[Rekk'd]

Hey,

I've been trying to figure out the reason for my problem lately using different sources but still can't come up with a conclusion. I'll start with a little background about my self first: I started weightlifting in feb 2016, however, before that I was smoking up to two packs of cigarettes a day for almost 9 years, my diet was crap and lifestyle was horrible. I considered myself a failure! Couldn't even do 1 fuckin pullup

Some stats:
Age 26
Weight 186
Height 6'3"
I'm doing intermediate fasting and been on a cut for about 4-5 months. Lost about 20 pounds in that time.

My key lift where I measure strength, latest stats:
Dumbbell shoulder press 80 ibs each for 5 reps
Weighted chin ups with neutral grip +90 ibs for 5 reps
Incline bench press 225 for 5 reps
Weighted dips +45 ibs 6 reps (I just started doing them)
Leg press 300 ibs for 7 reps
I do full range of motion and I go to the gym 3 times a week.

Now as you can see I don't do squats or deadlifts since my legs grow really fast and leg press is enough for me to maintain a good ratio between the bottom half and the top half of my body.

Now my problem is my muscles don't look as big as they should, comparing to others and the weights I lift. I know it's not my diet since I have been progressing and lifting heavier everytime or being able to get a rep or 2 more. I don't take any supplements or shakes except multivitamins and B complex (due to a nerve problem). I know my macros are good, my testosterone is well since I can get erections, I have morning wood and I'm horny most of the time. Is it genetic? Or what other information you guys might need to evaluate my problem?

[samsamsam]

Just keep lifting. It is what it is, in the sense you can do everything right and not get the results you want.

I probably look 10 lbs lighter than I am. I am 180lb. I incline 100lb dumbbells. But my physique maybe has never been what it should look like in a perfect world.

Just keep lifting and eating properly.

I don't think you need to create additional stress over something unnecessarily.

If it bugs you that much, start using test or steroids.

[scotian]

Sounds like you need some TRT brah!

[The Beast1]

Here's a question for you guys:

When's a good time in a hobbyist lifter to start doing a cycle? How much progression should there be?

[Rekk'd]

I don't plan on doing test or steroids.. Hell I don't even take whey protein or any other supplements.

[Atlanta Man]

(03-07-2017 04:05 PM)Rekkd Wrote:  

Hey,

I've been trying to figure out the reason for my problem lately using different sources but still can't come up with a conclusion. I'll start with a little background about my self first: I started weightlifting in feb 2016, however, before that I was smoking up to two packs of cigarettes a day for almost 9 years, my diet was crap and lifestyle was horrible. I considered myself a failure! Couldn't even do 1 fuckin pullup

Some stats:
Age 26
Weight 186
Height 6'3"
I'm doing intermediate fasting and been on a cut for about 4-5 months. Lost about 20 pounds in that time.

My key lift where I measure strength, latest stats:
Dumbbell shoulder press 80 ibs each for 5 reps
Weighted chin ups with neutral grip +90 ibs for 5 reps
Incline bench press 225 for 5 reps
Weighted dips +45 ibs 6 reps (I just started doing them)
Leg press 300 ibs for 7 reps
I do full range of motion and I go to the gym 3 times a week.

Now as you can see I don't do squats or deadlifts since my legs grow really fast and leg press is enough for me to maintain a good ratio between the bottom half and the top half of my body.

Now my problem is my muscles don't look as big as they should, comparing to others and the weights I lift. I know it's not my diet since I have been progressing and lifting heavier everytime or being able to get a rep or 2 more. I don't take any supplements or shakes except multivitamins and B complex (due to a nerve problem). I know my macros are good, my testosterone is well since I can get erections, I have morning wood and I'm horny most of the time. Is it genetic? Or what other information you guys might need to evaluate my problem?

You need to be in the gym 5 days a week 2 hours at a time. Do a serious workout and eat more calories for 5-6 months, then do a cut cycle.

[Steelex]

Bro you are underweight as fuck for your height. You look small because you lack the weight to look big.

I'm gonna be honest even at 225 and ripped you will still look like a swimmer. It's because you're tall.

You're pretty strong for your weight but don't kid yourself into thinking your strength so far is enough to match the body you want.

[Steelex]

How do you know your macros are good? Are you hitting atleast 200 grams of protein a day?

[Rekk'd]

I was about 205 ibs maybe even more but I was bulking. I looked good in clothes but once I took off my T-shirt I didn't like what I saw, I had a high fat percent. I could lift more and progress faster that time but I decided to cut to look better and leaner.

I don't go up to 200 grams of protein per day since i think that's too much, and I believe my diet and macros are good because even though I'm on a cut about 400 calorie deficit, I'm still able to lift heavier or add reps.

For example 3 weeks ago I was doing 70 ibs dumbell shoulderpress for max 4 reps, yesterday I did 80 ibs for 5. Next shoulder workout I'll hit 6 for sure and work my way up to 100 ibs dumbbells shoulderpress.

I have about 500 grams of greek yogurt or cottage cheese for dinner and for lunch I usually have rice/pasta with meat/chicken with vegetables and a bowl of salad. On workout days I eat alittle more, I try to eat an extra 400 calories.

[Steelex]

Well yeah, you'll add a little body fat when you bulk. From what I've seen most people can gain about half a pound of muscle a week at the max, with the rest being fat. The nice part is that you can drop the fat pretty damn quickly.

I know you think 200 grams a day is high, but it's really not. For skinny fat types, a higher protein diet (like 1.5g / lb of bw) seems to work pretty damn well for gaining muscle and reducing fat gain. A carb cutoff after 6pm helps too.

You've only been lifting a year though, which is really just a drop in the bucket. Give it another 3 years and put on another 10lbs of muscle a year, and keep pushing those poundages into the stratosphere while staying injury free.

[nek]

Your rep range is too low. I was/am in the same boat. I don't look as big as I weigh (my BJJ training partners are surprised when my weight is on them), and I lift much more than I look like I should be able to, to the point where I get funny looks in the gym. You're training for strength at low-rep, high weight ranges. While you'll experience "some" muscle growth, most of the strength gains will be a result of central nervous system adaptations, so up the rep range/total reps some (but oddly, too much becomes muscular endurance training vs. hypertrophy training, which is what you're aiming for).

Eat lots (and you're right about the 200g of protein, the 1g/lb of body weight thing has been disproven, it's a sales gimmick), eat clean, and recover.

Up your volume on your workouts a bit but that doesn't mean you have to even work out every day. Once you get to muscle failure, the adaptation response is stimulated, much more than this and it's counterproductive.

Also, squats are great for generating testosterone so they really need to be in your routine.

[Rekk'd]

I'm doing reverse pyramid training on all my compound lift. That's why you might think I'm doing low rep but that's only in the first set. I decrease the weights by 10% for set 2 then another 10% for set 3 and the number of reps are as follows.

Set 1: 4-6 reps
Set 2: 6-8 reps
Set 3: 8-10 reps

Whenever I hit the max amount of reps for any set I increase the weights, that's how I have progressed so fast on my lifts.

I was doing 100 ibs dumbells for incline bench 6 reps for my first set in September 2016.. About 7 months after I started weightlifting.

[polar]

(03-07-2017 07:47 PM)Steelex Wrote:  

Well yeah, you'll add a little body fat when you bulk. From what I've seen most people can gain about half a pound of muscle a week at the max, with the rest being fat. The nice part is that you can drop the fat pretty damn quickly.

I know you think 200 grams a day is high, but it's really not. For skinny fat types, a higher protein diet (like 1.5g / lb of bw) seems to work pretty damn well for gaining muscle and reducing fat gain. A carb cutoff after 6pm helps too.

You've only been lifting a year though, which is really just a drop in the bucket. Give it another 3 years and put on another 10lbs of muscle a year, and keep pushing those poundages into the stratosphere while staying injury free.

Steelex, can you give more detail on the required protein g/lb, esp. for someone natty and beginner-ish? I've seen studies, I believe cited by the lean gains guy, that over 0.85g/lb is not useful. Bro science claims otherwise, all the way to encouraging 2+g/lb.

Is it about total protein intake, spacing it out throughout the day with slow digesting protein, etc? How do you avoid kidney and liver strain, and is calcium something to worry about?

[Cr33pin]

I got the best gainz of my life when I was doing 6 days a week in the gym (push, pull, legs, push, pull, legs) and eating chicken and tuna like a boss. It took me about 6 months to completely change my frame .

Lift big, Eat big, Sleep big

[Steelex]

Dumbell presses are one of those exercises you can load a bunch of weight on and then somebody wayyyyy bigger than you comes in and does them with far less weight.

I know I scream poundages, but this is one of those exercises where it's more about how you do them then how much weight. If you hit them with a 5 second negative, deep stretch, 2 sec pause at the bottom, then back up, I swear you'll have bigger PECS in 3 months. Also, keep them bells from crossing into the air space over your chest. Keep em nice and wide, far apart.

[tobehero]

(03-09-2017 12:38 PM)Cr33pin Wrote:  

I got the best gainz of my life when I was doing 6 days a week in the gym (push, pull, legs, push, pull, legs) and eating chicken and tuna like a boss. It took me about 6 months to completely change my frame .

Lift big, Eat big, Sleep big

Cr33pin would you say you were an ECTOMORPH, MESOMORPH, or ENDOMORPH?

[TheFinalEpic]

Yeah at 6'3" you're going to look like a beanpole there's no two ways around it. You'll need to bulk up to the 250's to look like you lift.

Source: brother is 6'3", looks anorexic at 180.

[Rekk'd]

I wish I knew how to bulk up to 250 without so much fat

[haxswagger]

(03-10-2017 02:57 AM)Rekkd Wrote:  

I wish I knew how to bulk up to 250 without so much fat

Hey dude. I know you said you don't like doing deads and squats because you can maintain leg size with leg extension/flexion exercises but there's a reason they a such a great exercise. They use much more than quads hamstrings which means more of your muscle producing hormones will be released (Test, Insulin growth factors, growth hormone ect). Combining these combine lifts plus a diet of 2g of protein per kg of body weight per day and your healthy carbs and fats and you should see results if you lift consistently.

The book scrawny to brawny is scientifically backed and a good reference for ecto's https://www.amazon.com/Scrawny-Brawny-Co...1594860882

Hax

[Steelex]

It's pretty much a myth that doing squats and deads increases your testosterone enough to make a reasonable difference in muscle protein synthesis. Now they are good exercises, but they're not a substitute for having high test, naturally of artificially.

Op, you're not going to just bulk up to 250 without some fat gain. This shit takes serious serious time. Think 8-10 lbs of solid muscle per year at best, with 6-8 lbs of fat coming with that. That's just your best case scenario man. You're not going to look big in the next couple years.

[Fortis]

^ Pretty much.

I might add that the gym is a long game. VERY few dudes just blow up over night. Usually, when you read stories about a guy gaining 40 pounds in a year he's like 16 and was hitting his growth spurt and lifting at the same time and got huge or he was juicing his eyes out.

Not to discourage anyone, but I've been lifting for 3-4 years now and I"m only recently starting to not look like a DYEL. It takes time, but i'd rather look in the mirror in 5 years and see that I got a rock solid physique while my peers went to shit, than to go to shit like my peers.

[Cr33pin]

(03-09-2017 10:23 PM)tobehero Wrote:  

(03-09-2017 12:38 PM)Cr33pin Wrote:  

I got the best gainz of my life when I was doing 6 days a week in the gym (push, pull, legs, push, pull, legs) and eating chicken and tuna like a boss. It took me about 6 months to completely change my frame .

Lift big, Eat big, Sleep big

Cr33pin would you say you were an ECTOMORPH, MESOMORPH, or ENDOMORPH?

I'm a ectomorph...I've always been pretty skinny and even though I was athletic I didn't carry hardly any mass... until I turned around 30 then I was able to put on weight.
Actually in my early thirties I moved to a new city and was eating out every meal cause there were so many new food options. About three months later I got out of the shower an looked in the mirror and I was fucking chubby... An I was like "nope" changed my life right then and there. I had become a slob, something I hated about everyone I knew in America. Started doing P90X and eating cleaner and lost the chubbiness. However I didn't actually put on mass until about 3 years ago when I first came to Peru and I joined a real gym (before I only worked out with some Bowflex dumbbells) thats when I was in the gym 6 days a week and eating mass protein.

Around month number 5 a lot of people would compliment my physique.. even strangers but I didn't really see it as much. Then on the 6 month I got out of the shower and I was drying off and I was like "Damn son, gainz baby" literally the next day I got some kind of stomach bug that made me sick for 7 days, during that time I also ended up with a cold... long story short I was pretty much sick for two months and had lost all my gainz..... I've been in the gym fairly consistent since and saw some nice progress, but I still haven't hit the weight I was after those first 6 months.. I was also at 8% body fat at the end of those 6 months. I think lean muscle is king.

I will get that physique back though. For me once I tasted the life of a beast, there is no going back.

[Rekk'd]

Im going to increase my calorie intake alittle, train every other day instead of just 3 days a week and also increase protein intake.

Will update on progress.

[dies irae]

The real reason deadlifts and squats build muscle is that they make your bones stronger. When your bones are stronger, your body will be able to afford to put on more muscle mass around your bones.

There's a reason every big bodybuilder did squats and deadlifts.

[Kieran]

I don't really see any reason squats and deadlifts would make the bones any stronger than heavy rack pulls and leg presses. They're not magic exercises, the body just knows resistance and adapts to it.