Almost no muscle gain in 3 years of lifting

J

justinebassowooa

New member
So i’ve been lifting for about three years (currently 23) and i’ve seen hardly any results in my body, both in terms of size and strength. my incline bench and bent over rows along with nearly every other movement has stayed the same, and whenever i try to up the weight, i just get gassed out and can’t do it. I push to failure for nearly every set but get less and less reps each set. Protein I have no idea and calories is maybe 2000 (might be closer to 1600) at 5’8 150lbs. Around 7 hours of sleep but just haven’t seen any results. Please give your advice guys

edit: i’d also like to stress that i struggle to increase weight in every type of movement and have almost no muscle energy to increase it (i assume that’s due to not enough calories?)
 
@justinebassowooa TDEE calculator online so you know your nutrition basics in terms of calories, proteins, carbs and fats.

I would try dropping the weight a bit, repping out to really connect with the muscles and going from there. You need to connect with the muscles, feel the stretch on the negatives and push thru on the last 3-5 reps.
 
@justinebassowooa You don't gain weight from lifting weights. You gain weight from eating food. Figure out your macros. You should probably be eating 150ish grams of protein every day. And more calories. Find an online calculator. And if you're not doing squats and deadlifts, start.
 
@justinebassowooa You already know what is wrong. You aren't eating near enough protein. Track your calories and track your protein. At least .8 grams per pound of body weight. You'll gain 15 lbs in a year. That's just over a pound a month, which is so slow that you won't even see it working. Just trust the process and keep your workouts good, your sleep good, and your belly full.
 
@justinebassowooa Calories are for sure not 2000 and protein is definitely way under. You’re not growing because you’re asking your body to build something and then refusing to give it any raw materials. Eating enough protein is critical and since you’re not overweight, so is being in a calorie surplus. You can’t create new tissue out of nothing, so.

But fixing those is by far the most important and should fix you up, but another thing is to not just constantly go to failure. I feel like in this case when you get your calories in you’ll be able to handle more hard training but in general don’t just keep hammering away when you’re getting weaker. Training hard is necessary but it’s also damaging, treat it like the hammer that it is. If you just keep beating up a fatigued muscle you just build more fatigue without more gains
 
@justinebassowooa So I'm a relativel beginner, I've only been doing this like 6 months or so, but I've seen progress I'm happy with so I'll share what works for me :) I'm not a PT or anything so please don't take any of this as a rule! This is just what's worked for me.

First, the first time I move to a higher weight, I'm honestly not fussed if I get through the sets or not. I'll set a goal and try and hit that, but if I don't, hey it's a heavier weight!

I'll probably try and find the time for an extra short-sesh during the week, though, to put a bit more time into that movement.

Second, I increase the number of reps as a stepping stone to moving to a higher weight. So I typically won't move up until I can do 4x12 at that weight quite comfortably. At lower weights, when I moved up I normally found I could do 2x8 and then would "fail" somewhere between 5-7 for the last two sets. But failure's not really failure - it's just your body's cap right now and hitting that is good for your development :)

Since hitting some higher (though not objectively high!) weights, the weight increase in incrementaly smaller, so I can now reliably manage 4x8 or more at the new weight.

Whilst we're on incremental change, thirdly, don't be afraid to go up only by small amounts. At lower weights I was going up just 2.5kg per "step". But small steady progress adds up.

Fourth, consistency matters. Whenever I've stalled, it's always correlated with 2-3 week period when I've only been able to go a couple of times a week. When I make progress it's because I've managed to keep up that 3-4 visits per week.

Lastly, honestly dude it sounds like you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself!

Have fun! If you're doing something 3-4 times a week, it should be enjoyable for you :)

Progress is great, but make sure you take time to enjoy the workout, and enjoy how your body's feeling afterwards :)
 
As for like protein, neutrition and suchlike, I've just been making sure I have enough protein and minerals/vits. I haven't been using calculators or anything just eyeballing it! Take a normal meal and just up the protein portion by like idk 50% or something. Or add a boiled egg in for breakfast! I don't know what your diet is like but make sure there's a normal amount of veg and fruit in there.

Honestly, unless you're really at the top end of things (and neither of us are) that afternoon you spent working out the perfect meal plan is basically wasted time. Hit the major food groups and go slightly heavier on the protein. Cut back the carbs if you're trying to cut (you're not). No need to over think it! ;)
 
@justinebassowooa Was/am on the same boat. The key is Protein intake and Calories Surplus. I barely eat and on top of that Protein intake is rare for me so my growth is too low.

Stay on Calorie Surplus and have at least 1.2g Protein per kg body weight.
Probably take Creatine too.
 
@justinebassowooa I think you’ve kind of answered your own question in your post.

How much are you upping the weight by each time you try to increase? If you’re upping it by 5-10kg that’s too much to do if you’re close to failure already. Look into the progressive overload routines available in the subreddit and go from there.

As far as eating, if you don’t know what you’re eating, then it’s difficult to judge if you’re eating enough.
The difference between 2000 calories and 1600 is significant. Eating 1600 a day at 5’8” 150lbs is probably not enough to support growth.

It would be beneficial to get a calorie tracker like my fitness pal or whatever works so you can understand how much you’re consuming and tweak it.
 
@cherrein Thanks man this was good info and some good suggestions. I go to failure on almost every set of cable/machine exercises too and have difficult upping the reps or the weight. got any advice in that regard too?
 
@justinebassowooa Idk if going to failure on every single set is the move tbh. I generally do 3-4 sets (depending on how much time I have) and only really go to failure on the last one. And I’ve been working out inconsistently for about 2 years and my friends still occasionally say they see a massive difference if I see them after a couple months or so.

My exercises vary between having 3-5 reps, 6-8 and 8-12, so if I can hit higher than the upper limit on the ‘push to failure’ set, I’ll up the weight by roughly 1 kg/2.5 lbs - 2 kg/5 lbs the next time

The other thing is, how often are you working out? When I worked out at the gym 6 days a week, my progress was arguably slower than it is now (3 days in the gym, 2 days of dance/soccer/cardio). I occasionally throw in rock climbing into the mix there too lol. But like rest days are important for muscle recovery, so make sure you have those!! I prefer active recovery, hence dance/soccer/light jog, but figure out what you like doing

And it has already been mentioned but 1600 calories sounds too little. I’m 5’6” 140 lbs rn and I eat around 2000 calories when I’m bulking and 1600-1700 when I’m cutting, so you might wanna up your food intake
 
@justinebassowooa bro it sounds like you haven't wanted to learn anything in three years. Now you're doing it at least. I would first change the way you train. You don't need to train to failure at all, it's a lot of wear and tear. In the exercises that you master well (bench/ohp/squat/deadlift) use a weight that allows you to do about 5-8 reps and have about two more reps left in the tank. Do that in 3-5 rounds. If you are going to increase the weight, do it 2kg maximum so that the exercise remains controlled. Or raise the reps before increasing weight. And also, food is super important. Take protein in addition to your daily meals and eat more, but natural foods. more meat, more chicken, more fish, more rice, potatoes, pasta. Eat vegetables and all this will make you gain muscle. If you gain a little fat it doesn't matter, don't complicate yourself so much yet. Good luck and try watching YouTube if you don't have friends/teachers at the gym to learn from.
 
@justinebassowooa Track your calories. But first look up your BMR, and then start adding 200 calories a day for a couple of weeks. See if you gain weight, see if this allows to increase your weights.

I’m 6’3 and when I try to put on muscle I’m eating 3,500 - 3,800 calories a day.
 
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