Building muscle mass is not a piece of cake. And it becomes even harder to achieve when you make certain mistakes. A correct mind-set, a proper lifestyle and a consistent, diversified training activity will help you get better, faster, fulfilling results.
Here are the most common mistakes people make when they want to gain muscles.
- Not eating enough
This is one of the most common mistakes people are tempted to make as soon they begin training. Huge mistake! Not only that you won’t help your muscle grow, but your energy will decrease, as well as your motivation and your entire potential! The only thing you will achieve is the exact opposite of your goals: losing muscle mass, less enthusiasm and way less stamina! Not to mention that your determination level will decrease significantly. So this is a big no-no!
Keep in mind that your body needs a whole lot of energy for all the training activities you do (weight lifting, running, swimming). When you don’t eat enough food (and here we’re talking about nutritious food, not junk), you will lose muscle mass. And the whole purpose is to increase it, right? Lesson learned, so let’s eat something healthy and move forward!
- Not enough sleep
It’s a fact: muscles grow while you rest, not when you train. When you sleep, your body repairs the muscle tissue damaged during training. For an ideal recovery, you need 8-9 hours of sleep per day (per night, but you get it).
The lack of sleep will lower your testosterone level and increase your cortisol (the stress hormone) level, which will lead to not-so-nice results: you’ll accumulate fat and lose muscle mass. So yes, sleep should be one of your best friends to spend (plenty of) your time with!
- Training too often and too much
You really don’t to train more than 4-5 times a week. In fact, in most of the cases, 3 times a week is perfect. There are many who still believe that more is better. Wrong! When you train too often, the increased number of exercises boggles your body’s recovery, which leads to loss of muscle mass and strength.
Also, when you train too much (more that 1 hour per session), you don’t bring any benefit to your body. Testosterone levels begin to decline after about 45 minutes of workout. At that time, cortisol starts to rise, leading to loss of muscle mass and fat gaining.
Breaks are crucial, too! While some believe that taking a break will shrink their muscle mass, the truth is that the human body is not meant to withstand long periods of continuous training without any pauses. After 8-12 weeks of training, take a week of recovery. This will give you the time for recovery and it will help you avoid injuries.
Train wiser, not harder!
- Not having a workout schedule and no variation
You can’t simply go to the gym from time to time, do some random exercises, and hope for great results. This won’t happen! You need a well established plan and a schedule. Even if you workout at the gym, or in the comfort of your home, put some effort into organizing your training sessions. You can do that with the help of a specialized trainer or by researching online.
Plus, if you do the same exercises, the same number of repetitions and use the same weights, don’t wonder why you look the same month after month. Although consistency is important and frequent changes in training are counter-productive, doing the same thing over and over again will not help you in any way. Not to mention that it becomes boring at some point, making you lose enthusiasm, motivation and all these wonderful ingredients that keep you up and training.
Try to change your workout every 2-3 months, so that you have time to see your progress.
These are the most common mistakes you can make when you train for gaining muscle mass. If you skip them, you can get faster, more efficient results, avoiding injuries and over-training your body