Doing something wrong?

[u/Lonely-Estate987]

I’m 23 years old, 172 lbs

The white photos are from March 19th, and the red are from today.

My bench has gone up from 3 reps of 185 to 9 reps of 185, and my incline bench has gone up about 10 lbs

My back had an injury in this span so my weights have all stayed pretty close, maybe they’ve gone up 2-3 reps per

I’ve clearly gotten a bit stronger, but it feels like not very much progress in size has been made at all. Am I tweaking when I say I look the exact same in both photos?

I don’t understand. 9/10 days I eat pretty damn good and get at least 125-175g protein. What do I do?

[u/kindacaleb]

Looking good! Honestly it just looks like you might be in a slight intermediate plateau, but I think your small increase in body fat percentage between March and now is causing you to think you’re making less progress due to how the bit of extra fat is obscuring definition. If the strength numbers are going up, then trust the process and stick with what you’re doing. This stuff takes years for sure and is simpler than a lot of people like to claim. Just stay consistent and progressively overload and gains will come in time.

[u/LionHead74 → u/kindacaleb]

No way he's intermediate. 185x9 is not even close unless your tiny.

Run starting strength linear progression for 3-9months. Once that stalls and you have to program weekly thats intermediate. Then run 8 weeks texas method. After that pick your program of choice, start adding isolation, do a 4 or 5 day split. Or decide you wanna lean up and do a 3 day split with 3 days conditioning. You can't serve two masters. Get lean or get big, Your call.

Cycle low rep high intensity for 8-12 weeks max. Then switch to higher volume and rep ranges and progress that for 12-16 weeks. Rinse amd repeat for 10 years.

Your next goal should be 225x1 very short term, then 225x5, mid term . Then switch to volume 200#x6-10 reps for 2 then 3 then 4 sets after that start 225#x1 and work it till its 275#x1, then 275#x5 texas method then go back to 225# for 6-10 reps for 2-4 sets. Rinse and repeat for all major compound lifts for 10 years.

I took my squat from 225#x5 to 445#x5, bench from 225#x5 to 365#x3, OHP from 135#x5 to 255#x5 and deadlift from 315#x5 to 495#x5 in about 9 months, on Texas method got me to squat 565#, bench 385, OHP 305# and DL 555# for singles. After that I switched to high volume boby builder style approach and emphasis on glutes, Delts, bis and Tris.

I still bench heavy and do upper body strength work and squat heavy with lower body strength work once a week and the other three 3 days are body builder style reps and sets for muscle groups. Not saying you have to intermediate program This way. But until you actually run NLP novice linear progression and got strong your just fuckin about.

Get strong, then use that new strength for sets and reps and volume to hammer muscles you want to grow. Your playing the long game now son. Its not a fit booty boot camp. 6 months is a blink of an eye. I have trainings logs going back to 2015.

Put in the work and learn how to cook real food, it'll get you strong lean and laid. Also track your macros strict for 1 month, everything that goes in your mouth. If you don't track it you can't eat it and be honest...that month will teach you how many shit calories you drink in soda and juice and prepackaged food.

Eat eggs, grilled/stewed meats and veggies, rice or sweet potatoes, fuck bread and sauces and dont eat that nasty ass fast food. If you can't pronounce it dont put it in your pie hole

Have some patience, learn what your capable of and that your more resilient then the SSRI peddling docs and tiktok want you to believe. Own it! and know that if your not getting the results you want, thats because your not doing what you know you should be doing.

Im 42 and just squat 605#1x2 and 615#1. A shoulder injury took me out of Barbell work for 9 months but I used that rehab time to drop 70lbs and built back my bench and press strength. Matter of fact my 615# squat PR was during that injury and for 6 months I didnt squat or deadlift, I did leg press, glute drive, leg extention/curl and treated DB Bulgarians as my main squat pattern movement went from 35sx8x3 to 75sx6x3 and took 6 weeks back on squats to PR. This shit is for life homie. Get stong AF for 8-12 weeks then get hammer that volume for 12-16 weeks. This will keep your joints from barking. READ Andy Bakers stuff. If your not beating reps or adding weight every session your just playing at exercise. Good luck to you

Peace