Almost 40 -- Struggling with gains & recovery. Advice needed, please

[friendsinchrist]

@wholehalfmom staying completely out of the gym isn't bad either. as long as you aren't running yourself down month after month.

 

[broid]

@wholehalfmom Dude I hear you. I had/have the same experience. Best thing I ever did was to recalibrate my mind and expectations. It took a while tho.

I focus on how I feel and how I look instead of the numbers. Use to bother me that I couldn't push heavy weight consistently. Now I'm happy to feel good, have fun, and be the best looking old dude in the weight room.

Commit to taking a 6-week detour from your weight routine. For example, don't touch a barbell for 6 weeks. Use only dumbells and get creative. You'll be forced to recalibrate your numbers expectations. And dumbells are fun. You'll get the feeling of progress in numbers on the dumbells which will feel great.

When you go back, your barbell numbers will be down a bit but not as much as you'd expect.

It's a mind game really.

Get your T checked but be slow to start a prescription unless you're way low. Try to manipulate your lifestyle and diet first.

 

[wholehalfmom]

@broid Thanks!!

 

[vikingqueen]

@wholehalfmom

supplements or a "magic pill"

Closest thing to it: https://examine.com/supplements/creatine/

 

[wholehalfmom]

@vikingqueen Interesting. I've always had protein shakes with creatine in it, but I've never went out and bought just creatine powder. Recommend?

 

[vikingqueen]

@wholehalfmom If you read down to the effects matrix, there's tons of benefits, and the only drawback for me was the water-weight gain, but for some that's a benefit as it gives a visible increase in muscle size.

 

[wholehalfmom]

@vikingqueen Very interesting. Thank you! I'll check it out!

 

[najiramlee]

@wholehalfmom Eating + Sleeping + Lifting = Gains

You need to do all three to gain. In one of the comments you mention you don't sleep enough. That definitely will effect your recovery and gains.

You haven't mentioned what you're doing in terms of your lifts and what your diet is like, so it's hard to say where the bottleneck is.

 

[wholehalfmom]

@najiramlee I've come to the realization (this morning, actually), that I feel much stronger in the morning -- even though I HATE mornings. So, if I don't sleep well the night before, I won't be getting up early to hit the gym. Most of the time I'll go over lunch and superset my whole program so that I can get done in 60min.

My guess is that there's no real bottleneck, but rather a combination of everything - diet first, sleep second, . And if it's not one thing, it's another. For example, I'll do great on watching my diet and hitting my macros for awhile, but then my sleeping pattern sucks. Or I'll be great for a couple of weeks, but then "fall off the wagon" and splurge over a weekend. On top of that, I do think it's time to change up my program. I keep the main lifts in there (BB Flat Bench / Squat / Dead Lift) but then mix up the rest, depending on what's available. Each week I change the rep range (starting at 4 sets of 15-18 on week 1, and ending at 4 sets of 3-5 on week 5). I'll taper off the sets on some of my lifts if I'm running short on time. Here's a sample of a week:

Day 1 (Chest / Tri's)

• BB Bench
• Incline DB Press
• Decline Smith Press
• DB (or cable) Flies
• Dips
• Close-Grip Press
• Cable Rope Tri's
• Skull Crushers

Day 2 (Shoulders / Legs)

• BB Shoulder Press
• Upright Row
• Side DB (or cable) Raises
• Front DB (or cable) Raises
• Squats
• Dead Lift
• Calf Raises
• Leg Press

Day 3 (Back / Bi's)

• BB Bent-over Rows
• Pull-Ups
• Straight-Arm Pull Down
• DB Rows
• BB Curl
• Preacher Curls
• Incline DB Curls
• Cable Curls

 

[najiramlee]

@wholehalfmom If there's one thing I would tweak is splitting up deadlifts and squats so that they're not on the same day. I personally find that doing both on the same day wipes me since they're heavy compounds. If I squat first, my deadlift suffers, or vice-versa.

 

[wholehalfmom]

@najiramlee I've thought about that, but I have no idea where else I would put it. It wouldn't make sense to put it on another day, would it? (Unless maybe a 4-day split???)

 

[najiramlee]

@wholehalfmom Put your dead lift with your back day, since it does exercise your back too.

 

[wholehalfmom]

@najiramlee Ah, good call. That's usually my shortest day anyway. DL would be a good addition.

 

[eyes2jesus]

@wholehalfmom what are your #s on the main lifts?

 

[wholehalfmom]

@eyes2jesus I'm going to have to give an approximate educated guess since I haven't done a 1RM in awhile. (This will be based on what my lifts have been this week.)

• Bench = 200lbs
• Squat = 200lbs
• DL = 250lbs

 

[eyes2jesus]

@wholehalfmom well that's not very much for as big as you are.

I can say that I started gaining more strength by cutting down my program and focusing on doing a few main movements and just continually adding weight. Maybe something more like starting strength would get you stronger than a split routine.

 

[wholehalfmom]

@eyes2jesus

well that's not very much for as big as you are.

Thank you. I know

Maybe something more like starting strength would get you stronger than a split routine.

Not sure what you mean by that.

 

[wholehalfmom]

@eyes2jesus Ah, I got ya! Sorry. A bit slow