New Challenge - Bulking

With New Years and subsequent resolutions still fresh in people's minds, the most common conundrum these resolutionaries choose to tackle is the ever-noble oft-neglected goal of getting into shape. What that particular shape is will vary from person to person, though usually a less round one, but one thing you don't hear is, "I don't want my body to change, it's perfect the way it is". While everybody should be comfortable in their own skin, everybody also wants some change, whether its lifting twice your own bodyweight, looking hot in that new bikini, or just being 'healthier', everybody wants more out of their body. Some of you with the best intentions for the New Year might already be reverting back into hibernation mode. I want you to hold on for at least another month, because the next challenge is central to this idea.

This month is all about bulking up. The goals center around gaining mass (preferably the lean kind), and increasing strength. Why? Like I said before, the timing has a lot to do with the fitness craze you see this time of year. While mine's the opposite goal of most people, a lot of the concepts are still similar. I'm also going to have less time to spend this month, and while serious bulking requires a certain amount of eating and working out, it tends to cap out because you can only really do so much of each. It's also an actual existing goal of mine, one that I have some previous experience with, but haven't tried to kick into high gear yet. Even after the month is up, I know the experience is only going to help my fitness goals down the road.

Now, the goods! The last challenge failed to present real hardline goals for me to meet, so this one's a little more straightforward in that regard. As of this morning, I weighed in at around 163 lbs and roughly 12% body fat (like 20 lbs). I propose that at the end of 4 weeks, I'm 10 lbs up to a solid 173 and no more than 15% body fat (about 26 lbs). That's around 6 lbs of fat, 4 of muscle. Now I'm not going to get into too much detail yet, but there's other factors like moisture retention from supplementation to take into account, and I'm not actually expecting to gain 4 lbs of solid "dry" muscle tissue, but as I said, I'll be working on strength as well. The secondary goal here is to increase all the lifts in my schedule by at least 10%, and at least half of them by 20%.

Because no body transformation would be complete without some progress photos, well, here's some progress photos. One thing you'll notice is that the before photos don't feature some sorry, poorly postured wet noodle, as is often the norm. No sir, I've channeled the power of the warrior to ensure you get the best possible comparison from start to finish (also I have a hard time taking selfies seriously).

KALI MAH

If anybody knows how to remove the cursed mask of an ancient angry deity, let me know. I'm just kidding, that part was easy. Now if you know how to remove black dollar-store face paint from skin, please do explain. I look like I've come down with a serious illness and I can't go to work like this.

Next week I'll go over exactly how I'm planning to reach my goals, and share things like workout schedule. If you're looking to bulk up, feel free to follow along, or even if you aren't, don't be afraid to post any questions and advice you might have related to the project or your own personal fitness and nutrition goals.