solarflare
New member
Why am I posting?: I've always planned on posting something, but didn't get the true motivation until yesterday. I've lifted for 3 years with two 2 months breaks (so 32 of the last 36 months).
One of the guys I talk to at the gym came up to me today and said after chatting a bit, "I see you here all the time. You're always getting it. Why're you so small? To be honest, you look like you don't lift." First, he was being kind of an asshole, but I don't think he was meaning to. He's a good guy and I took it in the spirit it was given. Second, uh, yeah. I've made little progress over 3 years and haven't made any progress in the last 3 months. So here's my post.
To bracket everything... I'm going to be as honest as possible. This means I'm not going to sugar coat bad behaviors (lie) and then not figure out where I can improve as a result. My post isn't to complain; it's to get better.
Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/bEGViNv
Background: Been small my whole life. 5'10 and thin. At my lightest I was 125lbs and about 20% BF. I've never been skinny fat, but always very "soft". I only played tennis and soccer in high school. I was literally too weak to effectively play games that required any upper body strength. I've always been active, however. I played sports. Ran track, slowly. I was a cyclist in my 20s. Basically, my story is I was never the fat kid or the uncoordinated kid. I was always just the worst, slowest, weakest of the athletic people. In my late 20s, I decided that I'd be willing to put a lot of effort into lifting. I was tired of being the smallest man everywhere I went. I was willing and able to grind when I cycled (cycling is a suffer-fest as far as training rides); I was in graduate school (now getting my PhD). I'm not a stranger to putting an intense amount of energy into being good at something. So I started lifting in 2017. I was so weak that I started with the bar and slowly (over the course of a year) worked up to two 35 plates. As you're going to see, I am way stronger than I was, but absolutely, verifiably, weaker than most untrained men if they put 1-2 months into training.
Weight: 135lbs (2017) -> 155lbs (2020) stayed maybe 20-25% BF the whole time
Lifts (1RM, all calculated):
I stopped drinking since COVID19. I usually just socially drank 1 or 2/week and just vodka/water. I used to smoke weed 1/month. Stopped that last year when my wife broke my bowl and, fuck it, I just never replaced it so I stopped that.
I do eat cheese with some of the Tex-Mex I make and I love block Parmesan cheese on my edamame and whole wheat pasta. That's probably the unhealthiest thing I eat regularly. Otherwise, as far as shitty food, I eat pizza probably once a month and a burger once a month. I don't eat dessert really. My wife eats a couple scoops of milk-free ice cream at night sometimes and I'll usually make her give me a bite or two. Maintenance is ~1950. I eat about 2050-2150 a day now. I track calories/macros. I get about 150-170g protein a day (usually closer to 160g). For a few months I went up to 2500 calories, thinking my progress was due to too few calories. I got marginally stronger, but from the mirror it was clear I was just building a spare tire, not getting jacked. Probably got up to 25% BF over 3 months. This has made me scared to eat too much more than 100 or so over maintenance.
Sleep: 7.5-8.5 hours a night. Twice a week, on average, I sleep my regular time but I wake up frequently in the morning, so I'm pretty tired the next day. This doesn't cause me to skip workouts, but I would be lying if I said I get good sleep.
How I work out: I warm up my major lifts with 2 easy sets, and then I do 3 working sets. I do every set to failure, on every lift I do. (Only recently did I realize that not everyone did that.) I do this because I don't want to go easy and not make progress. Most workouts take an hour and 15 minutes. I work as hard as I can on every workout I do. If I'm not getting stronger (I'm not), then I just try to push myself harder. I superset about every lift with another muscle group to make my workouts more efficient. This means if I do bench press, I then do rows about 60 seconds after, and then back to bench about 120 seconds after. If I do squats, then I do curls 60 seconds after, and then back to squats 120 seconds after. I generally don't superset things that will cause me to fail my next set. If I bench and then do triceps work, I won't be able to finish my sets for example.
I never miss a workout. There are zero skipped days. Motivation is not a problem because I look forward to every session. It's the best part of my day. I love the feeling of just being totally wiped after a workout. Sometimes I'm tired, but I always go in. For example, I just finished a hard workout and I'd go back in and do another workout right now if I knew I'd be able to do the work and recover from it.
Program and timeline: As a scientist by trade, I meticulously record my daily lifts. Have recorded nearly every session for past 3 years, including notes on whether I failed on reps, whether my form slipped, or when certain workouts seemed to irritate my shoulders.
Would really appreciate advice. What do you see that I can improve? Looking forward to your thoughts.
One of the guys I talk to at the gym came up to me today and said after chatting a bit, "I see you here all the time. You're always getting it. Why're you so small? To be honest, you look like you don't lift." First, he was being kind of an asshole, but I don't think he was meaning to. He's a good guy and I took it in the spirit it was given. Second, uh, yeah. I've made little progress over 3 years and haven't made any progress in the last 3 months. So here's my post.
To bracket everything... I'm going to be as honest as possible. This means I'm not going to sugar coat bad behaviors (lie) and then not figure out where I can improve as a result. My post isn't to complain; it's to get better.
Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/bEGViNv
Background: Been small my whole life. 5'10 and thin. At my lightest I was 125lbs and about 20% BF. I've never been skinny fat, but always very "soft". I only played tennis and soccer in high school. I was literally too weak to effectively play games that required any upper body strength. I've always been active, however. I played sports. Ran track, slowly. I was a cyclist in my 20s. Basically, my story is I was never the fat kid or the uncoordinated kid. I was always just the worst, slowest, weakest of the athletic people. In my late 20s, I decided that I'd be willing to put a lot of effort into lifting. I was tired of being the smallest man everywhere I went. I was willing and able to grind when I cycled (cycling is a suffer-fest as far as training rides); I was in graduate school (now getting my PhD). I'm not a stranger to putting an intense amount of energy into being good at something. So I started lifting in 2017. I was so weak that I started with the bar and slowly (over the course of a year) worked up to two 35 plates. As you're going to see, I am way stronger than I was, but absolutely, verifiably, weaker than most untrained men if they put 1-2 months into training.
Weight: 135lbs (2017) -> 155lbs (2020) stayed maybe 20-25% BF the whole time
Lifts (1RM, all calculated):
- Barbell bench: 170 (Dumbbell: 75)
- Deadlift: 205
- Squat: 195
- OHP: 90
- Barbell row: 155 (One armed dumbbell row: 80)
- Curl (Dumbbell): 54
I stopped drinking since COVID19. I usually just socially drank 1 or 2/week and just vodka/water. I used to smoke weed 1/month. Stopped that last year when my wife broke my bowl and, fuck it, I just never replaced it so I stopped that.
I do eat cheese with some of the Tex-Mex I make and I love block Parmesan cheese on my edamame and whole wheat pasta. That's probably the unhealthiest thing I eat regularly. Otherwise, as far as shitty food, I eat pizza probably once a month and a burger once a month. I don't eat dessert really. My wife eats a couple scoops of milk-free ice cream at night sometimes and I'll usually make her give me a bite or two. Maintenance is ~1950. I eat about 2050-2150 a day now. I track calories/macros. I get about 150-170g protein a day (usually closer to 160g). For a few months I went up to 2500 calories, thinking my progress was due to too few calories. I got marginally stronger, but from the mirror it was clear I was just building a spare tire, not getting jacked. Probably got up to 25% BF over 3 months. This has made me scared to eat too much more than 100 or so over maintenance.
Sleep: 7.5-8.5 hours a night. Twice a week, on average, I sleep my regular time but I wake up frequently in the morning, so I'm pretty tired the next day. This doesn't cause me to skip workouts, but I would be lying if I said I get good sleep.
How I work out: I warm up my major lifts with 2 easy sets, and then I do 3 working sets. I do every set to failure, on every lift I do. (Only recently did I realize that not everyone did that.) I do this because I don't want to go easy and not make progress. Most workouts take an hour and 15 minutes. I work as hard as I can on every workout I do. If I'm not getting stronger (I'm not), then I just try to push myself harder. I superset about every lift with another muscle group to make my workouts more efficient. This means if I do bench press, I then do rows about 60 seconds after, and then back to bench about 120 seconds after. If I do squats, then I do curls 60 seconds after, and then back to squats 120 seconds after. I generally don't superset things that will cause me to fail my next set. If I bench and then do triceps work, I won't be able to finish my sets for example.
I never miss a workout. There are zero skipped days. Motivation is not a problem because I look forward to every session. It's the best part of my day. I love the feeling of just being totally wiped after a workout. Sometimes I'm tired, but I always go in. For example, I just finished a hard workout and I'd go back in and do another workout right now if I knew I'd be able to do the work and recover from it.
Program and timeline: As a scientist by trade, I meticulously record my daily lifts. Have recorded nearly every session for past 3 years, including notes on whether I failed on reps, whether my form slipped, or when certain workouts seemed to irritate my shoulders.
- mid/late-2017 (135-145-135): I started off with a beginner Allpro program that used to be linked in /r/fitness but isn't anymore. It had a 3 times a week full body program to teach you the lifts as well as progress steadily through your newbie gains. Did this for a year. Although I was taking whey, I was not focusing too much on protein. I was getting about 90-110 grams a day. Gained 10 pounds of some mix of muscle/fat. School got intense and I took about 2.5 months off. I lost 8-9 pounds during this time, putting me at about 135 again.
- late-2018 (135-150): Got back into it and didn't look at scale. I was frustrated to see how much lighter I was so I avoided scale for awhile. This was a mistake. I got stronger but didn't gain a ton of weight. About 5 pounds after 6 months of lifting x3 week on Allpro program again.
- Started adding more volume and eating more. Got up to 150 and stayed there for a few months.
- 2019 (150-156-150): Wasn't getting stronger, so I tried NSUNS. From 3x a week to 4x a week. Started eating more because weight gain had stopped (added about 250 calories). Got my lift numbers to the above (now at 156lbs). Then my shoulders started hurting. Not during lifts, but the night and day after. (I was also playing volleyball and running on top of workouts). I thought shoulder pain was volleyball, so after a while I quit. Then the pain would just be constant. Eventually I stopped lifting for 2 months in late 2019. Orthopedist said it was rotator cuff tendonitis. Just needed time off and PT.
- After 2 months, I was extremely weak again. Lost about 5 pounds (150). Back to benching/rowing 95ish, etc. I could only do lifts that kept my shoulders stable and low, so this meant the upper body lifts I was doing were shrugs, curls, and triceps pushdowns. But now with strengthening rotator cuff and scapular muscles as well as time off, my lifts didn't seem to cause me any problems.
- 2020 (150-155): Now I've been lifting for 6 months again; 4x a week. Doing the Frankoman's dumbbell routine recommended on /r/fitness. They're easier on my shoulders. Instead of the dumbbell leg work though, I'm just doing squats, deadlifts, and leg presses, as well as some hip flexor strengthening work I got from my PT. I'm back to my lifts from last year (I still lift barbell occasionally, but most of my workouts are with dumbbells right now) and now at 155 again. Still eating at a surplus.
- In the last 3 months, I've not really gotten much stronger week over week. Looking at my lifts from March, I'm lifting about the same. This is with working out, consistently, this whole time. Lifting to failure, eating enough. But every time I go into the gym, I can't do more than I did last time.
Would really appreciate advice. What do you see that I can improve? Looking forward to your thoughts.