Maximizing Muscle Growth: The Ultimate Bulking Workouts

Building muscle mass and achieving a well-defined, powerful physique is a goal shared by many fitness enthusiasts and professional athletes alike. However, adding mass and size requires a different approach than strength training and, to an extent, functional training. Muscles grow and react to stimulus, i.e. exercising, by finding the right balance between weight, reps, sets and volume we can optimize the process and ensure the best results leading to more muscle gain. So, what is the right balance?

Strength vs. Hypertrophy:

When it comes to muscle growth, both strength and hypertrophy training have their place, but one is going to be a far better choice for long term results and adding overall mass. Strength training focuses on enhancing the body's ability to generate force, resulting in increased overall strength, but often does not prioritize growing muscle.

 Hypertrophy training, on the other hand, involves targeting muscle fibers to promote muscle growth and size, this will be the training focus when muscle growth is the goal. Consistently performing hypertrophy training at least 80% of the week will result in the best results in terms of adding muscle mass.

 That isn’t to say strength focused training, such as performing one rep maxes and heavy weight low rep exercises, should be ignored entirely. By increasing strength and devoting a few days to strength training, your overall 1RM increases significantly, allowing for heavier hypertrophy sets.

The Best Approaches to Gaining Mass:

• Time under tension: The foundation of any successful bulking program is focusing on time under tension. Placing heavy loads on your muscles while maintaining control will be the first step to any bulking workout.

Sets of 3 reps are perfect for increasing strength, and performing reps at an increased speed will help to generate more power and force output, but muscle growth requires longer periods of stress (tension) on the muscle. A rep range of 8 - 12 will be the go-to here, performed at roughly 70% of your 1RM. This results in  more stress placed on your muscles, stimulating growth, and adding overall  size.

• Compound Exercises: Incorporating compound exercises into your routine is crucial for mass gaining. These multi-joint movements, such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and overhead presses, engage multiple muscle groups simultaneously, allowing for greater muscle recruitment and overall growth. Compound exercises should form the base of your workouts, with isolation exercises complementing compound movements.

• Volume and Frequency: To promote muscle growth, it's important to include an adequate volume of training and find the right frequency for your workouts. Research shows that increasing training volume, typically achieved by performing more sets and exercises, can lead to greater hypertrophy.

A good example is to look at a 1RM deadlift of 100kg with a few warm-up sets as well as performing 2 sets of your 1RM. This would be a common format for strength training.

Let’s say your warm-up is 60kg for 8, followed by 70kg for 5, 80kg for 3, 90kg for 3, and 2 sets of your 1RM at 100kg, your overall volume is 1540kg.

If, however, you perform 4 sets of 8 at 70% of your 1RM, the total volume now becomes 2240kg. Both of these approaches will likely take the same amount of time to perform, with adequate rest, but one yields much greater volume and that volume is essential for muscle adaptation and growth.

Optimal Workout Splits:

 For starters, there is no one optimal workout split for any individual, each person has a unique physiology and because of this will our muscles respond differently to external stimuli. When bulking, there are considerations that need to be taken if the goal is muscle growth and adding mass. While two-day upper and lower body splits can be effective for some individuals, they may not provide enough frequency or volume to maximize muscle growth during a bulking phase.

Instead, a minimum 3-day split is often recommended, with many individuals doing 4 or 5 days a week during bulking phases. These splits allow for greater exercise variety, increased training volume, and sufficient recovery time for each muscle group. Design your split based on your individual preferences, schedule, and recovery capabilities.

Knowing When to Push Your Limits:

Pushing your limits is essential for progress, but it must be done safely and intelligently. Pay attention to your body's signals and gradually increase the weights or intensity of your workouts. However, be cautious not to sacrifice form and technique for heavier weights, as this can increase the risk of injury. The goal here is muscle growth and achieving at least 8 good reps of any exercise, sacrificing good form means the muscle is not being activated as much as possible resulting in poorer contraction and therefore less growth.

 Practice progressive overload by gradually increasing the weight load or repetitions performed.  If performing 12 reps is easy you should consider increasing the weight.  Remember it is a process and will take some time and patience to execute correctly.

Supplements for bulking:

If bulking is the question, then calories are the answer. You need more calories to ensure growth, your body will not optimally grow muscle if it doesn’t have the necessary nutrients, even if you’re spending 7 days in the gym.

Consider supplementing your daily diet with mass gainers such as NPL Pro Gains or Pro Mass, these products offer higher calories than your standard protein shake while also containing a blend of proteins, carbohydrates and fats that are essential for gaining size.