2 years on: 6 months of boom, 6 of progress, 12 of stasis

[resle]

Told my story before, but - in a nutshell: started 2 years ago as never-exercised-before skeleton-with-a-belly. 40 years old back then, 42 now.

I am truly OCD when I get into something, so I consistently worked out 4 or 5 days per week since then, began eating as clean as it gets, and in the first 6 months I transformed. In the following 6, I strengthened and bulked up a bit: too little, too slow, but I did.

But the next 12 months have been pure stasis. I tried everything: increasing supplements (up to 3g whey / kg), added creatine to that. Rotate workouts in all possible ways. Tried working out really REALLY hard. Perfected my form (according to a couple "pro"s). All useless.

Going to get my testosterone levels measured as I can't think of anything else but something wrong going on there.

Just sharing/venting
Cheers

r.

[tblodg15]

How did you experiment with volume? Working out harder is not a way to make progress unless you were going through the motions before that.

[resle]

How did you experiment with volume? Working out harder is not a way to make progress unless you were going through the motions before that.

I tried, each for 3-4 weeks, high reps with lower loads, and I tried low reps with higher loads. I tried VERY low reps with VERY high loads (90% of 1RM).

I tried a complex combination that helped for a short while - where for big muscles exercises I'd do 5 series of decreasing loads and increasing reps, while for small muscles I'd do 4 series with 75% of 1RM without a fixed number of reps, getting to exhaustion and then immediately grabbing something much lighter (say 40% of 1RM) and continue to exhaustion again for a few more reps.

[tblodg15]

I tried, each for 3-4 weeks, high reps with lower loads, and I tried low reps with higher loads. I tried VERY low reps with VERY high loads (90% of 1RM).

I tried a complex combination that helped for a short while - where for big muscles exercises I'd do 5 series of decreasing loads and increasing reps, while for small muscles I'd do 4 series with 75% of 1RM without a fixed number of reps, getting to exhaustion and then immediately grabbing something much lighter (say 40% of 1RM) and continue to exhaustion again for a few more reps.

How many work sets per week? And over how many sessions per muscle group per week?

[resle]

How many work sets per week? And over how many sessions per muscle group per week?

Three "template days, which I cycle.
4 - 5 days per week.

(A)
- Chest (3 exercises x 5 sets x 6-8 reps)
- Biceps (2 exercises x 4 sets x 8-12 reps)
- Abs (1 exercise x 4 sets x exhaustion)

(B)
- Back (3 exercises x 5 sets x 6-8 reps)
- Shoulders (2 exercises x 4 sets x 8-12 reps)
- Abs (1 exercise x 4 sets x exhaustion)

(C)
- Legs (3 exercises x 5 sets x 6-8 reps)
- Abs (3 exercises x 3 sets x exhaustion)
- Deadlifts (5 sets x 6 reps)
- Overhead press (5 sets x 6 reps)

[NearlyBigAngus]

How many calories are you eating?

[resle]

How many calories are you eating?

About 2500, which apparently already puts me on a surplus because I get a perceivable increase in body fat and overall weight.

[OldFartTom]

Get a few sessions with an experienced coach. I don't mean some random pin-select pt, I mean an actual experienced coach.

[drudixon]

For only two years seems you're bouncing around a lot. You can't begin to judge if something is working until you have 2 months of consistency to measure results. I get ocd. There's always something new or exciting to try. Just be patient and minimize variables, or else you'll never learn what works for you.

[ElrondHubbard]

3-4 weeks for a lifting approach which you then abandon for something else is not nearly enough consistency to show results. Sounds to me like that's your problem.