Has Your Muscle Growth Stalled?

Has Your Muscle Growth Stalled? These May be the Problems...

When you first start working out, you get to see the results of your efforts. This means that after a while, you see proper gains, improved muscle tone, etc. Soon after though, something else happens. You no longer see as much muscle growth as you used to.

In fact, you may notice that your muscles aren’t changing in size at all… So what are you doing wrong? Well, the truth is, you may be making a number of mistakes without realizing it, which is why you aren’t seeing the kind of gains that you want. Here are the blunders that you may be guilty of:

You Aren’t Getting the Right Nutrition

A lot of people get so caught up in the workouts that they forget that diet is just as important when it comes to gaining muscle. So, if you aren’t bulking up as much as you like, your diet may be to blame. To be able to increase muscle mass, you need to increase the amount of calories you eat and also make sure that you are eating the right kinds of food.

Now, getting a balanced diet is definitely important. After all, making certain that your body is getting all of its nutrients is a great way to boost muscle size. Still, there is one food group in particular that you need to focus on when building muscle mass – protein.

Try to consume about 0.73 grams per pound of body weight, each day. At the same time, you should be careful about when you eat your protein. Research has shown that you will see better results if you eat an even amount of protein at every meal. So, if your daily protein goal is 120 grams, try to eat 40 grams at all three meals.

You Aren’t Committed to Your Goal

Another thing that many people are guilty of is being committed to their fitness goals only some of the time. So, if you are giving it your all in the gym but then turning to beer and fast food the rest of the time, then you aren’t going to gain muscle. Remember, fitness isn’t just a hobby – it is a lifestyle. This means that you need to make sure that you are consistent in your exercise and diet at all times. Sure, you can have cheat days or veer off your schedule on occasion but don’t make it a habit.

You Don’t Get Enough Rest

Other individuals have the opposite problem and just don’t know when or how to stop. What you may not realize is that rest and sleep are just as important when it comes to building muscle. There are two main reasons why sleep helps with muscle growth and they are both related to your hormones.

As you are probably already aware, HGH is a hormone that is involved in muscle growth. A lesser-known fact, though, is that your HGH levels are highest when you are asleep. This is because your body produces more of this hormone while it is at rest. Sleep also works to reduce the cortisol levels in your body. Now, cortisol – also known as the stress hormone – can disrupt muscle growth. So, the less of it is in your system, the larger your muscles are able to grow.

You Aren’t Doing the Right Exercises

So, you are working out consistently but are you doing the right exercises? If you want to be able to pack on the right kind of pounds, you need the proper workouts to help you out. So, you are going to need to make sure that you are doing front and back barbell squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, leg presses, dips, upright rows, and bench presses.

The thing to keep in mind when choosing your exercises is to focus on compound movements that use as many muscle groups as possible. You should focus on completing these earlier on in your workout and then moving on to the individual muscle groups.

You Aren’t Pushing Your Body Hard Enough

When you first start working out, even the smallest weights may have a positive impact on your muscle growth. Nonetheless, after some time, your body adapts to this weight and is able to handle it more easily. This is why you notice that your muscle growth stalls.

To get things back on track, you need to increase the intensity with which you work out. Ideally, if you are looking to increase muscle size, you should be aiming for around 12 to 15 reps. A good way to know if your weights are too light is if you are able to hit 15 without breaking a sweat. To really push yourself, you should be absolutely straining to get to 15 reps. You will find that increasing the length of your sets as well as decreasing your rest time can go a long way in increasing the intensity of your workouts.

Going through this list, you may find that there are one or two mistakes that you are making. The good news is that it is never too late to remedy the situation. By making the necessary changes to your workout, you are sure to start making gains soon enough.