Stuck at 150

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eps3742

0
I have been working out for a bit over a year now, but have made very minimal gains. At first I made decent gains, going from about 140 to 148 in about 2 months, nothing huge but gains at least. Now I'm stuck. When I trained and gained weight I didn't really train hard, or do any routine, more or less I just played with the weights. But for about 3 months now I've been training hard, eating right, and taking some supplements, and have not broke 150 and can't make any gains. I'm going into junior year of college, and within the next two years would like to get to about 170lb-180lb.

My question is why can't I break 150? I made about a 10 lb gain within the first two months but nothing since.

My workout routine is:

Monday- Chest, tricep (one exercise light weight)
-Flat Dumbbell bench press (Heavy 6-8 reps)
-Dumbbell flys (Medium 8-10 reps)
-Incline dumbell press (Medium 8-10 reps)
-Cable Crossover (Light 10-12 reps)
-Rope pressdown (Medium-Light)

Tuesday- Back, biceps (one exercise light weight)
-Various Back exercises
-Barbell Curl

Wednesday- Legs, Calves
-Squat (Medium- Heavy)
-Leg Press (Heavy)
-Hamstring Exercise (Medium-Heavy)
-Calves (Medium-Light)

Thursday- Shoulders, Trap
-Dumbell military press (Medium-Heavy)
-Front Raise (Medium)
-Side Raise (Heavy)

Friday- Off

Sat- Bi's, Tri's
-Incline Dumbbell curl (Medium)
-Barbell curl (Heavy)
-Preacher Curl (Light)
-Dip (Heavy-Failure)
-One arm reverse grip pressdown (Medium)
-Lying tricep Extension (Light)
Sun- Off

The exercises above are not nessecarly done in that order when I work on that area that day. I tryy to get a decent amount of proteins and calories according to some math I read up on in a fitness magazine.

Currently taking:
NO-Xplode
Six star muscle Creatine

I have been on this for the past 3 1/2 months, and have not seen a single gain (As I said stuck at 148) and I train hard and get plenty of rest. The routine is right from a fitness magazine, modified slightly to fit my college schedule. Any tips on how to get past 150? And how to continue on to 170-180?
 
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And if you've been doing the same workout for a year now, thats probably why your not gaining
Either that or your not eating enough.
 
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I haven't been doing that routine for a year, it's been about 3 months. Like I said I'm not new to weights, I've been at them for more than a year now but I'm just recently getting serious about gaining weight.
 
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I was actually talking to my personal trainer about my plateau at 170 lbs a couple of days ago. She said that I should probably add 2 days of legs during the week and condense the rest of my routine. Also I should do squats, deadlifts, bench presses plus a few more complex lifts more often. Lastly I'm not sure what your reps are at but i was doing about 4 reps of 8-10. She said I should drop it to about 6 reps of 6 and just start with higher amounts of weight.

I also agree with phate89, it seems that your routine seems to involve alot of isolation.
 
Try less iso movements and do more compound lifts. B

If you focus on getting strong you will get bigger, IF your diet is up to par. So try to squat more, deeper, try to deadlift more weight, press more weight, etc.

Do more back exercises...like, double your chest exercises. **** the chest. More legs. If you train your lower body as much as you trained your arms, you'd be going somewhere.

Your legs are huge muscles. If you get them bigger, you will weigh more. Your arms are tiny in comparison.
 
The answer will always be eat more. That is the fun part about trying to gain. If you are not gaining you are not eating enough.

The easiest way to do things is to start eating more and not worrying about what it is. Once you are getting enough you can focus on being more strict with the types of food you eat.

Lesson #1 - learn what it is to eat a lot of food. :):D:cool:

It has only been a year so pretty much any workout routine you do will work fairly well as long as you push yourself. You have time to learn more and more about training. Learn to really push yourself. The current routine you are doing can be at least 3X harder as long as you keep the pace up and focus on getting work done within a reasonable time frame.

Lesson #2 - Learn what it is to train hard. :pain7:;):beerchug:

After that you can start to focus on other things.

I know this is putting it very simple, but the above two things will get you progress.
 
jman1114 said:
I was actually talking to my personal trainer about my plateau at 170 lbs a couple of days ago. She said that I should probably add 2 days of legs during the week and condense the rest of my routine. Also I should do squats, deadlifts, bench presses plus a few more complex lifts more often. Lastly I'm not sure what your reps are at but i was doing about 4 reps of 8-10. She said I should drop it to about 6 reps of 6 and just start with higher amounts of weight.

I also agree with phate89, it seems that your routine seems to involve alot of isolation.
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Did she say why? It doesn't sound very justified to me.

eps3742 - look into some different training techniques such as matrix, pyramid, reverse pyramid, 1 set theory, negative only training, forced eccentrics, assisted reps, supersets and variations of supersets (there's probably more variations than you think), 1 and a half reps etc. You get the idea. Also, make sure you concentrate on lifting the weights slowly and remember that slow eccentrics are key to hypertrophy.
 
Streamline said:
Did she say why? It doesn't sound very justified to me.
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What don't you agree with? Sounds like good advice to me

To the OP - You need to eat more, simple as that, you can't gain weight if you're not in a calorie surplus.
And how many sets are you performing?
 
I eat plenty, at least 2500 caleries, and for my body weight it should be enough to start making gains, and that's ona light day of eatin. Normally I would guess I eat about 3000. as for sets and techniques I've done a few. I do about 4 sets of whatever rep I listed. I've done assisted, drop sets, I've done dead lifts but at the gym I go to the equipment is hard to grab for that sorta thing cause of my schedule so I do them when I can but it's not as often as I like, and acouple other techniques ehos names escape me at the moment.
 
Oh, and also the goal isn't just to gain weight. The whole point of gaining weight is to get to 170 because at 170 or 180 is about the body type I will want to have. Not that I don't want the legs, and I do actaully throw in extra leg exercises probably once every two weeks depending on how I feel that day, but the focus isn't my lower body, it's my upper. I Know I will have to gain weight in my legs to get to 170/180, I just don't want a ton of the weight to be in the legs, as I said the whole point of gaining weight is for the look, and the upper body is more fun to look at
 
You still need to eat more, if you eat more you will gain weight.
If you were eating enough to gain muscle but your routine was poor then you'd still gain weight but probably from fat. The fact that you're not gaining muscle or fat shows that the problem is more with your diet than routine

Add an extra few hundred calories per day and see where you are in a few weeks, if you still aren't gaining weight then add a few hundred more
 
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yeah, a coupple hundred cals is not hard to add, it's practically nothing. I'm currently drinking a shake that's close to 1000 cals.
 
eps3742 said:
I eat plenty, at least 2500 caleries, and for my body weight it should be enough to start making gains
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Double that. It has nothing to do with body weight and everything to do with metabolism. Google basal metabolic rate, punch in your numbers and activity level and calculate your calories. Then start counting calories...I'm willing to bet that you're not getting as many calories as you think you are.

And 2500 calories is prob just maintenence for you or even below that.
 
I've had acouple people say I perform a lot of iso moves and acouple ask sets. Generally I perform 3 or 4 sets, depending on how well the previous sets felt. The most I every perform is 5, and usually that is with the medium or light sets. On my chest I usually perform 3-4 sets, my arms 3-4 sets 5 if I really didn't feel anything the first 3 or 4, my back 3-4 sets, my legs usually 4 sets, maybe 5 if I'm really feeling good, my shoulders 3-4 sets. as far as the routine, if you don't agree with the routine what do you suggest? This routine was taken from a muscle and fitness magaizine, and was aimed, by the magazine, at building bigger arms, but I'm open to other routines.
 
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