I enjoy working out and do it pretty much every single day. I have now reached a bit of a wall and must choose which direction to take. I'm 6"2' and 176Lb (26 years old). In the last year I gained 22lb of muscle mass and lost an estimated 7% body-fat.

My question now is which strategy is better. I can speed up results by focusing on a specific area, either bulking up more or getting ripped. But which would be better? I know a ripped body with an awesome six-pack is great when the shirt comes off, but being bigger will most probably be more beneficial in the pickup process when Im fully clothed. Which one do I go for first?

If I were you, I'd go toward the ripped direction. Simply due to the fact that when you get older you will still look good. I bulked up like crazy when I was younger. 6'2 245lbs at 18. Then I put on some pounds during college and it made me look so much fatter than I was. When you bulk up, you can't gain any extra weight or else it piles up over the muscle and make you look obese. That's how they do the before and after pictures for supplements, they have bulked up guys gain 20lbs to look super fat, then they lose it to look ripped.

But if you have a 6 pack and you gain 15lbs, all that happens is you look average instead of ripped, whereas if you were bulked out, you would look fat with 15 extra lbs.

So I'd get ripped if I were you, but maybe try to build some arms, that's what women seem to notice the most anyway.

That's a picture of me from last year (I'm bigger and every bit as lean now). I did that not to turn you on, but to show you that I know what I'm talking about.

If you're trying to bulk up you should be consuming a great deal of carbohydrates, but try and keep to 'clean' carbs as much as possible. Stick to bulking foods for now: SPAM, peanut butter on multigrain bagel, meat etc. Snack often between meals (nuts are good as are field berries such as raspberries, blueberries, blackberries etc.). You might want to invest in a weight gainer - if you consume more at night when your metabolic rate slows you will gain weight faster. Cut back on cardio for a while too. You should get a book called Serious Strength Training by Tudor Bompa (a lot of the musclehead competitors at my gym use it, and swear by its methodology). A good online resource is t-nation.com, but don't buy into everything you read on there as its primarily anecdotal and might not work to your benefit.

http://www.amazon.com/Serious-Strength- ... 0736042660

I'd focus on lean muscle mass, personally but if you don't have the frame/foundation to work with you'll only look smaller once you cut down.

ps. Women LOVE a nice chest (to put their head on I presume), arms, and a nice ass (yes, it's true). If you don't train your legs you'll look like a lightbulb like every other guy out there and women wont like it.

@papichulo818: not that I don't appreciate the advice but my question wasn't how, but which one. I have a very fast metabolism, so if I bulk up I need to go crazy with what I eat. My long term goal is to do both, but I can only do one at a time. I want to know which one will improve my PU chances. (And by the way, what did you do to your pecs? You look like a C-cup. Genetically I don't have huge pecs)

If your metabolism is fast, eat 3 large meals a day, and shakes throughout rather than 5-6 smaller meals which will keep your metabolic rate high. If you're a runt, bulk first than cut down.

Pecs can grow super fast just don't go full range - start at bottomish (inch off your chest) and bring halfway, and down again this way you aren't involving your front delts and triceps (which take the brunt of the load once you get past halfway). I seem to react best to volume training (high rep, short break), but will often intersperse with heavy sets. I focus on negative motion every bit as much as positive; in other words I bring the weight down relatively slow rather than let it 'drop' down, than I drive it back up while contracting the muscle before lowering again. Right now I'm focusing on my upper chest, I want it to pop out more from my shoulders so the pec looks like it's one piece (this is VERY VERY hard to get) so I start chest workouts with incline when I'm fresh.

I think pap may be better qualified than me to either support what I'm saying or tell me I'm talking rubbish, but when I was into this a lot more a few years back, the way I was always told/read was that it's easier to bulk up and then get ripped afterwards.

Maintaining low body fat levels whilst bulking up is a lot harder than shredding body fat once you're bulked. It's not impossible either way, but if you are wanting to get bigger in the long term, I'd probably advise doing that first.

As for your chances with pick up, I think if you HAD to choose one, most girls would say go for ripped over bulky. But chances are, if you're taking it this seriously you're probably in better shape than a lot of guys already, so if you did want to bulk up first and then shred some fat, you wouldn't damage your chances a lot at all.

Do what makes you happy, I would think ripped is more appealing cause that's what you see a lot of in Media( mags, tv, movies). As long as your 1 of the 2 ripped or bulky, it won't hurt your game cause it shows women you take pride in your body.

This is true.