[quote]Massthetics wrote:
My bench is stalled, im not curling any heavier.
My squat has gone up 40lb this month and my quads are blowing up,
[/quote]
See the correlation?
lol
[quote]dt79 wrote:
[quote]Massthetics wrote:
My bench is stalled, im not curling any heavier.
My squat has gone up 40lb this month and my quads are blowing up,
[/quote]
See the correlation?
[/quote]
no
[quote]magick wrote:
[quote]Massthetics wrote:
With rows, I feel my lats contract nicely but my biceps just seem like a weak point because they burn first and the strength between bis and lats doesnât seem proportionate. However I havenât hit a wall yet on rows so far on stronglifts, its still going up so wish me luck on this. Slightly related, I never really feel the burn in my lats when doing pull downs or pull ups. For me personally, any type of row is by far the BEST exercise for my lats I have always been doing some form of rows. Is that just how it is, or do I not do pull ups properlyâŠ?[/quote]
Try DB rows. Let your lats extend fully and just focus on contracting nothing but your lats.
Try this. Imagine doing a pullup. Straighten your arms up completely. Now, pull your arms down with nothing but your lats. Do this often and focus on that whenever youâre actually doing pull-ups.[/quote]
I never found cues like this helpful at first because the problem was I didnât know how to contract my lats properly. I think this might be the OPâs problem too.
OP, for the pullups thing, itâs definitely a technique issue. I never found pull-ups that effective until I learned how to contract my lats. Now, it is by far the best lat exercise for me.
I found cues like thinking of it as pulling your elbows in and push your chest outward (itâs much harder this way too!) to be really helpful. Doing pullups with high frequency also makes a big difference.
Whatever the case, youâre at the point where you should just be able to get bigger and stronger all over by lifting heavy things in compound barbell movements without really thinking too much about the details. Itâs necessary to have faith in the process.
[quote]Massthetics wrote:
[quote]dt79 wrote:
[quote]Massthetics wrote:
My bench is stalled, im not curling any heavier.
My squat has gone up 40lb this month and my quads are blowing up,
[/quote]
See the correlation?
[/quote]
no[/quote]
I apologise. Let me reword that.
You have no progress in your arms because:
Your bench is stalled, youâre not curling any heavier.
You are currently seeing progress in your legs because:
Your squat has gone up 40lb this month and your quads are blowing up.
2 things stuck out at me here.
-
Youâre the guy in the other thread who wants to tell other people in the gym what theyâre doing wrong, and youâve been lifting for less than 6 months? Wow.
-
You expect 10-15 hours of sleep a night? What? How? Why?
-
Your arms arenât going to get big right now. Your age, besides your training age, has a lot to do with this, Iâm surprised this hasnât really been mentioned. Itâs much easier to fill out when youâre 18 years or older, particularly if you donât have great genetics.
[quote]1 Man Island wrote:
guys, Heâs 16⊠weighs like 150, and has been lifting a couple months. His only problem is impatience.[/quote]
This.
[quote]Massthetics wrote:
I eat a lot and im gaining weight steadily nothing wrong with that.[/quote]
Youâve said you gained 10kg in four months, but whatâve you gained in the last four weeks?
Really?
Fill in the blank: In order to weigh 180 pounds, I need more _____ .
Hint⊠âsleepâ is not the right answer.
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
2 things stuck out at me here.
-
âŠ
-
âŠ
-
âŠ[/quote]
Everythingâs bigger in Texas, even counting to two.
(I agree on all counts anyhow.)
[quote]Massthetics wrote:
iâm not getting enough rest because my sleep is restricted as a result of school.[/quote]
I personally think sleep is dramatically overrated. 6-8 hours (depending on the person and your age) is all thatâs needed. Just go to sleep earlier and youâll realize this.
Personal experience and anecdotal evidence suggests to me that for every hour you stay up after midnight, you have to add another 2hr sometime later to make up for it. 8 hours of sleep from 2:00 AM to 10:00 and sleep from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM is very different. Heck, get used to going to sleep at 11:00 PM or so and youâll probably find yourself waking up at 6:00 AM or so more often than not.
Just go to sleep at 11-11:30 and youâll be fine.
[quote]Massthetics wrote:
I eat about 4000 calories a day. If I really tried i could get 4300 a day but that would be a lot of effort iâd be stuffing myself every opportunity I get 4000 calories isnât too hard to maintain. I get that most days sometimes on a non workout day (such as weekend where i have 3 consecutive days off) it would drop to 3500-3600. I am gaining at a decent pace and consistently. Some days such as friday nights where I binge i can get up to 4800-5000 calories but thats only occasional.[/quote]
In the immortal words of Mr. Chris Colucci, âWhat, exactly, did you eat yesterday?â
And the point I wanted to make is that you need to log what you eat in order to actually know what you eat. Itâs very easy to overestimate or underestimate with just guesswork alone.
Then again, you did write that you gained about 30lb within 4 months, so maybe you just need time.
[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
2 things stuck out at me here.
-
âŠ
-
âŠ
-
âŠ[/quote]
Everythingâs bigger in Texas, even counting to two.
(I agree on all counts anyhow.)[/quote]
Ha! This is what happens when you start a post with one idea, do something else for awhile, and finish the post without reading what you already wrote. Iâm surprised I donât make more mistakes like this, I almost always get interrupted mid-post with actual work.
You bench 95lbs⊠How big do you expect your arms to be? My wife benches 120 in competition at 130lbs. She has 11.7in biceps⊠Sounds like your right on track.
[quote]dt79 wrote:
[quote]Massthetics wrote:
[quote]dt79 wrote:
[quote]Massthetics wrote:
My bench is stalled, im not curling any heavier.
My squat has gone up 40lb this month and my quads are blowing up,
[/quote]
See the correlation?
[/quote]
no[/quote]
I apologise. Let me reword that.
You have no progress in your arms because:
Your bench is stalled, youâre not curling any heavier.
You are currently seeing progress in your legs because:
Your squat has gone up 40lb this month and your quads are blowing up.
[/quote]
I havenât been curling any heavier because I just cannot, I donât have the strength. Your suggesting progressive overload?
Flipcollar - I am not expecting 10-15 hours of sleep every night. I am expecting 10-11 every night, I only do 15 at the end of the week to CATCH UP on missed sleep. I donât force it, its what my body naturally does. Sorry for trying to put my 2c in a few threads, I donât expect anyone to follow my advice blindly but I would like it if they put it into consideration. Apologies for trying to be useful. Can you elaborate on point 3? I see plenty of people my age with massive arms.
Chris Colucci - I started stronglifts 3 weeks ago, I am 2-2.5kg heavier. What I meant about sleep is, the less sleep I get, the less opportunity my muscles have to recover. Are you trying to say sleep isnât important? You need as much as you can get. The way I understand it, the less sleep I get, less time my muscles have to recover and grow, therefore more of my surplus goes towards fat storage. Havenât researched the topic but I donât see how that wouldnât happen?
Magick - Keep in mind im 16 people my age are notorious for sleeping a lot because we need to. I am 6â2 but still growing in height (cool stretch marks), im still undergoding lots of mental and hormonal changes, and im active. If weekends didnât exist and I was consistently getting 6-7 hours a night I would be half dead. I already, later in the week, accidentally fall asleep in my chair or when i lay down on the couch at home. Have a 3 hour nap, wake up starving and eat a 1-1.5k calorie meal, then go back to sleep. I normally go to sleep at 12-1230 wake up at 7.
I donât log my food, I used to count calories for a little while but I stopped because for bulking I found it pretty pointless, and it was just a lot of extra headache and effort. I know when I WAS counting I was getting 4k calories a day. 5k on the occasional crazy binge. I am eating pretty much the same amount since then, even when I was counting I wasnât forcing myself to eat more or less I was ONLY COUNTING. Yesterday I had chocolate milk in the morning and a quick simple sandwich for breakfast before heading for school. I never have an amazing breakfast because I sleep in often. Recess about 1 and a half hours later, between recess and lunch time I will have a couple of sandwiches (normally 4-6), packet of chips, museli bar, and an apple. When I finish school I go to get food, I try to make the healthiest choice possible but you can never go healthy with fast food lol. I normally have sub way or something. When I finish eating i go straight to the gym, go home, eat whatever my mum makes for dinner, then an hour or so before bed time I get hungry again and have a meal of my choice. Sometimes a couple fried eggs on toast, whatever I feel like really. I donât stress a lot about macros, I just eat a lot and try to make healthy decisions. It is pretty balanced between protein carb and fat intake.
Reed - my arms are an inch bigger than hers and I bench 25lb less. Right in the feelsâŠ
What would you say your macro breakdown is right now?
When do you go to sleep? I also know that teenagers have a tendency to go to sleep really late.
This is my favorite
"The way I understand it, the less sleep I get, less time my muscles have to recover and grow, therefore more of my surplus goes towards fat storage. Havenât researched the topic but I donât see how that wouldnât happen? "
I normally go at 12-1230 on an average night. I try, occasionally I manage to, go at 9. By the time I eat dinner, do homework, assignments, try to have an hour TO MYSELF listen to music, go on facebook see what people are up to its already midnight. I could definitely improve with time management, but Iâm never going to get a few hours more sleep I guess I might be able to squeeze an extra hour if I am better disciplined.
My macro breakdown, is very rough so donât quote me on this. About 150-190g of fats, 170-220 protein, 300-450 carbs. It would take a lot of effort to dig up my old logs. I remember hitting 800g of carbs on those occasional binge nights⊠I vaguely remember getting nearly 500g carbs, slightly more than my required 1lb/bw protein, and I remember fats because I thought a lot about them they kind of stuck in my memory.
[quote]Claudan wrote:
This is my favorite
"The way I understand it, the less sleep I get, less time my muscles have to recover and grow, therefore more of my surplus goes towards fat storage. Havenât researched the topic but I donât see how that wouldnât happen? "
[/quote]
Explain how this is wrong, you can certainly see how someone would think that way.
That diet seems suspiciously low in protein⊠unless each of those sandwiches has half a chicken breast or a fish filet or something. But if itâs just a couple slices of ham, turkey, or just peanut butter, you should more consciously increase the protein⊠even if it is just more milk or a shake.
Didnât you say in one of your other 9 threads that you were doing 300+ fats and low-carb?
You said before that you gained 10, 12, 20, and 20+ kg over the past 2, 3, or 4 months (again, depending on which thread). At 6â2" and currently 150-160lbs (again, depending on which thread), thatâd put you at like 110-130lbs AT SIX FOOT TWO when you started. I am about 6â2" myself, and currently 185-190, and I have no idea how I could function missing 65+ pounds. And at 185, Iâm pretty small; even at a low BF level and lifts that are 2-3x yours, I donât really look like I lift unless Iâm shirtless.
You have multiple discussions going on about arms, squats, and diet, and each one of them says something different. Every time people try and offer you REAL advice, you give a different response. Granted, your replies are quite funny (lol, milk eats your bones, and now how we need 12+ hrs of sleep are 2 of my favorites), but youâre disrespecting the people who are genuinely trying to help. People who are trying to correct and tweak your diet, when the info you are giving out is both so insanely improbable and always different, making it a waste of their time.
I donât think you have any idea what 5000 calories looks like, or how to estimate macro portions. âWhat, EXACTLY, did you eat yesterday?â I donât think you really put on 20+ kg in a few months, given that youâve spent more time program hopping than actually lifting. And I donât think that worrying about your curls and SICK GUNZ when youâre benching 95 is the best idea.
Not to be a total downer, just wanted to offer a reality check. If Iâm wrong, Iâll apologize and eat my hat.
lolol