[quote]ns182 wrote:
This was CTs reply for me (fairly similar).
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There is some very good information in this thread.
– How old are you?
– I know you said you do 5/3/1 BBB… what was your template/split specifically?
– Have you had blood work/T-levels checked?
– How much conditioning do you do on top of this (if any)?
My situation is kind of similar, but I’m 5’10-11 started at a lean 155/160 with long limbs. My squat was embarrassing, and it still lags to this day.
With me personally, I made my best gains on a 3 day fullbody or a 4 day upper/lower split. Once I paid as much attention to my diet as my workouts, I made progress. I know that for me, FREQUENCY was the key. Low volume, but frequent workouts. I made zero progress on the 5 day split hitting each body-part 1 day a week.
I progressed a lot in the deadlift, but never saw much gains in size. The 3 exercises that really helped me put on weight were:
- weighted pull-ups (my favorite. both for back and arms. put 1" on my arms)
- Front Squat (finally saw improvements with the tape measure)
- Frequent overhead pressing (standing barbell, seated DB, Smith-Machine high incline)
Every week I would do 1 heavy session (like CT’s ramp style w/ clusters), and another higher day training at 60%-70% keeping short of failure.
I’m now 185. I’m not as lean, but at least my friends and co-workers now approach me for “workout advice”. To me, that’s when I finally occurred to me that I made progress, since I still am critical of myself.