What should I change to make more progress?

S

sphynx

New member
I’m 32, 5’7 and 145lbs. Been working out pretty consistently for 10 years. I work out 3-4 times a week, alternating between chest, shoulders, legs and back. Each work out is about 30 mins, and I usually do 6 or so sets of 6-10 reps. Usually do 1-2 compound exercises and 3-4 machine or more focuses exercises. I try to progress but finding that I’ve hit a wall in strength. I’d like to gain more lean mass but wondering what the biggest variable I should change—should I eat more, work out longer, or work out more days?

This is how I look right now:
https://imgur.com/a/O1DZPaV
 
@dawn16 Even I consider myself a fast workouter and I know something is wrong if it’s under 40. 45-50 is good if you’re keeping rest times short

If you feel like you run out of stuff to do add in calves/fore arms
 
@sphynx Eat more and be sure to progressively overload, however is best for your training. You should also look at increasing your time in the gym. Look up some premade programs, SBS, Jeff Nippard… many beginner and intermediate programs usually are 45 -90 minutes 3-4 times a week, but really all that comes down to is what fits into your schedule. Not saying you can’t see gains in 30 minutes, but extra time allows you ability to warm up, have adequate rest time and ability to add more diversity if you want it.

At your size your aren’t going to put on considerable muscle or even lean mass without a calorie surplus. If you want you can give your self a gentle surplus of 300 calories and eat clean. If you had no experience you could rely on noob gains but after a decade that time is past. If you aren’t gaining weight, and aren’t getting stronger you need more calories. It’s probably a major reason why you feel like you aren’t progressing.
 
@sphynx How close to failure are you finishing your sets?

Your strength numbers make no sense for such gym tenure. 60 odd kgs bench is essentially 1-3 months goal for an average sized man, not years.

Something is seriously wrong with some/all variables of your workout.

How are you planning your bulk and cut phases? What is the kcal surplus and how long does the bulk take?

My ASSUMPTION is working out not heavy enough (not chasing that progression, be it one rep or whatever more or finishing far from 0-3 RiR).
 
@tom34 Is 60kg bench press really 1-3 months for average man from scratch? I was thinking like 1-3 years?

I started working out for the time semi-regularly in college and it took me like 4 years to go from just the bar to almost reaching two plates. (Though I was counting for reps not 1rm). Recovery and stuff wasn't perfect because of all the studying and drinking, but 1-3 months for an untrained person sounds insanely fast to me.
 
@davew0958 It’s gonna depend on the size of the person. Weight moves weight. The average person in Europe is overweight, so they’re gonna hit plates faster than you did (I’m assuming you started very small since you could only do the bar at the beginning—I was the same way).
 
@davew0958 From i see in my gym, people who start lifting (scrawny teens etc) start from 50-60kgs for I think 6-8 reps or so. I hardly ever see people even using 40 kgs.

Newbie gains and perception that BP is THE lift make people (including myself and my gym buddies from ages ago) progress pretty fast to an area close to 1kg per kg of body weight.

These people are of normal weight/size unlike person above suggested.

Heck, just look up bench press standards.

https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/bench-press/kg

Novice 70 kg
Intermediate 98 kg

What I mean by my comment, however, is not to look down on people who don't bench 60 kgs. It's to highlight the fact that after xxx years of lifting, benching so little is a symptom of a huge problem somewhere in the approach to lifting.
 
@tom34 If that’s a compilation of user-submitted data, I wouldn’t put much stock in it. If we recorded other metrics that way, the standard male would be 6’4” with a 9” penis
 
@sphynx Training a muscle group 2x a week seems to be best. At the moment you're doing 1x a week so maybe try an different schedule like an upper/lower routine 4x a week, or push pull legs 5-6x a week.

Optimal sets per week for each muscle group seems to be between 10-20. When you say you workout for 30 minutes and do 6 sets, do you mean 6 sets per exercise or for the whole workout? I'd definately look at increasing volume and maybe find a trusted prewritten program online so you know that the program isn't your limiting factor.

Also are you bulking and cutting or have you been maintaining your bodyweight for a long period of time? Maintaining/recomping only really works for beginners and people at higher bodyfats which you aren't. You should be spending most of the year steadily gaining bodyweight, then having periodic cuts to trim back fat. Otherwise will just be spinning wheels.

Also need to be actively pushing to increase weights/reps in gym. You said you have a 135lb bench press which is very low for training for 10+ years so maybe you aren't working hard in gym to progressively improve your lifts. No offence just brainstorming.

Sticking to gym for 10+ years is impressive regardless and your physique is better than the vast majority of average people, best of luck with it.
 
@sphynx IMO if you have enough energy to do 6 sets for a compound exercise, you're probably not going close enough to failure. I think you should try lowering the number of sets to 3 or something and try to hit failure every set. You should feel completely hosed by the time you finish.
 
@davew0958 I’m gonna find a good workout plan to stick to, but curious how reducing sets but increasing time spent at the gym works. They feel like two conflicting things?
 
@sphynx The important thing is that the sets need to be difficult to make a difference. For compound movements if you’re going near failure, you should be sweating and breathing hard after each set and need like 3+ minutes to catch your breath and let your muscles recover. The typical advice is the rest as long as you need to attack the next set 100%. If you were doing 6 sets for both compounds and isolations, I really don’t see how you’d finish a gym session in just 30m. Sometimes it takes me 30m just to finish the first compound exercise, with warmups and everything.
 
@ccmrockman I’m splitting each day by muscle group. I always do a compound exercise for each then fill in the rest of the workout with other stuff depending on what’s available at the gym. Examples:

For chest:
Bench press, incline bench press, dumbbell fly, around the worlds

Legs:
Back squat, seated leg curl, lying hamstring curl, seated machine calf press, Bulgarian split squats

Back:
Dumbbell rows, barbell bent over row, lat pulldowns, cable rows

Shoulders:
Standing barbell press, Arnold press, cable lateral raises, barbell front raise

I mix in biceps, triceps and abs. I seem to naturally have larger biceps so I prefer to spend more time on my smaller shoulders.
 
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