Thread: How long did spend on the F5 novice?

Hi all, been a while since I've posted. I'm 37 yo. Been lifting , well trying to lift seriously for 2 years.

I did the F5 novice then have been doing the intermediate routine for a while.

In a nut shell. I have low testosterone ( got it checked) and am a very hard gainer. I might have put on max 4 kg of lean muscle. Total body weight 70kg at 11%bf

I'm going back to the novice routine, and this time I'm going to stick to it properly rather than jumping to the intermediate routine. I've also done several bulk cut cycles within this time. Biking at 300cal cutting at upto 1000 cal.

I swapped because I thought I was ending my novice gains. I also feel like it's a misleading how it says on the F5 novice page that 3-6 months is a good average. I'm starting to think that for someone like me who is no longer 20years old, and has a hard time making gains. That I shud stick to it for maybe over a year.

I realise there is a set of criteria, so stalling on 2 major lifts. However. I'm going to go back and wait until I stall maybe 3 times.

Is anyone else in this boat and found that they cud stick to the novice routine for far longer than the stated 3-6 months? Basically the intermediate routing yielded such slow returns ( non in some cases) I get the feeling that I didn't quite finish the novice properly.

You could run it up to a year. However around the 6 month mark is generally when lifters need more volume. Moving to the intermediate upper/lower increases volume. The same concept goes for moving to the advanced LULPP.