I’ve been training for approximately two years and I’m still skinnyfat. My strength has went up slightly but it plateaus all the time. Last year I gained 30lbs during a bulk but very little of that was muscle. I mainly struggle with upper body where my bench is plateaud at around 85lbs for 8 and my OHP at 70lbs for 8. I’ve tried training to and beyond failure and I’ve tried training with a few reps in reserve. It doesn’t make a big difference.
I’m on a good program from a reputable coach and I eat 1g of protein per lbs of bodyweight, sleep 9 hours a night and all that. I just seem to not be able to make progress and it’s really demotivating. Does anyone know why? I havent skipped a workout in over a year btw. Upper lower split.
It’s your diet. Protein intake is great, your lack of comment on fats and carbs is telling.
How long was your bulk, and what role did your coach have in it? Did he advise any on your diet? Did you lose any of this weight after bulking and was it intentional?
My bulk was around 10 months and this was before I got my coach. The diet was good tho. Mostly minimally processed whole foods. I used cronometer and both my micros and macros were good
You’re really not giving us a ton of information, which is pretty normal in the beginners’ section so I get it.
What’s your goal?
Where are you now?
What was your starting point?
What is your training history (be specific)?
What are you currently doing (again, specific - don’t tell me “I usually do about 3 things for chest and I always work super hard.”)?
What do you eat and how often are you consistent (usually folks tell us what they think they should be eating as if that’s what they’re actually eating)?
Are you actually being coached in life?
What’s the problem (where are you stuck? If it’s physique, a picture helps, but don’t feel pressure to post one. If you are under 18, do not post one.)?
Then, if you really want help, I’d personally like to know what you like/ don’t like doing. There’s a lot of roads to Rome; let’s see if we can’t find one that won’t be a nightmare for you to try to stick with.
My goal is to build muscle and strength, but primarily a hypertrophy focus and to overall get a muscular physique.
I’m currently weak and look like I don’t lift even though I’ve went to the gym over 1000 times and been eating well.
My starting point was being fat and I managed to lose that around 2 years ago which is when I started training seriously.
I went to the gym for the first time in the beginning of 2018 but this wasn’t serious at all and I paid no attention to my diet and wasn’t consistent. This went on until 2021 which is when I wanted to get serious about it. During the first 3 years I made basically no gains which is understandable. I started cutting in 2021 and lost 40lbs then started bulking in the beginning of 2022 and have been bulking since then with the exception of a minicut late 2022.
I’m on a 4 day UL split consisting of 4-5 lifts per session 2-3 sets per exercise and I do RIR 3-0 depending on the lift. Usually failure or beyond on smaller lifts like curls but I leave a few reps in the tank on deadlifts and squats for example.
I don’t have a specific meal plan since I live at home so I don’t cook all my food but it’s mostly whole foods. For carbs I eat mostly potatoes, rice, pasta, oats and some bread. For fats I have nuts, olive oil, beef, salmon. For protein I eat chicken, beef, fish, greek yoghurt etc. I eat in a few hundred calorie surplus currently (around 3200 calories a day) and 0.8-1g of protein per lb.
What do you mean by this?
My problem is strength and size. I’m getting neither. Slight improvements but like I said I still am skinnyfat and don’t look like I lift after 2 years of serious training. I can barely do a few pushups.
You’ve gotten some fantastic advice in this very thread to course correct. Are you ready to implement it?
@tlgains and @creative_name@freshyfresh are 3 fantastic examples of some teens that showed up, took advice from here, put nose to the grindstone and got some fantastic results. Check out their logs. There have been plenty others too.
I’ve felt this way the entire 15 years I’ve been training. A great physique doesn’t show up overnight. For most, it takes 5-6 years to really look like they lift, and 10+ for them to look the way they want to. Some never get there.
