Bulk 2018-2020 – April 2020 Update

November 2018

March 2020

I am 10lbs heavier in the picture on the right.

Useful Links: July 2019 Update | One Month Update | Three Months Update
 
I haven’t written a “bulk update” since July 2019 because there was nothing new to add. I continued to eat, gain weight at what I considered an appropriate pace, train hard, and learn more about myself as a lifter, which helped me design better and better programs for myself overtime.
 
No one likes to read a story that starts well and ends well, so I figured I would wait until something interesting came along.
 
Well, what came along was a world-wide pandemic and an order from the British government to maintain social distance and stay at home as much as possible.
 
My gym and all others in the UK closed down at the same time as many other fitness facilities across the world.
 
I haven’t done a home workout since September 2018, when I moved from London to Portsmouth, went back to university, and joined a local commercial gym. At the time, I was only three months into serious lifting, so a pair of adjustable dumbbells still posed an adequate challenge to my strength.
 
I am a bit further along my training career now, so, at first, working out at home felt like a problem rather than a solution.
 
How was I going to make progress? Was I going to make progress? How much would I eat?
 
Read on to find out what I chose to do and why.

Current goals
 
When I switched from a fat loss phase to building muscle in 2018, my goal was very generic: “I want to build muscle (duh).”
 
More recently, my objective has taken a more defined shape.
 
When I began lifting seriously and started a fat loss diet for the first time since physically recovering from an eating disorder, I weighed 114.6lbs at 5” of height. I didn’t have overweight or obesity, but I was out of shape, with a lot more fat mass than muscle mass.
 
My current goal is to reach 114lbs again, only with a different body composition.
 
If my training approach and diet have been effective, then I will be able to achieve more muscle mass and less body fat at the same bodyweight.
 
For full transparency, I have been on testosterone therapy for four weeks in order to transition from female to male.
 
Testosterone is supposed to change my ratio of muscle mass to body fat, as males tend to have more of the former and less of the latter compared to females. However, these effects should not occur so soon since the beginning of therapy, although this is based on genetics.
 
Nevertheless, at the top of this post you can see a set of “before” and “after” photos taken before I got my first dose of testosterone. This way, when I eventually post my “before” and “after” photos at 114lbs, you will be able to tell which changes might have been influenced by the therapy, if any.
 
With my goal and health status in mind, let’s tackle training and nutrition.
 
Training
 
First off, I had to overhaul my entire training program.
 
I live in a rented flat on the top floor of a three-storey building, therefore I am not so fortunate to have a full-blown home gym, but I luckily own the following:
 

• Three resistance bands with varying degrees of resistance;
• Five adjustable dumbbells, of which two can be loaded up to about 22kg (48.5lbs) at the same time. The adjustable dumbbells can also be joined together by the handle to make a small barbell;
• Two pairs of straps for blood flow restriction training;
• A pair of abs slings;
• A pull-up bar;
• Sets of fixed dumbbells from 1kg to 5kg each (roughly 2 to 11lbs).

 
My initial plan was to complete a Primer phase, a period of four weeks during which I did really low-volume training and ate at maintenance, then start another high-volume massing phase in a caloric surplus.
 
I was one week into said massing phase when the gym closed. After a month spent maintaining, I was really in the mood for gains, so I decided to try to adapt my massing program to the new circumstances instead of going through another maintenance phase.
 
What proved to be a productive choice for me was to prepare ahead of time.
 
On Saturday and Sunday – my rest days – I planned my home training for the week ahead. I considered the first week an “Intro Week”, during which my main goals were:
 

• To find suitable home exercises to replace each gym-based lift in my previous program;
• To discover my limits so I could decide upon a way to progress with each exercise.

 
In order to provide enough stimulus for muscles to grow, you need to push each set until you have between four and zero reps left before your muscles fail or your technique breaks down badly.
 
Considering the low loads available at home, with the guidelines above in mind, I focused on the following:
 

• Unilateral lifts, using one leg or one arm at a time. These don’t need as much weight as a bilateral exercise to be challenging enough.
• Exercises to which I could add weight using a combination of dumbbells and resistance bands.
• Reducing rest intervals to 30 to 45 seconds instead of two to five minutes.
• Using higher rep ranges than usual, such as 15 to 30 reps. This is still a productive range for muscle growth, albeit painful. It is also sometimes a necessary evil to stay within four reps from failure without much in the way of gym equipment.
• Myo reps, a training technique consisting in a set of 20 to 30 reps to or very close to failure, followed by three to five mini-sets of 3 to 5 reps each. You only rest three to five deep breaths between mini-sets.
• Blood flow restriction (BFR) training, a training technique that is often used in a rehab setting. Research shows that it can also produce muscle growth when combined with “normal” training. With BFR, you only need to lift 20 to 40% of your 1-repetition maximum (1RM), when on average you would need 65 to 100% for standard training. This is really handy in, say, a lockdown situation.

 
As a practical example, these are some of the tweaks I made to quad training:
 

• I swapped feet-forward Smith machine squats for elevated-heel wall hack squats. The heel elevation places more stress on the quadriceps. Moreover, as a hybrid between front and hack squats, these don’t need a lot of load to be effective.
• I changed machine leg extensions to sissy squats using BFR.

 
Now that I am halfway through my third week of home training, I have realised that the real challenge is not to design a program that will help me make gains. It is not to miss the gym and the barbell.
 
However, I couldn’t let myself get demotivated, become complacent, and abandon my goals until the lockdown was lifted.
 
My current program might not be one I 100% enjoy, but it is one that gets the job done.
 
It is also a temporary solution.
 
Once I came to terms with the current situation, I was able to appreciate how fortunate I am to be healthy enough to still train at all and even attempt to pursue my goals of putting on more muscle mass.
 
Diet
 
Since I stubbornly chose to keep on massing, I also chose to eat in a caloric surplus, albeit a more moderate one than what I would plan for a gym-based program.
 
This decision was dictated by multiple factors:
 

• I am still only a couple of weeks into this program, which is too early to find out if it is effective enough to provide at least some gains.
• Going to the gym was a twenty-five minutes’ trek up and down a steep hill. I usually do this four times a day as I train my clients at the same facility. Whilst home-bound, although I make an effort to keep my steps in a similar range, I walk around my flat, which is no steep hill. For this reason, I estimate that my energy expenditure is a little lower than usual.

 
With the above factors in mind, a moderate surplus seems like a wise choice unless I start plateauing or losing weight.
 
Final Thoughts
 
Will my training program be effective? Will my diet help me achieve my goals?
 
Only time will tell. For now, I keep my head high and a positive attitude.
 
Bodybuilding ambitions aside, training keeps me grounded, disciplined, and sane. I could not ask for anything better right now.
 
I am also doing my best to help others stay motivated and optimistic through these difficult times. If you want to receive weekly tips on exercises you can do at home and a new free home workout I will be releasing within the next couple of weeks, sign up for my newsletter at the bottom of this page or comment below and I will add you myself.
 
If you want to connect with me personally, email me or follow and message me on Instagram, where I share plenty of home training tips.
 
Stay strong!
 
Your Turn:
 
How did you set up your home-based fitness program? If you need help, drop a comment on this post!