It’s entirely possible that I did. When I first started working out I would do 3 sets of 10 reps for pretty much everything. Needless to say I didn’t see any results from that, but like I said I was just starting out. It sounds like it might be worth re-visiting from the comments I’m getting here.
Thanks for the in-depth breakdown. That is actually helpful. For whatever reason I can’t eat over easy eggs. It messes up my stomach. But I could do boiled I think. That’s a lot of eggs lol.
Just drink milk. A cup after every meal adds up. Maybe chocolate milk if you feel like a treat. Plenty of nutrients in there and extra sugar in the chocolate o fuel your workouts
I agree with you it’s not a great article. I guess I was just trying to convey where I got my idea from. I’ve read numerous articles on T Nation that are better. I did try 5/3/1 for a while, but failed miserably. I’m thinking now probably because of a calorie deficit. Stronglifts 5x5 seemed to work a lot better for me. I had 1RM max of 210 squat, 180 bench, and 295 dead lift. I still did not see improvements in body composition.
Eventually the weight became too much for my joints I believe and I started to get severe back pain. My form may have been off when doing squats too.
Honestly it just seems like what works for most people doesn’t work for me. Which frustrates me.
Will do man. That was my go to when I was trying to gain weight.
This…is not honestly much better than your other diet.
Let’s start over. Forget everything you think you know, because honestly, not a single thing you’ve said since posting here has been anywhere close to correct.
A hypertrophy-based program is one that is meant to put on size.
A strength-based program is one that is meant to get you stronger.
Hypertrophy will lead to strength, and strength will lead to hypertrophy, but you can gear a workout specifically towards one or the other.
I don’t know what “high reps” means to you, but 20 rep squats are a good tool for gaining serious mass, so let’s keep your rep-range ideas filed away with everything else you believe right now.
The best damn workout, as posted earlier in this thread, is a good program, but there are literally hundreds. It depends on how comfortable you feel with the big lifts (deadlift, squat, OHP, bench), and how strong you are right now.
This is a scary thought.
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Well you can’t change things if you don’t try something new. Putting up a post in this thread was basically a last resort.
Best thing you can do now in my opinion is get your diet on track. Take the down time to start eating better and getting used to that. In Jim wendlers book he says to eat a protein, carb and fruit or veg with every meal. He also suggests doing this 3x a day with maybe a shake or healthy snack in between. As you go back to training you can add more meals if necessary but getting a good base is a huge start to helping with any goal.
When you start training again you’ll have less time so getting your diet in order now will help you develop habits for when you start training again.
When you can train again look for a program that suits your goals. If you want strength then go with a stength template, if you want to grow your muscles try a hypertrophy based template like the best damn workout plan for Natty’s. That is what I plan to follow after my shoulder is better and I’m done with this 4 week leg template.
For me personally, small habits add up. My diet for example. If I try to go head first into huge calorie surpless I stop eating pretty quick but if I build up a few hundred calories a week until I get to my.target, I end up sticking with it and not feeling overwhelmed.
To summarize
- Get diet in check. Get in 3 solid meals a day with a protein, carb and vegetable or fruit at each meal.
- Look at a few programs. Decide how many days you want to do. Some are 3 days some go up to 6. If you can’t get to the gym for 6 days, there’s no point in doing a program like that.
- As Jim says, discipline over motivation. Motivation will only take you so far, discipline will.make you eat when you don’t want to and hit the gym when you don’t feel like it.
- Don’t over complicate things. Eat, log calories and watch the scale. If you want to gain weight watch the scale. If it doesn’t move, then add an extra meal or eat more at each meal. I believe most people say to go for 1/2 lb gain a week or no more than 1% bodyweight per week.
- Give the program a decent run before you decide it doesn’t work. If it truly doesn’t work after given a fair shake, try something different. Eventually you will find what works for your body.
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Right: I am saying where you got your article was a bad source. I was not criticizing the article, but the source
You don’t seem to be using a method that everyone else has used to put on muscle though. The methods you have employed are pretty untraditional.
x2 with others you need to learn to eat like an adult.
Ditch the Huel its expensive crap and replace with quality supps like the Biotest line, Metabolic Drive etc or liquid egg whites even
Do the Paul Carter plan linked, all his programs work. Also read 10 Dan John articles
After I destroyed my left knee, I was back in the gym doing upper body work. I was on crutches for 10 weeks!
And I still ate good food. Eggs, meat, veggies.
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The problem is with the execution, and not the concept. 3x10 is absolutely fine but the fact that you didn’t see any results means you didn’t apply it properly, either by not training hard enough or not eating properly. Likely both.
Again, it’s the application of the program that was at fault here, rather than the program itself.
I don’t want to seem like I’m making fun of your numbers as we all had to start somewhere, but would you expect to see much muscle on a dude that squats 200lbs? I’m sorry if that sounds like a dickish thing to say on my part as I really don’t mean it to be.
It seems you are falling into quite a common newbie trap where they try something and the results come painfully slow so instead of thinking about why the results are coming so slowly (which is pretty much always due to not eating properly and not training correctly) they jump to a different program, thinking things like “well 3x10 doesn’t work for me” or “5/3/1 isn’t a good program for mass” or whatever.
An important lesson to learn is that, within reason, really any program will make you stronger and more muscular so long as you train as hard as you can (literally as hard as you can, not as hard as you think you can. It can be difficult to know the difference) and eat in such a way as to support it.
Training is just a stimulus for your body to adapt to. Whether you’re doing 20 rep squats, 5x5 or whatever, if your body receives a sufficient stimulus then it will adapt provided you give it the fuel and the rest required to do so. Cinnamon Crunch or whatever won’t cut it!
So about your diet - here’s what I personally would recommend:
-1g per pound of your bodyweight in protein every day. So if you’re 150lbs, you eat 150g. Tried and true mass gaining method.
-Protein with every meal.
-A shitload of carbs with every meal.
-Get all your fats from animal sources, olive oil, nuts or avocados (basically just no vegetable oil).
-Eat something green with every meal.
And that’s a decent starting point. As you’ve struggled to gain weight you are going to have to get used to eating more than you are comfortable with, like eating a meal when you’re still full from your last. Just need to suck it up - it does get easier eventually.
As for training - I’m a huge fan of the original 5/3/1 with the BBB assistance template. Get in, lift something heavy, get the assistance done for your main lift then you can do all the bodybuildingy stuff you want after.
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Please do this. Nothing else matters until you do this.
You can go back to doing whatever the hell you want after you got this down.
If you feel like you’re getting fat after about 3 months of doing this then start taking carbs out from breakfast or something.
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Yeah dude, not to pile on to what everyone’s saying, but that’s not a muscle-building diet. It’s a shake, a big pile of junk food, a big snack/small lunch, and a little handful of junk food.
Pick any of the solid, detailed posts above and go with it.
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I think we found your problem…
I am technically a millennial, but I don’t get offended by people’s words too often haha. I figured I would be crucified on here, as what happens with most places on the internet. The only thing that bothers me is when people write a couple sentences telling my I suck and don’t offer any advice on how I could change that.
Thank you for an outline of where I should be starting. Trust me I haven’t fooled myself into thinking I know what I’m doing. I will try my best to follow your advice as closely as I can. And I know if I don’t I can’t bitch about not seeing results.
Thinking about it these past couple days when I was doing Crossfit is when I saw the most results in body composition. I figure it’s because I was consistent with it (did it almost every day when I was on the ship in the Navy). Also because it’s hard to hold anything back when you’re doing those types of workouts. I know I’ll probably get a rash of shit about Crossfit too, but that’s alright.
I’m just thinking that I need to put as much effort into a size program as I did with learning Olympic lifts and competing against friends for time.
Thanks again for the advice. And if you have any more I’m all ears. Once I get things consistent I might start a journal to track results on here.
Good, that’s what I was looking for! 
just being a smart ass. I plan to take all this advice here and put it to action to see what happens.
Way to be man. I need to do the same thing. Sick of this situation I’m currently in.
I can definitely see what you’re saying. I think it’s high time I start getting my calories from healthier foods.
I plan to! This is why I posted here so that I could get some good advice and stop playing the guessing game. I figured I’d get shit here, but also good advice.