Staying small after a year of working out

[dmx2004]

Been working out for a year now, tried different programs, mixed and matched a few but haven't seen much progress at all, especially in my arms. They're still around 13.3 inches, which is only +0.3 inches from a year ago. I'm eating ~3500 calories a day, at least 170g protein, 7 hours of sleep a day, progressive overload, going to failure etc. I don't know if I'm overtraining or not so here's my current pull workout. I go to failure on the last set of everything.
Deadlifts 3 sets of 3 heavy
Pulldowns, 4 sets of 10
seated close grip rows 4 sets of 10
face pulls 3 sets of 10
dumbbell bicep curls, 4 sets of 10
Pull twice a week.
I've seen people get bigger than me in months. I know I have terrible genetics for bodybuilding but I didn't know if it was so bad that I'm seeing practically no growth or if I was overtraining/undertraining. Also my left arm is lacking about a year behind my right, been doing an extra set on them for bicep curls, tricep extensions.
Thanks for helping out!

[paulinkansas]

Do squats. That was the standard answer in the late 90's on usenet misc.fitness.weights

[SuffolkPunch]

Before and after weight?
What progress have you made with maximum effort lifts (can be given as, say, a 10RM - doesn't have to be a 1 rep maximum).

[dmx2004]

Do squats. That was the standard answer in the late 90's on usenet misc.fitness.weights

I do squats, in fact I'm more impressed with my squat than my bench or deadlift. Progressing pretty well on it.

[dmx2004]

Before and after weight?
What progress have you made with maximum effort lifts (can be given as, say, a 10RM - doesn't have to be a 1 rep maximum).

I started at ~78kg as I was just fat really. Went all the way down to 69kg at the start of this year and now I'm at 74kg. Need to eat a little more as I lost weight in the past two weeks. Strength has been going up pretty well for squat and deadlift, but my bench is horrible. My chest is probably the weakest part of my body. I stopped doing barbell bench and moved to incline db bench as I didnt feel any chest activation at all on barbell, plus I can focus more on stabilisers and fixing imbalances. I just wanted to make sure I'm not progressing too slowly (in terms of size) since I know that you make the most gains ever in your first year of lifting and other than my strength going up, I haven't seen much size difference at all in the past year.

[SuffolkPunch]

You've been losing weight, this always places a restriction on any muscle growth. Sometimes, people make no progress at all beyond the initial newbie gains while they are dieting. Although I think even experienced lifters can gain some in a mild calorie deficit.

So calories is suspect #1

Suspect #2 will be training effort - you aren't overtraining, very few people every truly do, especially casual lifters who aren't pro athletes. You might be taking last set to failure but how many hard sets do you do for each bodypart in the course of a week?

Suspect #3 progressive overload strategy. Although I said that you aren't overtraining, going to failure on the last set isn't always the best plan. You need to ramp up efforts slowly over many workouts - even if the lead in to that is not maximum effort every time. It's like surfing a wave, if you are right at the peak of it, you will probably fall off the back and your ride will be over. If you do keep it reigned in but still make small incremental improvements every serssion, you should be able to do more total sets (more volume) which is strongly associated with muscle gain.

[coachcalande]

Been working out for a year now, tried different programs, mixed and matched a few but haven't seen much progress at all, especially in my arms. They're still around 13.3 inches, which is only +0.3 inches from a year ago. I'm eating ~3500 calories a day, at least 170g protein, 7 hours of sleep a day, progressive overload, going to failure etc. I don't know if I'm overtraining or not so here's my current pull workout. I go to failure on the last set of everything.
Deadlifts 3 sets of 3 heavy
Pulldowns, 4 sets of 10
seated close grip rows 4 sets of 10
face pulls 3 sets of 10
dumbbell bicep curls, 4 sets of 10
Pull twice a week.
I've seen people get bigger than me in months. I know I have terrible genetics for bodybuilding but I didn't know if it was so bad that I'm seeing practically no growth or if I was overtraining/undertraining. Also my left arm is lacking about a year behind my right, been doing an extra set on them for bicep curls, tricep extensions.
Thanks for helping out!

Hit me up- I’ll train you for free. We will bulk you up in no time. Follow me on Twitter and message me.

[paulinkansas]

Listen to him ^^^. I generally do 8 sets a week per bodypart. I take each set to where form breaks down, while progressing in reps each week.

[radrd]

Mixing and matching programs isn't usually a recipe for success. Pick a well-regarded program and stick with it. You're also going to have to eat in a caloric surplus if you want to get bigger.

Stop focusing so much on your arms. Don't stop training arms and don't pick a program like Starting Stregth that has little to no arm work, but focus on following your entire routine each day with intensity, consistency, good nutrition, and adequate rest/recovery. Arm development will follow along with everything else.

[paulinkansas]

Do something to enhance your natural testosterone level. For me, I work in a medical clinic around 30 women of child bearing age. Most of them are pretty good good looking. I also do work that involves ladders, electricity, welding, natural gas and heavy diesel equipment.

I haven't played a video game since 1995.