5x5 strenght gains, but no size --fatter also

[kiosk]

I've been on SF 5x5 for a few months now...I have increase almost all my lifts and feel much stronger, but have not added on any mass that I can measure....also gained 6lbs but mostly fat I believe, my gut is wider

I really wanted to avoid getting any fatter while adding mass a bit at a time...any ideas would help. I am on what I think is a maintainance diet...

 

[Numani]

Couple of things stand out from your post!

SF few months
increased almost all your lifts - which one(s) didn't go up? squats ?
feel much stronger - you either are or your not.

you gained weight so it wasn't a maintenance diet over that time period probably an ever so slight calorie surplus on a daily basis.

maybe you did not get significantly stronger enough and stimulate muscle growth whilst not having a big enough calorie surplus?

 

[36drew]

You can be in a calorie surplus and not gain muscle -- a lack of protein perhaps was your issue.

The strength gains could be attributed to an increase in neural efficiency, improved form, etc.

Just a thought; it may or may not be the case.

 

[36drew]

If you are interested in something geared towards hypertrophy, I'd suggest checking out something like this.

http://www.fortifiediron.com/invision/index.php?showtopic=24242

I suspect the program offers more in terms of size than in strength.

If you are interested in pure hypertrophy, HST might be of interest to you. Sorry I can't comment on it much, I just know what the name stands for so it makes sense! ha.

 

[RipStone]

Couple of things stand out from your post!

SF few months
increased almost all your lifts - which one(s) didn't go up? squats ?
feel much stronger - you either are or your not.

you gained weight so it wasn't a maintenance diet over that time period probably an ever so slight calorie surplus on a daily basis.

maybe you did not get significantly stronger enough and stimulate muscle growth whilst not having a big enough calorie surplus?

^^^exactly my thoughts. Also, if you gained fat then you should look at the quality of the calories you are consuming. That is, are you eating clean, eating a good protein/carb/fat ratio??

 

[Illuminati]

Diet...diet...diet....

 

[kiosk]

yeah was afraid is the diet....is not too clean although I try, is hard with all the travel, but I do eat a lot of protein at least 1g x pound of LBW. I have added poundages to all exercises...specially the deadlift so I was expecting some mass from this compound exercise and caloric surplus. So you recommend HST instead??

 

[BiggT]

There are a number of factors that could be responsible.....I can't really say without knowing you obviously....just off the top of my head...did you 'tweak' the program at all?? Were your strength gains in the same rep range? Meaning if you deadlifted 335x5 in the beginning and now you deadlift 365x5, it is NOT a strength gain to deadlift 335x5 in the beginning and deadlift 365x1 at the end, it is about workload and progressive overload, which is why sets/reps are constant.... ....Were you consistent or did you miss workouts and improvise?? Did you squat and squat correctly?....I mean full-range, free weight squats..Did you hit all your reps or did you require "spotting".......if you gained weight, you obviously were in caloric surplus, I am not what you'd call a proponent of sqeaky clean eating, but you DO have to eat enough of what you need, meaning some junk is ok in addition to nutritionally dense meals, as long as it is in addition to meals and not in place of them....you can't live off of hot dogs, beer, and Snickers Bars. How much stronger are you? Before and after numbers would be great, and typically what would you eat in a day.....don't post what you know you SHOULD eat like, post how you actually did eat typically.

These may sound like stupid, irrelevaant questions, but they are important.....a lot of times people aren't pleased with this because they used weights that were too heavy and missed reps and their spotter did some work (this eliminates the whole premise of the program, which is progressive overload).....some people decide to just start making up various rep ranges and swapping different core lifts in and out as they go......some people miss workouts and try to 'make it up'......some people fail to mention that they they took the 3 squat sessions and made 1 a Smith Machine half squat, the other a leg press, and the other a machine hack slide.....so, I am not saying you did all or any of this.....but since I don't know you, it is important to ask, because any of these would explain an aweful lot.

 

[RipStone]

yeah was afraid is the diet....is not too clean although I try, is hard with all the travel, but I do eat a lot of protein at least 1g x pound of LBW. I have added poundages to all exercises...specially the deadlift so I was expecting some mass from this compound exercise and caloric surplus. So you recommend HST instead??

HST, Max-OT, training just biceps and chest 5x a week....it doesnt matter all that much IF your diet is not in check. If you wanna gain lean body mass and limit fat gain, ten eat clean(er).

 

[Madcow2]

The "stronger on almost all lifts" worries me. You have to set this up to equal your PRs by week 4, that means if you didn't get stronger on a lift and set a new PR - it would have stalled on week 5 and there's no way you could continue for a few months or as planned without dealing with the struggling weight. That's just not something one typically sees written in a program like this especially if one had to deal with a lift not going up. So I am a bit worried on the execution end.

Also, your bodyfat may have risen a bit but does that mean you gained no muscle? You also don't have a very quantitative way of measuring i.e. you need to do something besides look in the mirror especially with 6lbs over a period of months. The human eye is not very objective when it is filtered through the human mind (and most people doing this have some level of attachment to their physical appearance).

Hypertrophy tends to track well with strength over mid to long period. Sometimes it doesn't though even for a few months. Who knows in this case. All any resistance program can do is get you stronger at the big lifts with decent workload and out of a heavy neural range. No magic. Now some might find that this increased strength is very useful and permits a lot of scaling when they switch back towards higher reps, but it is still the same thing - workload is reps x weight and you are trying to increase it. No real magic in rep numbers.

Anyway, there's a host of things that can go wrong, or you can do wrong (hell you could be working on a smith machine for all I know), or just be one-off type deals. The idea is that over a period you increase your big lifts and eat a sufficient diet for your goals. Every single resistance program is the same, your lifts have to move up, these are just schemes to get them going. There is no magic other than many programs being of horrendously bad design but that's just a matter of where BBing is currently at. If your lifts moved up and this program was run correctly (execution - which as I said above I have some reservations with that one comment you made) there is something in your plan, your body, or your ability to critically evaluate your progress.