Kinda Dis-enchanted with lifting

A little over a year ago, with visions of the fitness model look dancing in my head..... I started lifting --- heavy as I could!  I was not over-weight or under-weight, so I thought that I would be able to see huge differences if I put in the effort.  I didn't miss a workout!  I KNOW that fitness models don't come by their look easily........ but I thought my efforts would at least be more noticeable.

I was aiming especially for some nice arms like Cathy of Regis & Cathy (saw a picture of her flexing arm recently on yahoo).  So - I went all out, lifting 3X per week as heavy as I could for the number of reps, worked thru NROLFW and then starting NROL.  I weigh 112 and can deadlift 135 and bench 95....squat 115.  

Yes - I have seen changes.  Yes - my arms are better than before, as well as my butt, legs, shoulders.  Alot of muscle actually in shoulders and chest.  So what is wrong?  I did NOT see the changes I was hoping for and I am not sure why.   The changes are rather subtle and I am not sure even that anyone else would notice, except maybe hubby.

I am starting to lose the motivation to lift because I am not seeing the progress I had initially sought.  If it doesn't show, then what is the point? 

Is a year not long enough???  or should I be doing more isolation?  Hope I don't sound too whiney, but it is getting harder and harder to make myself do all that hard work for not very many results.  Since I have been off work since Feb - I can't afford a trainer either.

I personally suggest following a weight-lifting routine, such as one found in the book "New Rules of Lifting for Women". Pick up a copy at your local bookstore or order it online. It's a wonder book, and has very easy to follow routines. Note - I said "easy to follow", not EASY routines!!! i sweat like a whore in church doing those lifting routines!!

Good luck - get the book!

Thanks.... but as I mentioned... I FINISHED that routine & am on NROL now.

wow, im so sorry! im a complete retard and somehow totally missed that whole entire paragraph!!!

my bad!

just wanted to actually apologize again for somehow missing that whole paragraph.

i also wanted to say that you have great arms!!! id kill for those arms! and at 112, being able to squat 115 is simply AMAZINGGGGGGGGG

No problem and thanks for the compliment.... I have to say, I have become very strong.  I just want it to look like I am that strong!  lol

Lifting heavy with low rep range will not produce bulk, but it will cause an increase in strength. I'm not sure what your goals are but you really need to look at your diet first, then if you want to add some bulk you need to work slightly lower weight for 10 reps with low rest between sets.

Here is a good place to start for hypertrophy is you want to increase your muscle size: http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index .html it is a site mostly for bodybuilders but can help you understand more about improving size if that's what you want.

Last point, once again, diet is the first thing you need to address if you aren't getting enough calories you won't gain muscle, and protein is a priority as well. You will also need to look at rest/sleep and other variables. Workouts provide the stimulus to grow, but you don't grow during a workout, only during your rest periods.

Oh, you might also want to work on posing skills if you want to look bigger. It's an art and isn't as easy as it seems. Your pictures do show decent development on your arms, but the way you have posed doesn't allow the peaking of the biceps or engage your triceps. Triceps are what give the arm most of its bulk, while the biceps give the peak at the top. 

"Workouts provide the stimulus to grow, but you don't grow during a workout, only during your rest periods."

Which is why you should take at least one day a week off(not workout) but still watch your calorie intake.

dabrok - thank you for the link.  I have done NROL hypertrophy I & II programs, but those have lots more volume and different from the link you provided.  I am currently doing strength I out of NROL and will probably go ahead and try the program on your link next! 

Jdunckel - yes I DO only workout 3X a week at most.  Lately, I have to push myself to actually get 3X in a week and I do take a week break every once in a while.  I am not gaining or losing, so calories should be ok.

If you are having trouble building muscle with that much working out it could be two things. (in my experience anyway)

1. It could be your diet. You may need more protien or more good fat. When my carbs go through the roof then I start loosing muscle. Try to get your protien levels up to a 25-35% of your total diet. (or higher if you want some bigger gains) On higher carbs I'm able to slim down okay, but I don't want to just be skinnier, I want to look better.

2. It could be the way you work out. As an ex-HS and ex-college athlete I have done numerous workout programs. I can tell you that different programs do different things for me. All of them were supposed to make me stronger and bulk me up b/c I needed it for football. But not all them did those things and some programs work better for me than others.

I have never done either of those workouts (NROLFW or NROL, b/c I'm a man and never heard of the second one) but it sounds like you are getting plenty strong. If you want to get bigger there are different workouts for that. You also may have naturally hard-gainer arms. If that is the case, you may want to put in more work on them from a different program. (this may be the case since you are seeing bigger gains in your chest and shoulders but not in your arms)

If you have tried all of that stuff then I can find some of my old bulk-up workouts from books and pass them along. Don't get discouraged though, sounds like you are really improving your health and getting stronger which is a huge benefit to your life. Play around with different workouts and try new things. Listen to your body more and you will find the workouts that help you accomplish your goals.

Original Post by gies71:

If you have tried all of that stuff then I can find some of my old bulk-up workouts from books and pass them along. Don't get discouraged though, sounds like you are really improving your health and getting stronger which is a huge benefit to your life. Play around with different workouts and try new things. Listen to your body more and you will find the workouts that help you accomplish your goals.

Thanks for your reply.  NROL is the original workout book by Alwyn Cosgrove for men..... the "for women" version followed.

1. As far as protein.  That could be it.  I love my meat and I do a protein shake after working out, but I don't seem to be satisfied unless I have my carbs.  I try to make them healthy carbs like sweet potatoe or wheat pasta instead of white and only eat whole wheat bread.  I haven't counted in a while, so it may be that I am not getting enough protein.

2. I was thinking this could be the case with my arms.  I probably should try a different method.

I am going to try the workout that was posted above next, but would love to get some others from you too if you have some!  Maybe I do just need a different style of workout for a while.  Both of the books I followed were from Cosgrove and he has some underlying beliefs in both books.  Each of books have several programs lasting anywhere from 4-8 weeks, but are built completely around compound lifts and no isolation at all. 

Don't stop lifting.  Your bones and heart need the exercise.  You may not be happy with your outside appearance, but it's inside that really matters.  You're exercising so you won't be in a wheelchair when you're elderly.

I had about 6 sessions with a personal trainer last year and the biggest trend/discovery it seems as of late, as far as I know, is to vary EVERYTHING every time you work out.  I tried looking up what your program is about but didn't get enough info to see if it had you doing something different for each muscle group every time you work out.  That is, working a different machine, weight, ball, squishy thing to stand on, etc., with every work out for the same muscle/muscle group.  I don't think he repeated the same exact exercise within a two-week's span.  I saw incredible results as far as definition and great strength for what I was training for.  There's so many variations of the same workout for a muscle available to us on the internet, cross-referencing books etc., that I don't think you'll need a personal trainer to show you. Fitness mags like Shape and Women's Health always give great exercises that you can do at home.  Just be in perfect form when performing those, be careful, have fun, and don't injure yourself.  Most of all, be grateful towards and for your beautiful strong body!!

L

I have a friend whose dad trains figure competators and I asked him when I started New Rules for Women if he had any advice. He said the biggest thing to keep in mind is diet, diet, diet, diet...how much, how heavy, how often you lift won't make a significant difference if you don't have your diet down pat. Now I am no expert in weight lifting diets but I do now that if you wan't to make significant gains you have to eat over maintanence and you have to eat a lot of protein. I would invest in really educating yourself about diet, implement that for a year and see what happens...good luck

swearimn - Ohhh... nice.  Did your friend's dad give you a diet to follow, or was it just "eat alot and eat protein"?  I think I eat fairly well, not perfect, but I eat as much as I like of mostly fresh foods and I don't restrict... maybe a little more protein would be good.  I pretty much stay the same weight it seems no matter how I eat!

monalisamonkey - No, the nrol programs do not switch every workout, but you are supposed to try to increase the weight each time.  Some of his hypertrophy programs had you switch number of reps and sets each time, so one time was 5 sets of 6, then next time you did that workout, it would be 3 sets of 15.  He had 4 different reps/set schemes and 3 different alternating workouts.  So I think that was enough of a change.  Each program lasts 4-8 weeks.

rosieblue - thanks for the encouragement.  It would be nice to see more for the efforts though!

I will try and post some new pics maybe tomorrow.... and try a little better posing as dabrok suggested and maybe that will help.  The pics I have posted are older and I may have made some progress since then, albeit small.

I had a very similar problem. I've been weightlifting for years, but it wasn't until this past spring that I evaluated my diet and realized that I wasn't getting nearly enough protein. I decided to use a supplement, and went with nitrotech hardcore. I know it has creatine, but I wasn't doing 2 shakes 3x a day, just one immediately after my workouts. Without really changing anything in my workout, I got quite a lot of muscle definition (this also while eating 500 calories a day under maintenance).

Long story short: Check your protein levels!

To BUILD muscle/GAIN definition..you HAVE to eat in a surplus. I have not read through all the posts, so excuse me if I missed a post that stated that you do eat in a surplus. You should be getting 1 gr of protein per 1lb of bodyweight.

If you keep your caloric intake at maint. or below, you will not BUILD muscle..although you will become stronger and burn fat while keeping the muscle you already have.

Sounds to me that it is a nutritional thing...which is the  most common problem area with people who lift and are unhappy with results.

try doing something different!

you should have built muscle enough to try some more advanced things, and if you havent, try doing handstand pushups! move on to walking on your arms! that would be an extremely awesome way to show your strength!