Monday, July 15, 2013

5 Reasons You're Not Building Muscle


So many people head to the gym day after day, week after week, spending countless hours on the weight floor and cardio equipment, doing everything right from a commitment perspective, but still find they just cannot put on the amount of muscle they would be satisfied with. One problem, is that they read muscle magazines and blogs and see images of bodybuilders and believe thats achievable. Unfortunately, unless you're doing this professionally like that are, and can spend half your day in the gym, you're just not going to get there. Another issue is steroid use. A lot of professional bodybuilders use them to build muscle, without disclosing it, making the everyday guy like you and me question why we can't get as big as they are. Well, with those two things aside, here are 5 reasons, or mistakes you might be making, thats stopping you from building more muscle:


1. You're not eating enough
No matter what your body type is, if you are not eating enough calories each day, your body wont allocate enough calories to building muscle. People who are hard gainers and naturally thin and lean may find this difficult but its the only way you will pack on the muscle.

2. You're Not Doing Compound Exercises
Spending your time on the machines when you hit the weight floor? That might be your problem. While machines are great for isolating individual muscles, they should form the lesser part of your routine and you should instead focus on compound exercises which force your body to use many muscles at ones. Examples include squats, deadlifts, bench press, pull ups and dips. They will not only help you build muscle, but burn fat.

3. You're Skipping Legs
Squats are the most important exercise in the gym. If you're not squatting, you're not going to put on as much muscle as you potentially could. Squatting and doing other leg exercises not only build leg muscle, but they build core and upper body muscle too. Squatting gives your whole body more strength and mass.

4. You're Doing Too Much Cardio
Obsessed with being really lean with no fat? Thats fine but don't expect to put on much muscle. Doing too much cardio eats into those precious calories your body should be using to burn fat. Cut down on your cardio, do light cardio, or do quick (20 mins) interval training to burn fat. Long bouts of cardio are great and keep you and your body healthy, but if you want to build muscle its no productive.

5. You Stick To The Same Routine
Have you been doing the same routine week in week out? Your body has probably adapted to your exercise routine and is not being challenged, so therefore not packing on any new muscle. Mix things up week after week. Try new machines, new exercises, go heavier one week, play around with how many reps you do, take a week off from the gym (yes its good to do that every now and then too).

No comments :

Post a Comment

You Might Also Like

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...