Welcome to the third article of The Athlete's Guide to Bulking. This is the third of a multipart series that will focus on athletes and the process of bulking—including whether they should bulk up, the importance of weight gain for athletic performance, and how exactly you should go about your bulking phase if it is right for you.
This third section is focused on adapting and optimizing your training while you are in a bulking phase. Putting on size is the best time to put on strength—My purpose here is to show you the best possible way to get the most out of your strength training. Let’s get into it.
First and foremost, Should your training look any different during a bulk?
The truth is, no. Whether you are maintaining your weight, cutting, or bulking, there should be no substantial difference in the style or intensity of your training. A common misconception is that training styles, rep ranges, and overall intensity should be different based on how much you are eating. You should always be following the training style that works best for you, your sport, and your goals—no matter what your calorie intake looks like.
That being said, your training intensity should be at a maximum during a bulk, and that is for 2 main reasons—You will have 1) More Energy, and 2) Better Recovery.
The increase in calories, especially of carbohydrates, will essentially “fill your muscles” with more water and glycogen, something that will allow them to have more endurance and exert more force. For this reason, you should be able to make the most strength, speed, and explosiveness gains while in a bulking phase. The added calories and the increase in protein will also allow your body to recover more effectively from intense workouts. This is yet another reason to ensure that you are pushing your training to the absolute limit.
Now, in order to ensure that you are effectively pushing yourself in a way that is conducive to making progress, one of the most important parts of a successful bulking phase for an athlete is having a Structured Training Program.
One of the worst things that you can do for yourself is show up to the weight room or the training field without a PLAN.
Why put all of this effort into eating more and training hard if you are not going to maximize the effectiveness of your training. Having a program or a coach to guide you and to inform you of exactly what you need to do is essential to success.
Now, that being said, you have to be able to find a balance between training “perfectly”, and just getting your training done well.
So often I see people who are afraid to push themselves during weightlifting because they want to do what is “optimal”, or because they had to hit a certain rep range for their program. The point that they are missing is, what is “optimal” for them is getting as strong, fast, and explosive as they possibly can be, and I guarantee you this won’t be done by not pushing yourself to the absolute limit.
My point here is, don’t let a program be the end-all be-all. If you feel like you can push yourself harder, don’t be afraid to get those few extra reps or add those few extra pounds. On top of that, Rather than trying to find the “perfect” exercise, find the exercise that you can push yourself the hardest on. Without proper intensity, you will ALWAYS be leaving progress on the table.
Continuing our focus on effective training, let’s get into another crucial part of ensuring that you are maximizing your gains, which is Tracking your Progress.
One of your main goals with your training should be to Eliminate Guesswork. The two best ways to do this are through having a training program and tracking your lifts (or times for timed movements).
How will you know if you are making improvements if you are not tracking what you are doing? Do you really want to go into the gym every time and just try to remember or guess what weight you did last time? Absolutely not.
Luckily for you, this can be as simple as writing it down in a notebook or tracking it through an app on your phone.
Any app that works for you is great, but one app that I recommend specifically for athletes is MyLiftLog.
I recommend this app particularly to athletes because it allows you to create and track any exercise that you do, and with all of the unique, sport-specific exercises that you do as an athlete, having somewhere to track your progress on those exercises is essential to success. If you are interested in using the MyLiftLog app you can register for free through my link here:
https://myliftlog.app/register?referrer=z
There is no better way to ensure that you are making progress than beating the previous number week-by-week. Now, obviously, progress will not always be the exact same every week, but the best way to make sure that you are making that progress is seeing that number in your log book improve.
Not seeing progress in the log book? That’s a sign that a change needs to be made, whether that be adding more training volume, increasing the intensity of your exercises, or simply eating more food.
Another upside of bulking and getting stronger is the ability that it gives you to improve your Sport-Specific Training.
It is Crucial that while you are putting on muscle you are not neglecting training specifically for your sport. That includes rotational power, sprinting, jumping, or even things like swinging a baseball bat or shooting a basketball.
For me personally, over the past Summer and Fall I committed to a major bulk. I am a baseball player, and my primary goal with this bulk was to increase my exit velocity (how hard the ball comes off your bat) and my throwing velocity. I successfully on 16 pounds in the last year going from 199-215 (I’m 6’1). Through putting on that weight I have:
Maintained my 60 yard dash time (6.8 seconds)
Maintained my vertical jump numbers
Hit a new max sprint speed
Added significant weight to every single lift
And my two most significant changes—which was the goal of the bulk
Hit a new max exit velocity of 106mph and am consistently in the 100-105mph zone (my previous max was 101mph)
Gotten my max throwing velocity up to 96mph from 89mph
My point here is, Bulking Works. It’s all about how you go about it.
Just “eating more food” is not gonna cut it. There needs to be a focused effort from you in every aspect of your life—from your eating to your sport to your training.
To wrap things up, I will leave you with one final point: Do not neglect movement because you are trying to put on weight.
An extremely common misconception is, if you are trying to put on weight you should just sit around when you’re not training so that your body doesn’t burn any extra calories. The truth is, this is counterproductive. Keeping your body stagnant throughout the day through a lack of movement will keep your body in a state of rest. When your body is in a state of rest, you are far less likely to become hungry, which leads to you eating less and not putting on the weight that you are aiming for.
Move more. Eat more. Feel better. Be successful.
Thank you for reading! That concludes the third article of The Athlete’s Guide to Bulking. If you found this article useful or helpful and worthy of sharing, please share this article to anyone you think could find value in it.
The Athlete’s Guide to Bulking—Article 3—Coming Next Week