Hello Rip,
I’m 22, male, 5’9’’, and 160 lbs. I’ve been following your program for 4 months now and have gained about 20 lbs. Most of it appears to be muscle. However my strength gains have been abysmal. Squat went from 135 to 175, other lifts have been similar.
I’ve tried changing everything that I could have been doing wrong. I’ve been drinking most of a gallon of milk and about 3500-4000 calories a day which is as much as I can stomach. I sleep 9 hours a night. I wait 4-5 minutes between sets. I lift on 3 non-consecutive days each week. I don’t do cardio. I’ve tried starting over at a low weight and slowly working back up. I’ve tried pushing myself to failure on each lift. Nothing has worked.
The only thing I can think of that would be different for me and could be interfering is allergy shots. They’re potent and I get them twice a week. Could this be affecting my strength gains? If not, have you heard of anyone gaining muscle but not strength?
Are you failing reps or are you simply not adding weight because it was already heavy last time? Are you trying to do the program without doing the program?
Smells like trolling
I have severe allergies and have had shots and am twice your age. There is no reason in 4 months your squat weight would be that low. Even if you had low testosterone you certainly have more than any female or geriatric patients and your squat is barely above 1x body weight. Your form could be terrible. Your caloric intake particularly protein may be overestimated. 4-5 minutes is not a terrible time to rest but perhaps 7-10 minutes might be needed. Also you do not mention your other lifts. In 4 months you should have nearly 50 sessions yet you have only increased your squat by 40lbs. Did the other lifts do better?
His approach sounds good... too good? Is he trying to capitalize on a foolish report published by the lay media that antihistamine use (possibly used for his allergies) is responsible for an attenuation of the body’s response to exercise?
This is a notion that hopefully will not last long. Reporters don’t really think much of the consequences of the articles they write these days.
Mark, I think you need to set up a database which will no doubt demonstrate that all of your clients on Claritin are unable to get their deadlifts much above 95 lbs.
It’s science!