@daughteroftheonetrueking Looks like your diet is not good. I can't find how do u 184 g of protein. And If you do get 185 g a day remember the body doesn't process all protein similarly so it's better to get 185g of protein from animal products
None of my bulks (lean or dirty) ever seem to result in any muscle gain, and I honestly really don't know what I'm doing wrong at this point
- Thread starter daughteroftheonetrueking
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@daughteroftheonetrueking My bro, that training is trash, that’s a powerlifting routine, lower the weight, go 10-12 reps and you will 100% grow if you are in a surplus
@daughteroftheonetrueking You are probably not training hard, not with that much volume.
@daughteroftheonetrueking Trolling you here but those shorts are probably about 100lbs alone 
daughteroftheonetrueking
New member
Just some random shorts I bought from Walmart. Been looking for some better ones recently.johonchezi
New member
@daughteroftheonetrueking That's alot of calories (for your body weight) for minimal weight gain. What other cardio are you doing?
daughteroftheonetrueking
New member
@johonchezi Well, I wasn't doing cardio during my bulk. It was the number of calories I had to eat to gain 2lbs a month for some reason. Wasn't doing any other physical activity outside the gym.
johonchezi
New member
@daughteroftheonetrueking Yeh ok, I missed original post so a little tricky for me to follow.
Protein intake looks good, you're reasonably strong though progression is slow as you know
My 2c
Your workout is overly complicated, I would get mentally fatigued and frustrated with progress that wasn't what I was hoping for. I would piss all the exercises off and focus on the big four; overgrasp chinups (heaves), rear barbell squat, dumbell bench press and deadlifts. Target your weights to be appropriate for failure on one rep in reserve at approx ten reps, some of yours are too low in reps targeting strength more than hypertrophy. Become excellent at these exercises, you aren't a bodybuilder who requires a large amount of isolation exercises. The big four will make you a superhuman outside of the gym
Start with all four exercises done in a session two sets each for eight exercises total in a session (after a small warmup). Do every second day for four weeks then increase sets per exercise to three, follow for three months adding weight to maintain failure at approx ten reps. Work hard on the sets, I have a suspicion you may be leaving reps in the tank. After all we are only doing eight sets initially so go hard. Session should take no longer than an hour. Take creatine
Tips to know if you are likely to achieve hypertrophy
-at or near failure during set
-DOMS (will fade over the weeks)
-feeling a muscle pump
-feeling the muscle working
(3 and 4 less likely during these compound movements)
Good luck, hope you find what works
and realistically you are in great shape anyway
Protein intake looks good, you're reasonably strong though progression is slow as you know
My 2c
Your workout is overly complicated, I would get mentally fatigued and frustrated with progress that wasn't what I was hoping for. I would piss all the exercises off and focus on the big four; overgrasp chinups (heaves), rear barbell squat, dumbell bench press and deadlifts. Target your weights to be appropriate for failure on one rep in reserve at approx ten reps, some of yours are too low in reps targeting strength more than hypertrophy. Become excellent at these exercises, you aren't a bodybuilder who requires a large amount of isolation exercises. The big four will make you a superhuman outside of the gym
Start with all four exercises done in a session two sets each for eight exercises total in a session (after a small warmup). Do every second day for four weeks then increase sets per exercise to three, follow for three months adding weight to maintain failure at approx ten reps. Work hard on the sets, I have a suspicion you may be leaving reps in the tank. After all we are only doing eight sets initially so go hard. Session should take no longer than an hour. Take creatine
Tips to know if you are likely to achieve hypertrophy
-at or near failure during set
-DOMS (will fade over the weeks)
-feeling a muscle pump
-feeling the muscle working
(3 and 4 less likely during these compound movements)
Good luck, hope you find what works
and realistically you are in great shape anywaykagenonikki
New member
@daughteroftheonetrueking Your legs and your delt are noticeably bigger.
@daughteroftheonetrueking You do look better now than your January self at around the same weight. I do think it’s time you went up to 150 and maintained there. 135 is just never gonna make you look big.
idontknowhatimdoing
New member
@daughteroftheonetrueking My takeaways would be:
Add creatine to your diet like now. I see no mention of it, and it will definitely boost you as long as your body is receptive.
Switch to dumbbell based lifting where possible, as this forces you to use more muscle bands for balancing, although your total lift weight will drop as a result. But that's fine, as you're after the hypertrophy rather than the strength.
Just double the protein. I'm not kidding. Double it. Shakes, extra chicken, whatever. Just get it in you.
Add a good quality multivitamin to your daily diet. You might not be growing because one chemical piece of the puzzle is missing, and that should fill that void.
Your workouts are huge in volume (reps). Like... You're doing SO MUCH per visit! So I think your problem is you're not working to failure, because if you were you wouldn't be doing half this in a visit. Or you think you're working to failure, but you're actually just tired from the previous workout.
Have each visit based around one big lift. Everything else use as a warm-up/down to that lift. Then that one, do 4 sets of 12, looking to fail somewhere in set 4. THEN drop set at 60/70% until failure again. If your other muscles you want to work are not tired at that point, move onto them and maybe do the same if you wish. But your big lift should leave you utterly destroyed, or you're leaving juice in the tank.
2 seperated rest days a week. One can be a day where you go for a long walk if you wish, but not strenuous.
Add creatine to your diet like now. I see no mention of it, and it will definitely boost you as long as your body is receptive.
Switch to dumbbell based lifting where possible, as this forces you to use more muscle bands for balancing, although your total lift weight will drop as a result. But that's fine, as you're after the hypertrophy rather than the strength.
Just double the protein. I'm not kidding. Double it. Shakes, extra chicken, whatever. Just get it in you.
Add a good quality multivitamin to your daily diet. You might not be growing because one chemical piece of the puzzle is missing, and that should fill that void.
Your workouts are huge in volume (reps). Like... You're doing SO MUCH per visit! So I think your problem is you're not working to failure, because if you were you wouldn't be doing half this in a visit. Or you think you're working to failure, but you're actually just tired from the previous workout.
Have each visit based around one big lift. Everything else use as a warm-up/down to that lift. Then that one, do 4 sets of 12, looking to fail somewhere in set 4. THEN drop set at 60/70% until failure again. If your other muscles you want to work are not tired at that point, move onto them and maybe do the same if you wish. But your big lift should leave you utterly destroyed, or you're leaving juice in the tank.
2 seperated rest days a week. One can be a day where you go for a long walk if you wish, but not strenuous.
@daughteroftheonetrueking You also gained height from sept 23 to December 23 lol
esthermyrtle
New member
@daughteroftheonetrueking So you've been rotating PPL 2x per week for a long while, yeah? I'd say the simplest thing to do would be to change your training.
For example, you have two leg workouts with pretty high volume and low rests (maxing out 3 min for sets of 5 on back squats). If you go with a low volume / high intensity approach, the stimulus should be quite robust considering the way you've been training. Strength gains are typically quite rapid and dramatic following long periods of more moderate intensity in my experience.
Since you're familiar with 3x5, you can cut back to 3 or 4 full body workouts per week with just 3 sets of squats per day. Run a simple LP to build your squat strength up. After a few years, I think you should be able to work with more weight than ~the 200s (assuming that's where your bulk ended; not sure if Reddit is messed up for me, but I don't see the post numbers). LP can fast track that progress. Think something like Starting Strength.
Once you exhaust LP, you can do a brief deload and try to run some kind of basic periodization block for strength training. Just focus on building gnarly squat strength. I did many high volume leg workouts with little change. However, my legs grew the most during low volume training when I first hit 4 plates - no sets of 8+ reps needed. This is all speaking to the squat specifically, but translate the same approach towards the rest of your core lifts / physique.
When I see significant time in the gym, methodical approaches, and unsatisfactory progress, my first thought is that there's a problem with intensity. I think trading in some of that volume for high intensity strength training will be very fruitful. With a new base, you can reinstate the volume work and see lots of progress. FWIW your current physique is good, and there are a lot of people who'd kill to have it. Good luck and keep it up regardless.
For example, you have two leg workouts with pretty high volume and low rests (maxing out 3 min for sets of 5 on back squats). If you go with a low volume / high intensity approach, the stimulus should be quite robust considering the way you've been training. Strength gains are typically quite rapid and dramatic following long periods of more moderate intensity in my experience.
Since you're familiar with 3x5, you can cut back to 3 or 4 full body workouts per week with just 3 sets of squats per day. Run a simple LP to build your squat strength up. After a few years, I think you should be able to work with more weight than ~the 200s (assuming that's where your bulk ended; not sure if Reddit is messed up for me, but I don't see the post numbers). LP can fast track that progress. Think something like Starting Strength.
Once you exhaust LP, you can do a brief deload and try to run some kind of basic periodization block for strength training. Just focus on building gnarly squat strength. I did many high volume leg workouts with little change. However, my legs grew the most during low volume training when I first hit 4 plates - no sets of 8+ reps needed. This is all speaking to the squat specifically, but translate the same approach towards the rest of your core lifts / physique.
When I see significant time in the gym, methodical approaches, and unsatisfactory progress, my first thought is that there's a problem with intensity. I think trading in some of that volume for high intensity strength training will be very fruitful. With a new base, you can reinstate the volume work and see lots of progress. FWIW your current physique is good, and there are a lot of people who'd kill to have it. Good luck and keep it up regardless.
clintjohnhampton
New member
@daughteroftheonetrueking Here’s my 2 cents, as someone who is also ~135lbs albeit much shorter: you gotta up the protein. And you may want to consider spreading your cals over more meals. I usually do 1)oats/protein powder, 2)Rice Krispies or Karbolyn after I train, 3)a Greek yogurt or Quest bar, 4) meat + veggies + carb, 5) tuna or chicken on rice cakes, 5) meat + veggies + carb.
Also, I encourage you to track your training based on effort instead of reps + weight. The structure of your training makes sense, but perhaps execution is lacking. You should look into training with RPE/reps in reserve targets. It’s possible you gained 20lbs of mostly fat then just shed the fat because you weren’t training hard enough. Some of the guys on this thread have advocated ACTUALLY training to failure with lower volume, and I think that would be beneficial so you learn what failure feels like. Then you can knock it back to 2-3 RIR and ramp up volume as tolerated. Only training to failure forever might not be a good idea.
Altogether, you’ve gotten stronger. But you haven’t gotten bigger. Decide if this is your goal or not, and if it isn’t, then change your tactics.
Also, I encourage you to track your training based on effort instead of reps + weight. The structure of your training makes sense, but perhaps execution is lacking. You should look into training with RPE/reps in reserve targets. It’s possible you gained 20lbs of mostly fat then just shed the fat because you weren’t training hard enough. Some of the guys on this thread have advocated ACTUALLY training to failure with lower volume, and I think that would be beneficial so you learn what failure feels like. Then you can knock it back to 2-3 RIR and ramp up volume as tolerated. Only training to failure forever might not be a good idea.
Altogether, you’ve gotten stronger. But you haven’t gotten bigger. Decide if this is your goal or not, and if it isn’t, then change your tactics.
daughteroftheonetrueking
New member
OP here again.
Thank you all so much for the unreal number of responses. This has very quickly turned into the most popular question I have ever asked on Reddit and I am honestly really grateful for all the responses.
Just wanted to summarize everything I've picked up from all of your responses (read all of them) to make sure I have learned something:
- Bump up the rep ranges of the remaining exercises to 10-15 reps.
Please let me know if I understood this part properly.
Q1) How many sets per muscle group per workout?
I got a suggestion of 4-6 sets per muscle group per workout but it was only one person that suggested that and I just wanted to be sure.
The reason my bulking workout had so many exercises and so many total sets was because I originally tried one with fewer around 2020-2021 but also had the same problem of little progress. But to be fair, my diet was mostly similar back then, so maybe that's why.
Q2) When bumping up the rep ranges to 10-15 reps, do I do that for my Barbell lifts too?
Q3) How many grams of sugar a day do most of you guys eat? Just so I have an idea. I was going to set mine to a 50g limit.
Thanks again for the flood of responses. Please let me know if I'm missing anything in this summary and also if there's still anything I need to clarify in my post/any replies in general.
Also forgot to mention that I take 5 grams of Creatine Monohydrate a day. I'll update the post with that info.
Thank you all so much for the unreal number of responses. This has very quickly turned into the most popular question I have ever asked on Reddit and I am honestly really grateful for all the responses.
Just wanted to summarize everything I've picked up from all of your responses (read all of them) to make sure I have learned something:
- Clean up the diet. Too many refined carbs, low nutrient foods, and low quality proteins. Add more proteins with more complete amino acid profiles. Consider maybe increasing protein intake a little more too in general.
- Lower the amount of sugar in the diet. High sugar intake can prevent my body from absorbing nutrients properly and that could affect my body's ability to carry out the muscle building process.
- The workout: My understanding of the comments is that the workout is really geared more toward strength than hypertrophy, and I need to:
- Bump up the rep ranges of the remaining exercises to 10-15 reps.
Please let me know if I understood this part properly.
- Possibly a hormone/stress problem? I will focus mainly on the other 3 and if those don't work, I'll consider looking into this possibility.
Q1) How many sets per muscle group per workout?
I got a suggestion of 4-6 sets per muscle group per workout but it was only one person that suggested that and I just wanted to be sure.
The reason my bulking workout had so many exercises and so many total sets was because I originally tried one with fewer around 2020-2021 but also had the same problem of little progress. But to be fair, my diet was mostly similar back then, so maybe that's why.
Q2) When bumping up the rep ranges to 10-15 reps, do I do that for my Barbell lifts too?
Q3) How many grams of sugar a day do most of you guys eat? Just so I have an idea. I was going to set mine to a 50g limit.
Thanks again for the flood of responses. Please let me know if I'm missing anything in this summary and also if there's still anything I need to clarify in my post/any replies in general.
Also forgot to mention that I take 5 grams of Creatine Monohydrate a day. I'll update the post with that info.
grace_chaser
New member
@daughteroftheonetrueking You picked up some good things but not necessarily things that will lead to big changes. Highly recommend you watch read 3DMJs strength and nutrition pyramid books or the hypertrophy book from Renaissance Periodization or just watch their YouTube videos.
daughteroftheonetrueking
New member
@grace_chaser I'm definitely familiar with Renaissance Periodization and have been watching their videos recently. You say I missed the things that will lead to big changes. Do you mean the Renaissance Periodization and 3DMJ material? Just want to make sure I haven't missed anything. Thanks a lot.
grace_chaser
New member
@daughteroftheonetrueking Most of your questions (how many sets, what lifts, how many reps, how to bulk/cut) are answered thoroughly in those resources. The difference between doing 6 reps @2RIR and 15 @ 2RIR is negligible, but the difference between bulking/cutting every 6 months vs caloric surplus for 2 years or knowing how and when to increase sets and not knowing is huge. Cleaning up your diet and eating less sugar is good for your health, but that’s not what will be the difference between a successful and not successful bulk if calories/macros are accounted for. The 3DMJ nutrition pyramid is pretty good for figuring this out.
Edit: Don’t miss the forest for the trees. As a practical answer, run an RP program or comparable program while in a caloric surplus. Do this for the next 2 years and see where you land.
Edit: Don’t miss the forest for the trees. As a practical answer, run an RP program or comparable program while in a caloric surplus. Do this for the next 2 years and see where you land.
@daughteroftheonetrueking Maybe you’re like me? I’ve been working out for 10 years with very little to show after my beginner gains. I love to train in a fairly low rep range 5-10, 5 x 5 is one of my favorites. However, after watching a recent video discussing rep ranges, I changed my rep range to 20 to 30 reps on all my lifts. If I hit 30 I go up It was rather depressing for my bench to go from 200+ to 135 again. But oh my God have the gains been coming finally! I don’t even care what’s on the bar, when my muscles are getting thick. I would recommend you try this for a month, if you’re like me, you’re going to notice noticeable changes after like two weeks