Mistakes To Avoid For Better Muscle Building Results

You Are Not Setting The Right Goals

You may have a goal in mind which is great, however, often people only set long-term goals, failing to think of the medium and short-term.

While the long-term goals and expectations are vital to give you the motivation you need, it alone doesn’t help you achieve those results you imagine.

You need a strategy just like in business. Mid-term goals are vital to success, it gives you direction and the ability to monitor the effectiveness of your workouts. What do mid-term goals look like? Three-month plans are excellent and tend to be the foundations for many muscle building athletes. Think about what you can reasonably attain within three months, such as adding an extra 10 kilos to your bench press. Build a rough 3-month workout plan to achieve that goal. If you didn’t achieve that goal after three months, alter your three-month workout plan.

You are not setting short-term goals. Short-term goals are what really makes the difference. If you are not pushing yourself to attain very small, very achievable goals on a short-term daily basis, you will likely lose sight of the mid-term goals.  A short-term goal could include: consuming the correct daily calories and nutrients or adding an extra weight your bench press from your previous session.

 

Failing to Keep Track of Progress

Many elite athletes maintain a record of their training and workout regiments. Many professional bodybuilders may not keep a physical record but, because they dedicate so much of their time to the gym many keep good mental records. Keeping a journal enables you not only to track progress but see where you could adapt your training, which should allow you to reach your goals much sooner.

 

Failing to Focus

Maintaining focus to reaching your goals is crucial. This means maintaining focus to reaching short-term through to mid-term goals. Any failure on maintaining structure and focus to achieve your goals will only hinder development and also make it difficult to identify weaknesses within your overall fitness regime – you must stay consistent.

There is another type of focus that is essential, it’s the type of focus that elite athletes can trigger at moments thought. This type of focus is about creating a positive mental perception whilst removing any negative thought and external influence from the environment. This is typically seen when athletes are about to compete – such as the starting blocks of a 100m sprint.

The second type of focus will help you to push through challenging routines and workouts that may be on the edge of your comfort zone and capability. This is what makes a winner. This type of focus will be the driving force in pushing your body to the boundaries and on to the next level.

 

You’re Not Changing Your Routine Order

Many people stick to the same order, going through a cycle of exercises every time they work out.

You should be altering the order of the exercises when you work out. Changing the order allows your body to develop in a more balanced way. If you stick to a particular order every time you workout you will likely see one muscle or muscle group disproportionally bigger than the rest. If you start with the same exercise each time you workout, by the time you get to the last exercise routine you will be severely fatigued, meaning that you will not be placing the target muscle under an adequate intensity level for it to develop effectively.  Compound movements are, however, always a great starting point when working out, as they are multi-joint exercises that involve bigger muscle groups and other stabilising muscle too.

Injuries will more likely to occur if one muscle is more developed than the muscle that supports it while performing a particular routine. When a weight gets displaced through different muscles as you actively move through a particular movement, there is a greater chance that the weaker underdeveloped muscle may injure as it bears the heavy weight load and takes on more stress.

 

Training For The Pump Instead of Results

Getting a pump on feels great, and it does play a key role in muscle development. However, if you only train to stimulate the muscle in a way that doesn’t shock it but instead induces pump and to some degree fatigue, you may be slowing your muscle building progress.

You have got to push yourself to the next level – there are many ways you can do this. Arnold Scwarnezzger would include heavy power sessions into his workout rota after every third workout on a particular muscle group. This allowed him to get used to the feel of heavy weights so when he dropped down to the normal session they would feel lighter. It allows him to stimulate his central nervous system, giving him much more power and control when he dropped back down. Second, utilising a weight load on the edge of your lifting capacity allows you to shock those muscles, stimulating a different set of muscle fibres and ultimately aiding your overall mass development. Find a way to challenge and shock your muscles!

 

Failing to Contract The Target Muscle Effectively

You may be lifting the weight but is your target muscle really being worked? This is perhaps one of the most common mistakes in the gym. Many people lift weights and force out many reps without fully stimulating the target muscle, believing the movement alone will induce the target muscle to fully contract, recruiting all of the muscle fibres – this is not always the case.

You need to initiate the movement by contracting the target muscle first. This method involves slight muscle control and is known as mind-muscle connection. Learn to contract the target muscle using very light weights so that you understand how to best maximise muscle fibre recruitment. Once the target muscle has been engaged, then follow through in a controlled manner with the movement of the exercise, squeezing at the peak of the contraction phase to maximise muscle fibre recruitment.

 

Failing to Meet Your Dietary Requirements

If you want to increase mass your diet must be sufficient in nutrient value and calorie content.

We all have different calorie and nutritional needs depending on our body and the level of daily physical ascension.

Many people use supplements as a replacement for meals. Supplements should never be a replacement. Instead of thinking about the next protein shake, think instead about a meal. Make a meal plan that meets your caloric and nutritional needs and stick to it.

A meal plan may become one of your best tools to aid in your development. If you feel fatigued too early when you work out, adapt your meal plan. If you are not building at a rate that you think you could, then assess whether adding an extra meal into your daily meal plan would help reach the mark. Supplements could then be used in accordance with your meal plan to reassure you meet your nutritional and calorie requirements and to maximise your intake.

 

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