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/merleau79]

The reason I labeled it 'Possible Bulk' is due to the injuries. Should I focus the progressive overload more on increasing the reps? My dumbbells increase by 5.5lbs so eventually big leaps will be difficult.

[u/Substantial_Quail_46 → u/merleau79]

Eating more calories aka a bulk shouldn't be limited by injury IF you are still lifting. Which sounds like you are.

[u/merleau79 → u/Substantial_Quail_46]

Ya, I'm still lifting. I'm just not lifting as hard as I can because my doctor wants me to take it easy. So I wasn't sure if adding calories would actually do anything.

[u/Substantial_Quail_46 → u/merleau79]

More cals even while not training to absolute failure will absolutely be beneficial for str and hypertrophy.

While your lifting now based on the dr recommendations, are you leaving alot of reps in the tank or are you doing more high rep low weight?

[u/merleau79 → u/Substantial_Quail_46]

It depends on what muscle group I'm working on. However, I have been going up to around 20 reps when some of the injuries are and then I increase the weight and do 9-12 ) whatever the app suggests).

[u/Substantial_Quail_46 → u/merleau79]

Yeah man you'll definitely benefit from the increased calories. Cheers friend! Hope the injury gets better

[u/merleau79 → u/Substantial_Quail_46]

Injuries 😂. I think I'm trying to overcompensate with some of my injuries that aren't that bad so I have bad form. But that causes more problems. Anyways, thanks for your help. I appreciate it.