Every 6 or so months I make an “in a nutshell” graph showing my improvements. I have had my routines, supps, etc. critiqued by a handful of personal trainers, but I thought I would expand my horizons and put it on the Internet…
No offense intended, but you must be doing something wrong.
Your 8rm on bench is still under 200 after a year and a half of training? And why all the supplements, just eat food. Don’t use supplements to replace a proper diet.
You should be much stronger, I started first week of february, so not even three months for me yet, and my bench 5rm has gone from 120 to 185. Deadlift has gone from 155 to 275 5Rm, and yes that’s in less than three months. Something tells me your diet or your training is off.
what did you use to make chart?
1st- get going, man. Post more about your routine vis a vis sets/reps, but you should DEFINATELY be stronger by now.
2nd- you have way to much time on your hands if you can spend it making charts like that. Consider spending that time training.
While I think that Eickst has made good progress, I don’t think it’s typical.
But to the original poster, something has to be wrong with your diet, training, and or recovery if you’ve made that little progress ESPECIALLY with the prohormones and everything else.
What are your goals?
-MAtt
I don’t get it. I see that the red line is his bench 8RM and the black is his bodyweight, but what is the third line?
Also, I agree, you should have seen more progress in a year and a half. And you’ve gained less than 10 pounds? Is that on purpose?
i agree that you should be seeing way better progess in 18 months, especially with the prohormones. Give us a little more info such as age and how long you have been lifting. Also is there any chance of you coming off of a shoulder or chest injury to justify your bench? Also what are your other lifts like?
Yes it would seem that I am doing something wrong. That is what has driven me to document ever single thing I do and every single result it gives me.
To answer the “what did i use to make the chart question”. It is a combination of excel and photoshop.
My routines vary often and I rarely repeat the same exercises more than 3 or 4 weeks in a row. I chart my progress very closely and have always made gains. The problem is the gains are .5 lb per month which I know is less than normal. My rep range has changed often as well. I have tried high intensity and high volume. And my progress seems better although still slow with high intensity.
As far as having too much time on my hands, that is true. But I do spend a majority of it in the gym. At least 3 days a week is spent in the gym, although I have gone as often as 12 times a week and may even up that to 17 time a week for a couple weeks to do some extra cardio to drop my BF% from 15.6 to 13 or possibly 12. Not to say this type of frequency is normal for me. But I started getting into high freq. routines that I have been reading about in CW’s articles. I recently finished CW’s Next Frontier routine, down to the smallest exercise supplement detail. The results were decent, but this did not seem to jump start anything.
In response to my goals. My current goal is 185, 11% bf. But my long term goal is 190, 9% bf. I have contemplated possible diet changes. I am a small frame person, but I would like to try a 6000 cal bulk or more. Even though I have had trouble eating that much due to my body gaining fat too fast and before I know it I am above 20%. I will probably need to combine cardio with the bulk and try eating 100% clean. This is one thing I have not tried, but am a tad bit skeptical that this will unlock a 2lb per month lean gain.
And to the last poster, the yellow line represents my ball park body fat%. Only the first and last measurement is 100% accurate. So I didn’t what that info to distract as it is unreliable.
Thanks for the input. Keep it coming. I am eager and open minded.
oh and btw I am 26. forgot to answer that question
You say you have a small frame, how tall are you? Also, many people tend to overestimate their caloric intake, give us a sample day for you with things you eat. Your eating patterns should be consistent so todays food log should not be that different than one a few days ago.
Also, perhaps you have TOO MUCH variety in your program. Perhaps you should try Westside for Skinny Bastards to get your strength up since your doing a 3 day split already.
-MAtt
i think problem is quite obvious…eat more!! based on chart the sub 3000 calories shouldnt even be there, “clean bulk” also shouldnt be there, its optimal if you can clean bulk, but hardly practical for most pple, they start paying too much attention to the fine details and missing the big picture…gotta eat!!
as for your numbers… year and a half and 8RM not over 200 for bench isnt pathetic at all…thats prolly better than most average gym guys after a year and half…and the fact u used prohormones shouldnt matter too much since your diet wasnt very good, so it kinda cancels out!!
my 2cents…
The problem is your diet. Your bodyweight is zigzagging like crazy, but it’s never actually increasing. You use all these supplements and other nifty stuff but you don’t have any kind of eating plan. Here’s a suggestion: STOP CUTTING SO DAMN OFTEN. How about eating a minimum of 4000 kcal a day for like a year?
Yeah, if you didn’t get much out of the the high frequency training system then you probably weren’t eating nearly enough.
Ok, to answer the first questions I am 5’11. Here is the diet plan I am currently going to be on for the next 6 weeks as I am trying to cut from 15.6% bf to 12% bf.
http://www.sexyracing.com/TWS/routinemod.txt
The morning cardio in this short routine is based on the 100 Workouts article by Dr. Lonnie Lowery. And the diet plan is a base clorie intake. I snack more often as I feel the need for more calories to stay away from catabolism as much as possible (bcaa’s help). Again this is just for a few weeks to drop my BF% this is NOT my normal food intake.
I will be starting my higher calorie bulk in mid June. Aiming for 6000. I know it will be difficult to stay clean, but I have to try and keep my BF% in check. I know I could probably gain a little more if I didn?t cut at all, but I personally do not want my BF% above 20 (my goal is to be fit and able to play sports and such so I don?t want to carry around excessive amounts of weight and I think 20, maybe even up to 25% bf is where I draw the line). The next time I will want my bf% in the low teens will be next February. So I will be bulking for almost 8 months. I am hoping that as long as I keep my body fat in check that will yield better results.
Currently I am on a drop set routine as advised by a couple personal trainers at my gym. Mainly for the lactic acid and growth hormone effects to maximize my fat loss for the next few weeks and better efficiency than circuit training.
Again, I will be aiming to eat more in the future. The problem will come with keeping BF in check. If .5lb lean gains is all I can hope for while keeping myself lean(ish) than I am happy with the results. It may be slow, but it is consistent.
One of the reasons I choose to do the high frequency routine was the fact that Chad had mentioned gains even on a crappy eating plan. Although I wouldn?t consider my plan crappy at the time, it was only a few hundred above maintenance. The results I liked was that I was able to keep making gains even though I was not 1000-2000 above maintenance. This kept my body fat in check and it was the first time I made gains without a “beer belly”.
Thanks for the information everyone. I had a feeling my next step would be a even higher calorie diet. By fall I should know how well it seems to be working.
“TOTAL cal fat carb fib prot
1494 41 78 20 196”
This is not going to help you reach your long term goals… your short term fat loss goal maybe but at what cost?
do the “100 workouts…” thing and eat a decent quantity of clean food (looking at your most recent numbers on the chart 2900 calories looks to be about maitanance when not on drugs)
The 1500 cals is from scheduled meals. I have up to 500 cals in snacks not listed. I think with the amount of protein and the supplements I dont think I will loose any muscle. At least nothing to be concerned about for 6 weeks. Sure I’m not going to make big gains in the next 6 weeks. But I should loose significant body fat. Then I’ll be trying to eat 3x that amount for 8 months.