Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! No growth?!

[LegioTitan]

Hello ladies and gents,

Hope you're all well. Still stuck in Japan personally. The weather is quite depressing. I don't know how people from Seattle do it.
Anywho...

So I have been trying to grow a bit as opposed to getting leaner since we have been here. It has been a little over two months and I do not seem to be getting any stronger and I'm taping out the same everytime. I can not seem to figure out what I am doing wrong. I know it can be a slow process sometimes. I mean it took me two years just to get what little I have now but geeze I thought with this massive diet increase it might be a bit faster.

Currently my schedule is as such,

Mon-Chest
Tue-Delts
Wed-Back
Thur-Rest
Fri-Arms
Sat-Legs
Sun-Rest
Lather, Rinse, Repeat....

I switched to focusing on one muscle group per day as opposed to supersetting two on one day. I am getting a great burn and good pump but the growth simply isn't there.
I get right around 4100 Cals a day. Usually 80G Fat 260G Protein 450G Carbs
Or thereabouts. On off days I up the fat and drop the carbs and usually shave about 1000 calories off. I only intake simple sugars immediately following my lift. The rest are all brown rice, oatmeal, and supps. I eat once every three hours but sometimes its 2-2.5.
Right now I weigh about 168.

Help?????

Thanks,
Daniel JH

FTN

[.V.]

I don't know what your workout looks like, but the one body part per day programs do work if you are truly busting your butt in the gym and eating enough. You seem to have enough calories going for you too, plenty of carbs for good insulin spikes to stimulate growth. All I can think of is if you aren't getting fat and won't get fat from an increase is to add another 200 calories/day. That would bump you up to right about 20/lb. Sometimes one just has to eat more in order to grow.

Another thought too, if you aren't making gains on your program and 2 months should be enough to make some progress...consider changing it around. Maybe look into one of the full body 3x a week programs...some make good gains on these, some don't. The only way to know for sure is to try it and see.

[Khaine]

cutting a 1000 cals on off-days seems a little steep... Could be an issue right there...

Rep ranges/loading parameters/volume...?

[.V.]

Whoa, I've gotta agree with khaine here that such a big swing in calories may not be the the best idea. I totally missed the 1K/day shave off line in there. I'm kind of up in the air there on that topic. In DiPisquale's book, he did suggest very large caloric changes of 1000 or more/day as long as the weekly calories worked out to 20 or so per/lb/day. He said this keeps the body guessing so it was forced to grow. I've always been partial to eating exactly the same thing every day (except cheat days of course) as Berardi suggests in "massive eating".

I've got some ideas from my endocrinology reading and am currently working on an experiment that I don't know how it will turn out. Maybe drug like results while staying natural, maybe obesity, maybe even staying a skinny bitch for the next couple of years. In 8-12 weeks, I'll have a better idea about it though. And yes, I'm the guinea pig on this one too. All I can say right now is that it's an update to the anabolic diet that's all mine. And that it does involve some big caloric changes. Once I know how it goes...I'll share the results good or bad as always.

For now, I'd say be a little more consistant.

[LegioTitan]

You know I was actually concerned about the whole drop in 1000cals there. I appreciate the input. I'll try for just about 500 cals and see how it goes.

My rep range is about 8-12. Occasionally up to 15 on shoulders. Three exercises per muscle group on it's day. Although I'm thinking of just doing two heavy ones on Bis because I swear I get a great pump and it goes away on the third exercise.

[Khaine]

Well, there you go then... Mix up the rep ranges... Conjugate method is my ish, so a lot of my advice goes in that direction...

For instance, you can stick with 3 exercises per bodypart, but make one exercise strength specific (3-5 reps, ramped sets, long rests, focus on weight increase), one for hypertrophy strength (8-12 reps, medium rest, set/volume increase), and one for hypertrophy work (12-15 reps, short rests, drop sets, supersets etc)... I like this approach, as it allows me to increase bar weight on a number of exercises regularly, without sacrificing overall volume...

That said, there's a million other variations you could try, not just in terms of rep ranges, but the structure of your workout... Maybe full-body or upper/lower splits... Or just do the super squats program...

Oh, and the pump is irrelevant... Focus on improving your performance, not pain or pump...

[badblood]

You see to care so much about the pump, but what good has it done in the past two months?

If the program hasn't work, CHANGE IT! That's pretty much what everyone else is saying, and I agree.

You don't seem to be doing really high volume, and yet you're not growing, I'd suggest going on a REALLY low volume routine, probably twice a week for starters, then up it if you feel you have more in you.

Also, what were your workouts like? How long were you resting between sets? What kind of intensity were you shooting for?

Anyway, 4000 calories seems like an awful lot for 168lbs, I'm really surprised your weight hasn't changed with this diet.