one year of lifting - progress review and advice

[danlightbulb]

Hi all,

At the age of 29 I started on the Starting Strength programme, and one year on I wanted to get some advice on how to continue to make progress.

This time last year I weighed in at weak 9st, and now I weigh in at a slightly less weak 11st (70kg). This is at a height of 5'10. I was extremely thin back then and even though i've put on alot of weight relative to where i started, I still see myself as extremely thin.

My lifting and eating has, if i'm honest, been inconsistent over the past year, for various reasons. Weight gain has tended to come in bursts with stagnation and even weight loss in between. Ive made progress on all the main lifts, some more than others.

Squat: currently 70kg for 5 reps. I struggle with this at times, my long thin legs don't seem very well suited to this lift and beyond this weight I really struggle. I can squat 85 kg for a single.

Deadlift: currently 105kg for 3 reps although i know i could go a little higher than this. My favourite of all the lifts, i have long arms which seem suited to this one.

Bench: currently 55kg for 5 reps. Again i struggle with progress on this as my upper body is very small.

Press: currently 42.5 for 5 reps. same as above.


So even though ive put on a fair bit of weight, I still see myself as very much underweight and the main lifts have not progressed much at all recently and my weight gain has also stopped. Its hard to see where the weight has gone really when I look at myself in the mirror, which just goes to show how thin I was when I started.

There are certain areas that I believe might be stopping me progressing. Firstly my upper body, which is very small all over. I have a very narrow waist, lower back and chest, with thin shoulders and thin long arms to reflect this. My limbs are long and thin with thin wrists and long but skinny hands. Secondly my knees, although alot of weight has gone onto my upper legs my knees and the muscles surrounding the knees are still the same. I have a very high kneecap and the bulging muscle that most people seem to have on the inner upper quarter of the knee does not seem to exist on me.

I really want to get up to 12st as a next goal, but i seem to have stagnated alot recently. I would also like to get my body more into proportion which i see as more weight around my knees and on my upper body. However i still want to keep to a simple programme as i just don't have time for complicated schedules.

So basically this post is a bit of a rant about my skinny frame (i blame my parents!) and also a request for some advice on how to take this on from now on. I appreciate that for most of you on this forum you didn't start from the position of being an extremely underweight adult, and i think this is a problem that will always prevent me from getting to what i call a 'normal' weight.

Many thanks for any advice you can all give.

Dan

[Engineer_Guy]

Have you been eating properly? After a year you should be seeing some good weight gains especially starting at such a low weight.

[Miketoc]

So even though ive put on a fair bit of weight, I still see myself as very much underweight and the main lifts have not progressed much at all recently and my weight gain has also stopped. Its hard to see where the weight has gone really when I look at myself in the mirror, which just goes to show how thin I was when I started.

...

I really want to get up to 12st as a next goal, but i seem to have stagnated alot recently. I would also like to get my body more into proportion which i see as more weight around my knees and on my upper body. However i still want to keep to a simple programme as i just don't have time for complicated schedules.

So basically this post is a bit of a rant about my skinny frame (i blame my parents!) and also a request for some advice on how to take this on from now on. I appreciate that for most of you on this forum you didn't start from the position of being an extremely underweight adult, and i think this is a problem that will always prevent me from getting to what i call a 'normal' weight.

Many thanks for any advice you can all give.

Dan

Eat more.

[Big_Carphuna]

Eat more.

^^This...it seems like your maintainance level has increased, so you have no more carolic surplus to add more muscle...

[Hut*Hut]

Have you been eating properly? After a year you should be seeing some good weight gains especially starting at such a low weight.

He's 153lb. This question answers itself.

[danlightbulb]

With all due respect I was hoping for something a bit more than the stock answer.

I have managed to gain 2st in a year which is 2st more than i gained in the 15 years before that, so although my eating isn't as consistent as it could have been it can't be too bad. I average around 3500 cals a day which according to all the online guides should be more than enough. This includes a significant amount of whole milk so i'm getting enough protein. Is 2st not good progress, it is a 20% increase after all?

And in that time my bench and press has hardly moved in terms of the amount i can lift which tells me that it isn't necessarily just down to eating more. There are surely limitations imposed by my frame size and lack of muscle so what ways are there to overcome this problem?

[Farley1324]

I won't understand anything unless you post in pounds. I don't have a clue WTF st is.

But I can tell you that you are almost surely doing something wrong if a year of training leaves you at squatting your bodyweight for 5 reps.

[higuys]

I won't understand anything unless you post in pounds. I don't have a clue WTF st is.

But I can tell you that you are almost surely doing something wrong if a year of training leaves you at squatting your bodyweight for 5 reps.

I googled that ****, a stone is 14 pounds.

[higuys]

With all due respect I was hoping for something a bit more than the stock answer.

I have managed to gain 2st in a year which is 2st more than i gained in the 15 years before that, so although my eating isn't as consistent as it could have been it can't be too bad. I average around 3500 cals a day which according to all the online guides should be more than enough. This includes a significant amount of whole milk so i'm getting enough protein. Is 2st not good progress, it is a 20% increase after all?

And in that time my bench and press has hardly moved in terms of the amount i can lift which tells me that it isn't necessarily just down to eating more. There are surely limitations imposed by my frame size and lack of muscle so what ways are there to overcome this problem?

IMO it is your diet. You are underweight at that height. Food helps you lift alot more. Try taking it to 4000 cals. whole milk is good for you, but what else are you really eatting? What do your 5 moves look like. What did you start at & what are you at now.

[r_graz]

I have managed to gain 2st in a year which is 2st more than i gained in the 15 years before that, so although my eating isn't as consistent as it could have been it can't be too bad. I average around 3500 cals a day which according to all the online guides should be more than enough. This includes a significant amount of whole milk so i'm getting enough protein. Is 2st not good progress, it is a 20% increase after all?

28 lbs in a year isn't all bad, but I think it's quite a bit lower than what Mark Rippetoe had in mind for a skinny trainee on this program (and at < 130lbs to start, you were definitely skinny). 1 lb per week would be double what you gained, and that is a reasonable rate of weight gain for a non-skinny trainee, much less someone who started out well below average weight.

As far as online guides go, you're going to spin your wheels if you try to follow them and ignore what's actually happening on the scale. Online guides and calculators are at absolute best a rough estimate, and the amount of individual variation is substantial.

So it may be the stock answer, but it's also true. You gained, but you're still a lot lighter than you should be. Fixing the diet may not solve all your problems but it will definitely help.