Disappointing results . . .

I'm 46 years old and have been seeing a PT for hypertrophy twice a week since the end of January and doing two sessions on my own a week too. So, four sessions in the gym a week.

Mons - chest and tris
Tues - legs
Weds- back and shoulders
Frids - delts and arms

I know that building muscle is very difficult, but I've been working very hard and have had only minimal results.

My diet is based on these food examples:

BreaKfast: porridge oats, milk, ground almonds, Brazil nuts, blueberries.
Snack: smoked salmon with cottage cheese.
Lunch: chicken or turkey, broccoli, asparagus, mixed vegetables, rice
Snack: a handful of almonds
Dinner: beef or fish, broccoli, asparagus, sweet potato

I have a protein shake after my workout (or in place of one of the snacks if I'm busy) with isolate whey protein, half a banana, a teaspoon of peanut butter and 5 grammes of creatine.

I sleep between 7 to 8 hours a night.

I've been sticking to this routine/regime religiously except when I was ill for a month at the end of May.

I'm really losing motivation now due to not seeing the results I expected and I'm becoming bored with the whole thing and as a consequence very disappointed and depressed.

Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong?

I would reconsider the routine if I were you. It think the problem is that you're on a split. Right now you are only working each muscle group once per week. You would probably do much better on a full body program that hits the muscle groups multiple times a week.

Check out the "Workout Programs" section. The stickies at the top of the forum contain a few good routines. Just follow it as written and things will likely improve. You probably won't need a PT anymore after that.

It looks like you understand how to create a proper diet and the importance of adequate rest, so you're probably ok there.

Other than that, remain consistent and you will see results.

Best of luck

Why not make the big compound lifts the foundation of your workouts? I'm sure you would get better results.

[QUOTE=Peuxfaire;1589728301]I'm 46 years old and have been seeing a PT for hypertrophy twice a week since the end of January and doing two sessions on my own a week too. So, four sessions in the gym a week.

Mons - chest and tris
Tues - legs
Weds- back and shoulders
Frids - delts and arms[/QUOTE]

1) This is just a list of body parts.
2) Which days are with the PT and which are days you're left to fill in the blanks?

[QUOTE=Peuxfaire;1589728301]My diet is based on these food examples:

BreaKfast: porridge oats, milk, ground almonds, Brazil nuts, blueberries.
Snack: smoked salmon with cottage cheese.
Lunch: chicken or turkey, broccoli, asparagus, mixed vegetables, rice
Snack: a handful of almonds
Dinner: beef or fish, broccoli, asparagus, sweet potato

I have a protein shake after my workout (or in place of one of the snacks if I'm busy) with isolate whey protein, half a banana, a teaspoon of peanut butter and 5 grammes of creatine.[/QUOTE]

You're not saying how many calories or how much protein/fat/carbs you're eating.

If you are not gaining weight/mass, you are not eating enough. Period. Your body will not make muscle out of thin air. You have to eat an excess of calories. The key is to eat enough to gain mass, and not so much you get fat.

If you are starting on a weight loss protocol, (read you are already heavy), you can indeed lose weight and gain mass at the same time. When you are carrying around a lot of excess fat, there is plenty of energy floating around to build mass even while losing. This ability to lose fat and gain muscle pretty much goes away after your 'newb' portion of training.

My guess, is even if your routine is sub par, the biggest reason is you are not meeting your caloric needs to grow. Your PT sucks if he/she has never addressed this with you. It is like showing up to build a house and not having any materials on site. Essentially you have been doing 'busy work', but very little in the way of productivity.

Not all is lost though. Working out has a lot to do with CNS conditioning was well. Get your workout program and diet in order, and you are in a great place to start making some progress. You have just been milked by a trainer happy to work you out 2 days a week and did not want to give you the tools to help yourself.

Drop the trainer in my opinion. Anyone that would let you linger along for 10 months and not recognize your lack of progress and give you advice on how to change, is not worth doing another session with.

All is not lost, don't get depressed and quit.

With building work there can be a lot of groundwork putting in drains and services, pouring concrete for foundations, etc etc. It can take some time before you see the building start to go up but all that groundwork isn't wasted time. The workouts you've been doing aren't wasted.

I'm not going to sugar coat this further, your PT sounds terrible (like induced_drag said) and probably you could have had better progress, but what you've done already isn't wasted and you can build on it.

IMHO you should

1) drop the PT (save your money)

2) change up a gear, note what tor575 said about workouts. Start a 3 day a week full body program based on the "big lifts", this is real bang for buck. Consider either running Stronglifts or Fierce5

Stronglifts 5*5 - this will be good for maybe 6 months, free phone app on Google play or Apple store ([url]https://stronglifts.com/5x5/[/url]) everything is handed to you on a plate

Fierce5 - this is better structured and so you can run it longer, but no app and you'll need to track things yourself and do a small amount of thinking. [url]https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=159678631[/url]

3) just keep going, results take time, don't quit now, it will start to show some point soon, although I can't predict exactly when as so much depends on individuals

Enjoy...

Takes time to see results. Varies on what you want. More muscles = More Caloric Intake and you be popping. Since you wanted to gain.

Take pictures so you can see progress over time. Agree with the others, get on a solid beginner program like those above.

Peuxfaire
You too rarely train every muscle group. Find yourself such a training sistem, when each muscle group will receive a load 2-3 times a week. And the training session itself should be built around compound exercises.

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I take on board those who said I should change my PT, but I sense that he's pretty good and doing a lot better than the one I had before.

My PT decided to change my routines with him to full-body conditioning and more compound exercises about five weeks ago and lay off the weights a bit. I've felt a lot better and we've just returned to the weights. He said I should only be going to the gym three times a week though four wouldn't necessarily hurt, but it's essential.

I'm still frustrated and am considering no to get a bit of movement and confidence. Perhaps I'm just incapable of building muscle naturally? My PT advises against steroids as he says there's too much that can go wrong.

I'm also thinking of starting callisthenics. It'll be cheaper than the gym/PT.

Don't be a quitter - you've been given some great advice so far.

Change to a 3 day full body program and push yourself hard.

Eat properly - enough calories and protein.

Sleep enough.

Stick with it and trust the process.

You asked where you were going wrong and you've been told - and your answer is to do calisthenics and hop on a bike?

OK, fair enough. I'm gonna try, but I've been trying a long time already.

I've been in a calorie surplus for 18 months.

I see my PT on Wednesdays and Fridays, and he gives me a thoroughly tough workout using compound exercises for those hour-long sessions.

I do a chest and tris workout on Mondays and on Tuesdays I attend a circuit or full-body exercise class.

I am persevering, but l've not got the results I'd expected by now. There has been some growth on my shoulders, triceps and chest, but I'm impatient for more noticeable results.

[QUOTE=Peuxfaire;1592828901]

I've been in a calorie surplus for 18 months.
[/QUOTE]

....So you are saying you are 40lbs heavier and not seen any growth? The SMALLEST reasonable surplus you can track is aprox 250 cal/ day within limits of precision.

So if you are doing a min surplus, your scale should be 40lbs heavier now than when you started A THE LEAST.

If not>>>>>>>You are doing it wrong. No amount of drugs will help you. Learn to train and eat. Do that for a few months. Run a REAL surplus. Put on 25lbs over 6 months while training on a good BEGINNER program.

That routine is horrible, change it immediately. Just goes to show you that PT's have no clue sometimes. You are basically hitting shoulders 4 times along with triceps which is overkill, not time to rest or growth.

I would try a full body 3 times a week with your main focus on compound lifts. 5 x 5 on everything just to work on strength and change things up. Or do Push/Pull/Legs.

[QUOTE=Peuxfaire;1592828901]... but I'm impatient for more...[/QUOTE] Good! Gym people are greedy, although progress is slow for everyone, we always want more mooooarrrrr! Hold that thought, it's what drives us in the gym :)

Lower reps heavier weights

[QUOTE=OldFartTom;1592890161]Good! Gym people are greedy, although progress is slow for everyone, we always want more mooooarrrrr! Hold that thought, it's what drives us in the gym :)[/QUOTE]

Your motivation has to be impatient, but your determination needs to be patient. Tough balance for a lot of people to strike.

[QUOTE=ElrondHubbard;1592908111]Your motivation has to be impatient, but your determination needs to be patient. Tough balance for a lot of people to strike.[/QUOTE]

Im at this weird place where I have re-established a good gym habit after years of being away from the gym, good eating/tracking habits and some desire and motivation to become lean for once in my adult life. Problem being....im a good 18 months from anywhere near lean.

so im sitting at like 30% bodyfat, down from like 34%.....but in my mind im already lean. now ive got to try to maintain that feeling while going thru the actual process

its frustrating because the guy in the mirror doesnt match the guy in my minds eye and its gonna be a while

[QUOTE=John Prophet;1592912301]Im at this weird place where I have re-established a good gym habit after years of being away from the gym, good eating/tracking habits and some desire and motivation to become lean for once in my adult life. Problem being....im a good 18 months from anywhere near lean.

so im sitting at like 30% bodyfat, down from like 34%.....but in my mind im already lean. now ive got to try to maintain that feeling while going thru the actual process

its frustrating because the guy in the mirror doesnt match the guy in my minds eye and its gonna be a while[/QUOTE]

I know the feeling exactly. We can be proud of our progress without ever being completely satisfied with it. But you have to keep that minds eye at the front and center.

[QUOTE=Peuxfaire;1589728301]I'm 46 years old and have been seeing a PT for hypertrophy twice a week since the end of January and doing two sessions on my own a week too. So, four sessions in the gym a week.

Mons - chest and tris
Tues - legs
Weds- back and shoulders
Frids - delts and arms

I know that building muscle is very difficult, but I've been working very hard and have had only minimal results.

My diet is based on these food examples:

BreaKfast: porridge oats, milk, ground almonds, Brazil nuts, blueberries.
Snack: smoked salmon with cottage cheese.
Lunch: chicken or turkey, broccoli, asparagus, mixed vegetables, rice
Snack: a handful of almonds
Dinner: beef or fish, broccoli, asparagus, sweet potato

I have a protein shake after my workout (or in place of one of the snacks if I'm busy) with isolate whey protein, half a banana, a teaspoon of peanut butter and 5 grammes of creatine.

I sleep between 7 to 8 hours a night.

I've been sticking to this routine/regime religiously except when I was ill for a month at the end of May.

I'm really losing motivation now due to not seeing the results I expected and I'm becoming bored with the whole thing and as a consequence very disappointed and depressed.

Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong?[/QUOTE]


I think your body has become a custom to your routine and you need to change it up. Arnold was a big believer in the “shocking“ method. The point is that our bodies are very smart and will adapt to the stress that we put them through. The solution is to change the stress.
Here’s Arnold’s opinion and I agree.

[url]https://youtu.be/E0GKmU_iNm0[/url]