Stalling with strength gains/ muscle mass - next steps?

[Pzb]

Hi Y’all,
I’ve been making great progress with body composition - strength and muscle after starting TRT last fall.

My blood work shows high response from low doses of T-Cypionate.

Now, after 6 months- I’ve hit a plateau where I’m not progressing as before.

I am thinking of increasing my dosage, but don’t want to desensitize myself with minimal returns.

Suggestions?

[Test Monsterone]

Hi Y’all,
I’ve been making great progress with body composition - strength and muscle after starting TRT last fall.

My blood work shows high response from low doses of T-Cypionate.

Now, after 6 months- I’ve hit a plateau where I’m not progressing as before.

I am thinking of increasing my dosage, but don’t want to desensitize myself with minimal returns.

Suggestions?

Changes continue happening for about 2 years after starting TRT in my experience, but much more subtly. If you feel good physically and mentally, I'd recommend sticking to your protocol and improving your diet, sleep regimen, workout, etc. You can mess up a lot of things by leaving the "natural" realm when it comes to TRT. Elevated hematocrit/RBC (thick blood), cholesterol problems, high estrogen from conversion, are just a few. This is a very generic response to a very generic question, but I believe it will apply to most. You haven't stated your age, weight, bf%, experience lifting, etc.

[wellshii]

Gaining strentgh isnt just about gear.
Diet,programming, etc etc.
Yes perhaps upping the dose or doing a blast with compounds will help but I would get everything else in dialed before doing all that.
Like are you even lifting for strength?
Reps ranges etc.

[Cuz]

Try eating more and training harder with more intensity its hard to get over the plateau’s trust me ive hit several in my career. 6 months isnt that long tbh

[< <Samson> >]

I’ll keep in simple

There’s no replacement for displacement - best I have done was on a ton of juice


Thankfully so far it hasn’t caused issues


All my doses are less than a quarter of what they once were now

It’s a slippery slope - gear helps a lot, yet causes the same or more amount of issues

[Testie]

Hi Y’all,
I’ve been making great progress with body composition - strength and muscle after starting TRT last fall.

My blood work shows high response from low doses of T-Cypionate.

Now, after 6 months- I’ve hit a plateau where I’m not progressing as before.

I am thinking of increasing my dosage, but don’t want to desensitize myself with minimal returns.

Suggestions?

I think more information on your routine, diet etc would be good information to have in order to help you through your plateau, if you are strength training or body building I would be sure that there’s something in your routine that could be adjusted and it takes time and a lot of us myself included have turned to more juice and I can tell you because I’ve done it is that is a short term gain and even on all the juice in the world you will still hit plateaus

[Pzb]

Age: 50
Years continuous training: 13
Days per week: 6 days
Body fat percentage: 10%-12% - been consistent for past 8 years

Diet: 2400 - 2600 calories daily is maintenance for me including my workouts.

35% protein,35% carbs, 30% fat

Bench Press: 225lb working sets
Deadlift: 450 lb max conventional
Squat high bar: 315 working sets
Barbell Rows: 225 lb working sets

Routine: Primary is push/pull/legs, rest, push/pull/legs
I’ll focus on lagging parts by reducing volume in other areas.


Volume is generally per week: 16 -18 working sets for major compounds and 12 working sets for smaller muscle groups. I will adjust based upon recovery.


My favorite workouts always include heavy compounds and full range free weight or machines to failure if possible .

I’ll change up the order, exercises, rep ranges to progress if I hit a plateau.

When I hit a plateau, I will alway try increasing macro intake and calories, add a rest day, or deload before I make routine changes.

Right now I’ve plateaued with progressive overload after a month of going through my normal routine to push through.

I experienced this before for almost a whole year- that’a when I discovered my t levels were very low.

[Test Monsterone]

You are lifting too often and probably too much. 6 days a week is not necessary. I got the best results doing 3-4 days a week. Research HIT and Mike Mentzer. Also, take a week off every couple of months or so. Your muscles don’t grow when you’re lifting, they grow when they’re resting.

[Cuz]

Age: 50
Years continuous training: 13
Days per week: 6 days
Body fat percentage: 10%-12% - been consistent for past 8 years

Diet: 2400 - 2600 calories daily is maintenance for me including my workouts.

35% protein,35% carbs, 30% fat

Bench Press: 225lb working sets
Deadlift: 450 lb max conventional
Squat high bar: 315 working sets
Barbell Rows: 225 lb working sets

Routine: Primary is push/pull/legs, rest, push/pull/legs
I’ll focus on lagging parts by reducing volume in other areas.


Volume is generally per week: 16 -18 working sets for major compounds and 12 working sets for smaller muscle groups. I will adjust based upon recovery.


My favorite workouts always include heavy compounds and full range free weight or machines to failure if possible .

I’ll change up the order, exercises, rep ranges to progress if I hit a plateau.

When I hit a plateau, I will alway try increasing macro intake and calories, add a rest day, or deload before I make routine changes.

Right now I’ve plateaued with progressive overload after a month of going through my normal routine to push through.

I experienced this before for almost a whole year- that’a when I discovered my t levels were very low.

Thats a good response. Whats your experience with gear? Just trt?

[Testie]

Age: 50
Years continuous training: 13
Days per week: 6 days
Body fat percentage: 10%-12% - been consistent for past 8 years

Diet: 2400 - 2600 calories daily is maintenance for me including my workouts.

35% protein,35% carbs, 30% fat

Bench Press: 225lb working sets
Deadlift: 450 lb max conventional
Squat high bar: 315 working sets
Barbell Rows: 225 lb working sets

Routine: Primary is push/pull/legs, rest, push/pull/legs
I’ll focus on lagging parts by reducing volume in other areas.


Volume is generally per week: 16 -18 working sets for major compounds and 12 working sets for smaller muscle groups. I will adjust based upon recovery.


My favorite workouts always include heavy compounds and full range free weight or machines to failure if possible .

I’ll change up the order, exercises, rep ranges to progress if I hit a plateau.

When I hit a plateau, I will alway try increasing macro intake and calories, add a rest day, or deload before I make routine changes.

Right now I’ve plateaued with progressive overload after a month of going through my normal routine to push through.

I experienced this before for almost a whole year- that’a when I discovered my t levels were very low.

From what I see in your routine it looks like your leaning toward strength training verses bodybuilding and from my experiences with powerlifting it’s really a thinking game, one thing that always worked for me was to use percentages of my one rep max and set up my sets and reps accordingly, I always followed a system put out by Ed Coan when I was actually going for numbers and it worked I’m not saying I was a super beast but I did this with no juice or equipment and in a couple of years my bench went from somewhere around 335 to 425 for an easy double if I were to go back and pursue numbers again I would definitely look into utilizing the “west side method “ I guy can be stuck at 3 plates his whole life and never meet his potential by not working a proven plan but still be training his ass off with not much results

[Pzb]

Thats a good response. Whats your experience with gear? Just trt?

Just TRT.

[Honkey_Kong]

Age: 50
Years continuous training: 13
Days per week: 6 days
Body fat percentage: 10%-12% - been consistent for past 8 years

Diet: 2400 - 2600 calories daily is maintenance for me including my workouts.

35% protein,35% carbs, 30% fat

Bench Press: 225lb working sets
Deadlift: 450 lb max conventional
Squat high bar: 315 working sets
Barbell Rows: 225 lb working sets

Routine: Primary is push/pull/legs, rest, push/pull/legs
I’ll focus on lagging parts by reducing volume in other areas.


Volume is generally per week: 16 -18 working sets for major compounds and 12 working sets for smaller muscle groups. I will adjust based upon recovery.


My favorite workouts always include heavy compounds and full range free weight or machines to failure if possible .

I’ll change up the order, exercises, rep ranges to progress if I hit a plateau.

When I hit a plateau, I will alway try increasing macro intake and calories, add a rest day, or deload before I make routine changes.

Right now I’ve plateaued with progressive overload after a month of going through my normal routine to push through.

I experienced this before for almost a whole year- that’a when I discovered my t levels were very low.

I can tell you right now that you're not eating enough food. And it gets hard to keep the fat off when you get older. TRT or not. Being on TRT isn't supposed to be like being on a cycle of gear, it's supposed to alleviate low T symptom.

And for somebody who is 50, benching 225 for working sets, deadlifting 450 squatting 315 and doing 225lb rows isn't bad at all. 99% of the people your age can't do that. But you also have to accept that you're not 20 anymore. I'm not saying you should be happy with what you've got and not expect to make any forward progress. But you can't expect to get the same results that the half-your-age you would've had doing exactly what you're doing now.

You should probably add a thousand calories a day (maintaining the same macro ratios) and see if that increases your gains.

[scotty51312]

take a week off. I plateau a lot get frustrated or too busy take a week and eat what i want then come back and within two weeks i'm makin gains again. ofcourse decompression weeks as i hear people call them shouldn't happen more than once or twice a year

[Too-$mall]

You are lifting too often and probably too much. 6 days a week is not necessary. I got the best results doing 3-4 days a week. Research HIT and Mike Mentzer. Also, take a week off every couple of months or so. Your muscles don’t grow when you’re lifting, they grow when they’re resting.

i made this. not sure if it's trash. pretty simple solid foundation right? would you change it? This is what i follow when i can. life literally has me running a lot and doing endurance type things. i also enjoy my free time.



when i was following this strictly and consistently i was seeing progress, but i'd love to tweak it to make it better.

[Honkey_Kong]

i made this. not sure if it's trash. pretty simple solid foundation right? would you change it? This is what i follow when i can. life literally has me running a lot and doing endurance type things. i also enjoy my free time.



when i was following this strictly and consistently i was seeing progress, but i'd love to tweak it to make it better.

What is the difference between the "grow" days and the 2&3 day rest at the end?

[Cuz]

Just TRT.

So you have never ventured from trt and done a cycle well hard to believe but thats quite an achievement. I would think about cycling but at your age why start now. You probably already look good too if it were me just maintain and keep my hormones flat

[Too-$mall]

That thing about 2&3 days is a note for how the stress periods (work out days/training) are staggered. each days training has 2 or 3 days of rest before the same muscles are stressed again. grow days are not the only rest days. The name "grow days" is misleading because on upper body training day minus biceps i'm still resting my legs and things from the training before. that's technically a rest day for legs and things, but i dont annotate it in the spread sheet because i wanna keep it simple. to see what i mean just count the days upper body is not hit on the spread-2&3 days. the same is for legs-2&3 days between another training. i can see what you mean though. having that 2&3 days thing in there isn't necessary. and it does the opposite of my intent, which was to keep things simple.

[Honkey_Kong]

That thing about 2&3 days is a note for how the stress periods (work out days/training) are staggered. each days training has 2 or 3 days of rest before the same muscles are stressed again. grow days are not the only rest days. The name "grow days" is misleading because on upper body training day minus biceps i'm still resting my legs and things from the training before. that's technically a rest day for legs and things, but i dont annotate it in the spread sheet because i wanna keep it simple. to see what i mean just count the days upper body is not hit on the spread-2&3 days. the same is for legs-2&3 days between another training. i can see what you mean though. having that 2&3 days thing in there isn't necessary. and it does the opposite of my intent, which was to keep things simple.

I figured that, it was just a little confusing to read.

[Too-$mall]

would you use it, change it, or throw it out? you got any routines? i mean i know if can find them all over the net, but custom stuff is usually better. there is some other stuff at work, but dont like overly complicated stuff too much. i want to carry a notebook and i've been thinking about it, but work has me doing other physical activities that aren't growth friendly.

[Pzb]

I agree with this and will increase my calories.
It’s getting hard to eat clean and get calories.

[Pzb]

So you have never ventured from trt and done a cycle well hard to believe but thats quite an achievement. I would think about cycling but at your age why start now. You probably already look good too if it were me just maintain and keep my hormones flat

My TRT journey started after I noticed a drop in energy and not progressing in the gym.

I asked to check my t levels just out of curiosity and it came back very low. So I tried the traditional supplements, rest, etc to improve my t levels until my next annual check up.

A year later, my t levels dropped way below the normal range. I suspected this already because I was slowly losing strength, feeling sleepy all day, and was putting on body fat regardless of the same routine I had used for years.

Now on TRT, I feel energized and can focus. The best part is being able to progress after stalling for two years.