No strength gains in months...

Francl27

A year ago I started lifting 'heavy'. What I mean by that is 3 sets of 10-12 reps with heavy weights 3x a week (trying for 12 but typically failing by then). I stopped seeing any progress after 3 months or so, then gave up after another 5 months and moved on to PiYo this Summer.

I started again last month, and I'm still stuck at the same weights... It doesn't help I guess that my weights only go up by 5 pounds, so it's a miracle if I can do 8 reps with the heavier weights, but I've been trying that too and still not seeing any progress.

Is that normal? It's just frustrating not to see much improvement. I mean, I'm doing ChaLean Extreme (loosely, considering most of the lower body exercises offer no challenge at all with weights to work the upper body) right now and I lift the same weights as she does or heavier, but still. I'm pretty much still using the same weights I was 8 months ago (except triceps, I actually increased my strength in those with PiYo).

I've been eating at a small deficit but haven't really lost much weight at all in months either, I would think that eating close to maintenance would help with strength gain but I'm not seeing it (granted, there have been hormonal issues that have affected my weight loss too).

JTick

What lifts do you do?

What weight did you start at, and what do you lift now?

DvlDwnInGA

It is going to be hard to see any real significant strength gains once you plateau while eating in a deficit.

kelly_e_montana

Well, you may have moved beyond the point of newbie gains and things will be more difficult now. However, it doesn't sound like you've really stuck with it for 6-12 months straight, so that might not even be the issue...

First of all, you're not doing a typical strength progression and what you have been doing sounds pretty haphazard. When you move into a plateau, you need to start being strategic and targeted to your goals. You're doing a body building type of workout with the reps and sets you mention. Perhaps check out a 5x5 program like Stronglifts or read New Rules of Lifting for Women since it doesn't sound like you've been doing a mainstream *strength* building program yet. As an aside, I did what you did for years and plateaued and when I switched to a real strength program (Wendler 5/3/1), I had pretty decent gains again. Now I'm ready to move to an intermediate program that mixes up volume and intensity in the same week. Adapt your training to where you are in your progress and where you'd like to be.

The point is that you need to get on a particular progression and stick with it for a while. The progressions will have set amounts of reps and volume you should do each week, and they will generally have programmed deloads as well.

Nia Shanks of Lift Like a Girl has a great 2 day a week program for busy people who want strength gains. Check it out on Facebook.

You say a small deficit. Are you eating enough protein? Eat more than MFP recommends; you could start with 1 g per pound of lean mass per day and see how that goes.

kirkor

Also the possibility that it's in your head.

SideSteel

The point is that you need to get on a particular progression and stick with it for a while. The progressions will have set amounts of reps and volume you should do each week, and they will generally have programmed deloads as well.

^ Basically this, IMO.

If you are looking to get stronger, program for strength.

EDIT: That's not to say you can't also get stronger with a hypertrophy program -- you would just want to follow a progression that's programmed in. Based on the OP I'm not clear on whether this is the case, vs just "trying to add weight".

h7463

Hey! Maybe you need a better view on how those 'gains' actually work.

Let me try to get this into a nut shell for you:

Muscles need to be stimulated to grow and get stronger. There are different ways, but all basically start by tearing up little muscle fibers (causing muscle inflammations ON PURPOSE..) which sets a chain reaction of biochemical processes in motion. Our body will try hard to repair the damage, and make the muscles a bit stronger, to prevent future damage.......or so it thinks. We, on the other hand, go back to the gym, and tear it up again...

In order to cause the 'damage' to the muscle, we can train either by OVERLOADING the muscle, to make the poor little fibers snap, or we can train TO FAILURE, which means the fibers will just give up tired anyway...

The term 'overload' is pretty much self-explanatory...lifting just heavy (no set weight, but heavy enough to complete just the prescribed reps in good form), so you can't stand the burn that the load will cause in your muscles. Rest a minute, repeat a set or to, move on to the next exercise.

Training to failure takes a bit more time. The weights don't have to be as heavy, and you don't necessarily do each exercise until you drop, but the exercise lineup has to be more challenging. You will be wearing out every fiber in the process.
You will be training muscle groups, preferably with super sets. That's 2 exercises, that work muscles from different angles, back to back, rest only after completion of both exercises. The super sets can have a set rep range, to make sure you can survive the complete training session, and you can add some extras at the end really 'to failure'.
Example for heavy superset: 4 sets of 10 reps each, barbell skull crushers, immediately followed by barbell curls, no more than 60 sec rest.
Easy example for triceps superset to failure: 3 sets of inverted rows (aka plank pullups) and diamond/triceps pushups, both until you fall off the bar, or drop on your face.

The reason behind training to failure is, to make the main muscles so tired, they have to delegate some of the work to other, usually less involved muscles. You get a bigger bang for your pain.

There are no miracles, though. You will have to stick with it. That you can't lift any heavier weights within a certain deadline, doesn't mean that it's not working. Go to the gym, tear it up for an hour, limit your rest times, then go home to give the muscles some time to repair. Work different muscle groups at a time, and rotate, so that the sore bits can heal sufficiently. Don't aim for all the big lifts on the same day. Devote one training day to a large compound lift at a time, and add smaller exercises to complement your workout. You will not have PRs in bench press, squats, or deadlifts all on the same day.

Eat more protein, drink up your water, and sleep well! Happy lifting! :flowerforyou:

psuLemon

Keep in mind that CLX is more of a anaerobic style weight lifting program and not a progressive program. If you want to stick with beachbody, I would suggest going to body beast. But even with that type, if you are in a deficit, your body will plateau until you add more calories.

natecooper75

When I see someone doing sets of 10+ reps, I don't say that it is training for strength. You will get stronger by doing this, especially if you have never lifted before, but I wouldn't say that your main goal from your workout plan would be gaining strength. There is a place for this in your program, but if getting stronger is your goal, you may want to look at a program that has a set and rep scheme in the 3 to 5 range for both. This gets you moving heavier weights and increases your strength more than what doing sets of 10 reps will do.

If this doesn't sound like what you are shooting for, I would try to find a solid program based on what you expect to see after you have been at it a while. Consistancy is key. You can't stop and pick up right where you left off.