Plateaued at Low Weight

[rcates1441]

Hello,

New to this forum and wish i had came across this prior to Strong Lifts 5x5. For the last two - three weeks i have been stuck pretty much on all my lifts and at a low weight.
I am 42, 5'11.75" @ 163lb. Four years ago i went from 205lb down to 146lb. in about 8 months. mainly doing body weight exercises along with some cardio and obviously a diet change. last year i was down to 136lb @ roughly 5-6% body fat. I am small framed wrists are 6.25" and my arms and legs are long and and very small in diameter. However in February of this year i started strength training following strong lifts 5x5 app, starting with bar which was light for most exercises, but 95lb squats, 65lb over head press, deadlift of 135lb, bench 135lb and dead row 95lb and those began to get began to get tough.
Now the last 2-3 weeks my Bench is stuck at 182lb., squat 215, deadlift 285lb., ohp 115lb and dad row 180lb and i have dropped down from doing 5x5 to 3x5 on everything except deadlift which has always been 1x5 and still can not go up in weight. im sure answers are here somewhere in this forum on what to do, i have started reading 3rd edition of book as well. i try to watch my macros and keep my calories at 2500-3000 daily macros being protein 35%, carbs, 35% and fat 30%. At this point my abs have disappeared into fat and sad to say very little muscle. When i started in February my weight was 155lb.
I am consistent with my meals and well as workouts, frustrated that i am stuck and not gaining anything in the last few weeks. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Satch12879]

The First Three Questions | Mark Rippetoe

[coleossus]

Hello,

New to this forum and wish i had came across this prior to Strong Lifts 5x5. For the last two - three weeks i have been stuck pretty much on all my lifts and at a low weight.
I am 42, 5'11.75" @ 163lb. Four years ago i went from 205lb down to 146lb. in about 8 months. mainly doing body weight exercises along with some cardio and obviously a diet change. last year i was down to 136lb @ roughly 5-6% body fat. I am small framed wrists are 6.25" and my arms and legs are long and and very small in diameter. However in February of this year i started strength training following strong lifts 5x5 app, starting with bar which was light for most exercises, but 95lb squats, 65lb over head press, deadlift of 135lb, bench 135lb and dead row 95lb and those began to get began to get tough.
Now the last 2-3 weeks my Bench is stuck at 182lb., squat 215, deadlift 285lb., ohp 115lb and dad row 180lb and i have dropped down from doing 5x5 to 3x5 on everything except deadlift which has always been 1x5 and still can not go up in weight. im sure answers are here somewhere in this forum on what to do, i have started reading 3rd edition of book as well. i try to watch my macros and keep my calories at 2500-3000 daily macros being protein 35%, carbs, 35% and fat 30%. At this point my abs have disappeared into fat and sad to say very little muscle. When i started in February my weight was 155lb.
I am consistent with my meals and well as workouts, frustrated that i am stuck and not gaining anything in the last few weeks. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

So your macros look like:
83-100g fat
218-252g protein/carbs

That looks pretty good, protein might even be a little high for a guy of your build. Maybe not.

If you're deadlifting heavy 1x5's every workout, it's likely over-taxing. CNS shock from deadlifts are rough, I was advised once upon a time not to deadlift heavy more than once a week, after I had already dropped to just twice a week.

You may want to look into some more advanced periodization like HLM or other training methodologies that allow you more recovery over a longer period of time than SSLP's 48-hour window. Alternatively, you may benefit from re-increasing volume to encourage hypertrophy. Maybe don't jump right up to 5x5, but slowly start increasing reps in one additional set - get your 3x5 done, then do a single, or a double, and work your capacity back up to 5x5 and see how it treats you.

At a certain point your muscles are as efficient as they can get, and you simply need to get them bigger, and bigger requires increasing volume. I'm not saying I believe you're at that point, but if you're really dug in and can't make progress it's something to consider - and I don'tmean to suggest some ill advised 12 rep bodybuilding split-muscle-groups nonsense, and I definitely don't recommend 5/3/1.

Also make sure you're sleeping well. A night of bad sleep can ruin my lifts the following day.

[rcates1441]

I greatly appreciate both replies and will be doing some more homework on this.
Deadlift I do no more than twice a week. A: squat, bench and row. B: squat, over head press and deadlift. Three day split routine. These compound exercises I do in morning then at night after work I’ll do pull-ups, chin-ups, barbell curls, side raises, face pulls and dips. These are split among my three workout days. Again thank you.

[Eric Schexnayder]

Food. Eat more of it.

[AndrewLewis]

"5'11.75" @ 163lb"
"calories at 2500-3000 daily macros"

There's your problem.

[rcates1441]

I will up my food intake and give that a shot. Just scared i'll get fat again as i worked hard to loose the 50+ pounds of it before, but i will take you all's advice.

[coleossus]

He's using the same macros that are on target for a 240 lb guy at 15-20% BF. I don't see how his macros are his main problem.

If MPS engages every 3 hours and you saturate at around 40g of protein, and he wakes up at 7am and goes to bed at 10pm that's 5 meals totaling 200 grams of protein. He's 50g over that, so his protein macros should be good. Are we advocating increasing his 100g of fat or 220-260g of carbs while he's still only lifting 3 times a week?

If anything I'd be quicker to accuse the evening accessory work and/or twice-weekly deadlifting to be sabotaging his recovery and stalling him out - you can only recover from so much no matter how much you eat. If I recall the SSLP design calls for deadlifts to be done on Monday, chins on Wednesday, and cleans on Friday.

rcates1441 - how much accessory work (pullups, chins, curls, raises, pulls and dips) are you doing?

[Eric Schexnayder]

OP, hopefully you read the First 3 Questions article that was posted, but just in case:

But nobody – and I mean no-body– can get big and strong on 2500 calories a day. This is a ridiculous piece of government-inspired bullshit, and has interfered with the progress of most people who try to get big and strong. And if you’re not willing to eat more than you want to, you won’t get big and strong.

The diet you have now is the diet you should have used if you started your NLP when you were still "overweight". You are now quite underweight for a male. You don't have the body fat that would enable you to recover without eating like a fatter person would.

No one is telling you to get fat, although I will say that you'll eventually appreciate the fact that no one cares about your visible abs except you.

I under-ate at the beginning of my progression, and what I found was that I could get away with not eating as much early on. When the weights start getting moderately heavy, i.e. in the 205+ range, you have to eat more. Especially you because you're already small. That's a lot of stress to recover from. Sleeping and eating are the best ways to recover. Do more of both.

[rcates1441]

As far as accessory work is as follows: A - Weighted chin ups 3x8, barbell curls 2x8, 3x10 shrugs, 3x12 rear delt fly's and 3x12 lateral raise. B - 3x5 weighted dips, 2x8 skull crushers, 3x10 weighted pull ups, 2x8 standing calf raises,and 3x10 chest fly's. When i do my A: Squats, Press, Deadlift i do the A accessory, then when i do B: Squats, Bench and Row i do B accessory. Then Tuesday and Thursdays i do som cardio work 20-30 minutes.
I did read the the first three questions. I am up for any criticism and advice, and all has been appreciated thus far.