Trying to Bulk Up

I have a unique situation that I would like some help with. I am 29 years old I’m 6’3 147lbs and I have been working out on and off for the last few years without much luck of getting any bigger.

I am a construction worker who works out of a suitcase and hotel four days a week so it’s very hard to workout and eat right during this time. I’m also on a site all day so trying to cook something while at work is a no go.

I was just looking for a little advice on what a good diet would be that isn’t hard to maintain with minimal resources to cook with and also a good training routine that understands while in a hotel I’m not going to be doing much. I understand that whatever I do is going to take work and be a huge pain in the ass. I have tried to read some other articles from other sites and I end up with more questions than answers so a friend pointed me to this site.

Food: -pack your meals in advance for the day. Meat, rice/potatoes/pasta, and vegetables all in one Tupperware container. Pick things that won’t be disgusting to eat cold if you have no microwave on site. Make 3-4 a containers like this each day.
-Take shakes, meal replacement bars, trail mix, and other easy-to-consume snacks for between meals and when you don’t have time to sneak off for 10 minutes to throw down one of your Tupperware meals.

  • Eat a big breakfast before you go in, and a big dinner when you get back to your hotel. If even rudimentary cooking isn’t an option, eat out or buy frozen chicken breast, precooked ground beef, microwaveable rice packets, etc and make it work. If you still need extra calories, throw down a protein shake and a couple spoons of peanut butter before bed.

  • While at work, try to eat every 3 hours. Whether it’s a snack or Tupperware meal, just make yourself get something in. With the breakfast before, dinner after, and eating every 3 hours during, that’s 5-6 meals daily. Throw in the shake and you can make it 6-7. Assuming the meals are large enough, that should be enough to gain weight.

Training: -if your 3 days off are non-consecutive, find a full body, 3 day per week program and do it on those days.

  • if your 3 days off are consecutive, you’re going to have to train on 1-2 days that you work. Most hotels have gyms. If the ones that you’re staying at don’t for whatever reason, get a membership at one of those big box gyms that has a bunch of locations. When you find out what city you’ll be working in, do a google search to see where the nearest franchise is located.

If there isn’t one anywhere near your hotel or worksite, go to other gyms in the area, explain your situation, and talk to them about getting a short term membership/ pass to work out there for the next week/ month/ however long you’re going to be working that site. This is what I do while on vacation, and I’ve rarely had to pay more than 20 bucks for a week of training. If you’re going to be in town for longer than a week, you can probably get an even better deal than that.

My plan was pretty much that. I cook my dinner and the next day lunch at the same time and just leave it on the dash of the truck to heat up (I live in southern nm so food getting warm that way is never an issue). Sneaking away isn’t an issue either I can break whenever I want to chow down on something.

My thoughts behind my diet were some sort of shake in the morning (I work long hours so waking up in enough time to actually get to work after cooking something (I usually get up at 5 to make it to work by 630) and then maybe another shake or bar snake thing at 9 then lunch at 12 another snack at 3 then after dinner with a post workout shake and another shake before bed (I feel like waking up super hungry is a bad thing and I do that every morning) and also the shit hotels I stay in don’t have a microwave or stove and I’ve went a bought this little two burner grill to make pasta and whatever meat on.

And that is a great idea about the gym thing. I usually stay in the same city and hotel. When I’m home I have a decent enough gym set up in my garage but I will look at something for out of town.

My biggest question is what kind of workout should I be doing I’ve read a hundred articles about this and that. I understand needing to do the main core workouts once a week but I’ve also read about proper recovery time.

Should I take into account that I have a relatively physical job when I think about recovery? Also what kind of reps/sets should I be doing in my off and on I’ve tried alot of different things and none seem to stand out much.

Greek yogurt, oatmeal,nuts & fruit is an awesome high-calorie breakfast that requires no stove.

Concerning the recovery, you’ll have to ease into it but it’s perfectly doable. John Grimek worked at a steel mill all day long and then went to the gym to squat 500x20.

What does your schedule look like? Would training on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays be possible for you?

My schedule is I usually leave early Monday mornings and stay in a hotel till Thursday when I drive home. The best days for a workout would be Thursday to Sunday. Mondays is almost completely out of the question after waking up at 230 to drive and work till 6 working out is the last thing I want to do.

[quote]Ryanfgall wrote:
My schedule is I usually leave early Monday mornings and stay in a hotel till Thursday when I drive home. The best days for a workout would be Thursday to Sunday. Mondays is almost completely out of the question after waking up at 230 to drive and work till 6 working out is the last thing I want to do. [/quote]

So… Would Tue-Thu-Sat or Wed-Fri-Sun work? Basically, If you are able to train on three non-consecutive days, I’d recommend a full body routine.

[quote]nighthawkz wrote:

[quote]Ryanfgall wrote:
My schedule is I usually leave early Monday mornings and stay in a hotel till Thursday when I drive home. The best days for a workout would be Thursday to Sunday. Mondays is almost completely out of the question after waking up at 230 to drive and work till 6 working out is the last thing I want to do. [/quote]

So… Would Tue-Thu-Sat or Wed-Fri-Sun work? Basically, If you are able to train on three non-consecutive days, I’d recommend a full body routine.[/quote]

DoggCrapp could also be a good fit in that regard. Not full body, but fits a 3 day schedule and gets people big. Probably some of the most fun I ever had training.

Wed Fri sun would be great. What would you guys recommend for those days? I’m going to do a little bit of research on those types of routines/workouts.

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

[quote]nighthawkz wrote:

[quote]Ryanfgall wrote:
My schedule is I usually leave early Monday mornings and stay in a hotel till Thursday when I drive home. The best days for a workout would be Thursday to Sunday. Mondays is almost completely out of the question after waking up at 230 to drive and work till 6 working out is the last thing I want to do. [/quote]

So… Would Tue-Thu-Sat or Wed-Fri-Sun work? Basically, If you are able to train on three non-consecutive days, I’d recommend a full body routine.[/quote]

DoggCrapp could also be a good fit in that regard. Not full body, but fits a 3 day schedule and gets people big. Probably some of the most fun I ever had training.
[/quote]

I’ve never done Doggcrapp - how demanding is it in term of recovery?

I didn’t think it was terrible. I know there is a lot of drama online about the blood and guts aspect and widowmaker sets and such, but I would imagine that having a physically demanding job would be a plus in this regard, as the work capacity and conditioning are already there.

Having to constantly change gyms/equipment would work out pretty well too, as you’re using a lot of different movements with that program.

Doggcrapp sounds pretty Intense and also loads of fun.

also get some MAG-10/hydrolysed protein -if on a budget just take one scoop post workout and recovery will be dramatically improved. If can afford 2-3+ scoops a day you’ll be off to the races