Ectomorph advice

[sks87]

I'll try to be concise.

I'm 34, 5ft 8, 68-69kg. I'm vegetarian

I've been doing weights seriously for about 14months. I gained 11-12kg in that time but have plateaud in the last 6 months. I do weights 4 times a week, usually an upper lower split so I hit most muscle groups twice in a week. I do cardio once a week and 1 round of golf a week and 1 rest day.

I have been going up on the nutrition from 2500 to 2750. I still havn't gained any weight but do seem to be gaining a belly so 2-3 weeks ago I changed to targeting 3000calories and changed from a moderate fat moderate carb diet to a high carb low fat diet. I take in 100-120g of protein a day.

I do struggle to progress with weights but lift as heavy as I can every session. I try to hit 3x 10 reps on most exercises though 2 weeks ago I changed to doing 2 heavy sets 8-10 rep range and then 2 light sets 15-20 rep range.
I know from past experience though that lower weight and higher reps do nothing for me. I've also tried 5 x5 regimes which did help with strength initially.

I'm a bit lost as to why I'm not gaining more and would appreciate advice on nutrition or workouts - I know I need to give any change about 3 months and reassess. Do you think those changes are correct?
Thanks

[faithbrah]

what program are you doing exactly? have you done any deloads? not taking any breaks and pushing yourself to the limit every workout could be the reason you're not making progress, along with not eating enough protein and not gaining weight

p.s. ditch the ****totypes

[air2fakie]

If you've been working out for about a year but haven't progressed in weights lifted or weight gained in 6 months, and are just growing a belly - I'd look more at your programming and effort level for each set. Even if you're eating @ maintenance this shouldn't be the case with good programming.

[sks87]

I'm not doing a programme per se. I'm doing mainly compound lifts. I've not done any deloads, in fact I don't know what that means. During a month lockdown last year I couldn't go gym obvoiusly so used home weights and bar which was about 66-75% of my gym weights but higher reps for a month. When I returned to the gym I lost loads of strength and couldn't lift what I could before and had no visible gains. I'm scared of that happening again so always lift as heavy as I can but making sure the weight I can do for at least 6reps x3sets as a minimum if that makes sense.

What do you mean by good programming?
I'm eating as much as I can and pushing as hard as I can so not too sure why I'm not gaining weight or getting stronger. I don't feel burnt out, I get about 6hrs sleep a night which isn't great I know but can't seem to get more I just lie there lol.

[paulinkansas]

I don't have anything to contribute, but just wanted to say to sks87 that I bought an SKS (a firearm) in 1987. Ended up giving it to a guy for his wedding present. His new wife made him sell it. Years later he told me that the SKS was the best wedding present he received.

[AdamWW]

I'm not doing a programme per se. I'm doing mainly compound lifts. I've not done any deloads, in fact I don't know what that means. During a month lockdown last year I couldn't go gym obvoiusly so used home weights and bar which was about 66-75% of my gym weights but higher reps for a month. When I returned to the gym I lost loads of strength and couldn't lift what I could before and had no visible gains. I'm scared of that happening again so always lift as heavy as I can but making sure the weight I can do for at least 6reps x3sets as a minimum if that makes sense.

What do you mean by good programming?
I'm eating as much as I can and pushing as hard as I can so not too sure why I'm not gaining weight or getting stronger. I don't feel burnt out, I get about 6hrs sleep a night which isn't great I know but can't seem to get more I just lie there lol.

Good programming at your stage simply means adding small amounts of volume to your tracked movements on a regular basis.

For example, if you currently squat 185lb for 4 sets of 6 reps, a 'good program' would schedule in a regular increase in either the weight, reps, or sets to that system.

So perhaps next week you would do 185lbs for 4 sets of 7 instead of 6, or continue with the same sets and reps but add 5-10lb until that new weight felt as difficult as the 185 did (a concept known as Rate of Perceived Exertion aka 'RPE').

This is known as Progressive Overload, which in simple terms simply means you are increasing the difficulty of your exercises by some metrics: reps, sets, weight, etc...

That is how you ensure you do not stagnate.

[air2fakie]

I'm not doing a programme per se.

That's prob why your lifts haven't gone up in 6 months and you're growing a belly while staying at the same weight.

What do you mean by good programming?

Not whatever you're doing now.

[sks87]

I don't have anything to contribute, but just wanted to say to sks87 that I bought an SKS (a firearm) in 1987. Ended up giving it to a guy for his wedding present. His new wife made him sell it. Years later he told me that the SKS was the best wedding present he received.

Hah that’s brilliant. It’s a sign!


Yes progressive overload is something I’m trying to do but struggle. It’s a bit like I will progress one thing and regress something else. It’s like every week I’m pushing as hard as I can to just lift the same weight as last time. It’s like I take 1 step forward then 1 step backwards.
I’ve always progressed with reps then I will up the weight
For eg I will shoulder press 22kg 3x 8 then once I get to 3x10 I will up to 24kg 6x3 but I’m struggling to get to 10x3 in about 3months.
But I am progressing in other areas like rowing but stagnant in pull-ups (I do them with 10kg weights about 8x3 on a good day)
I feel I can only progress exercise I do early in my workout and then the rest of the workout is just maintaining what I can. Is that normal?

[AdamWW]

Hah that’s brilliant. It’s a sign!


Yes progressive overload is something I’m trying to do but struggle. It’s a bit like I will progress one thing and regress something else. It’s like every week I’m pushing as hard as I can to just lift the same weight as last time. It’s like I take 1 step forward then 1 step backwards.
I’ve always progressed with reps then I will up the weight
For eg I will shoulder press 22kg 3x 8 then once I get to 3x10 I will up to 24kg 6x3 but I’m struggling to get to 10x3 in about 3months.
But I am progressing in other areas like rowing but stagnant in pull-ups (I do them with 10kg weights about 8x3 on a good day)
I feel I can only progress exercise I do early in my workout and then the rest of the workout is just maintaining what I can. Is that normal?

This is why it sounds like you need a weight reset or a deload.

You need to also pick movements that are easy to track overload on.

On you doing some form of squat, bench, and hip hinge (like deadlift)?

[sks87]

This is why it sounds like you need a weight reset or a deload.

You need to also pick movements that are easy to track overload on.

On you doing some form of squat, bench, and hip hinge (like deadlift)?

So do you mean drop the weight by 1 or 2 increments and go higher on reps?
Also would you just do that and build up or do 1 or 2 weeks of that then try and go back to what I was doing? Going forward would you do 1 week lower weight and 1 week higher or do what I said in my original post of 2 sets heavy then 2 sets light?

I don't do weight squats (drs orders on a knee issue) but I do bulgarian split squats 100 reps split over 3 sets and also do Romanian deadlifts - standard ones and also single leg with weighted T bar

[AdamWW]

So do you mean drop the weight by 1 or 2 increments and go higher on reps?
Also would you just do that and build up or do 1 or 2 weeks of that then try and go back to what I was doing? Going forward would you do 1 week lower weight and 1 week higher or do what I said in my original post of 2 sets heavy then 2 sets light?

I don't do weight squats (drs orders on a knee issue) but I do bulgarian split squats 100 reps split over 3 sets and also do Romanian deadlifts - standard ones and also single leg with weighted T bar

Yeah, there's something wrong with your programming obviously... that is why you're not seeing progress. You need a more structured setup that you can consistently follow.

In a deload, you have a couple options usually:

- Do the same rep/set composition as you usually would, but lower the weight on the lifts by 40-50%
- Do the same weight on your current lifts, but reduce to only a single working set (keep warmup sets in) or something similar.

I would recommend you deload by simply dropping the weight on the bar though, it tends to be easier for most people since they enjoy their time in the gym.

Doing 100 reps over 3 sets sounds horrible for any movement intended to build strength and size... you're getting into the muscular endurance zone and out of the hypertrophy range at that point.

I would NOT advise you do any set of any movement intended to build muscle and strength over 20 reps, including things like curls.

In fact, i tend to advise people limit their compound movements to 5-10 reps to set and their smaller movements to 8-15 reps... overwise it's just too hard to track progress.




You need to get a better setup for sure... look into the fierce 5 program and start from there: https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...hp?t=159678631

[paulinkansas]

I'll 2nd the Fierce 5 program. It's what I've been doing for 3 years and 4 months.

[sks87]

Yeh the 100 reps is only because I can't do weighted squats and 20 reps is too easy. I don't do that for anything else.

I did do the 5x5 programme initially but moved then made my own programme which worked up until the last 6 months. I thought my diet was the reason I wasn't gaining weight but perhaps it's my training,

I will check out the fierce 5 programme thanks for the help

[paulinkansas]

Yeh the 100 reps is only because I can't do weighted squats and 20 reps is too easy. I don't do that for anything else.

Do you have access to a friendly medium to large sized dog?

[AdamWW]

Yeh the 100 reps is only because I can't do weighted squats and 20 reps is too easy. I don't do that for anything else.

I did do the 5x5 programme initially but moved then made my own programme which worked up until the last 6 months. I thought my diet was the reason I wasn't gaining weight but perhaps it's my training,

I will check out the fierce 5 programme thanks for the help

A lack of weight gain is more likely due to a combination of diet AND training problems

[faithbrah]

Yeh the 100 reps is only because I can't do weighted squats and 20 reps is too easy. I don't do that for anything else.

I did do the 5x5 programme initially but moved then made my own programme which worked up until the last 6 months. I thought my diet was the reason I wasn't gaining weight but perhaps it's my training,

I will check out the fierce 5 programme thanks for the help

do pistol squats or something... easy way to avoid having to do a hundred reps to make it difficult enough

[sks87]

Do you have access to a friendly medium to large sized dog?

No, I've lost you lol

[paulinkansas]

No, I've lost you lol

It's an exercise where you cradle a dog (or any other convenient animal) and pick them up. It's sort of like a dead lift. I call it a Dog Lift.