I don't get lifting

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

I just don’t understand this.I look at my old numbers,14 months ago I could do 150 poundsX7 on incline press and today I did 8(at peak bulk I did 10).My bodyweight is around the same yet my physique looks better.Same with almost all pressing excersises(my OHP is up 2 reps from 10 to 12 at 105 lbs etc.),and even though there is a bigger gap in pulling excersises at it’s not much.

I always seem to gain the same amount of strength while bulking and go back to my old strength numbers when I drop to the exact same BW,yet my physique looks better.Like for example for my last 2 bulks exact same thing happened where I went from 180 pounds to 195 pounds,my OHP went from 1RM 135 lbs to 150,my incline press went from 1RM 185 lbs to 200 lbs(notice the exact difference of always 15 pounds too…as if it’s pound to pound),then it drops to the similar numbers when I drop back to 180.(Say at most it’s 1 to 2 reps more in AMRAP’s as I said in the beginning,or 5 to 10 pounds in 1RM.But this should be very slow progress no??).Yet my body seems to have grown.It’s so weird I dont get it.It’s like all my pressing strength is tied to my BW and it’s like I used to press the same weight due to more fat and now due to more muscle??(I know it’s very stupid but I cant find any other explanation…)I also just dont understand how everyone doesnt gain and lose the exact same strength when they do bulk&cut,starting and ending at the same weight.It happened to me twice now and in total ate up my about 12 to 15 months.Does anyone hold onto the strength they gain during bulk?I clearly cant.Yes I get enough protein btw

Tldr:I always gain 2 to 3 reps on my pressing excersises(even curls for that matter) as I gain bodyweight,then I lose those reps back as I drop to my pre-bulk BW.But my physique somehow looks better

2

How much bodyweight are you gaining when you bulk? How much do you cut when you cut? How many times have you run these cycles? What was your initial starting weight, and what have you arrived at now?

3

It’s written in the post no? For the last 2 bulk&cut(bulk-cut,bulk-cut) cycles, I start from 180 and go to 195, then drop back down 180, ending with either similar or very marginally stronger numbers than I started.

4

Why are you bulking and cutting within this specific weight range?

5

You must forgive me, but your post is a confusing jumble of numbers and letters, and does not answer many of the questions I asked.

Would you be willing to answer them? Your willingness to answer them will impact my willingness to impart assistance.

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6

Which questions I didn’t answer? I said both times I started at 180 and bulked to 195 and then cut to 180 back. So always 15 lbs gained and lost.

7

These questions.

Unless you are meaning to say you’ve only done this twice, and you started at 180lbs, in which case I’d also like to know your height and age.

8

Its not a preselected choice, I just dont like how fat I get around 195 and then by 180 I lose a lot of belly fat(even though dont see abs,just dont have protruding stomach anymore) and my face starts to look sunken.

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9

And this took 12-15 months?

So, you bulk for 3-4 months then cut for 3-4 months?

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10

I’m 23 and 5’10. I started lifting about 3 years ago,just gained some base level muscle and strength from 140 lbs up to 180 lbs.And then in the first serious bulk&cut I did, I got up to 195,went down to 180 back.Exactly the same for the second bulk&cut.

11

This is not surprising. This is typically referred to as “wheel spinning”. Your strength is simply scaling to your bodyweight in both directions. Using a powerlifitng co-efficient formula would allow you to track where you are landing proportionally as far as a strength by bodyweight ratio goes.

You’re accumulating a good amount of glycogen, water and food mass going up, and losing that same amount going down.

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12

Yes, about 4 to 5 cycles of 5/3/1 for each bulk or cut, sometimes I have to stop for a week,sometimes I maintain for a couple weeks etc.

13

So… as I was asking in the original post, by the end of the cuts my physique is actually improved.I can see that from the photos,mirror,t-shirts.It’s just that my strength is “wheel spinning”. Maybe before I was lifting the same weights due to having more fat like strongmans(not that I am calling them fat,but you know some of those bellies…),and now actually because of my muscles?

Also what do you suggest? That I gain more than 15 pounds? Sure my strength will increase more, but won’t I again lose the exact same amount of strength if I cut back to 180? Thus me not understanding lifting…

14

I would not set my gaining and losing based on bodyweight. I lose based on leanness and gained based on sustainability. As long as my lifts are increasing and I can sustain the nutrition behind it, I would gain. Once it becomes unsustainable, I’d lose until I am a level of leanness that is suitable to gain again, and not so lean that I damage my hormones.

15

You didn’t ask me, but no.

Slow down your bulk rate. You should be gaining not more than .5lbs per week, and it sounds like you’re gaining closer to 1lb per week.

3 Likes
16

I actually do the same,not based on BW. By both end of my bulks I was completely done with eating and training and by the end of the cuts I didn’t want to eat little food anymore was satisfied my bodyfat levels.But thanks for the suggestion anyway. Do you have any answer about my first question about lifting due to fat vs muscle? And it leading to having a better physique despite similar strength levels? I always wondered about that.

17

You are right. I do always gain a bit fast. But the first weeks are always a lot of water and then I put a lot of assistance to the program and it pushes me.Definitely planning a completely different bulking program for the next time tho.

18

Have you considered that you are putting too much assistance into your program so that you aren’t actually recovering and long-term progress?

I don’t think I’ve ever really lost strength during a deficit, so im curious how your training really goes.

19

Weight moves weight. Its why I mentioned using a coefficient.

20

I do cut down on asisstance during cuts. But even looking at my records now, I can literally see I went from 155X8 to 155X7 in 2 weeks after I started to cut on incline bench.My pressing strength is heavily dependent on my food intake and BW and I am always envy of people like you who say they dont lose strength.How do you train during cuts?