The power to construct muscle in response to training is part of our physiology. It’s deeply encoded in our DNA and persists throughout our lifespan. Meaning, lifters of any age and experience level should give you the option so as to add noticeable muscle to their frames.

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Should you’re deliberately and dedicatedly hitting the gym within the hopes of adding muscle mass, but still not seeing results, it’s time to step back and think. Which of those twelve common mistakes are sabotaging your gains?

Common Muscle-Constructing Mistakes

Failing To Plan

Beyond the apparent have to schedule time for the gym, many lifters fail to make progress toward muscle-building goals because their training is disorganized. Haphazard workouts might burn some calories, stimulate a good pump, and deliver a pleasant hit of “feel good” neurotransmitters, but real progress is made when your training is intentional and thought-out.

The Problem

By failing to plan your weekly training, you permit your workouts to probability. Some body parts may receive less-than-optimal training volume (sets and reps) while others are overworked.

Unlike specialized hypertrophy programs that intentionally underload one area to allocate more training to a lagging muscle group, unplanned training tends to be consistently inconsistent, leading to inferior gains throughout.

Training loads may go untracked, leading to failure to acknowledge leading indicators of progress, equivalent to the flexibility to perform more repetitions with a given weight or the flexibility to lift more weight. You might also miss leading indicators of accumulating fatigue and under-recovery, which could otherwise be addressed by program adjustments or a deload.

The Solution

Lifters serious about constructing muscle must structure their training, and following an efficient training split is a great start. Training splits help lifters get organized and stay organized by assigning a spotlight to every workout.

For instance, in a push/pull/legs split, your first workout of the week focuses on upper body pushing movements, which might are likely to goal chest, front delts (shoulders), and triceps. The second workout hits upper body pulling exercises, equivalent to rows, pulldowns, and pull-ups, together with biceps and rear deltoid (shoulder) work. And, you guessed it, the third workout is leg day. 

Once each workout has a spotlight, even when that focus is a full-body workout, the specified weekly training volume for every body part might be allocated to every body part. Appropriate training volume for constructing muscle is discussed in the subsequent section, but if you happen to’re not planning or tracking your training volume, you’ll never know whether you hit the goal.

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When you’ve established your split, it’s good to plan and track the specifics of every workout. At a minimum, this could include:

• Exercise selection
• Variety of sets and goal repetition range for every exercise
• Actual variety of sets and repetitions performed
• Weight used

Keep records in your phone (i.e. using an app) or use a tried and true pen and notebook.

Volume Control

Resistance training volume refers back to the amount of labor achieved in training. “Volume load” includes the variety of sets, variety of repetitions, and cargo for every exercise performed. (1) Volume load is a key determinant of hypertrophy (muscle gain). (2)

Weekly training volume load, somewhat than each day volume load, is a more necessary think about hypertrophy training. (3) That’s, whether each muscle group is trained once, twice, or 3 times per week, the recommendations below on appropriate weekly training volume still apply.

The Problem

Lifters run into trouble after they overshoot or undershoot effective weekly resistance training volume. Like many biological processes, the connection between weekly volume and muscle gain appears to follow a two-tailed, bell-shaped curve — a “Goldilocks” scenario.

Perform too little volume and also you’ll fail to make progress and even backslide. Perform an excessive amount of volume and also you’ll run the danger of non-functional overreaching, or declining performance that only rebounds to baseline after prolonged recovery. (4)

The Solution

To avoid missing out on gains attributable to insufficient volume or unsustainably high volume, you first have to have an idea of baseline training volume. An easy way of calculating volume is by totaling the variety of weekly sets per major muscle group. (1)

In keeping with an authority consensus statement on hypertrophy, 10 weekly sets per major muscle group is a great minimum goal for trained individuals. As a general rule, total weekly sets mustn’t increase greater than about 20% monthly of coaching. (5) While greater increases in volume could also be sustained during planned “overreaching,” these temporary periods are typically followed by a deload, or a pre-planned reduction in training volume and intensity. 

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Don’t fear deloads. During a deload, dramatic reductions in training volume are common. Weekly volume could also be reduced by roughly 50%. Lifters could also be wary about aggressively reducing volume during deloads for fear of losing muscle; nevertheless, research shows trained individuals maintain strength and size for at the very least two weeks of no workouts. (6) During a deload, you’re still lively and training.

Deloads are time-limited — typically one week or so. Deloads allow for recovery from hard cycles of coaching. Following a deload week, lifters are anecdotally more sensitive to training volume, allowing them to “reset” weekly training volume back toward moderate volume (e.g. 10 to 16 weekly sets). 

The query of top-end weekly volume could also be of interest, too. Although some lifters may profit from higher training volumes, it is probably going not essential for many to push past 20 or so weekly sets per muscle group, especially if other training variables are progressive over time.

Lack of Progression

The identical sets, reps, and weights that built your current body won’t construct your dream physique. It is because our muscles, like all biological systems, reach equilibrium (i.e. homeostasis) quickly if not supplied with progressive training stimuli.

The Problem

Informed by the tenets of the final adaptation syndrome (GAS), which describes how living organisms reply to stressors, non-progressive stimuli end in an eventual plateau of biological responses. (7) For hypertrophy training, this implies non-progressive workouts will eventually turn out to be non-productive workouts and also you’ll stop seeing muscle gains.

The Solution

The best solution to non-progressive training is to ensure you might be either adding volume (sets and/or reps) or load to your lifts usually.

Although any decent, ready-made program will already incorporate progression, an easy approach to progression for constructing your individual program is to begin by identifying a weight for every exercise that permits you to perform quite a lot of repetitions toward the underside of your goal repetition range for moderate effort sets.

For instance, a lifter wishing to program neutral-grip lat pulldowns within the eight to 12 repetition range might determine she is in a position to use 165 kilos (75 kilograms) for 8 reps while having two or three repetitions left in reserve.

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Now, each week, she will either add one repetition per set or add 2.5% to five% more weight — she will either progress to 165 kilos for nine or more reps or 170 kilos for eight reps. She’s going to proceed so as to add repetitions or weight until she’s unable to stay inside the goal repetition range. Then it’s time to take a deload period of roughly one week and restart.

Alternatively, if you happen to feel you will not be ready for a deload, simply adjust your goal repetition range to accommodate an extended period of progression (12 to fifteen repetitions, in this instance).

Quasi-Cardio Workouts

Working up a sweat and getting the center pumping are features of many intense sessions, and most lifters value that form of training. Supersets, which pair exercises back-to-back thereby minimizing rest, are a mainstay of a lot of these intense workouts. (8)

But some lifters take “minimal rest” too far. If rest between sets is restricted to the purpose where workout quality or performance suffers, the workout may fail to realize its ultimate purpose: constructing muscle.

The Problem

To be clear, the issue isn’t lack of rest between sets, per se. It’s the resulting loss of coaching volume and/or intensity that inevitably occurs after not taking enough rest. (9)

Reducing rest periods will play up the cardiovascular challenge of the workout. While cardio is excellent for overall health, it shouldn’t be the best form of training for constructing muscle. Furthermore, “lifting light weights fast” or “lifting with minimal rest” is unlikely to be optimal cardio for many. Rhythmic or cyclical exercises are likely to be more suitable (e.g. rowing machine, jogging, cycling, swimming, etc.).

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“Frankensteining” a cardio-like, resistance training workout won’t allow adequate recovery of the phosphagen and anaerobic alactic energy systems which predominantly fuel traditional resistance training. This ends in lost repetitions and/or necessitates use of lower loads. Since volume load drives hypertrophy, short rest intervals ultimately result in inferior growth. (9)

The Solution

Outside of very specific scenarios equivalent to supersets, ensure you might be getting adequate rest between sets to take care of desired training volume throughout your hypertrophy workout. Take a minimum of two minutes rest between sets of multi-joint exercises and 60 to 90 seconds between sets of single-joint exercises. (5)

Tip-Toeing Around Tension

Those with hypertrophy goals lift weights to reveal their muscles to tension. When exposed to tension, muscles experience a posh cascade of mechanical, neural, and chemical events that culminate in elevated rates of muscle protein synthesis and protein turnover. (10)(11) The final result, ideally, is larger muscles.

The Problem

Mechanical tension is regarded as a key driver of hypertrophy. (11) Nonetheless, lifters might be very efficient at working around mechanical tension, especially when sets get difficult. Through the use of compensations or work-arounds that make repetitions easier, they find yourself taking tension off the goal muscles.

The Solution

Develop a powerful mind-muscle connection and don’t cheat yourself out of tension. From the start of every set, concentrate on controlling the negative (or eccentric/lowering) phase of the exercise. You would possibly even linger a bit slower through the most difficult portion of the motion. For instance, when lowering dumbbells during a lateral raise, concentrate on controlling the initial descent. 

As your set continues, disallow any compensations — don’t cheat! Keeping your form clean within the face of fatigue, burning muscles, and impending muscular failure is difficult, little question, but it might be mastered.

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If, for instance, you might be performing dumbbell front squats as a quadriceps-focused leg exercise, proceed to drive your knees forward as you squat down, shifting tension into your quads. Don’t allow yourself to sit down back into your hips through the final difficult repetitions. 

Should you are recent to the talents of pushing through tension or still developing the mind-muscle connection, consider certain machine-based exercises, which instill confidence and include built-in safety measures.

At all times Testing, Never Training

Some lifters can’t resist training too heavy, too often. For a lot of, nothing feels higher than hitting a heavy personal best or maximum on a squat, bench, press or deadlift. But maxing out shouldn’t be necessarily similar to productive training. Unplanned “YOLO sets” can sap energy, rob you of volume load, interfere with readiness to coach, and ultimately detract out of your hypertrophy gains.

The Problem

While there’s an appropriate time and place in any program for maxing out, it is usually during a period of planned overreaching or testing to ascertain percentages and dealing weights.

Heavy singles, doubles, even triples can lead to lower volume loads, a key driver of hypertrophy. (2) It is because maximum or near-maximum low-rep sets may detract from, or take, the place of sets within the five-to-30 repetition range, that are most effective for accumulating volume load. 

Performed too regularly, heavy maximum sets might spur non-functional overreaching. Researchers reported non-functional overreaching (i.e. lack of gains) amongst trained squatters performing three sessions per week of two singles at 95% of one-repetition maximum (1RM) and three singles at 90% 1RM after only three weeks. (12)

One other study compared a volume load equated program using three sets of 10 repetitions versus seven sets of three repetitions. The groups gained equivalent muscle over eight weeks, however the group performing heavy triples for seven sets reported more symptoms related to overtraining, like joint pain. (13) 

Ultimately, heavy training can sneak up on you. Even though it could also be possible to realize equivalent volume load and growth with heavy maximum sets, they might not be as efficient within the long-term as “hypertrophy-style” sets within the moderate to high-repetition range.

The Solution

Heavy, maximum effort sets (i.e. lower than three repetitions) ought to be few and much between whenever you’re in a dedicated hypertrophy program. You don’t want to max out every week.

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True 1RM testing may not even be essential for the hypertrophy-focused lifter. Programming based on multiple repetitions maximum (i.e. 5RM, 8RM, 12RM, etc.) is just as effective as percentages of 1RM, and arguably more specific to the repetition goal of the sets commonly performed during training.

Plan to regularly test 8RM to 12 RM to your primary lifts roughly a few times per four-to-six-week training cycle. On days your program doesn’t call for max effort sets, resist the urge to max out.

Program Sampling

Countless training programs have potential to assist you to reach your physique goals. Nonetheless, always sampling from the infinite menu of workouts circulating through social media and fitness publications is a sure-fire option to slow your progress.

The Problem

With each recent exercise or exercise variation, we ask our neuromuscular system to tackle a novel movement skill. Motor learning, or the strategy of learning a recent movement skill, takes time.

Should you’re always changing up your workout, you never approach the crest of the educational curve. Meaning, you won’t get essentially the most of your training since you haven’t spent enough time with each exercise to maximise technique, repetitions, and loads. (14)

The Solution

Consider each exercise in your workout as an investment. Keep an exercise in your workout portfolio long enough and you may experience compounding interest within the types of technical proficiency and muscular adaptations related to the exercise.

Keeping relative consistency allows for progressive overload, a necessary feature of effective training. For hypertrophy, progressive overload is achieved by step by step exposing your muscles to greater demands over time.

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When you develop or discover a workout program you enjoy that’s specific to your goals, see it through for at the very least 4 to eight weeks. How do you already know when it’s time to shake things up? When training gets stale. And this next section just so happens to elucidate more.

Stale Programming

Variation, while potentially counterproductive if applied excessively, may play a very important role in stopping stalled progress. (14)(15) Variation can take the shape of changes in programming variables equivalent to sets, repetitions, and cargo. (16) Or, variation might be achieved via exercise selection. (15) Your program should include each sources of variety.

The Problem

Without some variation in your training, stagnation is more likely to occur. Stagnation might be mental or physical. Repeating the identical workouts week-in and week-out can drain motivation to coach, while highly varied programs are shown to reinforce motivation. (17)

Physically, our muscles will turn out to be accustomed to the stale stimulus, as discussed within the previous “Lack of Progression” section. Furthermore, muscles may grow preferentially at specific regions in response to certain exercises. With varied exercise selection, more robust growth throughout the muscle has been shown. (14)(18)

The Solution

Vary your training systematically, not haphazardly. Consider a planned, or periodized, program. Should you are drawn to plenty of variation or need frequent changes to remain motivated, consider a program with an undulating periodization scheme — In these programs, volume and cargo are varied regularly (e.g. each day or weekly). (19)

For instance, one workout might call for three sets of 12 repetitions, the subsequent workout may be 4 sets of eight, and a third workout may be five sets of 5 repetitions. Although not specifically designated as a hypertrophy program, one example of a each day undulating program is the Conjugate Method popularized by powerlifters on the famed Westside Barbell. 

For others, a more traditional approach, equivalent to linear periodization, may suffice. Programs which might be linearly periodized step by step increase load while step by step reducing volume. (19) A scientific review comparing undulating periodized training programs with linear programs showed no difference in hypertrophy outcomes between the 2 periodization styles. (19) 

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Periodization seem too complicated? Fortunately, true periodization might not be essential for hypertrophy. (16)(20) But variation remains to be necessary. First, ensure your program is progressive by adding volume or load when training gets easy.

Next, consider including multiple exercises for every body part. Not only does this decrease boredom, however it might also result in fuller muscular hypertrophy. (14)(18) For instance, you may include spider curls and incline dumbbell curls, either in the identical workout or throughout the week, to hit your biceps at different muscle lengths.

Finally, switch out your exercises for various variations whenever you begin to plateau — Changes may be as often as every 4 to eight weeks, or as seldom as every twelve to sixteen weeks.

Forgetting the Food

Because the saying goes, you will need to eat big to get big. Elevated rates of muscle protein synthesis following resistance training are regarded as the important thing driving force of muscle gain amongst consistent lifters. (10) The raw materials for elevated rates of protein synthesis largely come from dietary protein, a very powerful macronutrient for hypertrophy-focused lifters.

The Problem

Although 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram body mass per day is usually cited as a goal for maximizing muscle gain, resistance trained individuals may profit from substantially higher intake. A goal of two.0 to 2.2 grams protein per kilogram body mass could also be more appropriate. (10)(21) Many lifters fail to consistently reach this goal.

The Solution

While many lifters will not be inquisitive about tracking all macronutrients, specializing in optimizing protein intake would be the most practical and impactful step. An easy strategy to achieve a protein goal of two.0 to 2.2 grams per kilogram body mass — roughly one gram per pound body weight — is to divide goal protein intake across the variety of meals you propose to devour every day.

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For instance, a 200-pound lifter might plan to devour 4 meals containing roughly 50 grams of protein each. Alternatively, this lifter could devour three meals at roughly 50 grams of protein each, a post-workout shake containing 30 grams protein, and a snack containing one other 20 grams. 

To effectively meet your protein goal, you will have to familiarize yourself with the protein content of the foods you commonly devour. Before long, you’ll begin to memorize the protein contents of foods you commonly eat. 

For instance, a single egg has six grams, a quarter-pound of beef has roughly 25 grams, and a small can of tuna fish also has 25 grams. Those with health conditions, those looking for meal plans, and people seeking to optimize other facets of their nutrition, equivalent to nutrient timing, should seek the advice of a registered dietitian, ideally one with experience with physique athletes.

Sleep Struggles

In the case of fat loss, a typical platitude goes: “Abs are made within the kitchen.” But in relation to constructing muscle, a more correct claim is: “Muscle is made within the bedroom.” Recovery between workouts enables consistent high-intensity training, and recovery is determined by adequate high-quality sleep.

The Problem

Sleep deprivation is thought to blunt muscle protein synthesis (the constructing of recent muscle). Only a single night of sleep deprivation has been shown to scale back the speed of overnight muscle protein synthesis by 18%. (22)

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One other study showed five nights of partially restricted sleep (4 hours in bed) resulted in significantly reduced muscle protein synthesis in comparison with matched groups getting a full night’s sleep (eight hours in bed). (23)

Over longer periods of time, even modest restrictions in sleep duration can have profoundly negative effects in your ability to realize muscle. Beyond sleep duration, the standard of sleep might also affect adaptations from hypertrophy training.

The Solution

To enhance sleep, concentrate on three areas: Preparation, duration, and conditions. 

First, ensure you might be “winding down” within the hours prior to bedtime. Whether it’s the blue light from electronics or the highly stimulating nature of the data and activities performed with these devices, minimizing screen time before bed seems pertinent. Furthermore, avoid alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine within the afternoon and evening hours. (24)

Make every effort to get into bed early enough to allocate roughly eight hours to sleep. Yes, there are likely individual differences in the overall duration of sleep required, but eight hours is a great baseline goal for many.

Finally, make sure the conditions of your bedroom are conducive to sleep. Make every effort to create a cool (i.e. roughly 64 degrees Fahrenheit or 18 degrees Celsius), dark, and cozy environment for sleep. (24) Blackout shades, earplugs, fans, and/or air con units might be helpful.

Ideally, the bedroom is kept freed from electronics which could interrupt sleep. Sleep might be improved with planning and a focus, leading to a fuller night’s sleep and ultimately, a fuller muscular physique.

Excessive “Advanced” Training

Drop sets, forced reps, rest-pause, heavy negatives, and supersets are typically categorized as “advanced training techniques,” a classification which will sound alluring. Equally alluring is the proven fact that greater than 80% of competitive bodybuilders use these techniques in “most but not all sessions.” (25) Advanced training techniques are fun and may increase motivation to coach. (5)(26) But here’s the rub. You would possibly already be using these techniques too often.

The Problem

Most lifters inquisitive about constructing a muscular physique don’t engage in competitive bodybuilding, a sport characterised by common use of anabolic androgenic steroids that likely allows individuals to tolerate (and thrive) under punishing training regimes. Subsequently, most lifters mustn’t try to train like competitive bodybuilders. 

While research on advanced training techniques is sparse in some areas, studies on drop sets and supersets are likely to show similar muscle gain to traditional set configurations. (5)(26)(27) Take note, training studies on advanced training techniques are time-limited — typically six to 10 weeks in duration.

Because many advanced training techniques push the lifter past failure or dramatically reduce rest intervals, it could be difficult to sustain frequent use of those techniques in the long run without accumulating fatigue. With amassed fatigue, performance in subsequent workouts begins to suffer, which can ultimately hinder gains.

The Solution

Advanced training techniques ought to be used judiciously. Limiting use of advanced training, particularly techniques that reach sets beyond failure (i.e. drop sets and compelled reps), to primarily single-joint movements and machine-based exercises may help to administer the burden of fatigue. (5)

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It might be clever to limit use of advanced training to the ultimate set of a given exercise or to an outlined period of intentional overreaching, equivalent to the ultimate week of a training cycle. (5)

Finally, while survey data indicates best bodybuilders use advanced training techniques, they have a tendency to make use of these techniques with primarily single-joint exercises. Biceps curls, triceps pushdowns, and pec flyes are essentially the most common. (25)

Should you want to employ advanced training techniques regularly, go ahead and take this lesson from their playbook: Use advanced training primarily when training smaller muscle groups and for isolation-type exercises.

Impatience

Real talk: constructing muscle is painfully slow. Young, healthy newbies (individuals starting an organized hypertrophy program for the primary time) are a population expected to make essentially the most rapid gains in muscle mass.

That is the “newbie gains” phenomenon. Nonetheless, as your training experience increases, gains are slower and harder to come back by.

The Problem

Rates of hypertrophy are relatively slow and highly individual. In a clever study design, variability in hypertrophy between individuals performing the identical progressive training programs was 40-times greater than variability inside individuals when the individuals performed different progressive protocols on left versus right limbs. (20) 

Further emphasizing variability inside individuals, a small study on 24 “newbie” lifters reported a ten.7% average increase in muscle cross sectional area after ten weeks of hard training. But this average is somewhat misleading, as “high responders” grew nearly 15%, while slightly below a 3rd of the individuals (“low responders”) lost muscle size throughout the study, albeit this modification didn’t reach statistical significance. (28)

Altogether, research hints that individual features are more necessary than the precise nuts-and-bolts of the hypertrophy program.

The Solution

Fortunately, there are not any non-responders to progressive hypertrophy training. (20) But if you happen to are a low responder, also referred to as a “hard gainer,” and even a mean responder to training, you’d higher get comfortable playing the long game.

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Practice setting expectations and goals by way of longer timeframes. For instance, a mean experienced lifter not enhanced by anabolic steroids might reasonably set a goal of gaining 4 or five kilos of primarily lean muscle mass monthly.

Nonetheless, for a known low responder, a more realistic goal may be so as to add two kilos of muscle monthly. Or higher yet, aim at twelve solid kilos of muscle in a yr. Reasonably than frantically looking for the subsequent best program or complement, most lifters could be higher served serious about gains by way of months, years, even many years. Settle in and revel in the progress.

Finally, there’s one silver lining for “hard gainers.” Although they have a tendency to realize muscle more slowly, “hard gainers” shed muscle more slowly in periods of detraining. (28)

Avoid Roadblocks on Your Journey to “Gainzville”

Constructing muscle is an arduous journey but a rewarding one. A muscular physique affects your self-esteem, how you might be perceived on the planet, and your overall health. Should you’re not getting where you would like to go, now’s the time to re-examine and tinker together with your programming, your habits, and even your mindset.

References

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