mgrych

im new so please forgive me if i seem ignorant, but its been a month and i havnt seen much for results. I train every other day, first chest, tris, and shoulders. day break, then bis, back ,and forarms. day break, then finally legs. I take protein after and eat as much as possible. So far no weight gain or any noticable results. whats the deal or do i have to wait longer?


any help would be greatly appreciated

nismo80

well there are some great tips in the above sticky, but from my recent experience, if you don't notice a difference in a month (even a week) you need to:
Increase intensity and decrease volume (lift heavier, not as many reps and sets)

eat even more (6 solid meals of quality food)

rest (no other activity and 8+ hr sleep)

don't focus on parts (compound lifts only: deadlifts, squats, power clean and press, bench, pullups, dips, etc)

DOMS

Your shit is all messed up.

You really need to read the stickies. If you had, you'd have mentioned stuff like "push day", "pull day", "post, and pre-, workout shakes", and "Damn, I'm getting good results".

Read the stickies.

tphillip23

yeah, something is not right if you haven't seen ANY results in a month.
could be diet, training, or rest...without you giving more details, it's hard to say which one
that first day looks pretty intense...shoulder, chest, and tris all in one day???
may want to split those up.
as said above, check out the stickies

Tatyana

How are you tracking your results?

Weight?

Bodymeasurements?

Weight training journal to see if you are getting stronger?

I would assert you are only using the mirror, which is a good tool, but it does not work for everyone, you may not notice some of the differences checking yourself out everyday.


That being said, you may want to consider what intensity you are training at, and muscle does not grow on protein alone, it needs good quality carbohydrates and fats.

Here is a post from ironaddict, most of his posts are pure gold.



Is your training working?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First, let me start this thread with a statement I am going to close it with:

There is no need to wait more than a few weeks to make the determination if a routine is working or not, if it didn’t work for the first month, it’s not going to magically start working next month.

I have read 4-5 posts on various boards over the last week alone from people that stated that over the last six months in one case, and as long as 13 months in the most extreme case they have gained NOTHING! No additional weight on the bar, and no additional body mass. And the sad part is, a LOT of lifters are in the same boat. They read pages upon pages of info about how to get big and strong, and for all their knowledge (mostly useless) and efforts, they are not even moving slowly towards their goals. Before I go on, I will define the audience I am talking to/about. This is directed at beginner and intermediate level lifters that are not already quite big and strong—you know, most of the people on these forums trying to make big changes in their physiques.

At this level there is absolutely no reason to not be making steady progress towards your goals. Your initial barometer of success needs to be ever increasing amounts of iron on the bar. You can do all the “pump sets” you like, but as long as you are lifting girl weights, you’re gonna have a girl body. Bodyweight gains are a harder thing to gauge as LEAN muscle gains do not occur extremely fast unless you are a rank beginner, or using growth enhancing drugs. Getting on the scale and trying to see it go up 2 lbs each week USUALLY just means you are getting fat, so first worry about making the bar heavier, then worry about if the muscle is coming on fast enough. And guess what? It is a pretty simple thing! If you are CONSISTENTLY getting stronger over the long term (not the I gained 10 lbs on my bench how come my pecs aren’t bigger now type) you should be slowly gaining weight. And if you are not, you simply are not eating enough. People, think this one through. IF you are eating enough to gain mass you will either be gaining muscle, or gaining bodyfat, but if NEITHER of these two are occuring, you simply are not eating enough.


If you are gaining fat instead of muscle, AND your lifts are going up on a consistent basis you are either too high over maintenance or have the macro-nutrient ratios screwed up, and as a starter, if you are not getting at LEAST 1.5 grams of protein per lb of bodyweight (for guys that are 7-18% bodyfat) you might as well stay home.

Now that diet has been addressed (but surely not covered in detail) lets talk about training. Simply put most of you fail because you attempt routines WAY outside your current capacity. Beginners always want to do intermediate routines and intermediate advanced, or extremely advanced routines. At your stage of the game all you need is a routine that hits all the bodytparts with the big compound lifts and not much else. You need to squat, deadlift, bench press or dip (or both), row or chin (or both) military press, and do some curls, not exclusively, but as cornerstones of your routine. There is nothing wrong with doing a couple of lifts per bodypart, but unless you are moving some OK poundage’s (and 200 lb benches and 300 lb squats are NOT OK poundage’s) there is simply NO REASON TO DO MORE. Use as much frequency as you can and still make consistent gains. You have ZERO reason to worry about imbalances because in most cases the beginner lifter has one major imbalance, they don’t have enough strength on the big lifts and muscle on their frame.

If you are not getting stronger on a consistent basis when at beginner and intermediate level in almost all cases the lifter is either doing way too much workload as far as volume, or frequency or both, or is the shmuck that trains bench and biceps 3 times a week and wonders why he’s not “swole”.

You don’t need the latest “flashy” trendy routine to “buff” you in 8 weeks. You need a sold STRENGTH BASED routine that you can consistently add weight to the bar using. And this means consistently, but perhaps not every time. And the reason I say that is you should periodize your routine whether that consists of programmed unloaded weeks, or added deload or cruise weeks periodically. And another reason I state that is I KNOW for a fact that LOTS of you guys use a routine until you have ONE bad workout, assume the worst and change your entire routine (usually to the latest thing on a lifting forum or muscle mag) and start the process anew.

It really is this simple, unless your weights are going up on a CONSISTENT basis your training or diet or both are screwed up. There is no need to wait more than a few weeks to make the determination if a routine is working or not, if it didn’t work for the first month, it damn sure isn’t going to work the next month (excluding SOME types of advanced loading YOU don’t need to be using in the first place). First look at diet, then training and if those are good, look at sleep and stress, but that is a topic for another day.

Iron Addict
__________________
For info about personal training consultations email me at ironaddict@ironaddicts.com

CowPimp

Plain and simple: if you are not gaining any weight, then you are not eating enough food.

However, I will tell you that one month is not a very long time. Most of the gains you experience at the very beginning are purely neural. After several weeks the body will resort to hypertrophy as a method of adaptation. Also, muscles take time to grow. Granted, you will grow pretty fast, relatively speaking, when you first start lifting. Remember, it is night overnight magic. It does take time, dedication, and patience.

Also, what kind of measurements are you taking? Are you measuring body composition in any way? This would help you determine if you are recompositioning at all (No change in weight, but an improvement in body composition).

It couldn't hurt to post, more specifically, what you are doing. Tells us the number of reps, sets, intensity, exercise selection, rest periods, tempo, etc. A lot of that isn't super important in the beginning, so don't worry if you don't pay attention to some of it.

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mgrych

im am using basically the mirror but im also weighing myself. I have gained maybe a pound or two, if that. Is it alright to eat before bed? I was always told not to eat 4 hours before bed because it would be wasted energy and stored as fat. I did notice a slight gain in the amount i can lift. And yes i have been using machines but will change over to free weights. any other help?

So far everyone has been very helpful, thank you

Mystik

when your sleeping thats when you build muscle right i dunno bout it being turned into fat.

XFatMan

The stickies give you everything you need to get started. First, use them to set up a routine. Stick to the basic movements at the beginning. Use the stickies to set up a basic diet. Once you have that running, go with it for a week or two. If you're still not satisfied, post your routine / diet and I'm sure people will point you in the right direction.

Goal: < 15% Body Fat by June 30, 2008
December 30, 2007: Body Weight: 75.8 Kg / 174.3 lbs Body Fat Percentage: 21.9%
Current (January 13, 2008): Body Weight 75.7 Kg / 174.0 lbs Body Fat Percentage: 21.4%

mgrych

i forgot to post my body type if that has any correlation with my issue. Im 6ft and about 160 lbs. kinda tall and skinny. Also, when i first started, my muscles would ache a few days after the workout, now when i do a workout, they dont ache the next day. What am i to suspect?

XFatMan

They're DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) and are caused by microtrauma in the muscle - something every bodybuilder is after. But that doesn't mean a workout without any soreness was bad. On the contrary: I haven't been really sore since I started HST, but the growth is impressive, really. Just for an idea: my thighs went up 3.5 cm / 1.4 in., and my hips and upper arms went up 2.5 cm / 1 in. in the first three weeks.

Goal: < 15% Body Fat by June 30, 2008
December 30, 2007: Body Weight: 75.8 Kg / 174.3 lbs Body Fat Percentage: 21.9%
Current (January 13, 2008): Body Weight 75.7 Kg / 174.0 lbs Body Fat Percentage: 21.4%

Tatyana

Google ectomorph and hardgainer and see if you can find answers to some of your questions.

You have to change your workout, increase the weight, add more reps or sets.

Your body will adapt to the workload you place on it.