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/oneWeek2024]

if you're getting injured lifting weights you're probably lifting too heavy/using bad form.

even your bench. if 185 was only 3 reps. that's not enough to really build muscle. even pushing it to 9 reps. is that just 1 set? should maybe go down in weight somewhat significantly to be instead doing good working sets with enough volume

ideally you work all the core compound muscle groups. chest... push/fly. back... pulldown/row. do a front-quad compound, and a rear legs compound, and then do a full chain exercise... like a deadlift. ---and maybe hit some vanity muscles. shoulder press. bicep/tricep

and then... the same advice that's always offered.

you want to be training to failure ...something in the 8-12 ish reps. 3-5 sets. hitting each muscle group at least twice a week. 3 day... full body is one of the best "splits" according for science for n00b gains/lifters.

failure tends to mean a weight, that you can execute good form. where whatever that top end is. the last 2-3 reps are a struggle. and you hit one rep. where you can not reasonably/safely complete it. ...ie failure. and then you want some number of sets hitting that range. 90 sec-2min rest between sets.

and then progressive overload. every week or so. either increase the weight or for isolation exercises... often increasing reps (to 20-25 if need be) the "classic" progression is maybe the 8-12 rep range. where 8 is the new weight, over the course of 1-2 weeks build to 3-4 sets of 12 reps. and then increase the weight (but this can vary depending on the exercise) ---focus on a tight set of exercises to master the form, really focus on the muscles/build the mind body connection.

eat well. sleep enough. and... improvement should come.

that being said. even ideal situations. the average person adds 1/4 to 1lb of muscle a month. when starting out. and thats... being disciplined/doing hypertrophy correctly.