Am I even Human?

thelostbreed02
thelostbreed02 Posts: 87 Member
So what's weird is that I lifted for about 2 years now. Possibly a bit more. I started out pretty heavy and about 30% bf according to machines
Now I'm lighter and lower bodyfat. For the past months I've been trying to bulk on an intermittent fasting protocol and I'm pretty sure my body weight is increasing and my physique I think MIGHT be maintaining or slightly improving but somehow the weights I am lifting during my workouts have stalled or DECLINED. For example my bench press and my overhead press declined significantly more than what it used to be...
Am I just weird or infected?
Seriously I'm actually concerned because I wanted to get stronger and put on muscle size

Replies

  • jasonpoihegatama
    jasonpoihegatama Posts: 496 Member
    How much you lift?
  • magnusthenerd
    magnusthenerd Posts: 1,207 Member
    Have you done a deload cycle at all yet? You may have accumulated fatigue that is hiding fitness progress.
  • se015
    se015 Posts: 583 Member
    Could be overtraining, that not only exists but is pretty common with newbies.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Have you done a deload cycle at all yet? You may have accumulated fatigue that is hiding fitness progress.

    Never unless you call vacation a deload. I try to burn calories to be considered "active "...a deload I feel makes you fall under the sedentary lifestyle tdee factor

    The what now?

    Which lifting program are you using?
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    edited January 2019
    Have you done a deload cycle at all yet? You may have accumulated fatigue that is hiding fitness progress.

    Never unless you call vacation a deload. I try to burn calories to be considered "active "...a deload I feel makes you fall under the sedentary lifestyle tdee factor

    That comment in relation to the "weird or infected" question in your OP definitely leans towards the weird part!
    Deload doesn't mean being inactive.

    Are you training during the fasting part of your day?
    That may be an issue, some people train well fasted, some don't and need to have eaten recently to train at their best, some take an extended period of time to adapt to fasted training.

  • thelostbreed02
    thelostbreed02 Posts: 87 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    Have you done a deload cycle at all yet? You may have accumulated fatigue that is hiding fitness progress.

    Never unless you call vacation a deload. I try to burn calories to be considered "active "...a deload I feel makes you fall under the sedentary lifestyle tdee factor

    That comment in relation to the "weird or infected" question in your OP definitely leans towards the weird part!
    Deload doesn't mean being inactive.

    Are you training during the fasting part of your day?
    That may be an issue, some people train well fasted, some don't and need to have eaten recently to train at their best, some take an extended period of time to adapt to fasted training.

    I fast and when I get home I eat and walk to the gym about 10 minutes after which takes prob 20 minutes
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    Are you using a proven, progressive lifting program?
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited January 2019
    So what's weird is that I lifted for about 2 years now. Possibly a bit more. I started out pretty heavy and about 30% bf according to machines
    Now I'm lighter and lower bodyfat. For the past months I've been trying to bulk on an intermittent fasting protocol and I'm pretty sure my body weight is increasing and my physique I think MIGHT be maintaining or slightly improving but somehow the weights I am lifting during my workouts have stalled or DECLINED. For example my bench press and my overhead press declined significantly more than what it used to be...
    Am I just weird or infected?
    Seriously I'm actually concerned because I wanted to get stronger and put on muscle size

    20 mins in the gym?? 'might be' and 'pretty sure' actually says you are not sure.

    What do you do in the gym exactly? What has your weight done in the past 4 weeks?

    Following a structured lifting program? How often do you recover/rest in between your work outs?
    What does your protein intake look like in your diet?

    Could this eating schedule you are doing through IF be impacting your performance?

    Bulking efficiently is the end goal, also need to gauge what your weight is doing too.
  • 2snakeswoman
    2snakeswoman Posts: 655 Member
    Another thing to consider: You're coming down with a virus of some kind.
  • thelostbreed02
    thelostbreed02 Posts: 87 Member
    Have you done a deload cycle at all yet? You may have accumulated fatigue that is hiding fitness progress.

    Never unless you call vacation a deload. I try to burn calories to be considered "active "...a deload I feel makes you fall under the sedentary lifestyle tdee factor

    The what now?

    Which lifting program are you using?

    PPL so 6 workouts a week
  • thelostbreed02
    thelostbreed02 Posts: 87 Member
    JBanx256 wrote: »
    I'm pretty sure my body weight is increasing e

    You are literally telling us you don't even know if your bodyweight is increasing or not, which tells us you are absolutely NOT tracking your bodyweight/nutrition. Logic then tells me your tracking of any sort of workout is also sorely lacking, meaning...there's a 99+% chance you're not following an established, progressive lifting program (you've also made it painfully obvious you don't know what a deload is, so after your claimed TWO YEARS of lifting, you probably should do a little research). You have a LOT of stuff you need to get squared-away here.

    As a side note...if you are concerned with some sort of "infection" then you prolly need to see your medical professional.

    The infection part was a joke
  • thelostbreed02
    thelostbreed02 Posts: 87 Member
    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    So what's weird is that I lifted for about 2 years now. Possibly a bit more. I started out pretty heavy and about 30% bf according to machines
    Now I'm lighter and lower bodyfat. For the past months I've been trying to bulk on an intermittent fasting protocol and I'm pretty sure my body weight is increasing and my physique I think MIGHT be maintaining or slightly improving but somehow the weights I am lifting during my workouts have stalled or DECLINED. For example my bench press and my overhead press declined significantly more than what it used to be...
    Am I just weird or infected?
    Seriously I'm actually concerned because I wanted to get stronger and put on muscle size

    20 mins in the gym?? 'might be' and 'pretty sure' actually says you are not sure.

    What do you do in the gym exactly? What has your weight done in the past 4 weeks?

    Following a structured lifting program? How often do you recover/rest in between your work outs?
    What does your protein intake look like in your diet?

    Could this eating schedule you are doing through IF be impacting your performance?

    Bulking efficiently is the end goal, also need to gauge what your weight is doing too.

    1.5 hours 6 days a week pishpulllegs
  • thelostbreed02
    thelostbreed02 Posts: 87 Member
    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    So what's weird is that I lifted for about 2 years now. Possibly a bit more. I started out pretty heavy and about 30% bf according to machines
    Now I'm lighter and lower bodyfat. For the past months I've been trying to bulk on an intermittent fasting protocol and I'm pretty sure my body weight is increasing and my physique I think MIGHT be maintaining or slightly improving but somehow the weights I am lifting during my workouts have stalled or DECLINED. For example my bench press and my overhead press declined significantly more than what it used to be...
    Am I just weird or infected?
    Seriously I'm actually concerned because I wanted to get stronger and put on muscle size

    20 mins in the gym?? 'might be' and 'pretty sure' actually says you are not sure.

    What do you do in the gym exactly? What has your weight done in the past 4 weeks?

    Following a structured lifting program? How often do you recover/rest in between your work outs?
    What does your protein intake look like in your diet?

    Could this eating schedule you are doing through IF be impacting your performance?

    Bulking efficiently is the end goal, also need to gauge what your weight is doing too.

    IF could be hurting me I think but I'm paranoid of LOTS of fat gain and hunger pangs when I start eating breakfast
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited January 2019
    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    So what's weird is that I lifted for about 2 years now. Possibly a bit more. I started out pretty heavy and about 30% bf according to machines
    Now I'm lighter and lower bodyfat. For the past months I've been trying to bulk on an intermittent fasting protocol and I'm pretty sure my body weight is increasing and my physique I think MIGHT be maintaining or slightly improving but somehow the weights I am lifting during my workouts have stalled or DECLINED. For example my bench press and my overhead press declined significantly more than what it used to be...
    Am I just weird or infected?
    Seriously I'm actually concerned because I wanted to get stronger and put on muscle size

    20 mins in the gym?? 'might be' and 'pretty sure' actually says you are not sure.

    What do you do in the gym exactly? What has your weight done in the past 4 weeks?

    Following a structured lifting program? How often do you recover/rest in between your work outs?
    What does your protein intake look like in your diet?

    Could this eating schedule you are doing through IF be impacting your performance?

    Bulking efficiently is the end goal, also need to gauge what your weight is doing too.

    IF could be hurting me I think but I'm paranoid of LOTS of fat gain and hunger pangs when I start eating breakfast
    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    So what's weird is that I lifted for about 2 years now. Possibly a bit more. I started out pretty heavy and about 30% bf according to machines
    Now I'm lighter and lower bodyfat. For the past months I've been trying to bulk on an intermittent fasting protocol and I'm pretty sure my body weight is increasing and my physique I think MIGHT be maintaining or slightly improving but somehow the weights I am lifting during my workouts have stalled or DECLINED. For example my bench press and my overhead press declined significantly more than what it used to be...
    Am I just weird or infected?
    Seriously I'm actually concerned because I wanted to get stronger and put on muscle size

    20 mins in the gym?? 'might be' and 'pretty sure' actually says you are not sure.

    What do you do in the gym exactly? What has your weight done in the past 4 weeks?

    Following a structured lifting program? How often do you recover/rest in between your work outs?
    What does your protein intake look like in your diet?

    Could this eating schedule you are doing through IF be impacting your performance?

    Bulking efficiently is the end goal, also need to gauge what your weight is doing too.

    IF could be hurting me I think but I'm paranoid of LOTS of fat gain and hunger pangs when I start eating breakfast

    I wonder if your program is the right program for you, this ideally is for intermediate and advanced trainers and you have almost no recovery days built in.

    I'd honestly look at recomp instead of bulking as well. Lots of apprehension regarding fat gain, and wonder what body fat % you started your bulk at.

    So at this point I am unclear exactly what you are looking for.

    Reassess your training and program, recovery and your calorie intake. If the way you eat doesn't work, change it. Taking recovery/rest days is essential to the process, so take more recovery days. Utilize deloading, its a good strategy to use.
  • billkansas
    billkansas Posts: 267 Member
    edited January 2019
    I feel your pain. I cut about 15 lbs last year and all my lifts went down, or stagnated (intermediate, 49 year old, 2 day per week lifter). I've been reading on Barbell Medicine, watching youtube videos by Mike Israetel and Alan Thrall and got a few big takeaways: 1. Up volume 2. Lower intensity 3. Measure both "smarter" via RPE estimates.

    Hope this helps... recognize you'll probably need to research these topics like I did. Admittedly, this hasn't helped me yet as I'm just off my cut for 4 weeks and am nursing a slight injury (purposefully not squatting or deadlifting at high intensity).
  • JBanx256
    JBanx256 Posts: 1,479 Member
    billkansas wrote: »
    watching youtube videos by Mike Israetel .

    Mike Israetel is AWESOME. Cannot recommend his stuff enough. If you don't have a subscription to RP+ I promise you it's $10 well spent!

  • thelostbreed02
    thelostbreed02 Posts: 87 Member
    billkansas wrote: »
    I feel your pain. I cut about 15 lbs last year and all my lifts went down, or stagnated (intermediate, 49 year old, 2 day per week lifter). I've been reading on Barbell Medicine, watching youtube videos by Mike Israetel and Alan Thrall and got a few big takeaways: 1. Up volume 2. Lower intensity 3. Measure both "smarter" via RPE estimates.

    Hope this helps... recognize you'll probably need to research these topics like I did. Admittedly, this hasn't helped me yet as I'm just off my cut for 4 weeks and am nursing a slight injury (purposefully not squatting or deadlifting at high intensity).

    Heyy I watch them too. Honestly I probably do too much volume and the only reason I can do so much is due to my long rest periods hence workouts lasting about 2 hours. And what do you mean measure smarter?
  • thelostbreed02
    thelostbreed02 Posts: 87 Member
    Basically I follow a push pull legs program and do pyramid sets for majority of my exercises. I dont eat until I get home from school and then 10 minutes after that I walk to the gym which takes 15 minutes
  • thelostbreed02
    thelostbreed02 Posts: 87 Member
    Basically I follow a push pull legs program and do pyramid sets for majority of my exercises. I dont eat until I get home from school and then 10 minutes after that I walk to the gym which takes 15 minutes

    Could this be why I'm weaker at the gym?
    I did IF for about 2 years now but it's only been the past few months where my progress sort of went wild
  • Stockholm_Andy
    Stockholm_Andy Posts: 803 Member
    https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/how-to-deload Based on an earlier response to someone I'm not sure you realise what a deload is.

    As the IF no I don't think it's the reason you've plateaued. As I understand it you've been doing it for 2 years and nothing has changed.

    You're eating your first meal 25 minutes before you train too which also shouldn't be a problem.

    I'd read the article on how to deload and try that. Some times you need to back off a bit to smash through a PB.

    Also if you've been doing the same PPL for 2 years I'd personally look at trying a different program. Maybe Wendler's 531 which can be good if you've stalled IMHO.

  • Could be your diet, are you getting enough protein
  • billkansas
    billkansas Posts: 267 Member
    I learned about the concept of RPE (rate of perceived effort) via resources I mentioned above. I now log every set of every exercise with a (somewhat subjective) measurement called RPE. My goal is to more intelligently measure the amount of training volume I achieve each week and what the intensity (and average intensity) was. My goal is to make sure I'm gradually increasing the volume over time and to make sure the intensity is appropriate (and for me right now, that it is not too high). I'm just starting to measure this... I'm no expert (go check the resources I mentioned above for more info- they're the experts). Hope this helps.... can't afford to type a book here but if you go research the topic of RPE- I think it will benefit you.
  • thelostbreed02
    thelostbreed02 Posts: 87 Member
    Could be your diet, are you getting enough protein

    I think so
  • Kait_Dee
    Kait_Dee Posts: 176 Member
    Eat more. Work harder. Rest frequently.

    I eat 4000kcal on training days.

    I bust *kitten* in the gym until I crawl out (weekly PRs).

    Train 4x a week for 5-6 weeks, deload for 2 weeks with only 4 modest training sessions in the two weeks.

    Look up Fortitude Training. It’ll be the best $20 you ever spend.
  • thelostbreed02
    thelostbreed02 Posts: 87 Member
    Kait_Dee wrote: »
    Eat more. Work harder. Rest frequently.

    I eat 4000kcal on training days.

    I bust *kitten* in the gym until I crawl out (weekly PRs).

    Train 4x a week for 5-6 weeks, deload for 2 weeks with only 4 modest training sessions in the two weeks.

    Look up Fortitude Training. It’ll be the best $20 you ever spend.

    Sorry not to be sexist or anything but 4000 calories even for grown males is above average but how do you accumulate such a high tdee for a gender that usually burns high end of 2000 cals?
This discussion has been closed.