I cannot gain muscle, no matter what I do

A

allysmiles3

New member
I am a 6 foot male, currently 185 pounds.

Goals:

Before I began working out 3 years ago, I basically had 0 athletic background. I was textbook skinnyfat. I personally feel I still am.

I have missed almost no workouts in 3 years. I track every calorie I eat, and I have followed a handful of workout programs from the reddit wiki. My weight is 100% in my control. I can gain or lose weight basically at will by tracking my calories. In spite of this, I still cannot bench 225 (current estimated 1 rep max is, 187, but in practice i think it’s much lower, closer to 160) I still look and feel extremely weak and chubby, etc. I don’t think I need to go into too much detail. Basically: I only gain fat when I am gaining weight.

Diet:

Of all the things to control in fitness, I am most confident in my diet. I am excellent at counting my calories and estimating my TDEE. I can gain and lose weight as i choose. I eat around 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, and at least 70% of my food is generally “good stuff.” I get plenty of micronutrients, and supplement with multi vitamins, vitamin d, zinc, magnesium, and fish oil. iIf i had to pick a weakness here I would say I eat too much sugar, but I don’t personally think it’s the reason I am seeing the level of failure I have seen. I can provide more details if folks think this is necessary.

Recovery:

I generally sleep 7-9 hours a night. I do cardio on my off days (though I only added this in the past 6 months) and it’s generally in the form of riding on the peloton. Not sure what else tos ay here.

Routine:

Over the past 3 years, I have tried the following routines:

1. Reddit bodyweight fitness recommended routine (late 2020 - late 2021)
  1. Reddit ppl routine (april 2021 - april of 2022)
  2. 5/3/1 for beginners (april 2022 to now).
Bodyweight Fitness

For most of my time on this routine, I was cutting. I started out as 200 pounds, and by the end of this routine and diet I was 140 pounds (again, I am a 6 foot male, 23 at this tiem). I looked, well skinny, but not well defined at all. The only records I set during this time was my first pull up (which felt great!) and some progress on my pushups. But that’s about it.

In the final 3 months of this routine, I bulked up, from 140 -> 150, but I noticed 0 progress. I could not progress in any of the variations, and my pushup and pull up numbers went down. I did not miss a single workout when I did this. (in part due ot the fact htis was during covid)

Reddit PPL

I didn’t like that I had gained 10 pounds to no progress in th previous quarter, so i started this routine with a quick cut back down to 145.

From there on, I bulked. And from here too I saw very little progress. This was my first time in a gym, so i spent the first month or so really practicing form and making sure I had the movements down.

For the next 11 months, I followed the program, gained 10 pounds, and saw 0 changes in my numbers for any of the big lifts.

I followed the program exactly as written. I would progressively overload per the programs instructions, and fail. I would reset the cycle per the programs instructions, continue as expected, and fail again. For 11 months.

5/3/1/ For beginners.

I gave up on the reddit ppl because of my totally lack of progress. I switched to this program at 160 pounds. Since then, however, I have continued to see extremely little progress.

I started this program following the instrucitons exactly. I do cardio on my off days (moderate cardio on my peleton) and have gained 20 pounds on it over the past year. I deload when rep goals aren’t met (per the instructions), I push myself extremely hard, often to failure on the AMRAP sets, etc. I have had my form checked by you folks online, by personal trainers and friends. In spite of this, my numbers are garbage and i look like shit.

If you look at this chart, you can see they all appear to improve at the start, but this is only because the program tells you to select tms that are much lower than what you think. As the program continued, I would continue to fail to meet rep goals. I simply am not strong enough. Even after deloading massively, I continue to face a wall at measly bench press numbers.

I am a male in my 20s. I see people going into the gym with no plan at all absolutely destroy my 3 years of progress in 3 months. Most guys can bench more than me on day 1 in the gym. I just don’t understand what I am doing wrong.

edit: one additional thing I forgot to mention is I have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. I don’t think it makes much of a difference but worth mentioning I guess
 
@allysmiles3 If you have been lifting steady for 3 years and can't bench over 200lb yet you need to have a Dr check out what your hormones are up to buddy. Even if the programs your on don't work well for you, they should have at least worked better than they have. Best of luck to you. Sounds like a little trt might change your life
 
@lovemychildren21 Damn bruh, I've been lifting 3 years and can probably only barely bench 200lbs. PB is 5x182.5lbs. It's hard to gain upper body strength. 😕 I know I'm in the minority.

Meanwhile I can 5x325lb squat and 1x405lb deadlift.
 
@lovemychildren21 that's not true, there are people who just don't respond (either very well, or not at all) to resistant training, and there is jack shit they can do about it - and it's not hormones, either

that said, going to the doc is a great suggestion
 
@allysmiles3 Do you have any videos of your lifts? Have you worked out with someone in real life, preferably somebody with a lot of experience/maybe even a coach?

Also, have you gotten your testosterone levels checked? That's about all I can come up with, assuming everything else in your post checks out regarding calories/protein/effort.
 
@rob1500 Yea I’ve worked with a few big friends and a few PRs. I’ve also uploaded a video on here before a while ago. I go a bit slower on bench now but most else is the same. Consensus is generally that my form isn’t perfect but it’s okay.
 
@allysmiles3 I am similar, tend to stall fast on LP programs like starting strength, while 531 the progress is really incrementally slow, even slower than programmed. Things started to click when I started doing the main lifts with maximum intent, trying to move the bar as fast possible on every rep, while making every rep as perfect as possible during the work sets. I did this after I heard Andy Baker say "shake the plates" on the warm ups and lighter sets. You don't need to hit absolute failure, it might even be worse to hit failure because it causes more fatigue which makes subsequent sets and even workouts worse. Also, taking longer rests between sets helped too, I take 3 min between main lifts and 2-3 between everything else, although I use alternate supersets to save time, so like pull ups, 90s rest, dips, 90s rest, pull ups, 90s rest, etc. also working with heavier loads in the 4-6rep range doesnt need failure and recruits more motor units right away compared to lighter loads, and the fatigue is less. I also adjusted my template to make sure I felt recovered in time for the next workout.
 
@allysmiles3 Man you have YEARS of experience, ditch 5/3/1fb if you can't progress. You know how to do the exercises with proper form and can try something different from FSL.

I think you need to increase 1RM's (not because they are low, but because of your mindset), so I would not recommend Boring But Big, but instead boring but strong for Presses and for DL/SQ you can try to do SSL

So by two cycles you're going to do:
5's pro at 65/75/85|70/80/90|75/85/95%

Right after those 10x5 FSL if bench and press, 5x5 SSL for Sq and DL

If you do not understand what I told here, check for 5/3/1 forever book
 
@kayelgee I saw that idea floated. But that would mean insufficient recovery. So O.P. can narrow it down by ruling out one (insufficient volume) or the other (insufficient recovery). If hormonal problem, then it's insufficient recovery, meaning, it takes too long to recover from a session. So that would mean he needs to de-load or something like that to get higher recovery rate for a week or 10 days or so. Then return to the weight room at regular intensity /weight on the bar, and see if you're stronger. If you're not stronger even after a de-load (make sure to eat at maintenance calories or above during de-load /recovery), then perhaps hormones are much more likely indicated, but O.P. at least can greatly narrow down the possibilities before getting blood work done.

My guess would be sets are closer to R.P.E. 6-7 (and maybe sometimes R.P.E. 5 and below, which don't even count toward volume at all) and almost never at R.P.E. 8-9-10 (R.P.E. 10 is to technical failure basically). Increasing the R.P.E. makes each set more stimulating, so your volume can go up considerably even though your number of working sets might stay the same. That's what I suspect, given the O.P.'s obvious commitment to training.
 
@allysmiles3 I would recommend trying fierce 5 for a few months and seeing if you can increase any of your lifts.

I was on a serious plateau and switch to fierce 5 and the forced progression model was definitely a kick in the pants.

I would still get your hormone levels checked out.
 
@allysmiles3 You’re 6 foot, 150 pounds and did the majority of this while cutting. Cut yourself some slack and start putting some food on your plate and weight on the bar and you’ll be really pleased with what comes next! Keep up the hard work!
 
@allysmiles3 Wow, you sound extremely similar to me in many respects. Similar training history, similar build, nearly identical lifts.

You might find the comments in some of my progress posts useful: I did a long one here a little over a year ago and a brief sorta-update a few months back here (EDIT: fixed link).

You might also find the thread this guy posted here helpful -- lots of useful suggestions there (many of which I'm sure will be repeated here).

A few of us have started a private sub to discuss challenges like this, and I know that I for one would love to hear more about stuff you've tried. I'll send you an invite.
 
@allysmiles3 Switch program to something with more volume. Ignore 1rm for now. Focus on progression. You got this. Also in order to get stronger/more muscular you need to gain weight and add some fat. Bulk 6months, train hard and reevaluate.
 
@allysmiles3 Check your testosterone + free testosterone. I found it near impossible to add strength past a certain point before getting hormones corrected. Cutting was a nightmare, I'd lose fat + muscle + strength regardless of the deficit and training during the cut, then back to square one.

This was pretty much my only perceived issue before getting on TRT (apart from low bone density) but doing so has highlighted other areas of life that have benefited massively since starting.

Edit: Just to state I was low normal and according to most docs probably wouldn't qualify for treatment. Since starting my BMD has shot up, which is amazing as I was fast approaching osteoporosis. Just goes to show the reference ranges are terrible.
 
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