Hey Scott, hope you're doing well! First off I'd like to apologize for this post might be a little jumbled, but I'll try my best to make it as clear as possible.
I posted a few months back (link: http://muscularstrength.com/profile_post.php?t=BOARD&p=1203157) asking whether I should cut or bulk. Despite your advice, I really wasn't comfortable with how much fat it looked like I had on my body, so I kinda stayed at maintenance for a while lifting. I made a little progress in the mirror but not really in my lifts. About 2 weeks ago, after measuring 16.8% on my skulpt for body fat (starting out at 27.2 last nine), I decided to finally go with your program to a T. However I'm noticing my main lifts still aren't really going up.
I should start by mentioning that the way I try to go about increasing is starting at the 7, then making my way to the set of 3. Then at the next session, I try to bump my 6 weight to my 7, my 4 weight to my 6 and so on. For bench press and squats, the increment of each increase is 2.5 lbs on each side, and deadlift it's 5. So basically I attempt to lift 2.5 lbs heavier for a set of 3 at each new session. However, a lot of the time I find that I struggle to even reach my last sessions max weight.
The only thing I can really chalk it up to is that I'm not eating enough, since I'm noticing that my weight is relatively constant each morning. However since I'm lean bulking it's hard to tell, and I'm reluctant to up my calories too much in order to prevent putting on any fat.
Miscellaneous things that may be relevant:
- I always work out first thing in the morning, so I don't really eat anything except a protein bar before hand
- I'm following the meal plan you gave me in the last post and track each days macros
- I eat relatively clean (a lot of meat, protein shakes, simple and complex carbs, though rarely any junk food)
- About 6-8 hours of sleep per night
- 4-5 L of water a day
- No supplements or exercise belt
- I'm on month 1 of the program with a slight modification, in that im doing each day twice a week as opposed to once
- Bench press 3 reps: 145
- Squat 3 reps: 185
- Deadlift 3 reps: 285
Finally, with all that being said, I have a follow up question:
Is it possible to waste your noob gains by training intensely at the gym (I.e trying to lift as heavy possible) but not realizing them due to poor diet etc? I kinda feel like that's what happened to me since while I was cutting I was doing IIFYM and trying to "squeeze" in junk food whenever possible.
Once again I apologize for the messiness and length of this post aha. Would appreciate any advice