Real talk, why are my results so bad after 2 years of lifting?

First off this is probably going to be a long post, so I really appreciate it if you read it.

So I've been lifting since June 2010. I want to give a good description of what exactly I did so that an idea can be had of where exactly I've gone wrong, if I had. This is me about a week into training. As you can see, I have VERY little muscle on my frame at all, weighing around 57kg and my bodyfat wasn't even that low. (terrible angle I know)


I started on starting strength, except I was a total noob when I started, knew nothing about fitness or lifting weights at all. Started using smith machine for squats in a crap 'fitness' gym that had no rack. I stuck to it for a while, until a friend of mine who has been lifting for a while put me on a bro split, with 4 or 5 sets of every exercise going to failure. Obviously this wasn't an ideal routine for a beginner, but I did make a little progress from this I feel, which was tempered by poor diet regulation (not sure how often I was even eating in a calorie surplus), but there were also times when I was on weight gainers and I made noticable gains (probably a lot of fat too). This was the result, me at 68kg (September, 2011):

And one from Feb 2011 where I actually look ok for 6 months of proper lifting, but I think the angle of the pic is deceiving:


It's obvious that I had put on a lot of fat here, and my inexperienced self thought it would be a good idea to further bulk, this time doing starting strength as the program states, accompanied with GOMAD and a high calorie diet. My diet was shocking during this time, way too high calories, too much weight gainer (Optimum Nutrition Serious Mass), and not enough nutritious whole foods. Some pictures from my 6 months on starting strength:




The last image was me at my heaviest. I went from 68kg to 83kg in 6 months. As you can see, most of this is fat. My lifts after starting strength were (5RM):
Squat: 107.5kg
Deadlift: 130kg
Bench: 77.5kg
Press: 55kg

So not exactly amazing. From here I decided enough was enough and that I wanted to cut. Unfortunately, my lifts went down quite a bit when cutting for various reasons. One of which being that I messed around with my routine too much, I went into Madcow 5x5 while cutting, starting with submaximal weights which was mistake number 1. I then moved over to Lyle's bulking routine which was mistake number 2, I also was out of commission for a while after a surgery which left me unable to lift for a couple of weeks. As of this week, my lifts are (5RM):
Squat: 72.5kg
Bench: 60kg
Weighted Chinups: BW + 10kg
Press: 40kg (6 reps)

And this is what I look like:



My frame is still tiny and I struggle to even fill out a size small tshirt, they're usually baggy on me. After finishing my cut, I had went from 83kg to 64kg, almost 20kg lost, over the duration of 4 months, My bodyfat is between 10-12% according to caliper measurements.

I still look like ****, I can't even fill out a small mens tshirt, my muscular definition is so crap that you can barely see abs at my current bodyfat which is lower than its ever been. I have officially started 'bulking' again this week (eating at maintenance this week to stabilize my weight, then moving up to a 500 cal surplus from next week. The routine I have chosen to do is Layne Norton's PHAT. I'm just very pessimistic about my progress so far, and feel like I've either been doing something very wrong or my genetics/testosterone levels are ****.

Once again, thanks to anyone that actually read this.

 

Real talk, why are my results so bad after 2 years of lifting?

Probably didn't eat enough for long enough.

 

Real talk, why are my results so bad after 2 years of lifting?

Poor genetics, poor training, poor diet.

Do I need to say more?

Like you, I struggled my first year to get everything in order. Now I have everything in order and hitting my second year hard. Remember, even though you lifted for two years already, you can still make Year 1 gains with proper training and nutrition.

 

Real talk, why are my results so bad after 2 years of lifting?

Eat more and lift harder, or just resign to a smaller frame

 

Real talk, why are my results so bad after 2 years of lifting?

It's either diet, training, motivation, or all of the above.

 

Real talk, why are my results so bad after 2 years of lifting?

I honestly think you should have just stayed on SS while bulking and kept up with your linear progression. What do you mean by 'after starting strength'? Were you unable to progress any further on your lifts? Or did you just decide that you're too fat now? I don't think you gained only fat; if your lifts went up you definitely gained some muscle/strength as well. Either that or you just learned to use your muscles better, but I think it's the former.

How much of a surplus were you in when you were bulking? With the lifting stats you've shown of your 'post-SS', I think you had a lot more potential. Now that it's done, just eat in a surplus to gain about 1 lb/week, and stick with a decent program and track your progress as you go.

 

Real talk, why are my results so bad after 2 years of lifting?

You f*cked up on your cut. You jumped around routines, cut too much weight, lost a lot of your gains. This is why bodybuilding is a marathon, not a sprint. You should have just did all pro's routine for 2 years and ate a small caloric surplus. People who do SS always seem to eat way too much f*cking food and get fat before building up any decent amount of muscle mass. Then they look and feel like sh*t after they cut.

 

Real talk, why are my results so bad after 2 years of lifting?

its obvious OP really has never put that much effort into training and diet. He cannot tell us how many cals he's consuming daily and his best squat and DL we're below 300lbs at a bodyweight of 185lbs

 

Real talk, why are my results so bad after 2 years of lifting?

Did you read the thread? I was eating a huge surplus for 6 months, I put on a lot of fat and weight in general. 68-83kg.

I was unable to progress further on some of my lifts. My Press and Bench Press stalled twice at around the same weight as I listed here. My squat, well I got to 100kg twice and stalled, so I moved onto the advanced novice program and it started increasing from there, but I stopped the program shortly after that because I wanted to lean down. I probably did put on muscle but not much.

It's important to note too, when I was on SS I didn't focus much on form, just on moving heavy weight, so maybe that contributed to little muscle gain. Something like this would have probably been beneficial for me, and who knows, maybe that could have been a contributing factor:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/tra...-the-pecs.html

Yeah I agree, I ****ed up on my cut, and the surgery certainly didn't help. I wish I'd done all pro's too. To be honest, I'm just happy to be a lot leaner than I was.

Thanks for that, look at how many posts I have on this website, you honestly don't think I have put effort into it? I did as Rippetoe said and ate a calorific surplus while doing GOMAD. I didn't record exactly how many calories I was taking in, but I was consuming a huge surplus on a daily basis. Stupid of me, I know, but I was naive thinking it would make me stronger but it didn't. My squat stalled numerous times before I even reached 100kg.

 

Real talk, why are my results so bad after 2 years of lifting?

GOMAD is retarded for beginners but I'm sure you see that now.