Bulking Up
Not an excuse to get fat!

By Xavier Fox

That fact that you are reading this magazine is a pretty reliable sign you are interested in adding some muscle onto your frame. Whether you are doing it for physique competition, athletic improvement, or you just want to look good when out in the public, you read BodyFitness in order to learn how to make it happen. That’s good, because I want to share some information with you on how to bulk up.

Before we get started, I’m going to assume that you already know that in order to gain massive amounts of muscle you need to train until blood is coming out of you eyes. Lifting large amounts of weight with little rest between sets will help you throw on some quality beefcake style muscle. This article is about fine-tuning your bulking up, not starting from scratch. So, if don’t already know how to lift to get big, there are some fitness girl articles in the front of the magazine for you to read instead.
Bulk up? You mean get big and bloated looking? Of course not! Bulking up is about adding muscle, not fat. Anyone can gain weight. Adding quality weight is what bulking up is all about. Now, in order to put muscle on, you will have to consume a lot of calories. This may cause you to add a percent or two of body fat, but bulking up is no excuse to let yourself get as smooth as a polished bowling ball. It’s possible to add quality muscle and maintain a decent-looking stomach.
The first thing you need to know is that protein rebuilds broken-down muscle tissue. Protein is not only a source of nutrition for building muscle tissue, it also helps our immune system, produces enzymes (our body’s catalyst for ALL of it’s chemical reactions), helps control blood sugar levels and enables us to produce many hormones. Therefore, in order to keep your hormone levels high enough to aid in muscle production, adequate amounts of protein are imperative. Insufficient amounts of protein will cause you to have a negative nitrogen balance and your body will not be able to synthesize new muscle tissue or repair the tissue that has been broken down from resistance training. This will cause you to go into a state of overtraining where you will actually lose muscle instead of gain it.
While trying to bulk up, you should consume a minimum of 2-2.2g of protein for every kg of lean body mass. This means you should get your body fat tested and find out what you would weigh if you had no fat on you. Once you begin to steadily consume this amount of protein, monitor your system and see how your body is reacting. If you are gaining muscle, but at the same time getting too fat, then you may want to cut back a little bit. If you aren’t making any gains and feel overly tired much of the time, then you should probably increase your protein.
Monitor any adjustment you make in your diet for several weeks before you make changes. In addition, be consistent. If you are skipping meals, or eating different quantities each day (or from meal to meal), it will be impossible to tell what is really causing your symptoms. When you are trying to discover a system that works for you, it is important to keep it as simple as possible and remain consistent. If your protein intake (or carbs, fats, vitamins, etc) is erratic, it becomes too difficult to figure out the correct amount for your specific metabolism.
Carbohydrates are also an important nutrient for adding muscle mass. Carbs are not only very protein sparing, they are the fuel that gives you energy for your mass building workouts. Carbs are what your body converts into glycogen, which is a broken down for fuel. The muscles store glycogen until it is needed (anabolism). The trained muscle increases its ability to store glycogen, and since glycogen is bound together with water (2.7g of water per 1g of glycogen); this extra bulk in the muscles makes them look bigger. This brings about a larger, fuller-looking muscle belly. Not only will they have more energy available, your muscles will be as packed full of glycogen as possible to increase your apparent mass and size to the maximum (hmmm, sounds like bulking up to me)! Studies have shown that high muscle glycogen levels are associated with increased protein synthesis and anabolism.
Carbs also encourage a greater insulin response than any other macronutrient. Insulin has been proven to increase protein synthesis and muscle recovery. As a matter of fact, it is the most anabolic hormone there is. That is why it is important to consume carbs immediately after working out. It is recommended that you consume 50% high glycemic carbs and 50% low glycemic carbs immediately after a workout. Not only will it help you replenish glycogen stores and spare muscle, it will cause a spike in your insulin levels and help you put on valuable size.
Now, for those of you that are over-zealous, this is not an invitation to eat carbs all day long to keep your insulin levels spiking. If you are always eating high glycemic carbs that cause your insulin levels to spike you will begin to add fat, and in a worse case scenario you can actually cause yourself to turn diabetic. The only time that creating an insulin spike is recommended is directly after training, because your body is starving for carbohydrates and nutrients. Bulking up takes a lot of hard work as well as discipline and should not be used as an excuse for poor eating habits.
Once you get your lean body mass measured, you will know how much protein to consume each day. Then, you can consider that as 60% of your measured intake. Therefore, if I discovered that I was supposed to eat 200g of protein each day, I would divide 200 by 0.6 (60%) and that tells me that 200 is 60% of 333.33 (200/0.6=333.33). This tells me that I should have 333.33 total grams of protein and carbohydrates each day, so I subtract my protein requirement (200) from my daily total (333.33) and that gives me my daily amount of carbohydrates as 133g (333g – 200g).
Once you know how much you should have in a day, divide those totals by the number of meals that you eat each day to get your meal sizes. I would recommend adding about 50% more carbohydrates to your post-workout meal than your other meals. This is when you need them the most. Then, you may wish to lower the amount of your pre-slumber meal by 50%.
Let’s see, I told you to consume 60% of your measured intake as protein and the rest as carbohydrates. Where does that leave room for fats? Well, if you are eating good quality sources of proteins, then you should be getting fat in them already. Foods such as chicken, fish, red meat and eggs already contain essential fats. Notice I said “essential” fats. For some reason, bodybuilders over the ages have associated bulking up with being permitted to get overweight and eat whatever types of fats they want. This is a critical error, as unhealthy as it is stupid. If you gain a bunch of unnecessary fat while bulking up, you will have to work that much harder to take it off later.
Fats prevent disease, keep our skin healthy, help our vision, help form cell structures and aid in the production of hormones - as long they are the “healthy” type of fats. The “healthy” fats are also known as unsaturated fats. There are two types, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. Monounsaturated fats get their name due to the one spot where there is room for a hydrogen atom to attach. Studies have shown that diets whose fat content is mostly of the monounsaturated type will help lower LDL (bad cholesterol) and maintain HDL (good cholesterol). It has even been shown to reduce insulin resistance in Type II diabetics. canola oil, olive oil, peanut oil and avocadoes are good sources of monounsaturated fats. Polyunsaturated fats are fats that have two or more spots where a hydrogen atom can attach. Omega-3 (alpha-linoleic acid) and Omega-6 (linoleic acid) fatty acids are part of this group. Omega-6 fatty acids lower both LDL and HDL serum cholesterol, aid in producing the hormones that control muscle contractions (very important for bulking up), blood vessel constriction and relaxation, and immune system operation.
Corn Oil is a good source of Omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fish oils, leafy vegetables, and even in soybean oil. Omega-3 fatty acids are required for development of the brain’s cerebral cortex and also for vision. They can even help prevent heart rhythm irregularity. Studies have demonstrated Omega-3 fatty acid’s ability to lower the risk of heart attacks and reduce asthma and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
Our systems cannot produce Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. The only way to get these important nutrients is to eat foods containing them. That is why they are known as “essential” fatty acids. Symptoms such as flaky skin and diarrhoea can result from inadequate amounts of essential fatty acids. The essential fatty acids can provide energy to our body, help insulate organs and transport vitamins that are soluble in fat. Essential fatty acids have been shown to help keep nitrogen retention high, which is important for putting on muscle.
Flax Seed Oil is popular in the bodybuilding world for supplying essential fatty acids. Make sure your diet contains some form of these fats. You can use this oil to cook your proteins in if you are concerned that you may be lacking your essential fatty acids.
The key is to try and pick foods that not only give you your proteins, they provide you with the unsaturated essential fatty acids that your body needs to stay healthy and energetic. You will be killing two birds with one stone. The benefits of consuming the correct types of fats were explained, because if your body is not completely healthy, you will not be able to push it to its limit while in the gym. In addition, bulking up is about adding muscle, not gaining weight. Eating the wrong types of fats will cause you to bulk up your rear-end, not your biceps!
You should be eating at three hour intervals. This will keep your body full of muscle-building nutrients as well as keep your metabolism working fast. If you go too long without food, your body will not only slow down your metabolism, it will begin to eat away muscle. This will tend to interfere with your bulking up plans. Unless your idea of bulking up is getting fat and small at the same time.
Now that you have your diet figured out, one of the most important aspects of any training program is allowing your body to recuperate. Your body repairs itself while you sleep. Within the first two hours of sleep is when our body starts to release hormones. Growth hormone, testosterone, luteinizing hormone, and even follicle-stimulating hormone are all at their highest levels during this time.
Growth hormone (somatotropin) is the main hormone in our system that regulates all growth. It stimulates the liver to release IGF-1, a key player in the growth of muscle tissue. Growth hormone works in conjunction with all our other hormones to keep our body healthy, from aging too quickly, make bones grow, and metabolise carbohydrates. It plays a major role in our anabolic system. Studies have also proven that growth hormone inhibits fat storage. Not only will it make you bigger, it will help get rid of that tyre around your waist. Lack of sleep will reduce the amount of GH that your body produces, thus slowing down your ability to produce muscle, inhibit fat and regulate the effects of other important hormones.
Luteinizing hormone (gonadotropin) is released in the pituitary gland and stimulates testosterone production in the testicles. Obviously, the lower the amount of luteinizing hormone, the lower the amount of testosterone. Luteinizing hormone will peak in our system about an hour before we hit what is known as REM sleep. The levels then stay high during our entire night’s sleep.
A good eight or more hours of quality sleep each night will ensure that your body is able to keep these important hormones in abundant supply. It will also give your body the time it needs to rebuild broken-down muscle tissue.
Finally, do not forget to supplement your diet with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. When you are training as hard as you possibly can it is actually putting your body through trauma. It is comparable to experiencing a car accident. The demands you place on your body to rebuild itself far exceed that of a regular athlete. You need much higher amounts of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants than the normal athlete and in order to consume the required amount you will need to supplement. Trying to eat enough food to get as much as you need would cause you to eat all day long. In addition, you would take in so many calories that you would end up with an ass that looks like 80 pounds of chewed bubblegum.
Remember, bulking up means adding large amounts of muscle, not adding large amounts of weight. Don’t get caught up in thinking that you are making progress just because the scale is up a couple of notches. If you are getting stronger and larger and still maintaining a respectable amount of body fat, then you are on your way. Anyone can gain weight, not everyone can add quality muscle to their frame. Bulking up is a necessity if you ever want to play on stage with the big boys, just do it the right way. Expect to add a small amount of extra weight, but do not use it as an excuse to get sloppy.
So what are you doing here reading this magazine when you should be in the gym bulking up!?