Until I stopped in November last year I drank heavily for about ten years prior to that, and at about the same time I started drinking I started eating badly and excercising less. I ended up at about 17 stone.
I’m now 13 stone, not drinking, eating well (plenty of protein and other right stuff) burning lots of calories, and lifting weights.
I’ve ONLY been doing it about a month and a half (every other day) and fairly consistently doing curls at between 7 and 10 reps per set (with a lot of other excercises - I’m not just doing curls!)
I know I’ haven’t been doing it long, but I don’t seem to be getting any stronger… All I seem to be achieving is losing weight as a result of the extra calories I burn.
Has my alcoholic and unhealthy history done damage to my metabolisom and/or ability to gain muscle mass? Or am I merely expecting too much too soon?
Expecting too much too soon. My own experience is that in a month a half only someone who has not seen you in a while will notice a difference. Give it 3 months or so and you’ll see and feel a difference. By working out you are making gradual changes to your body, and since you see and feel your body every day the chances may not be noticeable to you until they accumulate.
The last time I had a regular weight-lifting habit was when I was around 17-19. It seems like results came quickly back then, like my age and my not having been a drinker were working in my favour.
But ironically I was doing sets with 15 reps. I now know that muscle doesn’t increase best with 15 rep excercises… more with 7-10 rep excercises.
So… Aside from the specifics of my case… that I am probably expecting too much too soon… Is it possible for years of bad diet and heavy drinking to affect a person’s ability to gain muscle?
You were 17 back then, with the hormonal profile of a teenage boy. Progress came more quickly because your testosterone levels were ridiculously high. It’s going to go more slowly now that you’re an adult.
Additionally, you should not expect to get hyooge arms from doing biceps curls. That’s an assistance exercise, meant to be done after you’ve finished with your primary exercises.
Give it time…it takes longer to see results the older you get. I doubt you have done any perminent damage to your muscles (your liver maybe another story, mind) with your drinking. There really is no comparison between how you were at 17-19 and how you are at 29. When I was 17-19 I could eat anything, work out occationally and pretty much do whatever I liked and probably had less than 10% body fat. Today I watch what I eat (usually), and work out 4 times a week…and have, um, significantly less muscle and more body fat.
Six weeks should be enough to notice a difference. The problem may be you are not eating enough. If you are trying to build muscle mass, you should be taking in enough calories to keep your weight contstant, plus a little extra. In my experience, the body does not want to burn fat and build muscle at the same time. You can excercise and eat fewer calories until you are as lean as you want to be, then increase your caloric intake and lift heavy.
You also might try giving yourself more days rest between workouts. Remember, its not the lifting that makes you bigger, its the healing between workouts.
Alcohol pretty clearly suppresses human growth hormone release by the pituitary (also affects levels of IGF-1, another hormone that affects your metabolism and ultimately your fat levels). HGH is part of what’s responsible for muscle growth, of course.
I couldn’t find it off-hand but I thought I once saw a reference to the effects of HGH-suppression persisting beyond cessation of drinking (the above link says GH levels returned to normal on nights the subjects did not drink, but it’s not clear how heavily or long they were drinking).
Here is a link that makes reference to possible permanent changes in GH levels from alcohol-induced brain damage.