I have been only consuming 120 g protein on avg and i weigh 195 lbs. I have maintained my weight in the past 2 months but have barely seen any strength or size gains, im starting to think this is because of my low protein diet…
My calories are not too low, my training is decent (heavy compounds, etc), and i get around 9 hrs of sleep on avg, so now the only thing i can think of is my low protein.
The reason why i lowered my protein was after i got injured and back into training I have never had such a big appetite and cannot eat consume 195-200 g of protein anymore.
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
People have historically gotten bigger and stronger off of less protein.
What is your diet and your routine? I imagine that is where you’ll find the biggest issues.[/quote]
My diet is basically protein shake and a sandwhich or cereal for breakfast, il also snack on some greek yogurt during the day (20 g protein), and il have two more meals the rest of the day with some kind of meat and carb source. I havent had the chance to get more powder so i dont really have any post workout meal anymore.
My training is: chest one day, then shoulders the following, then back bis, then legs, off and repeat. The only muscle i dont train is triceps because i have elbow tendonitis in the past and it still hurts on tri excersises and it keeps cracking and popping…
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
People have historically gotten bigger and stronger off of less protein.
What is your diet and your routine? I imagine that is where you’ll find the biggest issues.[/quote]
My diet is basically protein shake and a sandwhich or cereal for breakfast, il also snack on some greek yogurt during the day (20 g protein), and il have two more meals the rest of the day with some kind of meat and carb source. I havent had the chance to get more powder so i dont really have any post workout meal anymore.
My training is: chest one day, then shoulders the following, then back bis, then legs, off and repeat. The only muscle i dont train is triceps because i have elbow tendonitis in the past and it still hurts on tri excersises and it keeps cracking and popping…[/quote]
It sounds like your diet and training are pretty off. You might have better luck following this diet
And 5/3/1 for lifting.
I realize the Simple Diet is labeled a fat loss diet, but I think if you go heavier on the rice, potatoes and meat, you’ll do fine.
[quote]iron_addict wrote:
i dont train is triceps because i have elbow tendonitis in the past and it still hurts on tri excersises and it keeps cracking and popping…[/quote]
Not training your triceps is not going to help you in any way. Find a way to train your triceps even if it’s just partial movements. Continue to not train them due to pain is just going to cause an imbalance and increase your chance at injury/pain.
I agree about your diet lacking and the simple diet would probably work well for you.
Have you tried eccentrics/negatives for training triceps. It doesnn’t have to involve heavy weights and you get a lot of time under tension. A lot of people use Bench eccentrics to recover from tendonitis. That said warm up . You might want to try some pushup negatives too.
[quote]iron_addict wrote:
The only muscle i dont train is triceps because i have elbow tendonitis in the past and it still hurts on tri excersises and it keeps cracking and popping…[/quote]
Toward the tail end of when I was still seriously lifting years and years ago, I got elbow tendonitis too. Obviously the triceps get worked in any compound pressing movement, but outside of those you just need to find things that workout pain for you OR correct the problem. For me, triceps cable pushdowns had no pain while overhead DB extensions hurt like no other.
Something that allowed me to train without pain and reduce inflammation was diclofenac gel/cream (NSAID pills did nothing for me) if you want to look into that.
My husband and I do push, pull, legs, abs each workout and train 6 days a week. We’ve been doing this for years and my husband has gotten super jacked on this program. He’s 225 lbs at 6’1 1/2" with 9% bodyfat and is not on steroids. The reason he has been able to get so big is just the added frequency (plus he eats like a horse). Research shows superior neuromuscular adaptations, hormonal markers for recovery, strength improvement, and gains in lean body mass when performing volume-equated programs with a higher frequency and less volume per session. Here’s a study where they compared full-body routines to split training:
When you split your workout, you may not be able to get the same sort of frequency which means less adaptation. Think about it, if you only train back once a week, your body goes a whole week without being stimulated in that area. Protein synthesis takes 48 hours so if you go more than 48 hours without training a particular body part, you are leaving gains on the table. Even if you do a split routine, I would think you should train each body part at least 3 times a week.
This is what my husband looks like with a full-body training routine. He just eats a lot of food (5000+ calories a day with about 300-400 grams of protein) and lifts full-body 6 days a week. That seems to be working pretty well for him. The way that he is able to get so many calories in is he drinks about a gallon of whole milk everyday.
I don’t necessarily recommend everyone do the same, haha, but it’s the only way for him to get in enough calories. He struggles with having a high enough appetite to support his size. He drops weight super fast if he doesn’t eat enough or drink whole milk. We switched to 2% once and he lost about 10 lbs, haha.
I believe as well that you don’t always necessarily need 2 gr protein per pound bodyweight, for strength & performance mainly. Sure it would help though.
I recall once Dave Tate saying he’s pretty sure the guys he trains with doesn’t eat that much protein.
[quote]Babypowerlifter wrote:
. He drops weight super fast if he doesn’t eat enough or drink whole milk. We switched to 2% once and he lost about 10 lbs, haha. [/quote]
Which is another example of protein not being the key factor for weight gain and maintenance
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
People have historically gotten bigger and stronger off of less protein.
What is your diet and your routine? I imagine that is where you’ll find the biggest issues.[/quote]
Yup, Mike Mentzer didn’t consume much protein at all and still was enormous and an Olympia contender. [/quote]
ive not heard this before.
do you have any more details?
thanks
[/quote]
In Heavy Duty Nutrition (Mentzer 93) [1] he recommends that
bodybuilders follow the RDA for protein at 0.8g/kg bodyweight.
He felt that protein was over-emphasized in the bodybuilding
community, partially because protein supplements were such
a significant commercial interest.
