Cardio during Bulk

[Kanav]

Going through a bulk and I realized I'm putting on fat WAYYY too easily. :angrydude: I know its mostly water, but god damn.

Being at 170lbs, and taking in roughly 200 grams of protein a day, I figure Id bring my carbs down a bit (Just taking in a bit less than 200 grams a day right now).

But now I'm considering doing Cardio during the bulk to make sure I don't get too out of hand.

What do you guys think? Any good time with cardio during a bulk? Post workout? Morning? Never?

 

[Ironslave]

Definitely do some cardio, both for nutrient partitioning, but also health benefits.

What is your training "split"? It'd be easier to recommend based on that.

 

[Kanav]

Definitely do some cardio, both for nutrient partitioning, but also health benefits.

What is your training "split"? It'd be easier to recommend based on that.

Mon: Chest
Tuesday: Legs
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Shoulders and traps
Friday: Arms
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Back

I'm pretty consistent with the timings. I wake up, have some breakfast and then I'm at the gym by 10. (Roughly an hour and a half after breakfast)

Before while cutting, I went ahead and did cardio right after weight training, but with cutting out of the way, I'm spending the time I held for cardio to be filled with more intense/time consuming weight training sessions. (75-90min at the gym for weight training).

After that, I take some creatine, glutamine, 2 scoops of protein, waxy maize, and a banana. When I get home I eat 5 boiled eggs with 2 table spoons of natural peanut butter, and then basically graze for the rest of the day.

 

[tim290280]

Couple of comments:

You may be taking in too many cals, back off so you are gaining but with less overall intake.
You have nothing challenging mid week in your training.
The mid week should probably have a lower intake level.
What sort of foods are you consuming?

 

[Ironslave]

You could do 20-30 minutes of decent intensity cardio on your two "off" days, ie, on the stepper.

 

[The Creator]

I like IS's suggestion. Dont get too crazy with it. If for nothing else, a little cardio boosts my appetite big time.

 

[Kanav]

Couple of comments:

You may be taking in too many cals, back off so you are gaining but with less overall intake.
You have nothing challenging mid week in your training.
The mid week should probably have a lower intake level.
What sort of foods are you consuming?

mostly living off protein powder, eggs, chicken, cottage cheese, peanut butter and oats. Bananas for post workout shake.

 

[Chesticles]

mostly living off protein powder, eggs, chicken, cottage cheese, peanut butter and oats. Bananas for post workout shake.

Why no Steak or Chicken?

I did pretty much the same thing as you when I was cutting, now that I'm not I do weights mon-wed-fri with cardio/core/ab days in between. From experience if you try to do cardio after weights when bulking you tend to get lazy and not worry about it.

 

[Kanav]

Why no Steak or Chicken?

I did pretty much the same thing as you when I was cutting, now that I'm not I do weights mon-wed-fri with cardio/core/ab days in between. From experience if you try to do cardio after weights when bulking you tend to get lazy and not worry about it.

sound advice

I'll throw in the cardio and abs on my off days

 

[Essensen]

Couple of comments:

You may be taking in too many cals, back off so you are gaining but with less overall intake.
You have nothing challenging mid week in your training.
The mid week should probably have a lower intake level.
What sort of foods are you consuming?

I agree with those comments. Try to reduce your overall intake - there's no reason to take in calories in abundance while bulking (which a hell of a lot of people are doing while bulking) you will not utilize those excessive cals anaywas - you'll just get fatter. A small surplus of 500 cals or less will easily do the trick and get you more lean mass.

If you have trouble lowering your cals during bulk you should up the work in the gym - I personally don't like the split your using - the frequency is too low and as Tim pointed out; you do nothing challenging midweek, you could split it up like this:

monday: Chest/shoulders/tri
Tuesdy: Legs
wednesday: Back/biceps/rear delt/trapz
Friday: Chest/shoulders/tri
Saturday: Back/biceps/rear delt/trapz

Make the first 3 days high volume and the last two low volume - that would give you considerably more work to do in each session thus you'll be burning more calories.

And definitely add some cardio to your routine if your getting to fat, steady-state cardio 2-3 times @ week for 30-40 min.

 

[Chesticles]

sound advice

I'll throw in the cardio and abs on my off days

Anytime dude.

You missed my question before though, why don't you eat any steak or chicken?

 

[Kanav]

Anytime dude.

You missed my question before though, why don't you eat any steak or chicken?

no no, you missed it in the list. I do eat chicken

 

[Natzo]

Yeah, 20 - 30 mins 3 times a week, is for me ideal for off.

it's what i'm doing.

 

[The_KM]

Going through a bulk and I realized I'm putting on fat WAYYY too easily. :angrydude: I know its mostly water, but god damn.

Being at 170lbs, and taking in roughly 200 grams of protein a day, I figure Id bring my carbs down a bit (Just taking in a bit less than 200 grams a day right now).

But now I'm considering doing Cardio during the bulk to make sure I don't get too out of hand.

What do you guys think? Any good time with cardio during a bulk? Post workout? Morning? Never?

Personally, I don't see a problematic issue with your calories right now. The amount of calories expended from protein is not nearly enough to over due the surplus of calories. If your protein is reasonable and your carbs are below maintenance, the only macro nutrient remaining to be analytical about is fat. Could you throw up your current diet?

Your routine is lame and outdated, bottom line. Not saying one routine is better than another, because it's factually impossible to pinpoint an actual determination on such a thing, but it's... lifeless! Look into volumized training and begin a trial and error process since you're bulking.

Also, you need some form of cardio. Whether it's moderate intensity 2x/wk or 4x/wk, do whatever is needed to keep the fat off. Remember, the athlete who trains harder and smarter, is the one who succeeds.
Good luck man.

 

[Kanav]

Personally, I don't see a problematic issue with your calories right now. The amount of calories expended from protein is not nearly enough to over due the surplus of calories. If your protein is reasonable and your carbs are below maintenance, the only macro nutrient remaining to be analytical about is fat. Could you throw up your current diet?

Your routine is lame and outdated, bottom line. Not saying one routine is better than another, because it's factually impossible to pinpoint an actual determination on such a thing, but it's... lifeless! Look into volumized training and begin a trial and error process since you're bulking.

Also, you need some form of cardio. Whether it's moderate intensity 2x/wk or 4x/wk, do whatever is needed to keep the fat off. Remember, the athlete who trains harder and smarter, is the one who succeeds.
Good luck man.

Allright man posting up the diet:

Meal 1: 4 Egg whites and two eggs with yolk
1 cup of Oatmeal, 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter

Meal 2: Preworkout: Scoop of protein with "vitargo" (waxy maize and 5 grams creatine). I throw in some ephedrine and caffine for energy as well

Meal 3: Postworkout: 2 scoops of protein, vitargo, 1/2 cup of oatmeal.

Meal 4: After an hour of postworkout shake: 5 boiled eggs, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, and a half cup of broccoli

Meal 5: 8 oz chicken, 1/2 cup broccoli

Meal 6: Cottage cheese and flax seed oil.

Feel free to critique and correct me where im fucking up.

 

[tim290280]

^^ I see the same foods throughout the day. No real variety. I mean I like eggs but not for a third of my meals. Ditto the peanut butter.

I take it you train in the morning? In which case the lunch meal should be more substantial and include a large proportion of your daily carbs.

And that is another thing; I see a lot of protein and very little carbs. Unless you are aiming for some sort of ketosis state I don't see the point. Have a go at working out the calories this diet consists of and the macros it gives. Ratio should be roughly 30/50/20 P/C/F. I'm guessing that your carbs would be more like 20-30%.

 

[Kanav]

^^ I see the same foods throughout the day. No real variety. I mean I like eggs but not for a third of my meals. Ditto the peanut butter.

I take it you train in the morning? In which case the lunch meal should be more substantial and include a large proportion of your daily carbs.

And that is another thing; I see a lot of protein and very little carbs. Unless you are aiming for some sort of ketosis state I don't see the point. Have a go at working out the calories this diet consists of and the macros it gives. Ratio should be roughly 30/50/20 P/C/F. I'm guessing that your carbs would be more like 20-30%.

Thanks man

the eggs are just an easy quick meal for me.

My carbs are relatively low since im kinda carb sensetive. I eat a piece of bread and i bloat like a bitch

none the less, im gonna up the carbs as I go throughout the bulk. Going to make a bigger meal out of lunch by taking in chicken with some pasta


(I think im keeping the carbs subconsciously low cuz ive been fat for way too long and im dreading losing the definition ive slaved for. Way too paranoid when dealing with starches )

 

[The_KM]

If you're carb sensitive, don't increase the protein to compensate for that. Protein, too, can be actuated into glucose which is the product of carbs. Also, the carbs you're taking in are mostly fibrous (vegetables), which provides little to no energy/calorie expenditure.

By completely cleaving carbs to the bare minimum will not yield quick, easy results. In fact, you'd be surprised; you can actually plateau quicker by doing this. Of course, the decisive factor of this is calories, but carbs take up a big chunk of those calories.

I also agree with Tim, variety is important. Not only for health benefits, but for your overall results from this protocol

 

[tim290280]

^^ Plus he is taking in SFA vegetables at all.

I didn't mention before but fibre is your friend. Vegetables are your friends. (KM will disagree somewhat with this but) Fruit is your friend. If you can successfully eat enough non-starchy vegetables to get fat there is a physics lab that wants to study your body. Fruit you have to be a bit more conservative with, but is usually fine as long as you don't have any refined or processed foods in your diet that contain HFCS.

I'd be interested to hear about carb sensitivity. I'm yet to hear a convincing argument for low carb diets from this supposed phenomenon. Most of the water retention associated with high carb loads is the sudden change in diet as far as I understand. Not something that should last any length of time.

 

[Achilles]

Definitely do some cardio, both for nutrient partitioning, but also health benefits.

What is your training "split"? It'd be easier to recommend based on that.

Never really got that nutrient partitioning thing. Arent you just loosing cals while doing cardio? I can see the health benefids.