In my last post, I covered what to expect during your first weeks on a fat loss diet.
 
In this article, I aim to tackle the opposite: What can you expect in your first weeks on a muscle-building diet?

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.

​Following a maintenance phase, in the last month I have resumed high-volume training and a calorie surplus to induce hypertrophy and gain more muscle.
 
I feel like I am in a better mental place to welcome this process than ever before, as I find myself better equipped, from a psychological standpoint, to deal with the inevitable fat gain and the increasing number on the scale.
 
Sharing my thoughts on the topic on Instagram, I received some great comments about the relatability of the fear of weight gain. So, in this article, I aim to provide some strategies that have helped me and might aid others in the mental struggle against the scale and the mirror.

To complement last week’s article on fat loss, this week I aim to cover three of the most common reasons why you might be struggling to gain muscle despite your best efforts.

Welcome to the second part of the Fitness Q&As series. If you missed Part 1, click the link at the top to check it out.
 
This week’s topics include:
 

• Resistance training: volume for hypertrophy, the best exercise for quads, low reps and high loads vs high reps and low loads, bad form and shortened range of motion vs good form and full range
• Nutrition: BCAAs and multivitamins