Exercise

When bulking you are going to be spending and focusing more time on lifting weights than on cardio. For the most part when bulking you should cut down on cardio to about 2 sessions a week and they should not be done on the same days that you weight lift. Weight lifting for mass requires a heavy amount of weight with fewer reps. The most common rep range for bulking is between 6-8 reps. Now it is also very important that you focus on compound exercises such as the bench press, squats, shoulder presses, and lat pull-downs. These types of exercises hit more than one muscle group at a time, thus working out a broader range of muscle fibers. This in turn helps to build more muscle.

Through personal experimentation I have found that building muscle is better done through free weights. This is because free weights force the use of your smaller stabilizer muscles in order to keep the weights balanced. I have also found that using dumbbells over barbells have also worked a lot better as well. The reason in my opinion for this is because I have found that using a barbell your stronger side or dominant side tends to handle most of the weight especially when you start getting into heavier weights this can also cause uneven development. Dumbbells stop this as each side has to push and handle the same amount of weight. Lifting with dumbbells also provides a greater range of motion, which uses more muscle fibers, and promotes more muscle development.

Nutrition

The idea when it comes to nutrition for bulking is really quite simple. Eat more than your body can burn in a day. Now before you go and start stuffing your face with all kinds of junk it is important to state that the food you eat has to be clean healthy foods such and whole grain breads, fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and dairy. Most commonly you should try to eat about 500 more calories a day than your body burns off. This should gain you roughly a pound of mass a week.

You should stick to foods with good amounts of complex high quality carbs with low fat, as well as high quality protein. It has been shown through studies that in order to gain muscle mass it is required that the individual take in at least 1 gram of protein for every lb of bodyweight, this part is very important as protein acts as the building blocks which will be used to repair the muscle fibers after a workout. Personally when bulking I try to stick to a ratio of 60% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 10% fat. *Note that there are 4 calories per gram of carbs and protein and 9 calories per gram of fat.*

Supplementation

Protein

Most commonly when bulking it is a good idea to get yourself a high quality protein powder that you can consume right after a workout. The reason for this is because once you have finished your workout your muscles have been broken down and need a quick dose of both simple carbs as well as protein. Since the body digests food in liquid forms faster, consuming a protein shake will help to feed your muscles faster.

Multi-vitamin

While working out your muscles are constantly using vitamins and minerals that your muscles and cells within the body need in order to function. Taking a multi-vitamin before a workout will help to replenish your body with these lost vitamins and minerals. When choosing a multi-vitamin it is also important that you try to avoid multi-vitamins with iron in them, as this can cause constipation.

Rest

Rest is one of the most important factors of building muscle. This is the factor that a lot of individual fail to follow through with. People are under the impression that the more they lift and the longer they go the better. Well that may work for somebody on steroids but not for those of us going about it the safe and natural way. Our muscles repair themselves when we’re at rest, mostly when we’re sleeping. So it only stands to reason that working out every muscle 7 days a week would actually harm you as your muscles would keep getting further broken down with no adequate amount of rest for them to heal and build. I would recommend that if you are working out 4 times a week doing a split body workout regimen that you workout every other day, and you hit a certain muscle group no more than 1 to 2 times a week. I can guarantee that if you do not allow for enough rest that you will actually start to lose muscle instead of gaining it.

That’s it, these steps are really the basics behind turning your body into a Ripped muscle machine. However if you are absolutely serious about gaining massive muscle mass then you are going to want to check out the 2009 Top Rated Muscle Building Guide This guide is responsible for building over 30lbs of lean muscle in just 6 months. Start building incredible muscle mass and get ripped today.