No real strength increase

[silverwex]

Hey guys, ive been working out for nearly 5 months now and havent noticed much of a strength increase. What's the best way to get stronger? Add a little extra weight every week?

Thanks.

 

[Alpine]

Well what's your routine and how long have you been on it?

 

[silverwex]

Hey, its the skinny guy prog and ive been on it for nearly 5 months. good gains but not much in strength department.

 

[Alpine]

Ok, first up your goal I guess is mass, so in many respects strength is a nice to have rather than your key aim.

Having said that, strength increases typically go hand in hand with mass gains ( though not necessarily in a linear fashion), so I think your cycle has run it's course for sure.

Personally I would do a strength orientated cycle now (3 months, dropping poundage down some at the begging of each month), for a number of reasons.

It's nice to see yourself getting stronger and your strength matching your looks.

It tends to focus you on basic lifts and progression in poundage.

It sets you up nicely for superior gains on your next mass cycle.

You can come back to this routine in the future and compare your progress to date with ease.

What not to do.

Add more sets to your current routine or days per week.

Changing barbell curls to dumbell curls and using your max poundage in the first session or similar nonsense.



In essence ease up, then build up, with the same core exercises.

 

[sfalexi]

I've heard try to add 5% - 10% of the weight per week. Give that a shot.

 

[madgame]

Dont go by no add x-y% per week rules....you choose a weight which allows you to do no more than 6 reps ..not one more..and soon as youre able to do 8 reps u put on more weight so ure lifting a weight that that u can only lift 6 or 7times at the most..and when u can lift it 8 reps u prolly know what to do right?

Btw try to ad 5-10% weight per week to each lift and tell me by how many 100 % youve increased your lifts in a year

 

[semag]

Hahaha, adding 10% a week?
That sounds pretty crazy

week 1: 100
week 2: 110
week 3: 121
week 4: 133
week 5: 146
week 6: 160
week 7: 176
week 8: 193

Doesn't that seem like a big progression??

 

[Alpine]

Most people don't gain 10% on a whole cycle and that's with chemical help.

A begginer might start squatting at 80lbs and 3 months later be at 130lbs, but that's about the only exception.

But anyone whose been training a while and say is benching 150 would be chuffed with 5-10lbs over a couple of months.

Where % are useful is when you build up momentum from a known position at the start of each cycle, say 85% of your last max poundage and go up in % increments from there.

That way next time round you will start off with more on the bar and build from there.

It's tiresome I know, get back to those armcurls ehh.

 

[gav]

once i started taking notes of what weights i was lifting, i tried my hardest to break at least one of those lifts the next time i trained

 

[MindOverMatter]

5 lbs increase every 1-2 weeks does it

 

[silverwex]

Thanks for the replies guys.