I empathize.
My stats:
43 years old.
73.5 inches tall, barefoot.
240ish.
100% natural.
I’ve been training since I was 16… but maybe my training sucked?
Looking back, the learning years (16-18) gave me little gains, but rough hands and knowledge. 18-19, got much better. 20-22, pretty much didn’t train for a bunch of BS reasons. 22-26, got act together, trained strict, made gains but never benched more than 240 for two reps. Arms finally - finally reached 15 inches, how come I’m still all this skinny? I eat like a maniac and spend money on supplements, too! 26-29. back in the slump, hardly trained at all. 29-31, got act back together. Body weight goes (finally) above 200 lb. I can do 30 pullups. 32-34. Slump again. What the hell is wrong with me? Shit, I can bench 225 a couple of times and my arms haven’t grown at all! Plus I’m drinking a case of Blue Thunder a month! Barely trained that year. 34-36: joined a real gym, worked out regularaly - yeah, twice a day, six days a week, what, I’m Arnold? Not much in the way of gains, but I discovered the leg sled. Lots of pain in the arms and knees. Damnit! I’m training twice a day and I’m going backward. 36-37. Decided to start all over again. This time: train once a day, five days a week: M legs/shoulders, T back/chest, W arms, Th legs/shoulders, F back/chest. Benching 225 a whopping 6 times, shoulder pressing 135 ten times. yet my arms aren’t growing! 37: gave up on supplements completely; changed that ridiculous routine to M legs, T chest, W back, Th shoulders, F arms. 38-41. Married a cook. Eating a lot more and a lot more meat. My weight starts to rise… Yet making not so many gains in strength. One thing I noticed: I can barely do pullups any more! Waist goes from 36 to 38. This has to stop! 41. I get a hernia! A hernia! Though it’s from coughing (says the doctor). Operation is a success, doc says to not lift anything for a month then take it easy for a while. I set my goal: take it easy for a full year, go back to the gym, but work out with the bar only. So I did that… Still, being married to a great cook meant that I ate a lot. My waist went past 40!
Time to stop. When I hit 42 (the anniversary of my hernia operation), I decided to work out RIGHT, no matter what. So I changed my routine: M arms (imagine, prioritizing my worst body part, who would’ve thought it?), T legs, W Chest, Th back, F shoulders. Strict movements, discipline, don’t miss a thing.
I also didn’t overtrain. I became honest with myself: my body is terrible - but Hubert Metz has skinny wrists, maybe I can look that good one day (I’m 42 and I’m still dreaming). So emphasize just doing the exercises right, finally. I re-read all the books I’d accumlated over the years, re-read all the internet threads on everything, decided that supplements didn’t do a thing for me.
So, after a year, here’s part of my chest routine from last week:
Incline bench press
5 X bar X 10-15
5 X 135 X 10
flat bench press
2 X 135 X 10
1 X 225 X 12
1 X 275 X 4
1 X 315 X 1 WOW! AFTER ALL THESE YEARS I FINALLY DID 315!!!
Dips
3 X 10
Incline Flyes
3 X 30 X10
Cable Crossovers
1 X 50 X 15
1 X 60 X 12
1 X 70 X 10
And finally my arms are closing in on 17".
So, a) never give up, b) marry a good cook and eat a lot, c) train strict. Two months ago I shocked myself by doing 225 for ten solid reps, I couldn’t believe it. I was stoked, too, because I knew I’d make my goal of 315.
Now, looking back on my training, I have to honestly say that I trained for only a year. The lifetime before simply built, brok, re-built and re-built that “foundation” the rest of the folks in the gym keep telling us skinny guys need to build.
Don’t quit.