protein, so you can guestimate. the reason i ask for the macros is just to see your ratio, but if you're eating enough andnot gaining then you may need to up protein intake.

 

[tnarmyng]

Oh gotcha. Macronutrients. Anyways ill up my protein by about 40g a day and see where in at in a week or so. Thank you

 

[donjob]

also you mentioned in an earlier post you would try 5x5 for a week and if you didn't like it would switch to 8x3. stick with one program for about 8 weeks, or as long as you are making good gains off it. if you flip flop and switch too often you are just spinning your wheels. even if you don't like 5x5, stick with it for a few weeks and see what happens. if it doesn't workfor shit then now you know what doesn't work for you. maybe5x5 will drive you bench thru the roof but it aint doin shit for your deads and squats. now you know to use 5x5 or similar for bench training in he future. after a couple years of doing the basic, cookie cutter routines you will figure out what works and doesn't work for you and can program your own routines personally and make great gains. also don't try upping your protein for a week. you won't see shit in a week anyways. i can guarantee you aren't getting enough protein overthere, and i'd stay away from protein hakes unless absoloutely necessary. up your protein by 40g a day and see whre you're at in 4 weeks. just do this, 5x5 on all major lifts for 6 weeks, increase protein for 6 weeks, and try to get in an extra literof water a day. take a good multivitamin (i prefer childrens gummy vitamins; i can explain why if you want), ake some fish oil and maybe even a healthy dose of vitamin c to help combat cortisol production. after the 6 weeks let me know how it went, i'm sure you'll see some big changes aslong as you are disciplined inyour training and take rest/recovery seriously. i'd take a picture of you now flexing whole body andjust standing naturally. then 6 weeks from now take those same pics again. trust me, follow this advice and i bet you put on 4 pounds of good solid muscle mass and your lifts will improve significantly for a 6 week period. at the 6 week mark if you're still seeing gains in either size or strength, keep it up. i would do a deload week week 7 then continue or continue t week 8 and deload. depending on how you feel. then i'd look into wendler's 5/3/1 and BBB as your next routine. you will learn a lot about yourself mentally and physically doing this program. also always keep a log so you can look back and see what was working and what was not.

 

[tnarmyng]

Ill do 5x5 on bench, squat, deadlift and military press. And you don't have to explain the gummies haha. Ill have to take my extra protein by shake, only option to be able to get more of anything than what I'm getting now. I already take 4g of omega 3 ed, and ill try tothrow in some vitamin c. How much should I take ed? What do you mean by deload? Do you have any experience with s4 or osta?

 

[donjob]

as long as the bulk of your diet is good natural foods, then having to use a shake to get that extra protein in is no big deal. you can never take too much vitamin c, you'll just pee it out. I would just take 500mg split throughout the day, vitamin c has a very short half life. i'd also recommend 5x5 for your horizontal rowing. i like to vary my pullups from workout to workout. it's not as important to me as deadlifts or horizontal rows so i may just end the day with 5x body weight, 3 max sets body weight, 3 max sets with a chain aroun my neck, using pronated grip, supinated and neutral. that's where instinctive training comes in. by deload i mean take an easy week. you cannot not push your physical limits every workout week after week. your CNS will be fried, you'll begin to see muscle loss nd strength loss. you'll be tired and feel like shit. so it's good to take a deload week once in a while. for example instead of doing 5x5 with 80% 1rm, do 5x5 with 60%. or skip all these workouts and give it a rest for a week and do nothing but exercises that aren't in your routine. do a conditioning day with just kettle bell swings, kettle bell one arm snatch, waiters carries, work with a trx band. use one day to just strictly pull a sled. do some light good mornings for your posterior chain if you don't normally do them. point is to break out of the norm, change it up for aweek, have fun and go easy. you'll come back well rested ad strong as ever. i'll usually go heavy for 3 weeks and on the 4th week take a deload. my new PRs are usually the week after taking it easy. and i would stay away from s4 and the like. they're useless, not enough research on them, waste of money. spend that money food.