A Bulk-Building Approach - Dave Draper

 

In this article, Dave Draper tells you his personal experiences with bulking and over-bulking . . . the errors he made that almost ruined his development, the same errors you must guard against. He outlines the exercises and diet that helped knock off 25 pounds of unwanted weight as they helped maintain size and strength. 

Bulking up can produce very damaging results unless done carefully and scientifically. What should be kept vividly in mind is that though your intention and goal is to gain weight, you don't want to gain too much fatty tissue . . . you don't want to gain weight just for the purpose of gaining weight. Great attention must be paid to where the added pounds are developed. 

Common sense tells us, of course, that added inches must be kept off the waist and buttocks. And, unfortunately, these are usually the first body parts to take on added weight, unless great care is taken during the process of bulking up. 

Every bodybuilder, new or old, has gone through the bulking up phase. The keen desire for muscular size is over-bounding and takes hold of a bodybuilder with a viselike grip and refuses to let go until it gives him a few good shakes. 

Desperation for added weight and size sets in like a disease and the bodybuilder easily loses sight of what is good and what is right. When your perspective becomes this vague, be careful, for sure enough you'll gain weight just to see the scale go up rather than a desire to see your body improve. 

There is nothing less attractive than a layer of baby fat covering a physique, and nothing more difficult to cope with. Only time and extremely strict training and dieting can overcome this dreaded condition. 

Naturally, during the process of bulking up you're generally going to gain weight all over. This includes the waist as well as the chest, and so forth. Just be certain that the body's size increases in satisfactory proportion and that the weight gained is solid and firm. Accomplishing this does not depend so much on training but more on diet. Your diet is equally as important as your training and determines what kind of weight you'll gain and how fast you'll gain it. 

Following a good bodybuilding diet is very simple . . . pack in the proteins, vitamins, minerals and enzymes and avoid too many starches and too many carbohydrates. In other words, eat plenty of meats and fish, eggs and milk products. Avoid bread, starchy cereals, most cooked vegetables and sweets. For your calories and enzymes eat loads of fresh fruits, vegetables and juices. 

Also, don't eat three large meals which must be forced through stuffing yourself. Greater benefit will be derived from four or six smaller meals at closer intervals. This prevents the stomach from becoming stretched and the depending organs overworked. This will keep the body supplied with a constant source of protein, the building block of muscle tissue. 

Follow these simple diet suggestions and an appropriately planned routine and you will gain weight, solid and fast enough. 

Crash weight gain #7 pitch here. Then Nutra-muscle. Then Vitamin/mineral supplements . . . 

Your routine should be kept simple and uncluttered. 

Work each body part for 6 sets of 1 exercise, that exercise that works the muscle most completely. As you are concerned with gaining solid bulk, emphasis will be placed on power. As you increase your strength, so it will follow that your muscle size will increase. You will be handling heavy poundages with a step-by-step power progress routine as follows: 

For building the . . . 

1) Chest - 

Incline press, dumbbell or barbell

2) Lats - 

Bentover rowing, dumbbell or barbell

3) Delts - 

Press, dumbbell or barbell

4) Biceps - 

Curl, dumbbell or barbell

5) Triceps - 

French curl, dumbbell or barbell

6) Thighs - 

Your choice

7) Calves - 

Your choice. 

When starting on the routine, determine which movement of each exercise, dumbbell or barbell, is most effective for you. 

Train 6 days a week (use a split routine), performing chest, lats, delts, biceps and triceps exercises on three days, and thighs and calves on alternate days, with one day of rest a week. 

With regard to the midsection, perform your exercises every day, but use no added weight. In other words, perform various forms of situps and leg raises without weights . . . and avoid side bends, which tend to bulk up the obliques to too great an extent. 

Work for 5 sets of 6 reps per exercise, following this method of progression: 

1st workout . . . 5 sets with "x" pounds.

2nd workout . . . 4 sets with "x" pounds; 1 set "x" + 2.5 pounds. 

3rd workout . . . 3 sets with "x" pounds; 2 sets "x" + 2.5 pounds. 

4th workout . . . 2 sets "x" pounds; 3 sets "x" + 2.5 pounds. 

5th workout . . . 1 set "x" pounds; 4 sets "x" + 2.5 pounds.

6th workout . . . 5 sets "x" + 2.5 pounds. 

7th workout . . . 4 sets "x" + 2.5 pounds; 1 set "x" + 5 pounds. 

So, it's something similar to a "Hepburn" progression using the altered weight sets instead of the added rep. 

A slow burn. 

You will easily see from the above the way the progression is made. Study it, and apply this to your workouts. 

Slowly but surely, step by step, progress will be made. Not as fast as to add excessive tissue . . . but fast enough. 

You can't force your muscles to grow, but with a sound diet and appropriate hard exercise you will grow . . . big but proportionately . . . big but cut up . . . big and muscular. 

Enjoy Your Lifting!