I am starting my bulking phase and my goal is to get to 200 pounds. I was wondering what type of bulking supplements I should take to see faster and better results. I want to gain as much weight as possible. It does not necessarily have to be all muscle but it should be a good amount because I can start cutting later. I am currently 180 pounds. I have been reading about creatine and L-glutamine and they seem like great supplements. I want to know which ones are the best and if you have any suggestions on any other supplements for bulking up?
I recommend a product called Pre-Load Creatine by Optimum Nutrition. It has creatine, L-glutamine, taurine, BCAA’s and electrolyte transporters. Mix 2 scoops of this along with 2 scoops of whey protein powder, and 2 cups of water in a shaker bottle. Take it with you to the gym and drink it right after you finish your weight training workout. This is an excellent post-workout shake to drink so you can fully recover and grow from an intense workout.
Although weight gainer supplements can help to bulk you up, many products also contain cheap fillers and high amounts of sugar and fat. Its much more important to focus the core of your nutrition plan on nutrient dense whole foods. A great approach is to eat 80% of your daily diet from whole foods and 20% with nutritional supplements like a quality whey protein powder. Making a high protein smoothie between your whole food meals is a great way to add quick, quality calories to your diet while avoiding excessively high amounts of sugars and fats.
For great choices of nutrient dense foods to add bulk to your physique, try eating healthy sources of fat like natural peanut butter and other types of nuts to add to your meals and snacks (almonds, walnuts, pecans, etc.). Nuts are very calorically dense and should pack on mass quickly. They are also super convenient and you can easily take them with you to work, school or while traveling.
In regards to bulking up and then cutting down, this may not be the best approach for adding quality muscle to your physique. A distinctive bodybuilding cycle used to entail both cutting and bulking is an outdated training model. Why should you need to pack on a ton of fat and look bloated and soft? Your goal should be to gain the maximum amount of muscle without getting overly fat and losing your abs. Generally, when someone says they are bulking up, it’s usually an excuse to get lazy and fat. A more sensible approach is to build muscle slowly with correct nutrition and allow your physique to grow at its own pace.
The key is to create a sold nutrition plan. The basics include eating every 2 to 3 hours during the day, taking in a minimum of a gram to a gram and a half of protein per pound of body weight, getting all your nutrients, veggies, carbs, essential fats and vital nutrients.
Along with nutrition, your training sessions need to be high intensity. It’s important to use the progressive overload principle, which will be help your body grow by overloading the muscle. When you train like this while also providing your body with the correct nutrition to supply the calories and nutrients, you will allow your muscles to repair and fully recover from intense workouts which will help them grow bigger and stronger.
Some guys will just get on the scale and think they’re not gaining weight, so they’ll use that as an excuse to eat more food. Unfortunately, it’s usually not the best kind of food. These cheat foods include burgers, fries, pizza, ice cream and other junk foods in their effort to gain maximum weight and bulk up. This will certainly get more calories into your system and you will gain weight, but it will only be excess fat around your waist. These food choices are so poor that the muscle growth beneath the fat is very limited and far from ideal.
Once again, your focus should be on consuming clean, quality nutrition from nutrient dense foods. If you get enough fuel and enough stimulus and then make sure to rest, your body will grow. But don’t force it by training too long and hard! If you follow this plan of intense training with consuming quality nutrient dense whole foods, you will start gaining mass and losing body fat. Make sure to also keep track of your body composition throughout the process, since you may not see a huge change on the scale. Even though the scale may not change, you will definitely start to see major changes in your lean mass to body fat ratio. Remember that the scale can really be misleading so take photos and measurements each week to make sure you know that you’re gaining muscle and not fat.
On the other end of the spectrum, if someone has different goals and wants to focus on getting lean, such as the overweight guy who’s trying to trim down, then that person would do the same sort of thing but focus mainly on fat loss. They would do all the same things to help their body lose extra fat which includes eating a clean diet with a small caloric deficit so they can trigger their body to tap into stored body fat and lose adipose tissue.
When it comes to any kind of body transformation program, whether its fat loss or mass building, people tend to overanalyze how hard and complicated the process is really going to be and how long it will take. The key is to just get the basics down and let it happen on its own. Do not make it more complicated than it really is. Remember that it’s not a race, it’s a marathon. It should be a slow and steady process so just be patient and let it happen!
