Kinda Frustrated

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Make that really frustrated.

Make a long story short, I used to be an athlete (junior college football) in which I had to eat big and lift big for sports. I got up to 205 lbs. (at 6’), but then slowly started to obsess over the aesthetics (see BF%) and tried to eat clean (also see, over focusing on my nutrition). As you guys can imagine, this was not good. After my career was over, I became unfocused, girlfriend, etc. Couple that with not lifting and eating too lean for about 7-8 months, and I slimmed all the way down to 173 lbs.

When I came down here to college, I tried to get on a program, construct a diet, but I nothings change. I started in September of last year, and managed to put on weight really quick within the first 2 months, but then leveled off. So now, I’m about 180 lbs. but I feel like all I really gained was BF (which I estimate is at 15% or so?)

Anyways, the other day in the gym I was like "fuck this shit, I’m going to eat to get big, I don’t give a fuck about abs right now with toothpick arms). So I now want to get back into awesome shape (i.e. sprinting like I used to, explosive, strong, etc.)

My goals are to:
Gain enough LBM mass without packing on TOO much fat (since I’m already not that low to begin with). I was thinking probably trying to get up to 200 lbs. so that I can lean down to 190 lbs., have abs, yet still have some good mass on me. Also develop my strength, explosiveness and speed.

My lifts are:
Bench: 225 lbs. x3
Squat: 315 x3
Dead lift: Not sure, I would probably say ~275 x3

The training plan I have:

Monday:
Back squat 4x5
Dead lift 4x5
Bent-over row 4x5
← One more compound needed here (T-bar row, seated close-grip row, etc.)
← 2 isolations for biceps here
Ab circuit (planks, roll-out, etc.)

Tuesday:
Bench press 4x5 (shoulder width)
Push press 4x5
Incline dumbbell press 4x5
Dumbbell press 4x5
Triceps extension 3x10
Shoulder raises 3x10
Ab circuit (planks, roll-out, etc.)

Wednesday: off (stretching if anything)

Thursday

Thursday

Back squat (or front squat?) 3x10
Power-clean 4x5
Wide-grip chins 2xfail/narrow 2xfail
T-bar row 3x10
← Another biceps isolation needed here
Dumbbell shrugs 3x10
Ab circuit (planks, roll-out, etc.)

Friday or Saturday (changes depending if I have to leave for home on Saturday):
Wide grip bench press or dumbbell press 3x10 (alternating each week)
Seated military 3x10
Dumbbell incline or barbell incline (again, alternating each week)
Dips 3x10
← Need a triceps iso here and a shoulder iso
Ab circuit (planks, roll-out, etc.)

Anything on this? I was doing to much volume before, so I decided to only go for 4 compounds, and 2 isolations.

And last, my nutrition (this is my biggest difficulty):

I tend to think about this too much, for fear of gaining fat. But here is what I had planned out. I kept a food log if you guys want me to post it up. I know the basics, but I think it is just coming down to calories in vs. out. Anyways, I leave this portion open ended.

Anyways, as you guys can see, dedication is not my problem, in fact, I’ve been in and out of the gym more than anyone I know around me at school, and it pains me SO much not to see results (besides medium strength increase). Thanks a lot T-Nation.

2

Sounds like a good commitment you got going.

3

Yah, it’s not the commitment, it’s the direction.

4

I’ll post the food log for the week tomorrow.

5

First off, I think you are training too frequently and you dont have enough days of rest in your “program”! One day of rest is hardly enough for your goals!

Secondly, your LBM will come from a combination of training and diet with the latter being the most important, which as you said is your biggest problem! There is a difference between eating healthy and eating clean!! You should be eating very clean for your particular goals!

Now as far as training goes, your training days should not outnumber your rest days!!! Your muscles grow while you are resting not lifting, and they need sufficient time to rest and recover before training again!!

Stick to doing compound movements no more that 3x a week. So called isolation exercises are not really necassary, especialy for your goals! The only thing close to isolation movements you should be doing is Standing Barbel Curls for biceps and Close Grip Bench Presses for triceps!

When you train, do no more than 12 sets total per workout, take every set to failure, and increase the weights by small amounts every time you train. Cycle this for about 8-12 weeks and follow with 7-10 day rest period in which you allow your body the well deserved rest and recovery it needs!

If you do this correctly, you will not have to worry about bulking up to 200lbs and cutting down to 190lbs because the weight you gain will be mostly LBM!

Jazz

6

Jazz
There is nothing wrong with a 2 day split working 4 days a week and you don’t have to go to failure on each set. 4 compounds and 2 isolations per workout are fine.

OP, do a search for “Carb Cycling”. You do not have to bulk and cut. You can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time if you do it right. Getting the right nutrition is more important that volume of food. Also fish oil helps a lot both with fat loss and building muscle.

Stu

7

Im not saying there is anything wrong with a 2 day split routine! I suggested what i said because of the goals he mentioned and IMO, that is the fastest way to reach them!

And, in most cases, you are wasting your time by not going to temporary failure with your sets! Taking sets to failure and not doing as many sets has a physical as well as a psycological impact on the body! Doing so and resting properly lets your body know that the next time you train, it will have to put on more muscle and strength to accomplish the task at hand!

Jazz

8

[quote]stuward wrote:
Jazz
There is nothing wrong with a 2 day split working 4 days a week and you don’t have to go to failure on each set. 4 compounds and 2 isolations per workout are fine.

OP, do a search for “Carb Cycling”. You do not have to bulk and cut. You can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time if you do it right. Getting the right nutrition is more important that volume of food. Also fish oil helps a lot both with fat loss and building muscle.

Stu[/quote]

Is it still possible to gain LBM on a carb cycling diet? Like I posted, nutrition is my biggest hang-up as I can easily over analyze it way too much. I’ll take a look carb cycling though. I’ve been taking my fish oils daily, and I usually eat salmon for dinner twice per week.

9

Yes it is possible. Here are some links that I put together for another site:
exrx.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4179

Stu

10

[quote]Jazz_Man1898 wrote:
First off, I think you are training too frequently and you dont have enough days of rest in your “program”! One day of rest is hardly enough for your goals!

Now as far as training goes, your training days should not outnumber your rest days!!! Your muscles grow while you are resting not lifting, and they need sufficient time to rest and recover before training again!!

[/quote]

A 4 day Upper/Lower split with alternating low/high intensity is too frequent? What planet do you live on? This one the best training split you can construct in my opinion.

3 days off and 4 days on is more then enough time for rest. Obviously, you read his post wrong if you think he has one day off. I don’t where you get the idea that you should only train 3 time per week, but it is wrong.

11

So the workout is alright? I hope so.

12

Man, there are a whole lot of different and conflicting opinions about training and lifting!

Best advice ever…EXPERIMENT!! See what works and doesn’t work for you and stick with what works!

It all just takes some time! There will be ups and there will be downs, its all a part of it! The trick is to learn from your downs and dont repeat them!

It takes year or 2, sometimes 3 to figure these things out but its all worth it!!

Dedication, hard work, and perserverance will take you from novice to veteran status faster than anything else!!!

Jazz

13

I think your workout looks great. Make sure you write everything down and push yourself to increase the weights. Also be sure to switch up your exercises every 4-6 weeks to keep your body guessing.

As far as nutrition just keep it simple. Figure out six meals a day you can eat for a while and be sure to eat at least 200 gms of protein/day. You should probably shoot for between 3000 and 3500 cal/day of clean food. Eat the same stuff everyday at the same times for a while until it becomes second nature and substitute alternate foods that have about the same nutritional value when you get tired of something.

Take fish oil, creatine, and drink Surge or whey powder mixed with chocolate milk right after your workout. If you do this you will get bigger, gauranteed.

14

Alright well, I’m going to stick to this program then.

It’s just fucking frustrating to be a built athlete to some skinny-fat little bitch. I have no confidence because of it, and basically just hate the way I look. I can’t figure out why my BF is so bad:

Eating to much/little?

Not running enough?

Not active enough?

Not eating the right type of foods?

Catch my drift?

15

It sounds like you should lose the fat first instead of bulk. Keep the same program, lift hard with very little rest between sets - superset where you can. Do HIIT (jog/fastwalk for 4min, sprint for 1min) for 20 - 30 min on your days off of lifting.

Cut the calories to 1700/day but keep the protein intake at 200g/day. Eat 5-6 meals/day and keep the supliments the same.

You probably need to intensify your workouts. Get a partner that will push you and call you a pussy when you lift like one. Use some of that anger and disgust to your advantage - get pissed and stay there, don’t let yourself off the hook and be strict with the diet and workout routine.

I also recommend following the threads from the physic clinic. Check out Bartl’s especially, it gives you diets and will show you how dedicated you need to be for success (homeboy has lost about 50lbs so far and is keeping his LBM).

Hope that helps.

16

Well, I’m only 180 lbs. so I’m afraid that cutting fat right now would not be a wise option.

I’m just confused on how come I’m not gaining any scale weight? It HAS to be my diet., yet my strength has been increasing.

I feel like I already eat a TON. Anyways, I’ll post up my diet:

Meal 1 : 8AM
1 cup oatmeal
1 banana
2 scoops whey
Multi-vitamin

Meal 2 : 11AM
6 eggs (2 yolks, 4 whites)
1 cup broccoli
2 cups salad

Pre-workout : 1PM
3 scoops whey
5g creatine
5g glutamine
4 BCAA caps

Mid-workout : 3:30PM
3 scoops Surge

Post-workout : 5PM
5-6 chicken tenders
1 banana
3 scoops whey

Meal 3 : 7PM
Either 2 top sirloin cuts or 1lb. salmon
1 cup broccoli
2 cups salad
1 large yam

Meal 4 : 9PM
1/4 cottage cheese
1/4 cup almonds

That’s generally what I get everyday of the week, slightly lowering the carbs on my rest day.