Muscle Building Bulking Workout

Ok I can here you now, “BULKING? Didn’t you write a book called Diary of A Former Fat Man”? Well yes I did write that book, available on amazon.com next month (please pardon the shameless plug) and yep, I did say bulking, but hold on there are good reasons to add muscle.
Ok first the boring science, adding muscle to your body will cause your body to burn more calories on a daily basis, so you get to eat more, and if you’re like me you like to eat, while your body burns more calories simply because a greater percentage of you is muscle. Now for the real stuff, when I lost all that weight in the year I detail in my book I ended up looking like a plastic doll that had been put in the microwave for a few rotations. So although I was lighter I didn’t look the way I wanted to, let’s just say I don’t like the melting Mr. Potato Head look. What I had to do was put on muscle (and yes that means allowing the scale to go up) to get closer to the look I wanted. So if you want your body to be able to burn more calories (which allows us to eat more, always good) and to get that fit look we all admire you are going to have to add some muscle to that frame of yours.
So what to expect? Well as I said expect the scale to go up. Sure you may be reducing your body fat along the way but that added muscle does add weight. My advice is to ignore the scale for a while, and stick with measuring your body fat or taking measurements, either one of those will let you know if you are moving in the right direction. While you are adding muscle you have to commit to eating more of the right things. Now we have heard a thousand times that one pound of fat is 3,500 calories, but did you know one pound of muscles is 2,500 calories? So to lose a pound of fat you have to reduce your calories by 3,500 and to add a pound of muscle you need to make 2,500 calories available to your body (see why you can’t build muscle and reduce fat at the same time, one requires a calorie deficit and the other requires a calorie abundance). Your body will use some of the calories you typically give it to build that muscle but you will need to give it additional calories to get the most of your gains. Those extra calories must come from protein, which essentially is the building block of muscles. Sticking with lean proteins will help keep you from gaining extra fat as you bulk up (think turkey, chicken, fish and protein shakes). For your protein shakes I recommend whey isolate protein shakes during the day and casein shake right before bed, the casein shake will keep your body from entering starvation mode as you sleep and give your body the essential building blocks it needs to add that muscle you will be working so hard for. Shoot for between 1.5 & 2 grams of protein for every pound you weight. For most this will be a significant increase and you might have difficulty adjusting at first so don’t be surprised if your stomach needs a few days to get use to it. Oh and remember you can always cut weight after you have bulked up and cutting that fat will be a lot easier when your body has all that extra muscle burning up calories for you.
Now I must warn you this workout will be difficult, but it has to be because growth doesn’t come cheap and work is the price your body demands for the growth you want. Check with your doctor before beginning this workout and remember to listen to your body. If you are an inexperienced lifter than for your own sake hire a trainer to guide you through this program.
Do each day of this routine once a week (a total of three days a week with at least 24 hours of rest between days for the first three weeks ) for the first three weeks then do each day twice a week for another three weeks doing chest and biceps, followed by back and triceps and then legs and shoulders. After this six weeks you will need a new program to continue to get the most gains possible because your body will have adjusted to the routine. Doing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) cardio will help keep any fat gain to a minimum as your building muscle.
Do each exercise below in a ladder format by doing three sets of increasingly heavier weights and then three weights of decreasingly lighter weights. Start each with your eight repetition maximum and then increase the weight by around ten percent for each of the two following sets up the ladder. Your last set you should only be able to do 3-5 repetitions. Then start your way down the ladder with that last set up the ladder and move back down (so if your eight rep max is 100 pounds you do 100 lbs for set one, 110 for set two, 120 for set 3, 120 for set four, 110 for set five and 100 for set six). You want to do as many repetitions as you can for each rung of the ladder beginning with your eight repetition maximum for the first set (basically do as many as you can but the number you can do shouldn’t exceed eight repetitions for any set otherwise you need to increase the weight). When you lift focus on controlled negatives (3-5 seconds down) and explosive positives (one second up) and squeeze out the muscle you are working at the top of the repetition and hold for 3-5 seconds. This style of lifting will engage all your muscle fibers (both the fast and slow twitch) and get the most gain for your time. Rest one to two minutes between sets and up to three minutes between exercises. Each workout should take you 60 – 90 minutes to complete so make sure you have the time set aside to get the full workout in. I can’t stress enough the importance of proper form when lifting heavy improper form will cause a lot of damage and you won’t see any gains only pain.
Finally to the Workout
Day 1 Chest and Biceps
• Incline press (works the upper chest)
• Flat bench (works the middle chest
• Pullovers (works the lower chest, make sure you feel your chest pulling the weight back up)
• Incline Flyes (a last blast for your chest, if your shoulder hurts or pops your form is off)
• Lying bicep ezbar curls (doing it this way takes the momentum out of it)
• Seated incline hammer curls (again taking the momentum out of it)
• Isolation curls
• 21s – standing with an easy bar do 7 full reps, then 7 half reps from the bottom and then 7 more from waist level all the way to the top of the rep

Day 2 Back and Triceps
• Barbell rows
• Dead lifts
• Shrugs
• Back extensions (you can use a bench or ball, remember the range of motion here is small otherwise you have a greater chance of injuring your back)
• Dips –(as many as you can per set the single best exercise for triceps)
• Skull crushers
• Seated tricep extensions
• Close grip bench press
Day 3 Legs and Shoulders
• Box squats (do a regular spot but under a bench when you get to the bottom of the squat rest on the bench for a second then explode back up)
• Stiff leg dead lifts
• Leg curls
• Hamstring curls
• Military press
• Front raises
• Lateral raises
• Bent over raises
In case you didn’t figure it out all of these exercises are done with free weights. Free weights are the single best way to build muscle and by using them you will be hitting your core with every workout. Remember to give yourself a couple go workouts to get use to what you are doing, if you feel pain in your elbows, shoulders or knees you need to fix your form otherwise those pains will become real problems. As always remember there is no ideal workout for everybody so feel free to modify this workout or any other as you need to get the most out of your time working out.

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