6 reasons why youre not building muscle - By Ed MacDonald (EY Melb) 1) You’re impatient Building muscle is a time enduring process. Don’t expect to see immediate results after 2 weeks! In this time you will often feel yourself becoming stronger but not see the result physically. At this stage your muscles are responding at a neuromuscular level, meaning that your brain is better at communicating with your muscles and activating them. As you move through this stage you then must be placing enough stress on the targeted muscle to initiate an increase in size and strength of the contractile unit known as the ‘dose response’. 2) You don’t keep track How do you expect to see results and improve strength and muscle density if you don’t keep track of the exercises and weights you lift in each session. If your primary goal is to build muscle then you simply need to be doing this. You need to have an element of progressive overload so your body can adapt accordingly to the stress placed on it. Coming back and performing the same exercises and within the same rep range weekly will maintain your current strength and size. 3) You’ve got no structure Periodising a plan over a given time frame will ensure that you have progressive overload, variety and factor in recovery between sessions. These are three critical elements often neglected in the pursuit of muscle gain. 4) You stress too much Regulating stress is important in the pursuit of muscle gain. Cortisol, a stress regulating hormone negates the release of anabolic hormones and depletes the body of its resources and fuel that could be potentially building muscle. Sleep is crucial for muscle building and in particular slow- wave sleep. Slow-wave sleep is when our bodies release growth hormone a key hormone for muscle building processes. 5) You cheat reps Neglecting a full range of motion for a given exercise is only cheating yourself and your bodies muscle building capacity. Know the given range for all the exercises you complete and stick to it. Sacrifice weight if need be and leave your ego at the door! 6) Compound movements Isolation exercises such as db bicep curls, front raises and lateral raises are all good exercises and have their place in a training program. When wanting to build muscle you should be concentrating on compound movements that allow for maximal recruitment of muscle fibers of multiple muscle groups. Save the isolation exercises for the last half of your workout and devout your energy to the ‘bigger’ movements such as presses, pulls, deadlifts and squats at the beginning. These exercises also ensure a maximal hormonal response that in turn helps build muscle.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 04:59:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015