2 years and little progress

[strugglingpilgrim08]

Over 2 years into training and poor progress

Ok so I’ve been going to the gym for about 2 years now, I’m a 25 year old male. I’m really in love with the gym it takes up a lot of my time, but the sad part is that my progress really doesn’t reflect 2 years training. I do an 8 day split set up into 3 days training 1 day off, repeat. Im absolutely certain my lack of progress isn’t due to low intensity as I believe I train harder than most people in my gym. Secondly, I can’t boil it down to not eating enough as I’m gaining weight (which has been mostly fat) and I eat 150 grams of protein a day and weigh 155 lbs at 5’8. I’m really discouraged at the moment as I have friends that will start gym and in a short span of time be bigger than me which makes me self conscious as I feel like I’m perceived differently. I just want to be bigger and do everything I can to do so but nothing works, I eat well, I train hard and my form is decent so what should I do?

To break down what a current training day looks like me I’ll give an example of my previous chest and back training:

Incline DB chest press: 32.5kg 1x6 30kg 1x8
Flat machine press: 2x6-8 reps
Machine chest flys: 2x8-10 reps
(All those sets are to failure)

Tbar row: 40kg 1x8 1x6
Lat pull-down: 2x 8-10
Lat pullover: 2x 8-10
Rear delt flys: 2x10-12

I literally haven’t progressed in weeks despite gaining weight. Advice would be greatly appreciated as I’m concerned I will never be able to progress.

 

[anonymous18]

@strugglingpilgrim08 How much do you sleep? When was the last time you deloaded and maybe took a week off from your routine? When was the last time you changed your routine completely?

 

[strugglingpilgrim08]

@anonymous18 I would say Avg 7 hours a night sometimes more and rarely 6. I haven’t changed my routine in a while and I’ve never taken a Deload before. To make matters worse, I’m peaking at bulk now so I need to consider a cutting phase which hinders progress even more

 

[graciedog]

@strugglingpilgrim08 If your sleep, hydration and food is on point, try deloading for a week. Are you recovering completely after your previous sessions?

 

[strugglingpilgrim08]

@graciedog What’s the greatest tell that I’m not recovering? Soreness isn’t a big issue for me, sometimes I do get sore but even when I train very intense it’s rare but I think that may be because I’ve gotten accustomed to my routine

 

[graciedog]

@strugglingpilgrim08 Persistent Soreness, Fatigue, tiredness, Workout strength, resting heart rate this maybe some of the indicators.
Also Check if you are not over training .

 

[fl269fl269]

@strugglingpilgrim08 How much did you weigh when you first began your training? This is a good indicator of how much muscle you’ve put on since, and the potential for future muscle growth. Unfortunately it’s the case that genetics plays a MAJOR role in muscle/strength building.

The same amount of strength+muscle I’ve built over being in the gym for 4 years consistently, took some people I know a year and a half! Some people just have a better base for faster progress.

When I started taking this whole thing seriously I was around 170lbs, 18% body fat. Now, I am 200lbs and 18% body fat on a bulk with SBD of 405/275/495.

When I cut, I sit at 190lbs 15%ish.

As a natural, I will never have another instance where I put on 20lbs of mostly muscle over a few years.

As far as your training, keep at it man. This game is a marathon, keep focusing on those compound lifts, eating, and resting.

 

[strugglingpilgrim08]

@fl269fl269 Thanks for the reply man. I started off at a skinny fat type of physique at maybe 145 lbs then I cut down to about 130lbs before starting a bulk and now I’m at about 155-157lbs and about 20%bf I would say. My lifts recently have been very stagnant tho and I feel like I need to cut at this BF but am worried of losing even more progress

 

[stellarnaut]

@strugglingpilgrim08 Muscle building is of course depended on genetics - like it was said above, some people can really blow up in a shorter period of time, others it may take longer. My suggestions would be to incorporate more compound movements and try a different split, try utilizing a second rest day too. Every so often I like to change up my splits and schedules to keep my body sharp and ready for changes, I don’t want it to get comfortable for too long. Progressive overload as well, make sure you’re really challenging your body and going as heavy as you can for 3-5 reps for 1 or 2 sets of the exercise.