Genetic Limit?

[Elisa]

Hi there,

Firstly just to point out I???m female, it's caused some confusion of forum???s in the past

I've been training hard for almost 2 years now, at first my progress was slow but steady noticeable, but I???ll be the first to admit that my eating habit's where lax and i suffered from typical girl syndrome believing the way forward involved endless hours running like a tormented hamster on the treadmill while practically starving myself.

I finally got a personal trainer about 12 months ago and WOW progress leapt forward, she got me lifting weights, got me eating better all super great stuff, i did a short bulk and followed by a short cut just before Christmas.

Christmas i looked better than i ever had sitting at about 14% body fat and with a little muscle on me. After Christmas i decided i wanted to do a full on bulk, because the short bulk i'd done really hadn't gained me enough lean mass and certain area's of my body suffered from stick insect syndrome when sitting at such a low body fat.

Unfortunately since Christmas i've struggled, i've gained about 10lb in all and i'm currently sitting at about 18% body fat, I take my measurements and photo's once a month and truth be told im getting frustrated, 10lb is not a lot of weight to gain and judging from the photo's most of it is sadly FAT!

I've let things go on with my trainer for too long and i've finally reached the point where i can't continue paying money when i'm not getting results. I made really good progress with her in the beginning but i was starting to wonder if she was capable of taking me to the next level.

Really i made loads of progress last year, but if the truth be told my diet and exercise was AWFUL before so anything she gave me was likely to be a vast improvement.

I sent her an email and explained the situation and he response his really upset me, she believes that I have "reached my genetic potential" and that i should re-assess my physical goals as she doesn???t believe my body will ever gain the muscle i want. infact she's suggested i look into "other sport"

Right now im the girl everyone considers to be in good shape , but i want to be the girl in GREAT shape. Honestly i know im in better shape than most women my age but i'm struggling to belive that this is IT that after 12months i've genetically maxed out??

Is it possible to max out after 12 months?? Really I???m not very muscular?? im 18% body fat at just 120lbs Surely I can't have reached my limit yet? Im not looking to turn into miss universe.. just add some quality lean mass so i can sit around 14-15% body fat without looking sick.

 

[Gazhole]

Your trainer was an idiot, and obviously didn't know how to keep you making progress, so threw a cop-out line to take the blame off her.

While it's true that it is more difficult for women to gain lean mass when compared to men, i'd hardly say you're at your genetic limit this early into your training career!

My guess is that theres a problem with your diet or training plans somewhere that needs to be addressed. After a year, the "newbie gains" tend to have petered out completely, and you really have to start learning and training hard.

Definitely lots of progress to be made though, so don't get de-motivated! Your trainer was obviously all talk and no real knowledge if they would tell you something like that.

Go read in the training section and the nutrition section - there are a number of "stickied" topics always at the top of each forum that have lots of good information and links.

Read through them and compare them to what you're doing now, just so you know where you stand. After that, if you have any specific questions feel free to post in those sections for help

 

[Elisa]

Thanks

I think i've known for a while what the problem is, i'm pretty sure it's as simple as a lack of calorie's. I had to practically force my trainer to up my calories when i first started to slow down in the gain's department.

Back at Easter she had me do a very short lived cut, i didn't want to cut because i felt i still had gain's to make and i didn't feel i'd made the gain's i needed.

I humoured her for a few weeks then i really had to really put my foot down and insist that i wanted to do a real bulk. Even then when she got the plan back to me it was very low on calories (lower than the calories i'd been on during the first bulk). I wasn't happy with it but she insisted she'd watch me and tweek as we went along.

I'm a pretty hard gainer, i've never gained weight especially easily and i've alway's been able to eat "like a man" as my dear mother would but it. By that point i'd already worked out alot about my body and i knew the diet she gave me wasn't one i was going to gain on 3 months later and here i am, she's never did "tweek the diet".

Tbh i feel like abit of an idiot i knew i wouldn't gain weight when i saw the diet but because i was paying her money i kept telling myself that "whats the point in paying if your going to dismiss her advice?"

Ugh i guess i just needed to hear someone else say it...

 

[Built]

Humour me.

What macros do you run, and detail your current training.

 

[Elisa]

i posted this on the post i have over on the nutrition board but here it is again

1945 Cals
51g fats
222g Carbs
194g Protien
14g fibre

I haven't included green fiberous veg as my trainer always concidered it free so i eat a big portion of that with 2 of my meals a day which gets the rest of my fibre in.

Doing a 5 day split atm mon-friday midday. But i also dance for 3 hours on a tueday night as im a proffesional dancer, being the sad little geek i a i know my HRM tells me i can easily burn 2k cals in a hard night.

All in all i suspect im training to much and not eating enough.

 

[Built]

More detail please. Lifts, reps, sets, weights used.

 

[Elisa]

My routine it's self changes every 4 weeks and it's different every time. I lift till failure and i try and up the weight on at least one exercise every day but i'll admit i've been pretty stuck and havn't upped anything much in a while.

I have a 30 second break between set and there is no machine work, some cables but none of my workout is ever using the lifting machines the closest is the pully's and cables and the rest is free weights.

I don't know how much detail you want, as i say it changed every 4 weeks. Mostly it was fairly compound movements atm the moment my rest periods at the moments is 60 seconds.

for example arms :- (don't laugh i know im a wimp )

drag curls - 4 x 8 - 20kg
preacherCurls 5 x 8 - 15kg
Alt Db curls 4 x 8 - 10kg
Incline Db curls 5 x 6 - 7kg
Skullcrushers 4 x 8 10kg
Assisted dips 4 x 8 22kg
close grip benchpress 4 x 8 - 17.5kg

Back :-

good mornings 3 x 10 - 30kg
t bar row 6 x 6 40kg
close grip cable row 5x5 35kg
prone row - 4 x 6 15kg per arm

Is that enough info or do you need the rest does that give you enough of an idea tbh all other body parts follow similar pattern 4-5 exercises per location, 4 sets of roughly 8 reps.

If im honest im really struggling to balance the dancing and weights if i work to hard on the tue afternoon (leg day) i can't dance for crap in the evening, also in reverse wednesday i'm totally knackered and my back day is often a disaster as the dance i do is quite back/core intensive. tbh after 3 hours dancing your often lucky i can move the next day.

Only difference is legs i was doing typical DL's Squats etc but this last month she's taken them all away replacing them with body weight exercises (blah) because im quite bottom heavy and atm about the only place i have any sort of reasonable muscle tone is my legs so she didn't want to increase the size there till the rest of me (esp arms) catch up.

 

[Built]

How much can you below-parallel barbell squat for 5 reps?
How about deadlift, bench press?

 

[Elisa]

I can just about below below-parallel barbell squat 65kg

deadlift 55kg (wrist/grip give out more than back/legs)

and flat benchpress 25kg (my upper obdy is really what lets me down)

 

[Built]

Forgive me, this is going to sound mean and it's not intended that way, I intend to help you with this, but what kind of moron trainer would think you have reached your genetic potential when you only bench 25kg?

The deadlift thing is simple: use straps. You're a bodybuilder, not a powerlifter. There is no need to let your grip strength limit your back and hamstring development. Your squat is respectable; your deadlift should be heavier still. What form do you use for deads - conventional, RDL...?

 

[Elisa]

On the deads i've done all sorts of different kids, sumo, rdl's conventional, 55kg is RDL's i find them easier than conventional conventional im at about 45-50k

I do have a set of straps i sometimes use but i was worried about making my weak link (wrists) weaker i figured that if i could do without then later on i would be in a better position or should i be using them anyway?

the bench press is awful.. at least i have weight on the bar now haha .. when i first started going into the weightroom and benching an empty olympic bar was frankly embarrasing expecially because i used to struggle with that and got myself stuck a few times, there is nothing like getting missing the rack and having to call out for help with an empty bar. im sure all the big men in the weights room thought the silly little girl was quite amusing.

Tbh fair i suspect the Trainer used the excuse to hide the fact that she just didn't know how to take me to the next level or why i wasn't progressing. I suspect she is more used to training women trying to shed fat rather than women who are looking to get muscular. Let's face it far to many women as still reluctant to hit the weights, even though i know she's done competitive figure comp's herself this is most likely not the area she has most experience in.

 

[Gazhole]

I find a lot of trainers are used to working with people who have never worked out before, therefore its fairly simple to get them results doing any old crap because they've been sedentary all their lives.

When this wears off and they actually need to teach you something, they have no idea what to do.

And if training on tuesday and wednesday is a struggle because of dancing, pretty simple to change your training days to Monday, Thursday, Saturday. Still three days a week, you're just putting the "weekend rest" in the middle of the week, lol.

 

[Elisa]

Yeah i totally agree i think that was the case with me, in the early days anything was bound to be an improvement because although i danced i also ate total crap, cheese on toast or pizza was concidered the pre-work out meal of choice haha.

I've thought about moving my days arouund, unfortunatly i live 25miles away from my gym as my gym is near work rather than near home which makes it a long trip to just hit the gym. I tend to hit the gym in my lunch break at work you see what is really convienient. It can be done it's just a pain which is why i tend to work out mon-friday.