college kidd in trouble bulking

[hawks31]

im in college. 5'6 just peaking at 165 for the first time. I've been lifting hard for about a year and have gained maybe 10 to 15 pounds. I'm waking up early to get to the caff and eat eat eat. ive working out with this bulking routine with tons of weight/less reps for about 2 months now. ive gained maybe 3 pounds. Now in the last week or two I see the weight in exercises (bench most noticeably) is dropping and I can't do as much. I'm working my ass off and eating my ass off. what the hell should i do?

 

[Rodja]

Maybe you should take a week off from lifting. It is quite common to take a week off every 2-3 months.

 

[OCCFan023]

Eat even more (and not just any food try to make sure you get in high protein amounts.) Now I'm not saying your not eating a lot but as you said you've been lifting continually and eating and you have gained weight and now you are plateauing (which is inevitable.) Now you either need to take a break (like Rodja said) and hit it hard when you get back, change up your routine (You said you recently started low reps high weight or have you always been doing this?) or you need to up your food intake since what you were eating 25 pounds ago got you to this point but now you need that much more.

 

[nosnmiveins]

all i gotta say is eat!!...but candy and beer wont get u there,lol. im a college student myself and i stick to the basics when it comes to protein....tuna, chicken, whey and LOTS of it. do u take any whey supplement? what about bcaa's?

 

[rpen22]

Maybe you're waking up TOO early to get to the caff.
How much sleep per night do you get on average? Rest is a very important aspect of growth.

 

[hawks31]

i get about 7 hours hours of sleep most nights. right now im taking whey protein, creakic(just started), leukic and nanovapor. they dont seem to be working as well as before. but i hear u guys when u say eat even more. god im gona be full. and yeah the light weight more reps is every 4th week to switch up from my heavy lifting. am i doing everything i can?
thanks fellas

 

[drksun]

i get about 7 hours hours of sleep most nights. right now im taking whey protein, creakic(just started), leukic and nanovapor. they dont seem to be working as well as before. but i hear u guys when u say eat even more. god im gona be full. and yeah the light weight more reps is every 4th week to switch up from my heavy lifting. am i doing everything i can?
thanks fellas

1. Take those GNC supps. back, there are a lot better and cheaper things you can get from nutraplanet or at real nutrition store. Creakic is just creatine, get come cee, and leikic is just leucine (a bcaa in protein), spend your money on food not bs supps.

2. Try to get ad-least 8hr of sleep, you should take this week of if ur feeling it, sometimes i take a week or two off, and i come back stronger than i was before, you just need to take a break every once in awhile and fully recover and let your body catch up, but dont slack of on your eating with u take a break.

you can also try max-ot or a westside barbell program, im on my third week of a wbb program and my bench has gone up 10lb, and im getting stronger every week. Try Westside for Skinny Bastards

 

[brywal312]

Also, It may be possible that you are overtraining. I agree with Rodja take a week off. Change up you workout some and try to find some new ways to work the muscles. IE: Dumbells instead of barbells or even throw in some cowbell or high intensity bodyweight excercises.

 

[TenMan]

Sounds like it's time for a break. Remember you grow outside of the gym when you're sleeping, NOT in the gym.

 

[jomi822]

well you arent at your genetic potential judging by your height so its always one of these 3 things

1. not enough food (probably the case)
2. not enough sleep (appears to be the case)
3. training style (fill us in)

you need at least 8 hours of sleep a night if you are serious about growing.

you need to eat 500 cals over maintainance a day. use this to check it.

http://www.fitday.com/


when in doubt- drink a quart of milk before bed

 

[hawks31]

i agree with 2 of ur 3 points. i could definitely eat more. seems like i cant find the time always. any good quick replacement meal supps or what? and my training is 3 weeks of heavy and a 4th for a pump. 3 weeks consists of 3 sets of 5-8 reps with 3 days.. chest/tri, legs/shoulders, back bi... then a pump week with tons of reps for lighter weight. i feel like im really plateauing... my rest is there i def get the 8 hours a night. if you're saying the leukic and creakic aren't worth it, what would u suggest as far as supps go

 

[nelix]

Eat more. Rest more.

Try changing your sets around, if you pull a lot, try pushing a lot... If you do high reps, try low reps, if you do low reps, try high reps.

Try dedicating a day to any lagging body parts and give it a full days rest before doing any other parts...

And if Rodja thinks a week off is worth while, I'm inclined to agree (nohomo)

 

[richirich_99]

you sound like you got the same body type I have, hard as hell to put the mass on. like everyone else has said gotta sleep and eat. dont worry about supps so much, just spend the money on food! good luck!

 

[Flexo]

When it comes to eating, most people think they're eating enough, but in reality they're not even close. When people say you have to eat, eat, eat, they really mean it! I use the nutritional calculator from AST's website and I like it just as good as anything else. For instance, I weigh 180lbs, so a good daily calorie intake for me if I wanted to gain mass would be around 3300. That means around 358g of protein, 316g of carbohydrates, and around 70g of fat. Although sometimes I subtract some from the protein and add to the carbohydrates.

Give this calculator a try:
http://www.ast-ss.com/asp/weight.asp

Of course it just spits out an estimate, but it's as good as any other tool out there. Good luck!

 

[MPFit]

In all honesty, I think your on the right track with the eating as much as possible and excercising..
But to me it sounds like your traning style is not very developed.. If you've been doing the 3week-heavy 1week-rep for such a long time, your body may have become "used" to the workout, which means the routine you have may not be stimulating enough to enduce growth anymore (ie. you've seen all the gains your going to see from it)

If thats the case, just find a new training routine/regimine that you can complete in the same amount of time.. Or even keep the same idea, just change bodyparts around (Change to antagonist muscle groups like Bi/Tri and Chest/Back).

If this doesn't work, and you are sure your getting in around 3500 calories (i would consider this the minimum to gain weight unless your really skinny) then take a week off of training.. Overtraining might be the case although I doubt it. Eitherway, overtraining is like #1 or 2 problem with people unable to gain weight.. You don't want to put your body in a catablic state by overtraining..

 

[bigrabbit]

sounds like you had the same problem i did a few weeks back. i took off a whole 2 weeks, came back and had monsterous gains and my strength increased rapidly... take that hard earnt break as soon as possible if you havent already!

 

[amt4331]

Deload!!!!! If you've been going hard at it for a few months without a break you need one. As for supps, I have no idea...