Gains in some lifts, no gains in others?

M

MarkMyWords

2
Hi all,

I am about 5 weeks into my bulk, and it is going great. I have stuck to my diet perfectly. I gained a lot of weight initially, some surely water and some fat, but it leveled off, and I have been gaining about a pound or so a week.

Anyways, my legs are ridiculous, I have made more gains in these 5 weeks than I can even believe. Squat has gone up 40 pounds, DL up 25, and lunges went up 40 pounds. I make weekly gains on legs, which is great.

However, I am just kinda stalled out on many upper body lifts. Bench has maybe improved slightly, meaning I can do my sets easier, but I haven't really added any weight. Dips, same thing, I do 2 sets of bodyweight, 2 sets with a 10 pounder, but it just stays the same. Pullups are one of the worst, I'm making no advancements at all, in fact yesterday I felt weaker...wtf?

I have a pretty wide selection of lifts too...DB incline bench, flat BB bench, dips, pullups, face pulls, renegade rows...one chest per day, one upper back per day, etc...

I'm definitely eating enough, seeing as how I'm gaining at a nice rate, and making excellent gains in my legs. Upper body though, just hasn't really taken off. Ideas anyone? Thanks for reading!!!
 
Then you need to do something else for your upper body, since what you're doing now obviously isn't working. Change it.
 
I get like that sometimes too, just recently my lower gains have been massive but my upper body progress is slow. Sometimes it's the other way around though, I figured an element of that is your body keeping a level of symmetry by building the weaker areas before the stronger ones.
Given that logic you should soon see progress in your upper body once your lower has caught up

Sorry for the very un-scientific opinion there
 
Haha, no no, un-scientific is A-OK. It would make sense too, seeing as how this is really the first bulk I've put my legs through.

Karky, I hear ya on that, but what kind of replacements are there for dips, pullups, and bench? I mean, I thought dips those were some of the most functional upper body lifts out there. I suppose I will put in some shoulder presses, BOR, and take out something...
 
Have you historically done more upper body work so your legs are now catching up while your upper body is already more developed?
 
theGOOCH said:
Have you historically done more upper body work so your legs are now catching up while your upper body is already more developed?
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Not really, no. I've always had significant focus on squats, DLs, lunges to start workouts, and moved on to upper. It's not like I even have any real upper body strength either, that's why this is frustrating. Dips with BW, or 10 pounds is weak...I can't do working sets of pullups without help, and those aren't getting easier, I only do 4x6 bench sets with 135-145 pounds...sigh...
 
MarkMyWords said:
No, I should have been, and will start. I guess I can just get rid of either the DB inc. bench, or flat BB bench, and replace it with the vert mil press?
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Or you could do them both but on different days. I do DB presses and vertical presses as a set on my max effort push day and BB bench on my high rep push day
 
CCR said:
Or you could do them both but on different days. I do DB presses and vertical presses as a set on my max effort push day and BB bench on my high rep push day
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OK, I think I follow. So instead of doing 4 sets of one of them, do 2 sets of each. Or maybe even 4 sets of each?

Now, I do:

Squats
Dips
Pullups
Woodchops

DLs
Flat BB Bench
Renegade Rows
Iso Tri Work

Lunges
Inc. DB Bench
Face Pulls
Calf Work
Iso Bi Work
 
Derwyddon said:
Maybe you should rub apples all over your body. A famous doctor told me it helps.
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at first glance I thought that said "nipples" instead of "apples":jump1:

I don't know MMW, some do better with pretty low reps like you're doing, but I have more luck progressing with a little higher rep range. I do 4 sets with a weight I can get for 12 reps on the first set. When I can get 12 reps on all 4 sets I move up. I'm currently using 15 lbs over my body weight on bench press on that program so it's been good to me.

Maybe go back and forth, when you stall out on mid-range reps, go back to low reps etc.
 
Thanks for the input, that is a good idea.

I suppose since the 4 x 6 has been working wonders for my legs, I figured it had to be the same for upper, but that's not necessarily the case. I will try your idea out.

I started at 4 x 6 for 3 weeks, then did 3 x 10 for 2 weeks, now back to 4 x 6, just so you know I haven't been only doing low reps, the whole time.
 
MarkMyWords said:
I started at 4 x 6 for 3 weeks, then did 3 x 10 for 2 weeks, now back to 4 x 6, just so you know I haven't been only doing low reps, the whole time.
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Lol, 4x6 isn't low reps. Low reps should be around the 1-3 mark and close to your 1RM

I'm currently doing 2 days of max effort, low reps, and 2 days of higher reps (10-12) every week and it's helping my lower body a lot
 
CCR said:
Lol, 4x6 isn't low reps. Low reps should be around the 1-3 mark and close to your 1RM

I'm currently doing 2 days of max effort, low reps, and 2 days of higher reps (10-12) every week and it's helping my lower body a lot
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Well, it's subjective, I'm not aware of an official cutoff. I consider 6 as fairly low although sometimes on a new weight my 4th set is 6 reps. That's what I like about the way I do it-you get a good mix over time. I would consider anything much more than 12 as high reps for endurance
 
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well, there might be nothing wrong with the exercises, it could be the sets and reps. It could be that you are doing way too familiar exercises. try changing them, incline instead of bench, military press instead of dips (not saying the two are good substitutes) different kinds of rows, etc.
 
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