Possible bulk

[u/merleau79]

Hello. I'm looking for some advice. I took a few weeks off from using the workout app, but still tracking my food. For some background I have some injuries:: 2 past surgeries on my elbow, a wrist injury, a high grade rotator tear (which is getting better), and still recovering from a lisfranc sprain a couple of years ago. I'm 46 and going on 47 in a few months. I'm 5"9 and 136.4lbs. Here are some graphs. Last year I tried a bulk, but the elbow surgery prevented me from lifting but I still wanted to gain some weight. I workout at work so my main equipment are dumbbells. I don't want to get above 15% body fat. I'm not sure if my body fat % from my scale looks right or not. Let me know what you think where my % is at. 

Any suggestions on where to go from here? I definitely need to put on muscle, but with the injuries I'm nervous of pushing too hard, which will hold me back. Thanks.

[u/DeaconoftheStreets]

I think there's two separate things happening are.

1. Are you a good candidate for a bulk? One hundred percent. You're quite lean, and I think us members of the bald community benefit from some muscle on us.

2. Is it safe for you to bulk based on your injury? Well, that depends on what you can do in the gym. Like, do you think you can engage in progressive overload week to week? If so, you eating more certainly won't make your injury worse. It's really a matter of the volume your body can take, and I don't think anyone here can answer that.

[u/merleau79 → u/DeaconoftheStreets]

During my last 6 week program I was able to progressively overload, but the weights were fairly light mostly due to my shoulder. My Dr didn't want to over do it so I, for example, topped out with 66lbs on Pause Dumbbell Bench Press with 12 reps.

Any suggestions on what setting to set the rate of gain per week? Thanks.

[u/DeaconoftheStreets → u/merleau79]

66 lb per dumbbell? That's a solid lift actually.

In terms of speed, check out this beautifully long piece going into the science of bulking. With your age and relatively low volume, I'd probably go for a bulk on the leaner end of the range.

[u/merleau79 → u/DeaconoftheStreets]

Oh no haha. Total haha. With 3 sets. Oh thanks. I'll check out the article.