Am I working out wrong? .... 22y/o - 5'8" - 147 Lb

@babe83612 yeah it's true, I really haven't been approaching the gym in a smart way for the last year or longer. Which particular program would you recommend? Been seeing a lot of PPL/PPL & PHAT floating around. Did a quick google search and seems like there's so many variations of those routines. I'm going to try to plan out the next 6 months. At 3100 Cals/day. MyfitnessPal says I'll gain around 1LB/week so hoping I can be around 170 pounds in 6 months with all my forms fixed and lifts becoming heavier.
 
@mamajaiy A novice is somebody who can make progress every session. The vast majority of lifters and gym bros don’t stick to a program hard enough or work hard enough to ever break through and become an intermediate trainee; this is why the vast majority of lifters never make fantastic progress. It looks as if you’ve got the exact same issue.

Do Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength. Buy the book, educate yourself on barbell training, and do the novice linear progression until you are no longer able to progress every session. It should last about 3 months.

You look good, BTW. Just not great, big, or strong. But you don’t look weak or pathetic at all. You clearly do work out.
 
@mamajaiy I disagree with BrogressiveLoad. Don’t ever do starting strength. The goal of SS is to teach inexperienced lifters how to perform the main barbell movements and TEST how strong they are NOT TO TRAIN (There is a big difference). You are a lifter with experience you should definitely take a look at a program with periodization. If you need to work on technique, go watch a couple YouTube videos. I honestly don’t have much experience and am not personally looking into bodybuilding, but a solid program that you can do is 5/3/1. Take a look at the Beginners 5/3/1 program from r/fitness program recommendations. You may want to buy the first book of the 5/3/1 series to understand some of the concept in it. If you want to expand to that and add more stuff (like conditioning, and other templates and suggestions from Jim Wendler) you may want to buy the Forever 5/3/1 (A bit expensive but worth it). The programs I’ve done with 5/3/1 are BBB (Boring but big), Mass for powerlifting (From the Book 5/3/1 for powerlifting) and I’ve just started Krypteria (From 5/3/1 Forever) ( Really fun and challenging program)
 
@galactusthedevourer The goal of Starting Strength is absolutely to train, what are you talking about? Given that OP has a bench press 8 lbs above his body weight after lifting for multiple years, despite not being morbidly obese, he clearly needs to learn the main barbell movements. The purpose of Starting Strength is to train. The novice linear progression has a novice weight lifter lifting until they are no longer able to make linear progress. Given the amount of time that OP has been training for and the level of strength he is at, I have absolutely no doubt that he can make linear progress. In the next 3 months, he should aim to gain roughly 9-15 lbs, and get his bench press/squat/deadlift very close to that 2/3/4 plate benchmark.

The 5/3/1 programs you talk about are all solid programs but they are more intermediate. OP is still a novice since he can still make linear progression each workout.
 
@babe83612 I agree he could do SS to improve technique and test how much he can actually bench (cuz it’s fucking weird that he can press more than he can bench). I disagree that he needs to gain weight, since we are just testing how much he can do, reason why he can add weight every single workout. If he can’t then a program with periodization and some sort of conditioning would be better. Again I don’t have much experience. SS did train the movement for me. 5/3/1 and for that matter any program with some kind of periodization has helped me make progress. That’s why I think that SS would probably not help.
 
@galactusthedevourer I was looking at the 5/3/1 it looks like a completely different program from PPL? A lot of people were recommending PPL. I might try a week of both programs and see which one I feel more from
 
@mamajaiy It is completely different. 5/3/1 Has you performing the press, deadlift, bench and squat once a week each. After you are done with the main work you start doing supplementary and assistance. If you wanna hop on to a 5/3/1 template with high volume you could take a look into Building the Monolith (Just google it), or BBB. For higher intensity try something like FSL or 5/3/1 with Widowmakers. Currently am happy with Krypteria from Forever 5/3/1 Book. Makes me feel like am dying but that’s what’s fun about it.

Edit:
I want to add that the program is usually 4 days a week over 7 weeks cycles.
 
@mamajaiy I’m not sure if those programs you referenced are STRENGTH programs. Look into Starting Strength, 5/3/1, conjugate, whatever. But just focus on getting your big compounds up (DL, Bench, squat, OHP, pull-ups, dips, etc) and their variations and the size will come.

If you’re not progressing like the program says you should, you’re either not sleeping enough, training hard enough, or being a pre-Madonna and not EATING enough. Make the program work and when you have learned what your body needs to respond to strength gains, then start worrying about calorie intake. If you’re more worried about your abs, you’re not giving everything you can to the program. You will have abs, but you’re leaving some gains on the table.

Lastly, if you’re still insistent on focusing on bodybuilding and not strength training, then here also some advice that really helped me. Stop blaming your program. They all work assuming it’s from a reputable coach. If there aren’t gains as expected, I’m fucking it up somehow.
 
@donray yeah I agree about the programs working, but what I meant to say originally was the plan I've been going off of the last 6 months is just some shit I made and put together lol. Wasn't the most tailor made program compared to some of the ones people have been posting. I'll take a look at those programs this week and I'll get started! Thanks for all the advice. I love pull ups which is probably why my back looks proper, but the rest doesn't. I can say I get enough sleep, but eating and training I gotta step it up. I'll be reporting back my results in 6 months too.
 
@mamajaiy You need to add more frequency. Whether you do a push/pull/legs, or upper/lower or even whole body everyday. There are a lot of programs to follow for any of those, some by Jim Stoppani or T-Nation articles, you can find some. You’re not stimulating protein synthesis often enough. May have to increase your volume too. And yes, increase your reps. If you want to keep your compound movements at 5 reps, do something like 5x5 with them, 4x10 with a secondary exercise for that body group and then an isolation exercise of 3x15. Keep eating in a 250-500 surplus above maintenance and watch the growth. Meal frequency for stoking the metabolism is bullshit but it isn’t for protein synthesis, every 3 hours at least try to get 25 - 40 grams of protein be it a whey shake, eggs, meat, protein bar, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese at night, milk, whatever
 
@aletha Super helpful advice. I appreciate it. I'll be reporting back in this group in like 6 months. Hoping to be around 170 lb with a big bulky chest and some proportionate muscles. I got the food plan on lock, need to just plan my routines for the next 6 months. I've also been eating vegetarian since New Year's as a challenge. Occasionally I eat salmon. But I eat a lot of Tofu, quinoa, beans, Soy "meat" products etc. Will definitely take your advice into account while I'm making my new routine.
 
@mamajaiy 1-1.5g protein per lb of bodyweight, around 20sets volume minimum per week per muscle group, increase your fucking calories and make sure ur lifting heavy BUT with good form and really feeling your muscles tear down. Would recommend u take creatine to help your numbers
 
@dawn16 Definitely agree with the good form. My squat is my best lift because I skate every day around campus and that has always been my strongest muscle group. I've taken creatine in the past, it worked pretty well but nowadays I don't even take pre-workout I just eat a lot of oatmeal and I get a ton of energy without a crash. Yeah I've been trying to eat around 140 grams of protein per day/ 360g Carbs/ 80g/fat/ aaaaand not a lot of sugar.
 
@mamajaiy We're the same age! Let's goo yea I started a new PPL routine yesterday hopefully all goes well. I haven't fully read the comments and all but u should consider bulking if ur down for that
 
@mathitu Yeah I think I'm on a bulking diet? I use the MyFitnessPal app and it set me up to eat 3100 cals a day. 140g protein/ 360g carb 80g/fat etc...
 
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