6 months of working out..lifts and weight have gone up but I feel like I look the sam

[Nick87123]

I have been working out for the past six months and continue to make strength progress on my current routine and my weight has gone up from 130-145 (I'm 5-7 and an ectomorph) but I don't feel like i'm making the kind of gains ( appearance/size wise) that I could/want to be. My friend who I lift with weekly keeps asking me what i'm doing to make these gains...and i just think "what gains?" It's very frustrating for me. Maybe my expectations are unrealistic?

Here is my routine.

Monday- Chest/tris

Db flat- 3 sets
Db incline- 3 sets.
chest dips- 3 sets
skulcrushes- 3 sets
pushdowns- 3 sets.

Tuesday- Back/bis

Pullups- 3 sets.
bentover barbell row- 3 sets
chin ups or machine chin downs- 3 sets
barbell curls- 3 sets
hammer curls- 3 sets

wed- off

Thursday- shoulders
Shoulder press- 4 sets
side raises- 3 sets
rear delt flies- 3 sets
shrugs- 3 sets.

Friday- legs
Squat- 3 sets
romanian deadlifts- 3 sets
lunges- 3 sets
calf raises- 3 sets.

saturday- off.

sunday- repeat.

Is this a good frequency/volume or should I have a routine where I hit the same body part more frequent?

also, I eat between 2500 and 3000 calories a day and feel like my diet is pretty much in check. I have a feeling my routine is what I am looking to change.

[PuffinMyLye]

First off, you've gained 15lbs in half a year, that's pretty darn good progress. You wouldn't sign up for 30lbs in a year? Secondly, how much have your lifts gone up? Are they continuing to go up?

As for your routine, in my opinion it's not optimal for a natural trainee (especially a beginner) to train each muscle group less than twice per week. Therefore I'd recommend you switching to more of a full body routine or at the very least an upper/lower, push/pull type of split so that you hare hitting the muscle with more frequency. As a beginner, you want to take advantage of the fact that you CAN do this because you are lifting light enough weights where it won't burn out your CNS. More opportunities frequent workouts per muscle group means more opportunities to get stronger which in turn will bring you faster results.

[Nick87123]

First off, you've gained 15lbs in half a year, that's pretty darn good progress. You wouldn't sign up for 30lbs in a year? Secondly, how much have your lifts gone up? Are they continuing to go up?

As for your routine, in my opinion it's not optimal for a natural trainee (especially a beginner) to train each muscle group less than twice per week. Therefore I'd recommend you switching to more of a full body routine or at the very least an upper/lower, push/pull type of split so that you hare hitting the muscle with more frequency. As a beginner, you want to take advantage of the fact that you CAN do this because you are lifting light enough weights where it won't burn out your CNS. More opportunities frequent workouts per muscle group means more opportunities to get stronger which in turn will bring you faster results.

Can you give me an example of a push/pull with more frequency? I set mine up so I hit each body part less than 7 days apart but I'm assuming you mean everything hit twice with in 7 days of the first workout?

[PuffinMyLye]

Can you give me an example of a push/pull with more frequency? I set mine up so I hit each body part less than 7 days apart but I'm assuming you mean everything hit twice with in 7 days of the first workout?

Something like Iron Addict's Simple Power Based Routine is something that I know has worked well for a lot of people. You can have a look at it here http://www.ironaddicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8050.

[jgreystoke]

^^^^^

Nice link.

[musikguy72]

I have been working out for the past six months and continue to make strength progress on my current routine and my weight has gone up from 130-145 (I'm 5-7 and an ectomorph) but I don't feel like i'm making the kind of gains ( appearance/size wise) that I could/want to be. My friend who I lift with weekly keeps asking me what i'm doing to make these gains...and i just think "what gains?" It's very frustrating for me. Maybe my expectations are unrealistic?

It only marginally matters what you 'feel'. Look at the actual results. Did you take pictures when you first started? Compare those to pictures you can take now. Do you look the same or different?
Did you take measurements of your arms? Waist? Legs? Did you write down your body fat? What are the new measurements of your arms, waist, legs? What is your new body fat %?

Don't go on feelings. Go on the numbers and pictures. They will show you if you made any progress or not.

[vick0148]

it might be ur diet u should eat healthier, i can always workout and will always just look solid until i start eating healthy i start looking really trim.


http://totalfitnesstrainer.com/

[Jasonk282]

You don't look the same...you put on 15lbs in 6 months.

[JasonDB]

As others have said 15 lbs of muscle in 6 months is a lot and clearly everyone else is noticing it. Sometimes we are too self critical to notice our own progress and need others to do it for us.

Also as others have said your routine is highly inappropriate for a natty and you could be making better progress in the coming months on a more suitable routine, read through the stickies.

[dvck]

A lot of it has to do with the body dis-morphia that people seem to develop on these forums. There's tons of images of people who've trained for years, naturally and unnaturally. When you compare yourself to them of course you're going to feel like you look the same.