Underwhelming Progress as a Novice

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1

Hi

I’m a 19 yr old male who has been resistance training for over a year. When I first started training, my training style was aimed more towards hypertrophy although I had no real understanding of proper programming etc.

About 8 months ago, I decided to switch to a training style that was similar to starting strength - but with a few extra exercises in there for arms, rear delts etc. - and really enjoyed it. I had already been familiar with benching, pressing and deadlifting (occasionally), and I made some progress, mostly on my squat and deadlift, as I was inexperienced on these lifts.

After progress slowed, I began to add in more volume to the big 4, and eventually ran The Bridge. I really enjoyed learning about programming and RPE based training.

Anyways, I really enjoy training and have been very consistent. I’ve probably missed about 9 scheduled training days in total over the past year due to illness. However, I feel like the progress I’ve made has been a bit underwhelming.

My progress during this ~8 month period:

Bench (TnG):
Started at ~60kg for 2 reps (E1RM: 65kg)
Currently at 60kg for 5 reps @ RPE 9 (E1RM: 71kg)

Press:
Started at 35kg for 5 reps (E1RM: 40kg)
Currently at 40kg for 5 reps @ RPE 9 (E1RM: 47kg)

Squat:
Started at 60kg for an easy 5
Currently at 90kg for 5 reps @ RPE 9 (E1RM: 107kg)

Deadlift:
Started at 80kg for 5 @ ~8 (E1RM: 99kg
Currently at 100kg for 5 @ 9 (E1RM: 120kg)

Bearing in mind I purchased a belt about 4 months ago which has probably added a few kg to each.

Most of this progress I feel came early on, and for the past month or two I’ve hardly noticed any real gainzZz, even now that I’ve started tracking macros.

Even though I love training I don’t look strong and certainly don’t feel strong. I feel frustrated that I’ve only been able to add about 6kg to my bench in 8 months. Is this just due to my bodyweight? In this time I’ve went from 150lbs-157lbs. Do I simply just need to gain weight quicker if I want to get significantly stronger?

Am I just very underweight? And if so what weekly rate of weight gain is recommended, when trying to stay relatively lean, even if strength is the priority?

Maybe I’m just impatient and this is how long it’s going to take for me to make gains, but it’s definitely frustrating when I see people in my local gym who have been training for a lot less time than me and have already surpassed my strength level.

Let me know your thoughts.
Cheers.

2

Hey. Welcome to the forum.

I have a few questions:

  1. How tall are you?

  2. What is your waist circumference?

  3. Can you post your Bridge log?

  4. How confident are you about your technique in the 4 lifts? You can post a video here if you want to get feedback.

  5. What are your macros for a day?

Also, if you would like opinion of someone from the BBM team, you can start a post in the moderated section - Training Q and A with Dr Jordan Feigenbaum and Dr Austin Baraki.

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@The_Average_Lifter Hi, thanks for getting back to me.

  1. Apologies, I completely forgot to mention in the original post that I’m 6’0.

  2. I haven’t measured exact waist circumference recently but if it helps I tend to wear 32 inch waist trousers/jeans, which often fit me slightly loose. I know this isn’t the most helpful information, apologies again.

  3. In what format would you like my log? I can post a bunch of jpegs but I feel like that would kinda be inefficient. Or should I just type it out perhaps?

  4. My technique is okay, but certainly needs improving.

Bench: Using commercial gym benches I feel holds me back slightly as I struggle to set up in a stable position, and also struggle to have any decent arch. I also often struggle to find a consistent grip width that suits me. I feel I may be stronger with a narrower grip even though I’m quite long limbed.

Press: I feel my technique is decent. I feel using a belt on my press has definitely helped with stability. I’ve only been pressing 1x per week and would rather prioritise my bench at the moment, but still want to make gains on both if possible.

Squat: I squat high bar due to the fact that I physically am unable to keep the bar stable in a low bar position. In many attempts, I’ve been unable to keep any load in a stable position on my rear delts. I feel like I can’t get my shoulders back far enough to keep the bar where it’s supposed to be, and also feel like there is not much of a platform for the bar to rest on in the low bar position. Thus, I’ve stuck with high bar, which I feel like my technique is decent enough on. From time to time, when grinding out tougher reps, I sometimes find myself leaning on the front of my foot a bit. I think this is because I’m stronger leaning slightly more forward, but because I’m in the high bar position - instead of low bar - the bar is no longer over the middle of my foot.

Deadlift: My technique is okay. I try to use the 5 step deadlift set-up every time i deadlift. Sometimes, if I over estimate my load for the day, then there can be some slight rounding of the lower back. When using paused deadlifts as my secondary deadlift movement, it really improves my technique. At times I’ve used things like SLDLs or RDLs and I feel switching from these to standard deadlifts can mess up my technique a little bit. Also, for some reason, I feel bracing when deadlifting to be more challenging than say when I’m squatting.

  1. I normally only focus on counting calories and protein. I track everything I eat and drink in MyFitnessPal. Most days my calories range from 3500-3700. I often find myself consuming between 180-200g protein per day (never any lower). I normally range from 350-450 carbs, and 140-160 fat (always staying within calorie range).

I’ve only been tracking consistently for the past 2-3 months or so. I stopped a couple times for a few days or so due to a holiday and later due to illness. But overall, I feel I’ve been consistent.

Again, thanks for getting back to me. Really appreciate any info/tips from others.

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@LeahBBM Hi,

So each week I would generally try and increase load by 2.5kg when reps and RPE was remaining constant. So for example, if on a given week I squatted:
80kg for 5@6
82.5kg for 5@7
85kg for 5@8 x3 Sets
Then the following week I would try to increase each load by 2.5kg. However, if, for example, on the third set the RPE was 9 instead of an intended 8, the I would reduce the load again. I often found, particularly on Bench and Press that I wouldn’t be able to increase the load very often without increasing RPE. After a while I thought maybe I just wasn’t trying hard enough and would make a load increase anyway even if I thought the RPE was increasing, but this often led to technique breakdown or left me feeling quite fatigued after a few weeks.

Also, what would be the best way to show you some of my training data? Should I just type it out or just upload a few JPEGs? My handwriting is terrible so some of it may just be illegible.

Cheers.

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Hello there!

I think I can confidently say that you would do well with more lean body mass. I would aim for 2-3 lb gain in bodyweight per month, while monitoring your waist circumference and keeping it below 35-36".

You can post your data in any way you deem fit.

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Here’s what I think could be a good plan for you.

  1. You could redo the Bridge as written, but I’d make a stronger case to run the free 1st phase of the Beginner Template. It doesn’t have the exercise variety as the Bridge, but it has a decent amount of frequency on the main lifts, so plenty of practice to hone in your technique. One thing I would suggest is to replace reps of 10 on bench press on Day 1 to reps of 4 (I might get an earful from Leah for suggesting this :p).

Aim to add 2.5 to 5 kg per week to the top sets of squats and bench on Day 1, press on Day 2 and deadlift on day 3, while staying within the RPE targets. You can repeat Week 4’s program as long as you keep getting stronger or don’t get bored.

You can also add some arm, back and ab exercises on GPP days.

  1. I second gaining bodyweight at 2-4 lb or so per month and taking your waist measurements every couple of weeks.

If phase 1 works well for you, you might be interested in the whole template or even make use of the other free programs on the website.

Do get back on how training goes.

All the best :slight_smile:

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I think the Avg Lifter has some reasoned advice here-The Beginner’s Template (the whole thing) would be great for you. I’m going to give you some tough love. :slight_smile:

I would NOT sub out paused word for the competition lifts. Really avoid hyper-focusing on technique. You want to move well, yes. And this comes from practice, time, and clocking the reps, not from over-analyzing your movements to this level. I can’t stress enough that you need to go in, train, push yourself a bit, and see that progress, knowing that movements WILL vary at times. This is normal.

You should definitely aim to add weight. Taking a peak at your log, you should have most days (at this stage) where you ADD weight for each increasing RPE target, you should not need to keep the load the same for a 6, 7, 8, for example. If the fatigue is building that much in one session with the same load, this indicates that you either need to improve your work capacity or turn your brain off a bit and push yourself to add more weight with less thinking about it.

If you need to build work capacity, do this with timed rests (3 min), and get all your GPP work in. If you need to turn your brain off a bit, set goals for the load, trust yourself to get that weight and ONLY repeat or drop that weight if it’s clear you are overshooting. Take a few sessions to be ok with lifting a bit heavier than you might normally do.

I’d also post a video of an @8 or @9 set here. I’d like to see what that looks like.

I would not change the bench reps, no. :slight_smile: You can and will make progress with consistent training AND a mindset of progress.

And yes, it sounds like you’re in a place to gradually increase your bodyweight as well.

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As to why exactly 10 and 8 reps in the first phase, I don’t know, but there is low rep work later.

BBM’s action plan for beginners is to create a large base of fitness adaptations without hyper-specialising in one particular area (unless you have a compelling reason to do otherwise, that is). That would enable you to transition into different disciplines of strength and conditioning training smoothly, which is very lacking in 99% of beginner programmes.

It doesn’t matter what you lift in the next 6 months, when it comes to your strength levels in 3, 5 or 10 years.

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SMCN11, the higher rep programming provides you more volume, more frequency, skill practice, and strength/hypertrophy potential I would not worry about that difference at all right now.

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Biceps and triceps, both. You can read this article to understand how they usually are programmed:

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@LeahBBM So I managed to get some footage of a set which I’d rate an RPE 8, as suggested.

This was for a set of 4 at 95kg on Squat. Would be great if anyone could give a bit of feedback to whether they think this is actually an RPE 8 or if it’s higher or lower. Cheers :).

Also I know the angle is terrible. My gym was just really busy at the time and I didn’t want to leave my phone in anyone’s way. If a side angle would be better I could try get one in the next couple days.

Also would it be helpful to post one of the other lifts?

Thanks again :slight_smile: