Exercise Selection for Bulking

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Exercise selection is vital for developing a well rounded physique. A bulking training plan will involve similar exercises to those performed when cutting or maintaining weight. When bulking to build muscle, which is of course what we're here for - as body weight increases the weight performed on exercises should generally increase gradually, if not you're just getting fat. The order of exercises in each workout is also important - exercises performed first should either be the most taxing on the body (likely compound exercises) or those that target specific weak points. 

I'd recommend rotating exercises periodically in cycles of 6-8 weeks in order to assist progression and prevent overuse of joints. An example of this would be swapping barbell squats for leg press/hack squat.

Progressive overload should also be implemented through evolving rep ranges e.g begin with a weight you can perform for 8 reps, once you hit 12 reps with the given weight, increase the weight and repeat. 

The exercise selection for each day in my training split:

Day 1 - Shoulders and Arms (2 sets per exercise)

Shoulders - Dumbbell shoulder press, Dumbbell lateral raise, Rear delt fly

Arms - Tricep pushdown, Alternating dumbbell curl, Cable overhead extension, Ez bar preacher curl


Day 2 - Legs (2 sets per exercise)

Leg press, Dumbbell RDL, Leg extension, Seated hamstring curl, Machine calf raise


Day 3 - Chest and Back (3 sets per exercise)

Chest - Incline dumbbell press, Chin ups (weighted), Machine chest press (pressing horizontally) , Machine row (plate loaded if possible)


That's it for the blog folks, all good things come to an end. If you have any questions about diet/training feel free to message me on instagram. Thanks for reading, take care.







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