Posted on January 29, 2020 by Kate Halsall
Hypertrophy was so last year! Weight loss vs fat loss has been done! Today, our personal trainers got together and discussed bulking! Is it really stuffing yourself with pies and other junk food or is there a science to it? Does it mean you never have to do cardio again? Here are our bulking top tips!
Now before we get into our tips, I want to share our thought process here. We were specifically looking at bulking for those people who struggle to put on weight or are looking to put on weight for health reasons. If you’re looking to put on muscle mass, have a read of our hypertrophy blog here. This should help you with this.
Ok, so now let’s get into it! We of course discussed food. We all know that if we just eat calorific food, we will gain weight (not necessarily muscle). However, health is very important to the team here at motive8 and as such we look at quality of calories and refer you to the first tip:
Tip Number 1 – Don’t go over the top with protein, focus on fats and carbs.
It is difficult to be healthy in a calorie surplus. You will feel that you are eating all the time and quite frankly, you’ll feel full! So whilst it is important that you hit your protein targets, you ultimately need fatty and super calorific (healthy) food. So we’re talking oils, nuts, fish, avocados, olives, coconut etc etc. Where carbohydrates are concerned, you want to avoid too many over fibrous carbs such as beans and broccoli as again you’ll get full quickly. Essentially we’re saying:
Tip Number 2 – Low volume, higher calorie foods.
We then started to look at exercise. If you’re trying to gain bulk then should you stay away from exercise altogether? The short answer here is – NO! You would have accounted for how active you are when you worked out how many calories you need to be eating, so absolutely you need to exercise. Which leads nicely to:
Tip Number 3 – Do resistance training and minimise cardio.
Note that we’re not saying “don’t do cardio”. We need cardio to keep our heart strong and healthy. We’re saying minimise how much you do. The key here is that you need to do weights to help build muscle.
And so now to our last tip. If you are a frequent reader of our blogs, you may have come across this phrase before:
Tip Number 4 – Take your time!
As with every significant change you make to your lifestyle and to your body, it takes time. Don’t start trying to stuff your face full of 5000 calories. Start to increase your calorie intake slowly. Stay consistent. Trust the process. Most importantly, ask if you need help!