Need Advice on muscle and recovery.

[Gr33dyOctopus]

So its 530am and I can feel my workouts feom last week still. Last worked out Friday. Part of my job is leading stretching, bands, balls and weights in two large independent senior communities. I love it. Nearly two hours a day of whatever exercise I want to put on the calendar and do.

But on the negative side, and there are a few negatives with this... I dont seem to be building any new muscle, just tightening the muscle that I do have. My arms should be huge, or at least bigger but they're not. Yes certainly more defined, but they still look small for what I put them through each day.

I should mention that im on 13mg of glp1 with 26 pounds to goal, so im not trying to eat a hell of a lot. I am eating protein but likely not nearly enough as I dont track it.

Second issue, its monday morning and I am still sore from last week's workouts, and the weeks before and before ect. Just about 52yo, not sure what to take to help me recover, i have bpc, mots, ipa, tessa, hgh but fml im not sure which of those, or maybe even cjc would help me.the most?

Last issue. My arms aren't responding with heavy muscle, but my shoulders sure are, I look yoked through the shoulders, but think I've done to much with my neck and it always feels tight, like it needs to pop but it won't, and there is almost always tensions 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]

Yes, this is a problem I have had to deal with many times over the years. It always boils down to the two basics- diet and training protocol. The building of muscle is at its root, an adaptation. But the visible physical manifestation of hypertrophy, comes along with neural adaptations. Mechanical tension, Muscle damage, and muscle protein synthesis are the 3 M's necessary for muscle building. These are achieved generally through progressive overload, prudent recovery and rest, and productive protein consumption.

In the aforementioned situation, we cannot see how your actual training is done, and thus, we don't know if there is progressive overload happening. Are you lifting heavier every week? Then, what about the rest phase. Muscle damage happens during exercise. Muscle growth happens ONLY during rest and recovery. If you're training for muscle mass, instead of strength, that type of growth requires more rest and recovery. If training for strength, lower rest periods can be utilized.

If shoulders are growing but arms are not, the most probable explanation is that you are training shoulders with the correct training protocol, forcing the adaptation to happen. The arms are a smaller muscle group and therefore, we need a slightly different training protocol for them. For example, training to failure, using supersets, slow eccentrics, and things like that. O, and eccentrics are the best way to bolster muscle growth.

And 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is a must for muscle protein synthesis. And if I am zeroing in, like you mentioned yourself, the lack of adequate rest seems the key to the lack of growth.

 

[Occindemure]

Yes, this is a problem I have had to deal with many times over the years. It always boils down to the two basics- diet and training protocol. The building of muscle is at its root, an adaptation. But the visible physical manifestation of hypertrophy, comes along with neural adaptations. Mechanical tension, Muscle damage, and muscle protein synthesis are the 3 M's necessary for muscle building. These are achieved generally through progressive overload, prudent recovery and rest, and productive protein consumption.

In the aforementioned situation, we cannot see how your actual training is done, and thus, we don't know if there is progressive overload happening. Are you lifting heavier every week? Then, what about the rest phase. Muscle damage happens during exercise. Muscle growth happens ONLY during rest and recovery. If you're training for muscle mass, instead of strength, that type of growth requires more rest and recovery. If training for strength, lower rest periods can be utilized.

If shoulders are growing but arms are not, the most probable explanation is that you are training shoulders with the correct training protocol, forcing the adaptation to happen. The arms are a smaller muscle group and therefore, we need a slightly different training protocol for them. For example, training to failure, using supersets, slow eccentrics, and things like that. O, and eccentrics are the best way to bolster muscle growth.

And 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is a must for muscle protein synthesis. And if I am zeroing in, like you mentioned yourself, the lack of adequate rest seems the key to the lack of growth.

Exactly.
To reinforce what Meritocat wrote, we would need to know your workouts routines at a minimum to know why you may not be growing like you want.

When I do not see the size growth I would like, I look at my program and see if I am getting stronger over time. If I am increasing weight or Reps, than I am building muscle. And size will generally follow.
You do need a bit of bulk to get bigger, so you need to weigh this with what you ultimately want.

Oh and just to nitpick. Protein intake is weighed against your "Lean" body mass. Not body weight as a whole.
So if you are overweight you do not need to match that for protein intake.

Consistency & tracking are key to fitness goals.
I personally use Ganburu App and love it, because it has a lot workouts to hit just about every goal. . ( I will happily send a link).
I have also used a few others like the RP App, which is also very good, if you only have body building goals

 

[JoonyO]

So its 530am and I can feel my workouts feom last week still. Last worked out Friday. Part of my job is leading stretching, bands, balls and weights in two large independent senior communities. I love it. Nearly two hours a day of whatever exercise I want to put on the calendar and do.

But on the negative side, and there are a few negatives with this... I dont seem to be building any new muscle, just tightening the muscle that I do have. My arms should be huge, or at least bigger but they're not. Yes certainly more defined, but they still look small for what I put them through each day.

I should mention that im on 13mg of glp1 with 26 pounds to goal, so im not trying to eat a hell of a lot. I am eating protein but likely not nearly enough as I dont track it.

Second issue, its monday morning and I am still sore from last week's workouts, and the weeks before and before ect. Just about 52yo, not sure what to take to help me recover, i have bpc, mots, ipa, tessa, hgh but fml im not sure which of those, or maybe even cjc would help me.the most?

Last issue. My arms aren't responding with heavy muscle, but my shoulders sure are, I look yoked through the shoulders, but think I've done to much with my neck and it always feels tight, like it needs to pop but it won't, and there is almost always tensions 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

Two things immediately popped out at me- one you know you're not eating enough protein and two, tell me you're not working out those arms EVERY DAY? If you want 'em to grow they need AT LEAST a few days of resting and to be FED. Do you add more weights or reps each week? If not you can try that. It's working for me. You can also try different exercises. I'm only doing arms twice a week-Wed and Sat and I'm happy with the visible progress as they're starting to fill out my T-shirts.