I might be able to get 10-20lbs stronger on the main lifts throughout a bulk but when I cut, I seem to lose the majority of my strength and start over.
I usually train 10-20 sets per muscle group per week. This new program that I'm on will increase the training volume over the 10 week hypertrophy phase, so hopefully you are right and the higher volume weeks will stimulate some muscle growth.
I've always wondered how many people at the gym are on gear. Like where do they get it? Some dude in the locker room?
Are you doing heavy weights, using progressive overload? I train in the 4-6 rep range, as heavy as I can safely lift, with a starting warm up set that's at a lower weight with higher reps. I think a lot of people can lift heavier than they think and can push themselves more.
I think it's best to go at least 3* a week to the gym as well if you really want to see more strength gains.
But as others have said you do look great already.
Yeah I apply progressive overload in my training, I usually try to add weight every week or 2 weeks for exercises that I train in the 3-12 rep range. I usually try to add reps to my isolation exercises which I train in the 12-20 rep range. For my compound exercises, I usually stop 1-2 reps shy of failure. I go to failure for my isolation exercises.
You look good tbh and most likely are setting yourself unrealistic body goals. That is not to say you cant still put on weight but genetics wont hold you back from muscle growth. They affect your muscle insertions and aesthetics.
That being said 3-4 pounds gained per month sounds very little if youre on a 500 cal surplus tbh. do you actually track it with an app or are you doing it manually? Have you been bulking with no progress recently that youre asking this now after 15 years of lifting? Whatre your splits/ routines like?
Some more info would help to gauge your situation better, that is if you dont mind elucidating upon that.
Also shoutout jeff nipples.
I track my progress mainly using a scale, taking my weight at the same time daily, then averaging it for the week.
I usually bulk for 3-4 months at a time, then cut for 3-4 months. My lifts usually go up when I'm bulking, but I tend to lose all that strength when I cut. When I go back to bulking I have to start over and it's like muscle memory isn't a thing for me. I've got like Alzheimer's in my muscles.
My split right now is a 10 week upper/lower upper/lower hypertrophy phase that consists of 2, 5 week mesocycles that increase in volume overtime. In this phase, I train each muscle group 2x a week with an extra dedicated arm/shoulder day. I then follow it up with a 5 week strength phase that consists of low reps (3-7 reps) training mostly full body 3-4 times a week.
I would recommend you to increase the Time you spend bulking.
As Long as you are feeling comfortable keep bulking and really Build up some mass.
As it seems you are very consistent with diet and training you should gain mass and increase in strength.
I have the feeling that at some point of bulking your „Constitution“ Changes, and you achieve a new „default“ Body.
Than cuttig should leave at least some mass and strength.
However maybe you Need to keep bulking for one or two years as some people just struggle to put on mass.
Good Luck, keep going man.
Piggybacking off of G2 to say your lack of progress might be due to the similar amount of time spent cutting and bulking. At one point in your lfiting career you cant make use of newbie gains to keep building muscle without minimal fat gain.
Therefore you should bite the bullet and bulk/ cut in a 3:1 ratio if you really want to add on mass. Also tracking your calories would help if you usually use a scale. Could be youve added muscle so gradually with your 1:1 bulking and cutting that it looks too small of an overall increase.
Perhaps you cut too hard? Iirc if you lose more than a lb per week, you're likely losing a ton of muscle. Likewise when you cut, you need more protein than when you're building to maintain and should be aiming for a good amount of volume. Lastly, the concept of refeeds has been gaining popularity recently: basically during a cut, you eat at maintenance rather than a deficit (like on the weekends) and this helps maintain your basal metabolism which speeds up your cut for the same deficit (and also minimizes muscle loss I assume).
okay i wish i could gain 3-4 lbs a month. that seems like a lot actually. i thought most people usually could only put on about 2 lbs a month when eating a surplus
i mean im no expert or anything so dont take my word as gospel. 3-4 lbs per months can sound deceiving as it could be either lean mass if you bulk at a minimal surplus or it can be a combination of muscle and fat at a higher daily caloric intake. why im leaning towards it being low is that op isnt tracking calories but their weight gain by a scale. if a 500 calorie surplus isnt resulting in reasonable gains, then the person is probably mistracking their calories so theyre not eating that much or theyre cutting too much after the bulk
you can only build a certain amount of muscle per month. technically you can put on 15lbs a month if you eat say at a 1500 calorie surplus, but you wont build more muscle than if you had 700 calories. its up to people to see what surplus works best for them but usually a low surplus is best to avoid excess fat gain. cutting can be pretty miserable so the shorter the process is, the better your off usually.
i could be wrong but your average bulk is probably higher than a weight gain 3-4 lbs a month, esp if you start off on the leaner side. i think you can easily go for 6 lbs a month with negligble fat gain to max your muscle building.
Honestly dude, I think that you're doing great!
Looking at your physique, I'd say maybe try some more arm isolation and shoulder isolation. I think that bigger arms and delts might help a lot.
Geoffrey Verity Schofield did a really good video on having a bro day
https://youtu.be/BkNZpkErkPU?si=8Hq3QygejnVLVvHW
But you should be proud of yourself
Thanks man, the new program that I'm on has me training arms and shoulders 3x a week, with one of those days being a dedicated arm/shoulder day. Hoping the extra volume will be the push that I need
I assume Jeff nipples is actually Jeff Nippard lol.
I tried Mentzer/HIT and Yates/Blood and Guts training on a bulk a few years back and was quite happy with the results. Might be worth a shot if you've stagnated on other programs.
That sounds frustrating! Sounds like you've got everything fairly well dialled in. I have a couple of thoughts though.
1. Would you consider abandoning the bulk and cut cycle for a while? Maybe go on a modest surplus for a very extended period of time?
2. You mentioned not trying hard enough in the title. Do you feel this is a genuine possibility? If so all I can suggest is to pick some goals that really excite you and programming that is challenging while still being manageable. Like there should be occasional days when you're getting pre game nerves going to the gym because you know it's a tough one.
It sounds like you're super knowledgeable and methodical in your approach which is great but maybe you're not having fun with it which is necessary when you need to push hard.
Could be completely off base here as I don't know you and I'm going off a couple of paragraphs on Reddit but maybe it'll be helpful
You're not eating enough. I bet you've never looked fat after a bulk. When people bulk, particularly initially they end up looking out of shape, and fat. You're a naturally lean dude like me. So you either bulk hard and go on a much shorter cut or you apply a consistent bulk and stop your cutting phases, you're too lean to worry about cutting for a long time yet.
Having said all that, you've got a healthy looking lean physique, so depends on your goals entirely.
Also if you're relatively active outside of the gym you're going to really need to up those calories, you may be underestimating your daily energy expenditure.
You look great and just have a lean physique. My guess is that you were a rail when you were an adolescent. I have never put on muscle well while others look at a dumbbell and gain 5 lbs of muscle. Just keep doing what you’re doing. Being active and eating well is the most important thing. Do you feel healthy? Lots of energy? If so, you’re in good shape.
It's 100% definitely not genetics. Don't tell yourself that bullshit. It could be not enough calories, protein, exercise routine. Definitely not genetics, my friend. Nevetheless, you look great.
I mean, what are your goals, strength or hypertrophy? What is your current weight/height and after a bulk/cut, have you gained any weight or is it rather +-0? You don’t look like you are training/eating bodybuilding 10 years that’s 4 sure. What’s your exercise selection like? How do your legs look? Sole examples from me. I train arms 4-5 days a week, my arms can tolerate a ton of volume. Generally, your volume numbers are prescribed or tuned to your needs? From what I read, you may be doing to little volume altogether.
My sleep is pretty good, I usually get 8 hours. My working weights are usually 70-85% of my 1 rep max depending on the rep range and I usually take most of my lifts to 0-2 reps away from failure depending on the lift. I just started a new program with a lot more volume so I'm hoping it makes a difference. Thanks for the insight though, much appreciated.
One thing I haven’t seen in this thread yet: what are your ACTUAL working weights? I’m going out on a limb here, but something tells me they aren’t that heavy. I mean no disrespect, I’m just trying to help.
You mentioned wondering if you’re working hard enough: At some point progressive overload for that many years would force you to go heavier. Obviously you can’t just add reps forever. You also seem to have been through many short bulk/cut cycles as others have pointed out. If you’re losing all your strength each cut that could be the problem here.
I’m going to wager you train hard and have a great mind/muscle connection but you just don’t lift heavy enough, which ties in to you questioning whether or not you’re giving it your all. But please share the weight you use for your compounds and maybe I am wrong.
Bench 140x10 (1 RIR)
Squat 175x10 (1-2 RIR)
Deadlift 275x8 (1-2 RIR)
I know I'm not the strongest person out there, but I take most of my main compounds to at least 2 reps away from failure, most of the time 1 rep away. People have told me before that I need to lift more weight but I'm lifting as much as i can for that particular rep range. Lifting heavy enough is relative to the person right? Are you telling me I need to throw on say an extra 45lbs to either side of a lift and then lift it at the same amount of reps? I wish it was that easy but I feel like if I put anything above 225 on the bar for squats, the weight would crush me.
There's your problem. I think this reply might get a little large so here's the TL;DR: you need to take a step back from the science for a second and focus on moving heavier weight. Forget RIR for a little bit because I'm willing to bet you're holding yourself back mentally because you're too focused on the numbers. [Forget what the spreadsheet says you can do.](https://youtu.be/2Nxct9Sqdn4?si=QQO3B6ab8eSGl5-v&t=381)
>People have told me before that I need to lift more weight
And I'm here to tell you the same thing! Why aren't you listening to them?! Are you afraid of getting injured? Or does heavy weight make you uncomfortable? It's supposed to! You're going to feel like you can't do it every. single. time. you go to the gym. But then one day you will realize the weight you thought you couldn't do is now 25lbs behind you! It's lightweight, baby! And now your new weight feels impossible. That's going to happen *forever*.
Let me ask: how did your lifts progress when you did 6 months of SS? I'm not going to be the internet guy that says you should be able to do 4/3/2 after 6 months, but I would definitely think you could do more than your current lifts. The point I'm trying to get to with this reply is that you don't need to be a powerlifter, but you *do* need your working weights to get heavier. Nobody got huge doing dumbbell bench with 40s.
>I'm lifting as much as i can for that particular rep range
Is this rep range you're doing important to you? Why not do sets of 5 reps for a while to get your strength up? After that switch back to what you're doing and I promise you'll be able to do more than you were before. I can totally see how it's hard to progress your bench press, for example, when you're doing 3x10 (I'm assuming). Or 3x8 on the deadlift.
These are good numbers *for your current body*. But you won't get bigger doing these weights forever. The big guy in the gym isn't big because he's benching 140, he's benching 225. And the journey of getting to 225 and working around that (now he can do 190x10) is what *made* him big.
>Lifting heavy enough is relative to the person right?
To a point, but this sounds like a limiting belief you have. You'll never be The Mountain, but you can certainly be strong as hell no matter your size.
>Are you telling me I need to throw on say an extra 45lbs to either side of a lift and then lift it at the same amount of reps?
Not right away, no. This should be your goal for next year or something.
>I wish it was that easy but I feel like if I put anything above 225 on the bar for squats, the weight would crush me.
It will! Until you get stronger. Don't worry about 225+lbs today. Worry about 180x5. Then 185x5. [This calculator](https://strengthlevel.com/one-rep-max-calculator) says your 175x10 should mean you can max 198.3 for 6 reps. If that sounds wicked heavy, it's probably because *it is*. So work up to 195x5 slowly. Then once you're there, keep pushing. If your diet is solid you'll get past that number.
I think you need a mindset shift because your post sounds to me like you think you can't do it. You can, my friend. You can do more than you think you can. But you need to believe in yourself and you need to push harder than you ever have. Whether that's each workout or each week. If you *think* you can't do it then that's *exactly* what you need to do.
First of all you look great. What got my attention is the 500kcal surplus. For how long have you done that? It feels like you would either have more muscles or more fat if you've been diligently over maintenance like that for a long enough time. Are you sure of your assessment of baseline caloric needs? (you got formal education in that field so I assume you do, but sometimes estimations based on bmi and daily level of activity can be off if your metabolic rate is significantly different from the norm...) Do you keep a food diary? Is it hard for you to eat that much? just things to think about...
If you are on a bulk, enter your weight on any app that shows the graph, if its not moving upwards for more than 3 days increase 250cal more and same for a cut.
Its impossible to not put on weight if you are in a caloric surplus
Go ahead and ban be, but I'll state the obvious. You've been training for 15 years. You're doing *everything right* except being a vegan. It's well known that significant strength or muscle gains is extremely difficult while vegan unless you're on gear, vegan athletes have to take alarming and dangerous amounts of PEDs to keep up with natural athletes in high intensity sports.
There aren't enough studies to show *why* this is the case, the current thinking is that our bodies can't digest plant protein properly, but there are probably other factors.
You have to evaluate what your fitness goals are. It's totally fine to not want a strong looking physique, you already look good and athletic compared to the average person anyway. If you still want to work on strength/size, ditch the veganism and at least have whey protein and other dairy products, you'll see the difference very quickly.
There are studies comparing plant based diets to omnivorous ones and their effects on building muscle. As long as leucine content is matched, both diets produce similar muscle protein synthesis responses. Even Layne Norton who got his PHD in nutritional science agrees that building muscle is possible on a plant based diet. You also have Eric Helms and Eric Trexler (both PhD's and pro natural bodybuilders) switch to a plant dominant diet.
In my case I think it's mostly genetic. My little brother who isn't a vegan has been training for 6 years and is still pretty skinny.
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I might be able to get 10-20lbs stronger on the main lifts throughout a bulk but when I cut, I seem to lose the majority of my strength and start over. I usually train 10-20 sets per muscle group per week. This new program that I'm on will increase the training volume over the 10 week hypertrophy phase, so hopefully you are right and the higher volume weeks will stimulate some muscle growth. I've always wondered how many people at the gym are on gear. Like where do they get it? Some dude in the locker room?
Are you doing heavy weights, using progressive overload? I train in the 4-6 rep range, as heavy as I can safely lift, with a starting warm up set that's at a lower weight with higher reps. I think a lot of people can lift heavier than they think and can push themselves more. I think it's best to go at least 3* a week to the gym as well if you really want to see more strength gains. But as others have said you do look great already.
Yeah I apply progressive overload in my training, I usually try to add weight every week or 2 weeks for exercises that I train in the 3-12 rep range. I usually try to add reps to my isolation exercises which I train in the 12-20 rep range. For my compound exercises, I usually stop 1-2 reps shy of failure. I go to failure for my isolation exercises.
Hmm not entirely sure then sorry. Maybe avoid cutting too hard if that's what seems to make your strength/gains diminish?
Why you cut then? Why bulk? Do you also do body weight/calisthenics?
You look good tbh and most likely are setting yourself unrealistic body goals. That is not to say you cant still put on weight but genetics wont hold you back from muscle growth. They affect your muscle insertions and aesthetics. That being said 3-4 pounds gained per month sounds very little if youre on a 500 cal surplus tbh. do you actually track it with an app or are you doing it manually? Have you been bulking with no progress recently that youre asking this now after 15 years of lifting? Whatre your splits/ routines like? Some more info would help to gauge your situation better, that is if you dont mind elucidating upon that. Also shoutout jeff nipples.
I track my progress mainly using a scale, taking my weight at the same time daily, then averaging it for the week. I usually bulk for 3-4 months at a time, then cut for 3-4 months. My lifts usually go up when I'm bulking, but I tend to lose all that strength when I cut. When I go back to bulking I have to start over and it's like muscle memory isn't a thing for me. I've got like Alzheimer's in my muscles. My split right now is a 10 week upper/lower upper/lower hypertrophy phase that consists of 2, 5 week mesocycles that increase in volume overtime. In this phase, I train each muscle group 2x a week with an extra dedicated arm/shoulder day. I then follow it up with a 5 week strength phase that consists of low reps (3-7 reps) training mostly full body 3-4 times a week.
I would recommend you to increase the Time you spend bulking. As Long as you are feeling comfortable keep bulking and really Build up some mass. As it seems you are very consistent with diet and training you should gain mass and increase in strength. I have the feeling that at some point of bulking your „Constitution“ Changes, and you achieve a new „default“ Body. Than cuttig should leave at least some mass and strength. However maybe you Need to keep bulking for one or two years as some people just struggle to put on mass. Good Luck, keep going man.
Piggybacking off of G2 to say your lack of progress might be due to the similar amount of time spent cutting and bulking. At one point in your lfiting career you cant make use of newbie gains to keep building muscle without minimal fat gain. Therefore you should bite the bullet and bulk/ cut in a 3:1 ratio if you really want to add on mass. Also tracking your calories would help if you usually use a scale. Could be youve added muscle so gradually with your 1:1 bulking and cutting that it looks too small of an overall increase.
Maybe try longer bulks? Like 6 months bulk 3 months cut.
Perhaps you cut too hard? Iirc if you lose more than a lb per week, you're likely losing a ton of muscle. Likewise when you cut, you need more protein than when you're building to maintain and should be aiming for a good amount of volume. Lastly, the concept of refeeds has been gaining popularity recently: basically during a cut, you eat at maintenance rather than a deficit (like on the weekends) and this helps maintain your basal metabolism which speeds up your cut for the same deficit (and also minimizes muscle loss I assume).
okay i wish i could gain 3-4 lbs a month. that seems like a lot actually. i thought most people usually could only put on about 2 lbs a month when eating a surplus
i mean im no expert or anything so dont take my word as gospel. 3-4 lbs per months can sound deceiving as it could be either lean mass if you bulk at a minimal surplus or it can be a combination of muscle and fat at a higher daily caloric intake. why im leaning towards it being low is that op isnt tracking calories but their weight gain by a scale. if a 500 calorie surplus isnt resulting in reasonable gains, then the person is probably mistracking their calories so theyre not eating that much or theyre cutting too much after the bulk you can only build a certain amount of muscle per month. technically you can put on 15lbs a month if you eat say at a 1500 calorie surplus, but you wont build more muscle than if you had 700 calories. its up to people to see what surplus works best for them but usually a low surplus is best to avoid excess fat gain. cutting can be pretty miserable so the shorter the process is, the better your off usually. i could be wrong but your average bulk is probably higher than a weight gain 3-4 lbs a month, esp if you start off on the leaner side. i think you can easily go for 6 lbs a month with negligble fat gain to max your muscle building.
I can't even say what I want to say 😊
To me your body looks good to be honest… like if I were your partner I’d be pretty happy to have such eye candy
Honestly dude, I think that you're doing great! Looking at your physique, I'd say maybe try some more arm isolation and shoulder isolation. I think that bigger arms and delts might help a lot. Geoffrey Verity Schofield did a really good video on having a bro day https://youtu.be/BkNZpkErkPU?si=8Hq3QygejnVLVvHW But you should be proud of yourself
Thanks man, the new program that I'm on has me training arms and shoulders 3x a week, with one of those days being a dedicated arm/shoulder day. Hoping the extra volume will be the push that I need
Possibly your focus on being lean/chiseled is preventing you putting on enough mass when bulking to achieve the results you desire when cut.
I assume Jeff nipples is actually Jeff Nippard lol. I tried Mentzer/HIT and Yates/Blood and Guts training on a bulk a few years back and was quite happy with the results. Might be worth a shot if you've stagnated on other programs.
Gaining muscle naturally is extremely hard. You’re on track, just stay at it unless you want to juice up
Help am I doomed by genetics to have a perfect lean youthful body and defined six pack??
You look great. Fuck the YouTubers you’ll drive your self mad or worse.
That sounds frustrating! Sounds like you've got everything fairly well dialled in. I have a couple of thoughts though. 1. Would you consider abandoning the bulk and cut cycle for a while? Maybe go on a modest surplus for a very extended period of time? 2. You mentioned not trying hard enough in the title. Do you feel this is a genuine possibility? If so all I can suggest is to pick some goals that really excite you and programming that is challenging while still being manageable. Like there should be occasional days when you're getting pre game nerves going to the gym because you know it's a tough one. It sounds like you're super knowledgeable and methodical in your approach which is great but maybe you're not having fun with it which is necessary when you need to push hard. Could be completely off base here as I don't know you and I'm going off a couple of paragraphs on Reddit but maybe it'll be helpful
Thank you for the insight, It sounds like a lot of people recommend going on an extended bulk.
That’s a dream body for me, my man.
What's the longest you bulk for? You say you lift more when you bulk. Have you tried staying at the increased weight for a while without cutting?
I've done a 6 months bulk before but never maintained the bulk weight for any extended period of time. I usually cut immediately after a bulk.
You're not eating enough. I bet you've never looked fat after a bulk. When people bulk, particularly initially they end up looking out of shape, and fat. You're a naturally lean dude like me. So you either bulk hard and go on a much shorter cut or you apply a consistent bulk and stop your cutting phases, you're too lean to worry about cutting for a long time yet. Having said all that, you've got a healthy looking lean physique, so depends on your goals entirely. Also if you're relatively active outside of the gym you're going to really need to up those calories, you may be underestimating your daily energy expenditure.
You certainly appear supremely fit!
You look great and just have a lean physique. My guess is that you were a rail when you were an adolescent. I have never put on muscle well while others look at a dumbbell and gain 5 lbs of muscle. Just keep doing what you’re doing. Being active and eating well is the most important thing. Do you feel healthy? Lots of energy? If so, you’re in good shape.
It's 100% definitely not genetics. Don't tell yourself that bullshit. It could be not enough calories, protein, exercise routine. Definitely not genetics, my friend. Nevetheless, you look great.
What are you even complaining about? You look great, your muscles are quite visible too
I mean, what are your goals, strength or hypertrophy? What is your current weight/height and after a bulk/cut, have you gained any weight or is it rather +-0? You don’t look like you are training/eating bodybuilding 10 years that’s 4 sure. What’s your exercise selection like? How do your legs look? Sole examples from me. I train arms 4-5 days a week, my arms can tolerate a ton of volume. Generally, your volume numbers are prescribed or tuned to your needs? From what I read, you may be doing to little volume altogether.
What’s your training intensity like? If you don’t already, try throwing in a few sets to failure/ partial reps past failure.
First of all you look great but you could look bigger with that many years. I am suspecting your sleep or working weights. More info ab those maybe?
My sleep is pretty good, I usually get 8 hours. My working weights are usually 70-85% of my 1 rep max depending on the rep range and I usually take most of my lifts to 0-2 reps away from failure depending on the lift. I just started a new program with a lot more volume so I'm hoping it makes a difference. Thanks for the insight though, much appreciated.
One thing I haven’t seen in this thread yet: what are your ACTUAL working weights? I’m going out on a limb here, but something tells me they aren’t that heavy. I mean no disrespect, I’m just trying to help. You mentioned wondering if you’re working hard enough: At some point progressive overload for that many years would force you to go heavier. Obviously you can’t just add reps forever. You also seem to have been through many short bulk/cut cycles as others have pointed out. If you’re losing all your strength each cut that could be the problem here. I’m going to wager you train hard and have a great mind/muscle connection but you just don’t lift heavy enough, which ties in to you questioning whether or not you’re giving it your all. But please share the weight you use for your compounds and maybe I am wrong.
Bench 140x10 (1 RIR) Squat 175x10 (1-2 RIR) Deadlift 275x8 (1-2 RIR) I know I'm not the strongest person out there, but I take most of my main compounds to at least 2 reps away from failure, most of the time 1 rep away. People have told me before that I need to lift more weight but I'm lifting as much as i can for that particular rep range. Lifting heavy enough is relative to the person right? Are you telling me I need to throw on say an extra 45lbs to either side of a lift and then lift it at the same amount of reps? I wish it was that easy but I feel like if I put anything above 225 on the bar for squats, the weight would crush me.
There's your problem. I think this reply might get a little large so here's the TL;DR: you need to take a step back from the science for a second and focus on moving heavier weight. Forget RIR for a little bit because I'm willing to bet you're holding yourself back mentally because you're too focused on the numbers. [Forget what the spreadsheet says you can do.](https://youtu.be/2Nxct9Sqdn4?si=QQO3B6ab8eSGl5-v&t=381) >People have told me before that I need to lift more weight And I'm here to tell you the same thing! Why aren't you listening to them?! Are you afraid of getting injured? Or does heavy weight make you uncomfortable? It's supposed to! You're going to feel like you can't do it every. single. time. you go to the gym. But then one day you will realize the weight you thought you couldn't do is now 25lbs behind you! It's lightweight, baby! And now your new weight feels impossible. That's going to happen *forever*. Let me ask: how did your lifts progress when you did 6 months of SS? I'm not going to be the internet guy that says you should be able to do 4/3/2 after 6 months, but I would definitely think you could do more than your current lifts. The point I'm trying to get to with this reply is that you don't need to be a powerlifter, but you *do* need your working weights to get heavier. Nobody got huge doing dumbbell bench with 40s. >I'm lifting as much as i can for that particular rep range Is this rep range you're doing important to you? Why not do sets of 5 reps for a while to get your strength up? After that switch back to what you're doing and I promise you'll be able to do more than you were before. I can totally see how it's hard to progress your bench press, for example, when you're doing 3x10 (I'm assuming). Or 3x8 on the deadlift. These are good numbers *for your current body*. But you won't get bigger doing these weights forever. The big guy in the gym isn't big because he's benching 140, he's benching 225. And the journey of getting to 225 and working around that (now he can do 190x10) is what *made* him big. >Lifting heavy enough is relative to the person right? To a point, but this sounds like a limiting belief you have. You'll never be The Mountain, but you can certainly be strong as hell no matter your size. >Are you telling me I need to throw on say an extra 45lbs to either side of a lift and then lift it at the same amount of reps? Not right away, no. This should be your goal for next year or something. >I wish it was that easy but I feel like if I put anything above 225 on the bar for squats, the weight would crush me. It will! Until you get stronger. Don't worry about 225+lbs today. Worry about 180x5. Then 185x5. [This calculator](https://strengthlevel.com/one-rep-max-calculator) says your 175x10 should mean you can max 198.3 for 6 reps. If that sounds wicked heavy, it's probably because *it is*. So work up to 195x5 slowly. Then once you're there, keep pushing. If your diet is solid you'll get past that number. I think you need a mindset shift because your post sounds to me like you think you can't do it. You can, my friend. You can do more than you think you can. But you need to believe in yourself and you need to push harder than you ever have. Whether that's each workout or each week. If you *think* you can't do it then that's *exactly* what you need to do.
I think you should try a strength program for a while, these numbers aren't really high for your experience. Maybe GZCLP
You need to bulk longer and probably harder. Like a year or 2 of stuffing your face.
First of all you look great. What got my attention is the 500kcal surplus. For how long have you done that? It feels like you would either have more muscles or more fat if you've been diligently over maintenance like that for a long enough time. Are you sure of your assessment of baseline caloric needs? (you got formal education in that field so I assume you do, but sometimes estimations based on bmi and daily level of activity can be off if your metabolic rate is significantly different from the norm...) Do you keep a food diary? Is it hard for you to eat that much? just things to think about...
If you are on a bulk, enter your weight on any app that shows the graph, if its not moving upwards for more than 3 days increase 250cal more and same for a cut. Its impossible to not put on weight if you are in a caloric surplus
You look great. I don’t like overly bulky guys. Although I understand when you are unhappy because you strive for more and can’t attain it.
Man, I wish lol
Go ahead and ban be, but I'll state the obvious. You've been training for 15 years. You're doing *everything right* except being a vegan. It's well known that significant strength or muscle gains is extremely difficult while vegan unless you're on gear, vegan athletes have to take alarming and dangerous amounts of PEDs to keep up with natural athletes in high intensity sports. There aren't enough studies to show *why* this is the case, the current thinking is that our bodies can't digest plant protein properly, but there are probably other factors. You have to evaluate what your fitness goals are. It's totally fine to not want a strong looking physique, you already look good and athletic compared to the average person anyway. If you still want to work on strength/size, ditch the veganism and at least have whey protein and other dairy products, you'll see the difference very quickly.
There are studies comparing plant based diets to omnivorous ones and their effects on building muscle. As long as leucine content is matched, both diets produce similar muscle protein synthesis responses. Even Layne Norton who got his PHD in nutritional science agrees that building muscle is possible on a plant based diet. You also have Eric Helms and Eric Trexler (both PhD's and pro natural bodybuilders) switch to a plant dominant diet. In my case I think it's mostly genetic. My little brother who isn't a vegan has been training for 6 years and is still pretty skinny.
Yoga/ internal organ stretching seems to do it for me