Removing genetics and hormones from the picture for the time being your issue can be one of 3 things: inadequate nutrition, inadequate training, inadequate recovery.
If you're sleeping well, getting 6+hrs of sleep, hitting REM, etc chances are recovery isn't the issue. And if recovery was an issue as in overtraining your have the symptoms of it: depression, constant fatigue, mood swings, lack of appetite, soreness, loss of libido, decline in sexual performance, chronic pain and cramping and no energy, etc.
Not a problem, I sleep 8-10 hours every night. Feel very energetic most days and take a recovery week every 3-4 months depending on which phase I'm in (mass, strength, endurance).
[/QUOTE]Training: the goal of training is to provide enough of a stimulus to disrupt homeostasis and drive adaptation. Look into Seyle's "General Adaptation Syndrome" and how it pertains to training. As you progress in training more and more stimulus is required to spur strength and mass gains BUT the loads ie the weights you work with will be harder to recover from. This is why intermediate training like wendler 5/3/1, Bill starr 5x5 and Rippetoe's Texas method were designed for. You have a volume day followed by rest, then an active recovery day, rest, then an intensity day. The training is designed so that Mondays workout spurs growth and drives adaptation, rest, Wednesdays workout allows you to recover, increase blood flow and do active recovery while keeping neural pathways active, rest, Nd Fridays workout uses intensity and less volume to promote progress for Monday or it allows you to show the strength increases from Mondays workout. What are your lifts at now for the big compound lifts?[/QUOTE]
I've tried many different programs and splits, at this point it's simply a matter of preference. To be honest, I have no idea what my 1rm of anything is. I mainly use a smith machine for my compound lifts for safety (no spotter at the moment), but heavy days as of late, I; bench 45 kgs, military press 30kgs, b/o row 50kgs, squat and dead 50kgs on my heaviest sets, with 4 sets 6-8 reps and three compound lifts per heavy day. Yeah, I'm a pussy, but I have a narrow frame and, as gay as it sounds, I'm fragile. This is what I can do with proper form, which is more crucial to me than the weight I'm pushing (military injury keeps me on the side of caution). Every set is to muscle failure and if I do one more rep I won't be able to lock the smith machine safely.
[/QUOTE]Diet: is very complex but simply put you need to calculate BMR and TDEE. Eat more to bulk and less to cut. Protein 1g/lb BW, fats .4g/lb Bw, the rest of your cals can come from carbs, more protein, more fat, or any combo of those. Every few weeks it's good to recalculate TDEE since any cut he in weight will affect it. The choices of food you eat has less of an impact on results than commonly believed and so long as the majority of your food comes from whole and minimally processed sources to get. Wide source of macros and micros, you can eat almost anything you want. What Is your current intake and what has your weight been doing? Do you know your TDEE based off your stats?[/QUOTE]
I do eat whole foods with a cheat day here and there. Right now to bulk up; 3,000 cal/day, 150-200 surplus cal/day. I just came off of a cutting phase and I lost 20kgs since January of this year. I use my fitness pal to count my calories so it's more accurate than just writing down what I eat. It's really been beneficial for fat loss, so I'll see how it does for trying to gain some muscle back from the calorie deficit I was in for the last ten months. I just learned about this app and I've never used it for bulking, we'll see.
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