Still not gaining strength

[jumpie]

Hi guys,
A few months ago I posted about not being able to make any strength gains even with the best committment and dedication. Some of you had mentioned that I should drop the daily 5 miles runs and increase my caloric intake to accomodate strength gain. Well, it is now 4 months later. I have dropped the runs to 2-3 per week, increased my calories to approx. 2400 per day (consisting of mostly cottage cheese, whey protein, tuna, chicken, egg whites, oatmeal, and green vegetables with approx. 45% of intake being from protein), train 3 times a week using Chad Waterbury's total body training, but still can't get much for results.

Squats and deadlifts have incdreased some, but bench, military press, and curls have stayed constant no matter how hard I try. Any ideas - could I be one of those "hardgainers" that needs to only workout once a week. Or do some guys just not get much for results no matter how hard they try? I've been workingout faithfully for 3 years and tried many different programs but all leave me with at first a small gain, then plateau, and sometimes even loss. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[JMR]

2400 calories? How much do you weigh? Fat percentage?

[DKing]

What was your routine?

Danny

[Matthew]

I don't think total body training is a strength program, more than half of it is above 12 reps. Plus you are always switching exercises, so it could just be that you don't notice it as much or you aren't translating the weights between exercises properly. Have you been trying to add weight each week the way it says to do it?

[Rev]

Check this out. http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle....ticle=311west2

[McCarley]

How old are you? When I was in high school I got NO gains. It wasn't until I was about 20 that my body started to benefit.

[jumpie]

Here's some stats:

Age: 27

5'8" 150lbs

Was at approx 7% BF now maybe 9%

Here's the routine:

Day 1 - Reps = 5
Flat Bench
Bentover Row
Squats
Deadlifts
Military Press
Curls
Day 3 - Reps = 8
Incline bench
Upright rows
Front Squats
Good mornings
Seated arnolds
Dips
Day 5 - Reps = 15
Decline bench
Chinups
Setups
Sumo Style deadlifts
Triceps

And yes I have been trying to add weight each time but all that happens is I have to lower the reps (i.e. I'm not getting stronger) Only place it was worked is squats where I'm at 180lbs x 12 x 12 x 12 and deadlifts at 180 lbs x 11 x 9 x 8 which is a good increase for me. All upper body just ain't responding to the workouts.

It seems like I'm just hard wired to be a runner as that is something that I can do easily and increase my performace quickly, but I don't want to just be a string bean runner and not have the muscle I want and need for all the other activites I like to do.

[Wrestler112ForLife]

How about 3000 calories a day 6 meals per day. And why dont you go low reps like a westside based routine this will almost gaurentee you gains at your bench and squat.

[McCarley]

Or try the latest workout by Chad Waterbury in MF. It's only 3 weeks long. You can commit to 3 weeks right? But I agree with Wrestler, you're prob gonna have to eat more.

[Bo]

I weigh 154-156lbs and have calculated that I need 3200 calories to gain weight. I've been eating around 2800 (hard to force myself to eat more) lately and have not managed to gain any weight. So 2400 is definetly not enough. Add another 1000.

[jumpie]

Bo,
At 3200 I find it hard to believe that I wouldn't put on a lot of unnecessary fat. I know the some is to be expected but I don't want anymore than I have to. But you're finding that 3200 isn't putting on much fat or muscle, hey? Maybe that's the ticket.

[steelerfan]

EAT!!!!!

Also you may want to add a 10 X 3 routine for 1 of the lagging muscle groups and just follow the TBT for the others. But only do one 10 x 3 per workout session, and use a compound lift. One workout do 10x3 on bench, the next do 10x3 on underhand chins ect.

[BobTheKillerGoldfish]

Jumpie, I understand your reluctance completely. I was a very fat kid, and only lost weight after I started training in college. However, about a year ago I got very scrawney as I was doing a lot of cardio, high rep sets in the gym, and was only getting about 2500 cals a day (I weighed about 72 kilos. But I was terrified to eat more because I was haunted by memories of being a fat kid.

However, after bulking since just before Christmas, believe me, most of what you eat (IF you're on a good diet, which you seem to be - albeit one simply lacking in calories) will be stored as muscle. Give it a try, say OK, for 6 weeks I'm going to eat like a horse and train like an SAS commando! Really go for it, trust me, you'll see the results, but do not be afraid to eat more.

[OldGuy]

Some reading material:

Program Design 101

If your goal is to gain strength and your doing high rep sets you're going about it all wrong. You need to increase the weight and lower the reps.

[jumpie]

Just a quick comment, a couple of you guys have been saying that I'm doing to high of reps for good strength training, but if you look at my routine (shown above) Monday and Wednesday my reps are less than 8 per set, with only Friday being "high" reps. I was told this would keep the body adapting due to the different types of workouts and therefore increase its muscle building ability. Any comments?

Thanks for the rely. That link that you posted, OldGuy, was a good read.

[OldGuy]

Question - You have reps for different days of 5, 8 and 15. Do you do the same weights for all the different rep ranges?

[jumpie]

No, if you look above you'll see that I do different exercises on each of the three days and therefore the weight that I choose is whatever I can manage to get the required reps out.

[OldGuy]

Sorry about all the questions but how many sets do you each day?

[jumpie]

No, questions are good - they usually lead to answers. I do three sets of each workout each day.

[OldGuy]

OK, I just read CW's Total Body Training. This isn't really a strength program. But it does have a lot of variety - different exercises, rep ranges and rest time. Looks like a real good program. Are you following it exactly as written?