I’ve been working out for 6 months now and during this time all of my muscles have grown well (been eating a lot and using protein+creatine), for example I’ve added about 1.5 inches to my biceps. The weird part is that I have gotten hardly any stronger! The mass gain isn’t fat, I know that for sure, and I’ve been doing mostly compound lifts…What’s up with this, how is it even possible? It’s really embarrassing to use 40lbs dumbells for curls when I look a lot stronger.
You have discovered one of the wonders of creatine. It makes muscles large by filling them up. This does not increase strenght, but it can and often does increase local muscle endurance.
Try a cycle of heavy weights and low reps to bring you strenght up.
Best of Luck
I would hazard a guess that it is your training. If you are not periodizing your weights upward you will never get any stronger. Remember, increased muscle mass does not equate to strength. There are tons of buff looking guys that could not bench, squat or deadlift their weight. You should be working up to heavy triples, doubles and singles at least 70% of your training time. Continuing the compound lifts without changing your rep/set scheme, will never amount to increases in strength. Only my guess though. What is your routine for the compound lifts?
Your problem is two fold, mental and training. Mental be cause it is pretty likely that you can lift more weight, more times than you did 6 months ago. Training because it is likely that you are not increasing you load and changing your routine around. If you train with 40 pounds, your body will adapt to training with 40 lbs, therefore you will not lift 100 lbs. you have to push the envelope. You want to be stronger, lift more weight.
pat
Here’s a more detailed description of my problem:
My goal is just size and looks (need them in my job), not strenght, but I still didn’t think my strenght level would remain almost the same! I have been switching things around a little: exercises (order and type), days in my split routine, reps, rest periods…I got pretty much all the core lifts in my 4 day a week split routine and some isolation: presses with dumbells, dips, curls, rows, stiff legged deads, pull-ups/lat pulldowns etc. Don’t think I’m overtraining, average is 12-15 work sets for one session, excluding abs.
I've read a lot about training and nutrition so I have some knowledge in this area. My diet is pretty much perfect for mass gain (40& prot, 30% fats, 30%carbs). I eat close to 300g protein daily, on average every two and a half to three hours, calories are over 3000, essential fats, you name it.
NOW here's the dilemma: What I didn't mention is that my legs (back as well, to a degree) have gotten stronger AND, WHILE I ALWAYS TRAIN THE REST OF MY BODY PARTS TO FAILURE, I NEVER DO IT FOR THE LEGS (too dangerous). As an example, for my quads I do leg press, hack squat and extensions. My leg press 10 rep max for one set has come up from 270lbs to 580lbs. Yes, I know there's no squat but I figure I can develop nice looking quads without potentially harming my lower back (had an injury a few years back). COULD IT BE that my problem is always training to failure with the other body parts, would this somehow overload my nervous system and inhibit strenght increase? Sorry for the long post, I hope somebody read this far!
Forgot to mention: Right now I keep my reps in the 6-8 range (for legs it’s 8-10). Of course, there are exceptions like calves and abs. I’ve used 10-12 before and experimented with over 15 but not often enough and only a couple of weeks at a time, I’m afraid. I’m gonna try NOT to train to failure, and progressively increase the load for some weeks before switching to the 12-15 rep range (with shorer rest periods etc) for a while. When I get my strength up a bit, if it was about that training to failure thing all along, I’ll probably try some of the T-mag programs like 12 weeks to super strenght/awesome arms etc. Sound good?
As I mentioned in my earlier post, your problem is your training. If you keep your rep ranges between 6-8 or 12-15 you will never get real strong. I don’t think even functionally strong. You MUST incorporate heavy singles, doubles and triples. Bag the leg press and extensions. Squatting correctly will not hurt your back. You just need to cycle your training every every 3-4 weeks. Sets and rep ranges. You can still look good with lower reps and heavier weights.
ok here are a few bits, i do think that leg presses can be harmful on the back… Anyway look up “Get Buffed” yes that is the title of Ian Kings book, BUT it is also the title of an article by King and he says a lot of interesting things like optimal work sets, intensity, excercise selection for size vs. stength, etc. It is a very good article.
well first off you don’t mention how big you are or your body dimensions. On top of that you have to take into consideration that some body parts are comparitively stronger then others for individuals. for instance my legs are stronger then others for my size. I don’t like to train for max because it puts a lot of pressure on joints, and my goal is to lift heavy for reps. Try doing biceps in the begining of your routine and gradually increase the volume every week. Alot of sets with heavy reps and clean form.
yeah, its very possible to just get muscular hypertrophy and no (or little) gains in strength. i myself am just the opposite (i will get very decent strength gains but always stay the same size). i pretty much agree with everyone else: mix up your training a little. i always liked the high weight-low rep sets for strength gains but i know 6-8 rep sets are generally preferred. you might want to stick to 6-8 reps as your base and sneak a workout in with maybe a few sets of 3-rep (with higher weight of course). this can of course be argued. hope this helps.