Need Advice on muscle and recovery.

[Gr33dyOctopus]

It's 530am and the soreness from last week's sessions is still with me. Friday was the last time I trained. My job involves guiding stretching, bands, balls and weights across two big independent senior communities. I enjoy it. Close to two hours every day of any exercise I choose to schedule and perform.

On the downside, and there are several downsides here... no new muscle seems to be appearing, only the muscle I already have getting tighter. My arms ought to be huge, or at least bigger, yet they aren't. Definitely more defined, yes, but they still appear small considering what I put them through daily.

Worth noting, I'm on 13mg of glp1 with 26 pounds left to goal, so eating a hell of a lot isn't my aim. Protein is part of my diet but probably nowhere near enough since I don't track it.

Second problem, it's Monday morning and I'm still sore from last week's workouts, and the weeks before and before etc. Just about 52yo, unsure what to take to aid recovery, I have bpc, mots, ipa, tessa, hgh but fml I don't know which of those, or perhaps even cjc would help me the most?

Last problem. My arms aren't responding with heavy muscle, but my shoulders definitely are, I look yoked through the shoulders, but think I've overdone it with my neck and it always feels tight, like it needs to pop but it won't, and there is almost always tension there nowadays. Before the last year when I took this job and did NOT work out every single weekday there was little to no issue with this..

Anyway, appreciate advice on any of these things. Ty

 

[Meritocrat]

Yeah, this is something I've run into repeatedly over the years. It always comes down to the same 2 fundamentals: diet and how you train. Muscle building is fundamentally an adaptation process. However, the visible physical result of hypertrophy comes alongside neural adaptations. The 3 M's required for building muscle are mechanical tension, muscle damage, and muscle protein synthesis. Generally, these are accomplished via progressive overload, sensible recovery and rest, and effective protein intake.

In the case you described, we can't observe how your training is actually structured, so we don't know whether progressive overload is taking place. Are you increasing the weight each week? Then there's the rest phase to consider. Muscle damage occurs while you exercise. Muscle growth takes place ONLY during rest and recovery. If your goal is muscle mass rather than strength, that kind of growth demands more rest and recovery. If the goal is strength, shorter rest periods can be used.

If your shoulders are growing while your arms aren't, the most likely reason is that you're training shoulders with the right protocol, which drives the adaptation to occur. Arms are a smaller muscle group, so they need a somewhat different training approach. For instance, training to failure, using supersets, slow eccentrics, and similar methods. Oh, and eccentrics are the best way to support muscle growth.

Also, 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is essential for muscle protein synthesis. And if I'm pinpointing it, as you yourself mentioned, insufficient rest appears to be the key to the lack of growth.

 

[Occindemure]

Meritocrat said:

Yeah, this is something I've run into repeatedly over the years. It always comes down to the same 2 fundamentals: diet and how you train. Muscle building is fundamentally an adaptation process. However, the visible physical result of hypertrophy comes alongside neural adaptations. The 3 M's required for building muscle are mechanical tension, muscle damage, and muscle protein synthesis. Generally, these are accomplished via progressive overload, sensible recovery and rest, and effective protein intake.

In the case you described, we can't observe how your training is actually structured, so we don't know whether progressive overload is taking place. Are you increasing the weight each week? Then there's the rest phase to consider. Muscle damage occurs while you exercise. Muscle growth takes place ONLY during rest and recovery. If your goal is muscle mass rather than strength, that kind of growth demands more rest and recovery. If the goal is strength, shorter rest periods can be used.

If your shoulders are growing while your arms aren't, the most likely reason is that you're training shoulders with the right protocol, which drives the adaptation to occur. Arms are a smaller muscle group, so they need a somewhat different training approach. For instance, training to failure, using supersets, slow eccentrics, and similar methods. Oh, and eccentrics are the best way to support muscle growth.

Also, 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is essential for muscle protein synthesis. And if I'm pinpointing it, as you yourself mentioned, insufficient rest appears to be the key to the lack of growth.

That's right.

Building on Meritocat's point, the least we'd need is a look at your training routines before we can figure out why your growth isn't matching your expectations.

Whenever my size gains stall, I review my program to check whether my strength is climbing over time. As long as weight or reps are going up, muscle is being built. Size usually tags along after that.

Getting bigger does require some surplus bulk, so you have to balance that against your end goal.

And a small correction: protein targets are based on "Lean" body mass, not total body weight.

That means if you carry extra weight, your protein intake doesn't have to line up with that number.

Staying consistent and tracking are what drive fitness goals.

Personally I'm a fan of the Ganburu App and use it all the time, since it offers plenty of workouts covering nearly any goal. . (I'm glad to share a link).

I've tried several others too, such as the RP App, which is also quite good, if your goals are strictly body building

 

[JoonyO]

Gr33dyOctopus said:

It's 530am and the soreness from last week's sessions is still with me. Friday was the last time I trained. My job involves guiding stretching, bands, balls and weights across two big independent senior communities. I enjoy it. Close to two hours every day of any exercise I choose to schedule and perform.

On the downside, and there are several downsides here... no new muscle seems to be appearing, only the muscle I already have getting tighter. My arms ought to be huge, or at least bigger, yet they aren't. Definitely more defined, yes, but they still appear small considering what I put them through daily.

Worth noting, I'm on 13mg of glp1 with 26 pounds left to goal, so eating a hell of a lot isn't my aim. Protein is part of my diet but probably nowhere near enough since I don't track it.

Second problem, it's Monday morning and I'm still sore from last week's workouts, and the weeks before and before etc. Just about 52yo, unsure what to take to aid recovery, I have bpc, mots, ipa, tessa, hgh but fml I don't know which of those, or perhaps even cjc would help me the most?

Last problem. My arms aren't responding with heavy muscle, but my shoulders definitely are, I look yoked through the shoulders, but think I've overdone it with my neck and it always feels tight, like it needs to pop but it won't, and there is almost always tension there nowadays. Before the last year when I took this job and did NOT work out every single weekday there was little to no issue with this..

Anyway, appreciate advice on any of these things. Ty

A couple of things stood out right away- first, you're aware your protein intake is too low, and second, are you seriously hitting those arms EVERY DAY? For growth, they require AT LEAST several days off plus proper nutrition. Are you increasing weights or reps weekly? If not, give that a shot. It's been effective for me. Trying out new movements could help too. I only train arms twice a week-Wed and Sat, and I'm pleased with the noticeable results since they're beginning to fill out my T-shirts.