How should I troubleshoot my lack of training progress?

Hello,
I am trying to figure out where best to apply my focus to debug the fact that my training progress is very limited.

Training history

I’m male, 30 years old and have been lifting for about 18 months now. Started 3 days a week, currently up to 5. In the beginning, I’ve had my lifts reviewed and approved by a coach and thus I consider technique at least adequate.

My linear progression lasted between 3 and 6 months (appears different for different lifts, strangely) and topped out at these 5RMs

  1. 42.5kg Press
  2. 77.5kg Bench
  3. 125kg Deadlift (this plateaued really quickly)
  4. 95kg Squat I understand that training sensitivity is variable, but these numbers feel quite low to me after almost a year of consistent training and weight gain.

I should note that my anterior hip was bothering me during squats after about 6 months, so my frequency and consistency there dropped after that point.

Measurements

I’m about 1,89m and just about 90kg of bodyweight.
In the time I’ve been training, I gained weight from about 82kgs up to around 92 over 8 months before deciding to cut back down to 85. I am right now again entering a deficit, as my waistline has crossed 37 inches.


After less 6 months, I mostly stopped making progress. I blame lack of structured programming and too high intensity for that (of course I can’t be sure), but I’ve since changed that up and am currently using Stronger By Science training templates. However, other than overhead press, no lift has really moved in the past 3 months, at least not consistently, even with the non-homemade programming. I find that even if I get ahead over a few weeks, I actually get weaker again after.
I am under the perhaps illusory impression that at my training age I should still expect to make progress week over week, or at least not an order of magnitude slower. However, this does not seem to manifest.

I train mainly for strength, but I’ve also noticed that almost all of muscle mass gains were achieved early on, an all weight I gain at this stage goes directly to the waist. I don’t want to nocebo myself, but it feels increasingly like my body is really resistant to training, which would fit with my pre-lifting training history of mostly cardio and high-intensity training, during which I felt much the same.

Things I have tried and potential issues I could guess

  1. I did stick to some more or less braindead 4-5x5 plan for all lifts previously, before wisening up some and first reducing intensity a bit and then moving to some plans from Stronger By Science. I’ve run two months of these now (3x / week DL and bench, 2x / week squat and press), but progress is minimal
  2. As for nutrition, I don’t track calories exactly but weigh myself daily in the morning, after a bowel movement. I do consume at least 2g / kg of protein though. I do suffer from tiredness, and lack of energy throughout the day, so I’ve been investigating this for some time. I never used to have trouble falling or staying asleep, but I might not be as effective as I thought.
  3. I got a diagnosis for light sleep apnea recently (the number of events per hour was around 12 or so I believe; the doctor said I was at the limit between what would be labeled light vs medium apnea). I am since instructed to sleep on my side, which seems to help a little, but not really significantly. I am in the process of procuring a cpap machine, to hopefully rule out this issue.
  4. My most recent blood work did not show anything worrisome according to doctors, but I can’t judge for myself and it was evaluated for explaining the tiredness, not lack of jackitude
  5. More recently, the sleep doctor has said I should get thyroid and liver labs done, which I have not yet
  6. I had testosterone checked, it was 1 measurement about 2 hours after cessation of training. Doctor said there was no acute impact of strength training on the testosterone level to invalidate this result. The value was 3.7 (I believe the unit used here is micrograms per liter?) and thus not cause for concern
  7. I am depressed, which alone could account for the tiredness I assume. Some years ago, when I was using SSRIs I eventually stopped them as I got a bit better and they seemed to make me tired. I currently do not take any medication, but the excessive tiredness has been back. I can’t pinpoint for how long, but probably at least 2 years.
  8. Other life stress is not very high. I work regular 8 hours a day at the desk, train before that, but other than the depression I would not consider my life especially stressful. How should I go about improving my training progress given this information? It would seem to me that the most impactful thing to do would be continuing to whittle away at possible causes for being tired a lot, followed by programming adaptations, potentially experiment with higher-volume programs.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

​​​​​​Oarfish,

Thanks for joining the forum. There are a lot of questions here that would require a consultation to answer fully, but I do have a few thoughts.

Sounds like LP didn’t work very well for you, which doesn’t really say anything about your training sensitivity overall, but rather how you fared on a specific program. The program isn’t very good anyway, as it is lacking in autoregulation, variation, conditioning, and a sustainable progression model. People also don’t really do remarkably well with it compared to other programs and so, I wouldn’t really weight these results strongly. There are no nonresponders to ALL training interventions, but rather you have not found (and leveraged) a program you thrive on yet.

I would agree with not letting your waist exceed 37". It is extremely unlikely that you gained all of your muscle mass gains early on. This is a very slow process and not really something that happens when people first start training. Rather, the strength increases seen are mostly neural.

I would also agree that the programming is inappropriate for your current goals, fitness levels, and resources. I cannot comment on your existing programming, but I’d split the blame pie evenly between that, load selection, and your planned progression model.

I don’t think sleep apnea or T levels (shouldn’t have been checked in the first place) are causal. Fatigue and/or depression could certainly be playing roles here. I would advise continuing to work with a medical professional.

I think the best strategy forward is to switch programming. I’d recommend our Beginner Template given your current training status.

-Jordan