Hello everybody! This is my first time posting on the forum, so hopefully all goes well! I'm going to start off with a little bit about myself before I continue on with my questions. My name is Chase and I am 16 years old. I have been lifting since 6th grade on and off, but have started to get a lot more serious about lifting. It is something I really enjoy, but only if I know that I am making progress and I SLIGHTY know what is going on with my workouts. I hate being confused with figuring out the most perfect form, so I often spend a lot of my time looking up videos to make sure that I am doing all of my exercises properly. 

Today I started my first workout in the Push, Pull, Legs 12 week transformation challenge. I skipped right ahead to month 2 because I consider myself not QUITE a beginner and I felt like I was ready to go right away. I felt like I was getting a really great pump near the start of the workout with the barbell pin-press. Unfortunately, I felt as if my pump gradually started to slip and by the end of the workout I didn't feel much and I just didn't have any drive in me. I was still very tired, but I barely broke a sweat and I felt like I worked extremely hard. Is it possible that I just don't sweat much? I had a gallon of water today and felt like I ate very healthy. I should add though that I had 5 pieces of all meat pizza, but that was 3 - 4 hours prior to my workout. I figure pizza is not that good for you, but it really helped me intake a lot of protein, carbs, and fat. Could that be the reason that I felt like crap during my workout? I ran about 10 minutes prior to the start of my workout and I could definitely feel the pizza when I ran, but I felt a lot better after my run, so I thought I had got rid of that problem. Finally my last comment is that I had to continually make sure that I was doing my workout correctly which definitely made it hard to keep my rest times to 30 to 60 seconds. Should I make sure that I have my workout memorized before I go into the weight room? 

I appreciate anyone who takes the time to read this and wants to help me become a better lifter. I really want to work hard in the weight room, but it just feels hard sometimes when I am not achieving the pump I desire, and I am not sweating, even though I FEEL like I am working my tail off. Once again, THANK YOU to anyone who reads and/or replies to this giving me you advice. It means a lot. Hope everyone has a wonderful night/day!

Hey chaseboeve, welcome to the forums and the site!

First of all, I read all about your confusion, and frankly I dont see anything abnormal with your training.

It's normal to get a nice pump at the beginning of a workout, but not maintain it until the end. Also, and more importantly, the pump and the sweat are DEFINITELY not indicators of a successful workout. You can get a pump carrying groceries for 2 miles, that doesnt mean you'll get bigger arms. You can break a nasty sweat in a sauna and that does not mean you are exercising hard.

As for feeling like crap, that's natural if your food choices are crap. You are what you eat. Start eating more fruit and vegetables, more rice and lagumes and you'll immediately notice an increase in your energy.

To get results in the gym, you need to make sure you are progressing constantly. So if you deadlift 135lbs now and 225 3 months from now, you have clearly become stronger and bigger. Progression is not always about weight. You can progress by doing more sets, more time under tension, less rest in between sets etc. etc.

You don't have to memorize your workouts, just have a PDF file with you or just a printed piece of paper and glance through it before and during your workout. It shouldnt take you more than 5 seconds to figure out what's the next exercise you should be doing.

So in conclusion, you don't have to worry about how how hard your workout "felt" or how sore you are or anything like that. Just track your progress in terms of numbers in the gym, calories, macros, bodyweight, bodyfat percentage and you'll be on your way to building a great physique.

Let me know if you additional questions!