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5 Reasons You’re Not Getting Bigger
December 31, 09
Building muscle is not as elusive as you may think it is. The truth is, when you bring all the components together and follow a program the right way, it is nearly impossible to NOT see results. Taylor Lautner is right now the most famous and best example of what can happen when you are young, dedicated and stick to a well designed program. Now not everyone is young, but a large amount of his success came from the dedication to his training routine. He packed on 30 pounds of muscle in a year! In my own experience, I gained 15 pounds of muscle between my senior year of high school and freshman year in college. I put on another 15 pounds of muscle in between my freshman and sophomore year of college. Remember, when you’re training for football you don’t just lift and eat all day, you also run a hell of a lot, so it’s even tougher to keep weight with all the conditioning. Last year in a period of eight months, I trained, ate and slept to BUILD and went from 185 pounds to 205 pounds! No magic pills, no steroids, no testosterone boosters. Just good ol’ fashioned hard work and discipline. Getting big, fast without any supplements and steroids is not impossible. It simply takes dedication and consistency. Here are five mistakes you are making that are keeping you from packing on muscle mass:
You aren’t eating often enough.
You should be eating every 2-3 hours from wake up to bed time. Long periods of time without eating will cause your body to go into a catabolic (breakdown) state and it will metabolize essential nutrients needed for building muscle mass.
Your form sucks.
Let’s face it, most people don’t know how to lift properly. Bad form is not only a recipe for joint pain and injury, but it is also a sure way to slow your results. Good form keeps you working the muscles you intend to work and successfully overloads them. Check your ego at the door, suck it up and ask for some help from a fitness professional or a strength coach to show you how to perform biomechanically sound movements.
You over train a muscle group.
In order to get muscles to grow you need two main things: overload and recovery. Many guys think it makes sense that the more you work out a muscle group, the more it will grow. Therefore, they will do arms every time they hit the gym or rock the chest four days a week. Sure this creates overload, but there is no chance for recovery. This is a huge no-no. If you are looking to gain some size, limit working a muscle group to one day (if you’re doing extremely high volume, body building training) or two days a week (moderate volume split routine) with at least 24-48 hours of rest in between muscle sessions. Resting the muscles allows them to build back up!
You fear no beer.
Aside from the other serious risks associated with drinking several nights a week or binge drinking every weekend, excessive alcohol intake seriously inhibits your body’s ability to build muscle. Consumption of alcohol inhibits the secretion of growth hormone and slows down the process of protein synthesis. A moderate intake of alcohol is recommended, which means two drinks for men. This is not to say you can never drink alcohol again, just limit your partying to once a month if you are serious about your fitness goals.
You stay up all night playing Call of Duty.
Ok, so maybe its facebook, video games, insomnia, your significant other, homework or whatever! Not sleeping enough impairs your body’s ability to rebuild the muscle you tore apart in your weight training session. Growth hormone is secreted a couple hours into your sleep cycle to help repair tissue damage and is vital to getting bigger. Try to get seven to eight hours of sleep a night to ensure you’re getting the most out of your hard work in the gym!
Jeff Bomberger
Certified Personal Trainer and USA Weightlifting Sports Performance Coach out of Jordan's Virtual Fit Club. NSCA, NASM and USA Weightlifting Certified Personal Trainer, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Exercise Specialist and Certified Sports Performance Coach.
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Discussion
Guilty of the last two for sure… Perhaps I need to buy a Wii Fit, which speaking of… What’s your opinion on it?
The Wii Fit is a good little tool to get moving around! Will it get you yolked, shredded or help you lose tons of fat? Probably not, but in my opinion the more movement we get in the day, the better! We unfortunately suffer from terribly sedentary lifestyles so I am all about anything that makes us move and sweat a little!