Questions About My Workout

You’re biggest problem is that you are doing way too much aerobic activity - you’re probably eating all right but your burning all your calories sprinting and swimming instead of building muscle. When you are trying to bulk up, you should do almost zero cardio outside of your lifting.

If you want to gain muscle mass, switch to a high volume training routine. Take a look at the “German Volume Training” article. You will want to change routines completely every 4-8 weeks so your body doesn’t adapt and stop growing.

Try not to lift longer than hour a day, and don’t work a muscle group more than once every five days at most. Unless you have exceptional recovery abilities or are taking steroids, you should definitely not be squatting and benching twice a week, at least not regularly. I would also recommend a three-day or four-day split.

After each workout, chug some whey (at least 30g) and some simple carbs (fruit juice, sports drink, or recovery drink). Whey protein is not ideal before bed - a slower digesting protein like cottage cheese or casein is better, and even meat will stay in your system longer.

Don’t give up and keep working hard. You are obviously willing to put in the effort, I think you’re just putting to much time and energy in non-lifting exercise. A successful body-builder is an animal in the gym, a pig at the table, and a lazy bastard the rest of the time. Get as much sleep as possible and do as little as possible when you are not training and you’ll probably start growing like a weed.

The problem is your training for about 5 different results and doing too much.

Like I said, train for strength and get stronger. Yes there will be some size added, but it’s going to take a while to see it.

I spoke to a trainer yesterday who claims to have helped someone gain 10kgs in 20wks. That’s 500g a week. Unless the guy was going through chemo or something, it’s impossible to gain that quickly.

Look at the next 6 months, not the next 6 wks. Pick one goal and set yourself to achieve it.

If you’re obsessed with keeping visible abs, you’ll subconsiously limit your food intake, and completely limit any size gain. Dont’ stress about it. If you have them now, you can get them back at any time.

Well, within the next 6 months then, I want to be around 190 lbs. with as little BF gain as possible. I think you may be right on subconsciously limiting my caloric intake, it’s hard to break through that mindset if that makes sense.

I’m going to try and switch my training back over to 3 days a week with higher volume (3x10 and such) for a month or so, My body is getting somewhat used to my 5x5 routine. I was 182 lbs. on the scale at the gym yesterday (before drinking a gallon of water) so I’m happy abou that.

It’s just frustrating to make progress SO slowly, and hardly see any changes. Honestly, the scale has gone up, but I still look just like I did at 173 lol.