M3:D14 Going to failure and bulking tips

I had an incredibly intense leg workout today.  It was a true brute!

I spent part of the day watching NCIS which had a marathon session going.  That's an enjoyable show and I felt like just relaxing.  I also did alot of research on bulking nutrition and will probably change up my planned approach as a result.  I got some great advice regarding this approach.

It seems that the best idea during a bulk is to start out with a lower ratio of protein.  I am supposedly going to aim for 50/20/30 (carbs/protein/fat) at first.  I will aim for the lowest calories I can get away with and still see results.  The initial number for me will be 2800 calories.  This gives me room to make adjustments as needed.  The advice I got at this point is:

“At the end of the week (and each week) check your body composition again – always at the same time of day with the same method and tools. 

–If at first you are just gaining fat, then revamp your training it is obviously not sufficient to create muscle gains, also look at adjusting your caloric intake down 250.
–If you are gaining fat and muscle, stay where you are! or if it is too much fat, you can drop calories 250 or add a bit of cardio.
–If you are just gaining muscle go another week as is.
–If you gain muscle and lose fat but gain no weight (or lose weight), add 250 calories
–If you are gaining muscle and losing fat…while gaining weight stay where you are, you are at an optimal balance, muscle will burn more fat.
–If you are just losing fat add 250 calories, then revamp your training it is obviously not sufficient to create muscle gains! 
–If at first you are just losing muscle, adjust your caloric intake up 500 calories.
–If you are losing muscle and fat, adjust your caloric intake up 500 calories
–If you are neither gaining nor losing muscle or fat…you are at maintenance.  revamp your training it is obviously not sufficient to create muscle gains,  adjust your caloric intake up 500 calories. “

The explanation I have gotten about protein during a bulk is that your body will actually waste excess protein.  Since you won't know your exact needs at first, you start out with a lower number.  As far as calories, you want to avoid gaining fat.  While some fat gain is inevitable, the way to keep that number down to a minimum is to keep the calories at the lowest level where you can still make gains.  This is why the adjustments mentioned above are so important.  They consider every possible scenario and give a path to take for each scenario. 

One word of advice to those of you who have been cutting (on a caloric deficit) for a long time–up your calories slowly until you hit your maintenance level and then hold steady there for 2 weeks.  At the end of 2 weeks, go ahead and drop your calories back down to a deficit.  At the same time, don't forget that there are two ways to get a caloric deficit:  (1) dropping your caloric intake; or (2) increasing your activity level.  Be sure to consider these things so that you don't find yourself at too severe a deficit.  The idea of bringing yourself back up to maintenance is to fix your metabolism.  You need to stoke the fires every so often.

I get so pumped when I hit the gym, but I also know that I need to work as hard as possible during the bulk I'm about to start.  After seeing Mike Groom's transformation (Mike: Aussie Body Builder) while cutting, I know I need to kick my ass alot harder in the gym.  I have a philosophy that I've shared before:

Go as far as you think you can go, then go even further!

Well I'm redefining that philosophy.  From now on my philosophy is:

You can never work hard enough because you can always go harder than you just did.

This is evident with the deadlifts.  I honestly felt like relaxing and doing 425 for the second set.  Afterall, 425 was a personal best for me.  However, I knew I could work harder, so I added 5 pounds on each side and pulled 435 pounds.  You can always go harder than you just did.