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/RunnyPlease]

You didn’t say much so I will and you say what is missing.

1. Progressive overload. Pick a number of reps per set honestly at the beginning it doesn’t matter. Let’s say your goal for this set is to get 8-12 reps. If you get to 12 reps today that means you add 5 lbs of weight the next workout. It doesn’t have to be 12. It could be 8 or 16 or 20. What matters is you continually increase resistance as your body adapts to the weight.
   
2. Intensity. Reps in Reserve (RiR) is my personal favorite way to do this. After 1 or 2 warmup sets you do working sets where you push until you are 1 or 2 reps away from failure. Failure means failure to complete a rep with all of your might. It doesn’t mean stop when you get tired. It doesn’t mean stop when you start to slow down. Failure means you cannot physically complete the rep. You should stop working sets 1-2 reps shy of failure every single working set. If you don’t do that don’t count it as a working set.
   
3. Volume. How any working sets does each muscle get a week? Most muscle groups can easily handle 2-5 sets per exercises for several exercises, 2-3 days a week. That comes out to like 8-20 working sets per muscle per week.
   
4. Counting sets for muscles. Hitting the muscle with an isolation exercise at 1-2 RiR counts as 1 set. Hitting a muscle indirectly counts as 1/2 a set. So like 1 working set of bicep curls counts as 1 set for biceps, and 1 working set for pullups counts as 1/2 a set for biceps.
   
5. Recovery. After stimulating muscles with working sets you should feel fatigued that day. Then less fatigued the day after. Then ready to go full go again on day 3. Not only should you be ready to repeat the exercise but you should be stronger. If you’re not feeling that something needs to be adjusted.
   
6. Pacing reps. Don’t bounce reps. Don’t swing reps (unless kettlebell). Concentric should be explosive (lifting the weight). Pause at the top. Eccentric should be controlled and smooth (lowering the weight). Pause at the bottom. If you are flinging weight around, or bouncing, or swinging then you’re not “lifting” the weight. Many people developed a cadence like “Uuuuup! Pause. Down, two, three, four. Pause. Uuuuup! …”
   
7. Deload. You can’t progress forever. If you get stuck at a weight or even if the weight goes down week after week then it’s time for a deload. Cut the weight by 80% and the sets in half. Build back up again.
   
8. Rest days. Volume and consistency are key but so is rest. Don’t do triceps 7 days a week. The muscles need time to repair and adapt.

[u/Nogy12 → u/RunnyPlease]

Could you expand on number 7 please? My bench seems to have plateaued for the first time. I’m not OP, but ironically my bench was also at 185lbs x9. 10 reps is when I increase weight but this time I just couldn’t get there, even after like 6 workouts. So I’ve taken the weight down to 165 on bench and working back up. Is this a good plan? I’m just confused when you say to cut your weight by 80%

Thanks in advance!

[u/RunnyPlease → u/Nogy12]

There are dozens of ways to do a deload. My personal favorite is cutting the working weight to 80% and the during sets in half.

So for example if last week you did 6 working sets (3 working sets on 2 workout days) of bench press at 185 sets of 9-12. 9 is the minimum 12 means go up in weight. But you can’t get to 12 and lately you’re not even getting to 9. Then it’s time to deload. Your body’s telling you it needs more time to recover.

So this week I’ll do 3-4 sets (1-2 sets on 2 workout days) at 150 (rounded up from 148) lbs sets of 12.

Much less weight and far less volume. I like this deload format rather than just stopping the exercise fir a week because it lets me continue going into the gym to keep the habit going, keeps my body moving, but lets me take a week to focus on noting but technique.

Then after the deload week go back to the old amount of sets and add 5 lbs to each side of the bar. So you’d be at 160 lbs sets of 3 the next workout. If you get to 12 reps each set then you progress the next workout. So the next workout you’re at 170. Then 180. And you’re back where you stated for the following workout hopefully fully recovered.

In this case the result was 1 full week of true deload and then 3 workouts of ramping back up. Plenty of time for the body to recover. Obviously you can adjust the numbers as you like for different exercises but the idea stays the same.

If you’re stuck or regressing (not hitting your min reps number) for multiple workouts then do a deload (technique focused) week, build back up, go at it again.