As a personal trainer I get asked bulking up questions all the time ‘What’s the best way to bulk up?’ ‘Are dumbbells better than barbells for bulking’ ‘Should I do more reps or more sets?’. Now don’t get me wrong, these questions are good ones, it shows you are motivated and are getting your workouts in if you are coming across these more complex questions. But you are missing the one key thing to bulk you up.
What is this key thing I here you say?
This one key thing that I get all my personal training clients to do is to EAT MORE! If any personal training client of mine wants to put on some muscle the first thing I get them to do is to up their calorie intake. Your body is only going to grow more muscle if it has a surplus of calories. It need enough calories to run all you basic bodily functions for the day + enough to get you through your workout + some extra left over to build some new muscle. Don’t make the mistake of what a lot of my clients do before personal training with me, that is thinking ‘To get bigger I need to train more!’ WRONG! Training more with just burn more calories, eating away at the surplus and not leaving anything left to build new muscle. You may have found that training more does not put on any muscle size, it just makes you leaner.
Now this is not a license you pile down more junk food, you are what you eat at the end of the day. So what should you eat? I get all my bulking up clients to eat extra:
- Protein: to provide all the amino acids to build new muscle fibres. Any lean meats are good as well as eggs and fish.
- Carbs: to provide your body with a surplus of energy so it is not using protein as fuel. Grains and cereals are best, avoid simple sugars they will just make you fat.
- Fruit and Veg: to get in extra vitamins and minerals, think of these as the lubricants in a car, just keep everything running smoothly. Any ones you like
So there you have it. That is what I tell all my personal training clients who want to bulk up, EAT MORE! Just keep upping your food intake until your weight starts to go up. If this is something you are struggling with and would like some help, give me a call 07947049889 or email to arrange a personal training session to set you up with a bulking workout programme.
