Stephanielynn76's Blog

I do legs 2 days/week. Here is the breakdown... yes it's a lot.

TUESDAY:

leg press - 5 sets 8-12 reps / 200-340lbs

stiff-legged deadlifts - 5 sets 10-15 reps / 90-100lbs

plate-load squat machine - 5 sets 10 reps / 90-110lbs... deeeeep squats... as low as I can go.

leg extensions - 3 sets 10 reps / 100lbs

leg curls - 3 sets 10 reps / 85lbs

butt machine - 3 sets 12 reps / 90lbs

calves, inner/outer thighs

FRIDAY: 

smith-machine squats - warm-up then 5 sets 8-12 reps / 90-140lbs

smith-machine lunges -  5 sets 8-12 reps / 90-140lbs

smith-machine sumo squats - 5 sets 8-12 reps / 90-140lbs

regular deadlifts - 5 sets 8-10 reps / 110-120lbs

if I have time I also do extensions, curls, and butt machine again. 

I always do legs and back together... on Tuesday I do wide-grip back exercises and on Fridays I do close-grip stuff. :) 

So one of my goals with this bulk was to add some muscle to my legs and bum. I took a picture today to compare my progress... definitely seeing a change! Just thought I'd share.

Bulking X5 weeks (a little early). I did these yesterday after my last workout for this week... Yay... the completion of 5 weeks of training while eating at a surplus :)

I did all my measurements and charted them exactly 50 days ago. So far I've seen small increases in my biceps, calves, and my waist. I also redid my body fat today but pretty much all my measurements were about the same... which is impossible because I KNOW my BF increased???  My clothes are fitting tighter. My size 0's no longer fit, my 2's are slightly snug, and my size 4's are still slightly loose and comfy. Anyhoo... it will be interesting to see where things stand in another few weeks/months! I'll try to update when I can... 

So most of you know I started bulking a few weeks ago. This week started week 5. I'm up 3.5lbs which is good... a nice slow gain. Here is a recent photo...

 

My shirts are getting tighter in the chest/shoulder/back areas and my jeans are really tight in the bum. I'm liking that I now have a fuller bum... but along with that my abs aren't quite as defined. It's a trade-off... 

 

So if you are familiar with the process of bulking... you know you have to eat at a surplus and that some fat gain is expected along with lean muscle mass. My goal was to gain 0.5lb/wk.

 

Here is a great article to check out: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html

 

Anyhoo...  for those who are curious about what I'm doing with my calories... I pm'ed this to a MFP friend yesterday so I'll just cut and paste it...

 

Here is what I do. I have my base set at 1800 and try to stay at that on my days off. On my leg days I give myself 300 extra calories (over the 1800). On my upper body days I give myself 150-200 extra calories. I also monitor all my calorie burns from cardio and eat those calories back.

Example. I worked legs for 90mins yesterday then did 25 min low-impact active recovery on the stepmill. I gave myself 300 for the legs and 250 for the stepmill... that's 550 over the 1800 base... so a total of 2350. I try to keep my macros at 40% carbs... 30%/30% fat and protein.... but I'm not really strict with that. Today I had 202g of protein and not enough fats... ahhh well... whatever. I'm most worried about getting the protein so I eat a lot of lean meats, greek yogurt, and protein powder. I was low on protein over the weekend because I was out of town and had little control over the foods that were available. I'm just going more by:
#1 am I gaining?
#2 how are my clothes fitting?
#3 am I getting stronger? 

 

I am still steadily increasing weight on all my exercises and will post more about that later! 

 

love you all...

xoxoxo -steph