T Nation

Advice from Experienced Bulkers?

Beginners
#1

62ad3_ORIG-maytoaugustprogress.jpg900×391 78.8 KB

Hey,

I started lifting in April this year. This picture below details my progress from April-August.

In terms of scale weight I went from 155-175 in this pic. Obviously my body fat is pretty high and since then it has gone up a little, because I’m now 180-185 depending on what I can eat during the day (peptic ulcer) which is slowing my bulk down a lot.

I used to go to a few other BBing sites and a lot of guys there said I should do a cut. I’m not happy with my size or strength yet so I didn’t… My real question is, from experience looking at the picture have I let my bodyfat get too high or is this about normal?

Thanks!

Heisenberg

#2

I personally dont think you need to cut yet. I doubt you’ll be wearing a bathing suit anytime soon so who cars if you’re carrying a little extra lol if you feel you must, just cut back on eating for a few days and add in a cardio session to lean out a little bit, then continue with bulk.

Great progress btw! Whats your height?

#3

[quote]SewZz wrote:
I personally dont think you need to cut yet. I doubt you’ll be wearing a bathing suit anytime soon so who cars if you’re carrying a little extra lol if you feel you must, just cut back on eating for a few days and add in a cardio session to lean out a little bit, then continue with bulk.

Great progress btw! Whats your height?[/quote]
Exactly my thoughts bro.

Thanks by the way! I’m 5’7 which explains how my frame fills out so quickly :stuck_out_tongue:

#4

[quote]SewZz wrote:
I personally dont think you need to cut yet. I doubt you’ll be wearing a bathing suit anytime soon so who cars if you’re carrying a little extra lol if you feel you must, just cut back on eating for a few days and add in a cardio session to lean out a little bit, then continue with bulk.

Great progress btw! Whats your height?[/quote]

Good post. I agree. However, there is no way I would be dieting yet…unless you want to slow down the progress being made. You are progressing fine.

I agree with maybe watching your diet, but again, that depends on the progress being made. If strength is up and mostly muscle is being gained, it would be a waste to stop that now.

#5

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]SewZz wrote:
I personally dont think you need to cut yet. I doubt you’ll be wearing a bathing suit anytime soon so who cars if you’re carrying a little extra lol if you feel you must, just cut back on eating for a few days and add in a cardio session to lean out a little bit, then continue with bulk.

Great progress btw! Whats your height?[/quote]

Good post. I agree. However, there is no way I would be dieting yet…unless you want to slow down the progress being made. You are progressing fine.

I agree with maybe watching your diet, but again, that depends on the progress being made. If strength is up and mostly muscle is being gained, it would be a waste to stop that now.[/quote]

Thanks X!

Looking to double the size I have at the moment so I’m not about to jump into a cut any time soon, it would be worthless with the size I have… I don’t know any other serious lifters in real life, so I just wasn’t sure how much fat is too much fat during a bulk. Seems like I don’t have anything to worry about.

#6

the 2 pictures you have posted show great progress, youve gotten considerably bigger but its certainly not to much fat, you look much more solid and have some good muscle definition in your second pic compared to the first so id say keep it up and dont cut yet, what youve been doing is working very well.

#7

For the amount of mass you gained you didnt gain that much fat, you dont look that bad, if your goal is to double your size then deffinitely do not cut

#8

[quote]Mr_White wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]SewZz wrote:
I personally dont think you need to cut yet. I doubt you’ll be wearing a bathing suit anytime soon so who cars if you’re carrying a little extra lol if you feel you must, just cut back on eating for a few days and add in a cardio session to lean out a little bit, then continue with bulk.

Great progress btw! Whats your height?[/quote]

Good post. I agree. However, there is no way I would be dieting yet…unless you want to slow down the progress being made. You are progressing fine.

I agree with maybe watching your diet, but again, that depends on the progress being made. If strength is up and mostly muscle is being gained, it would be a waste to stop that now.[/quote]

Thanks X!

Looking to double the size I have at the moment so I’m not about to jump into a cut any time soon, it would be worthless with the size I have… I don’t know any other serious lifters in real life, so I just wasn’t sure how much fat is too much fat during a bulk. Seems like I don’t have anything to worry about.
[/quote]

those pics almost look like two different people.

good job. keep on truckin.

#9

[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:
those pics almost look like two different people.
good job. keep on truckin.[/quote]
Thanks man!

[quote]Blackaggar wrote:
For the amount of mass you gained you didnt gain that much fat, you dont look that bad, if your goal is to double your size then deffinitely do not cut[/quote]
Thanks dude, I’ll definitely carry on bulking!

[quote]corey_31 wrote:
the 2 pictures you have posted show great progress, youve gotten considerably bigger but its certainly not to much fat, you look much more solid and have some good muscle definition in your second pic compared to the first so id say keep it up and dont cut yet, what youve been doing is working very well.[/quote]

Thanks Corey - I worked extremely hard to make that progress in what I considered a relatively short time.

I don’t know if anyone cares but for other beginners I would like to say I think my progress above shows just how effective twice a day training can be. I followed Thibs advice on twice daily training and it worked very well. Also it shows that two-a-days work very well for beginners due to the increased frequency (since we can’t use much weight) also it’s easy to recover from for the same reason. So I followed this program for months only taking one rest day a week. I never even went near starting strength and I think my results far exceed some SS guys.

Anyway I’m currently focusing on 5/3/1 boring but big, great program in my opinion… If any beginners have questions about how I did what I did I’d be happy to answer their questions.

Not trying to sound big headed, by offering advice but some of the responses in here seem to suggest my progress has been good.

Thanks