@barefoothannahb Following those programs and focusing on the weight is a good way to progress on strength, which is a really good proxy for building muscle. The thing is it's not exactly the same thing. I can relate to using the weight as motivation, but what I've kind of settled into is only really caring about the weight for the powerlifting big 3. There's no magical lifting program, but there are a lot of different ones and you need to keep experimenting to find what works to help you accomplish your goals. There are some good free programs focused on hypertrophy which you might like. I'm a big fan of the stronger by science (SBS) hypertrophy program because it has autoregulation built in, but the natural hypertrophy guy has a few good ones as well (his new GUTS one looks great).
If you are focused on eating high quality food (limit processed foods), in a caloric surplus with sufficient protein, and doing roughly 10 sets close to failure for each muscle group every week while also giving at least 48 hours of rest between those muscle groups, you are going to build muscle. Maybe it's slow going, but if you gain 2 lbs a month for 12 months straight, I feel pretty confident you could put on at least 5-7 lbs of muscle and hopefully more like 8-10. Is that motivating to you? I think you have to be realistic about how hard it is to build muscle and how hard you want to achieve that goal.
The older you get the harder it's going to be to add muscle mass. You're still pretty young so if you're already burning out on this, maybe take a break and do something else that you find fun. I know guys that switched to CrossFit for a while and got really in shape, then decided to come back to bodybuilding later. They don't regret that switch at all since they built up a really good work capacity that made it so endurance or cardio was never the limiting factor in weight training. Likewise, I know a couple guys who switched to MMA/BJJ and only weight train as assistance for that sport now. They don't look jacked, but I would be way more afraid to mess with them than someone who was jacked.
If you are focused on eating high quality food (limit processed foods), in a caloric surplus with sufficient protein, and doing roughly 10 sets close to failure for each muscle group every week while also giving at least 48 hours of rest between those muscle groups, you are going to build muscle. Maybe it's slow going, but if you gain 2 lbs a month for 12 months straight, I feel pretty confident you could put on at least 5-7 lbs of muscle and hopefully more like 8-10. Is that motivating to you? I think you have to be realistic about how hard it is to build muscle and how hard you want to achieve that goal.
The older you get the harder it's going to be to add muscle mass. You're still pretty young so if you're already burning out on this, maybe take a break and do something else that you find fun. I know guys that switched to CrossFit for a while and got really in shape, then decided to come back to bodybuilding later. They don't regret that switch at all since they built up a really good work capacity that made it so endurance or cardio was never the limiting factor in weight training. Likewise, I know a couple guys who switched to MMA/BJJ and only weight train as assistance for that sport now. They don't look jacked, but I would be way more afraid to mess with them than someone who was jacked.