I’ve been strength training for 2-ish years with some issues mainly being bicep tendonitis from squats, but after switching to a safety bar I’m finally closing up on my PR’s from 2019 more or less painfree for the first time. However, the visual gainz I’ve seen from a 135lbs bench and 100lbs ohp to 325lbs bench and 205lbs ohp is close to none. I’m a true “ectomorph” with skinny calves and wrists, and tend to gain weight around my waist as soon as i up my intake slightly. I ate my way to 205lbs on SS, but the “muscle” gain was primarily around my waist.
I’ve been tracking my intake with myfitness app on and off through these two years, and have primarily aimed for 2-300g of carbs, 200-230g of protein and varied the carb intake to gain/lose weight.
I’m 32 and currently weigh 187lbs @ just above 6ft.
I’ve primarily been running SS and TM with 5x5 for my upper body lifts, with 5’s as the max number of reps in a set. I’ve only been doing ohp, bench, rows, chins, squat and dl throughout as I have limited equipment in my garage gym.
Has anybody on here been in a similar situation and have some great advice on how to attack it in my case?
I would start off by being a bit more compliant with your intake. I’d also look at the “To be a beast” article by Jordan. If you feel you gain to much fluff in the midsection, you could be gaining to fast so shoot for the .5lbs per week. Depending on your training age as well I would not try to shoot for more than 5% increase of initial weight.
Training wise, you could just not be getting enough volume, I would recommend the pressing template if OHP is your primary focus. If not the strength template is a viable option. At a certain point though, hypertrophy will become your friend in making long term gainzzz
If hypertrophy is your main goal right now, then I’d switch to one of the BBM Hypertrophy or Bodybuilding templates. As stated above, you might benefit from a program with greater volume and less intensity. I’ve run H2 in a home gym (although I have olympic DB handles, which makes it easier to pick movements).
As to calorie intake, possibly you just need to experiment a bit more to find your “maintenance” intake. My own weight fluctuated a fair amount before I homed in on an average daily intake that resulted in slow weight increase (~150 g/week for me). Sounds like you’re getting plenty of protein already and you’ve got a good handle on tracking.
Thanks for the input @Bak2ThaBasix I’ve been busy working through the beginner template in another attempt of getting my squat to the 300s and deadlift to the 400s but despite lifting 3-4 times/week this year they haven’t really budged. I’m actually 40lbs weaker on the DL & squat compared to my log 12 months ago now, so programming this year haven’t been optimal in any way. Bench & OHP is back to last years numbers though, so I’m happy with that at least.
I’ll be considering the strength template, the bridge or just jump straight to the hypertrophy template at the end of the year and see what happens next year.
Thank you @ropable for the reply as well! I’ve lately upped my carb intake slightly, and reduced slightly on the proteins just as an experiment. I’ll now in a few weeks how my body responds to that.
Honestly, with the numbers you’re talking about having put on the bar in two years, you would probably notice a HUGE difference if you lost some of the excess BF you’re carrying around. I’ve gained nowhere near the numbers you’re talking about on the bar, but I saw a huge difference in my appearance after losing the 20+lbs I gained chasing numbers during my NLP.