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Most Common Muscle Building Mistakes to Avoid
The key is to exercise intelligently if you want to achieve the best outcomes in the quickest time possible. It is crucial that you understand the fundamentals of what to do, what not to do, and when to do it when it comes to gaining muscle.
One of the main motives for joining a gym, along with weight loss, is to gain muscle. After all, building lean muscle is beneficial to your general health in addition to looking nice. Higher posture, joint protection, stronger bones, joints, and tendons, a better metabolism, improved athletic prowess, and improved balance are all benefits of having more muscle mass.
1. Eating insufficiently
If you aren’t consuming enough calories, all that time spent at the gym lifting weights can be for nothing. This is due to the fact that you will find it extremely challenging to gain muscle without being in a calorie excess.
It’s crucial to keep in mind that calories are necessary to fuel your workouts and support the repair and growth of your muscles.
Although calorie counting is far from an exact science, you should multiply your weight in pounds by 15 to 17 to get an approximate estimate of how many calories you need each day to grow muscle.
2. Consuming insufficient protein
Protein is crucial for numerous bodily processes. Additionally, muscle protein synthesis, the process of constructing muscles, depends on it. Your workout’s goal is to cause small tears in your muscle fibers, which will cause them to grow back stronger after they heal. This boosts muscle mass over time.
You’ll need enough protein to repair and rebuild your muscle tissue; aim for 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight. For instance, you should eat about 120 grams of protein each day if you weigh 150 pounds.
3. Consuming Insufficient Water
Water makes up two thirds of your body. Your muscle contains two thirds of that total amount of water.
The typical recommendation of 6 to 8 glasses per day is a decent starting point, but drinking half your body weight in ounces of water each day is a more accurate strategy. Accordingly, if you weigh 150 pounds, you should drink about 75 ounces of water per day. Since an average cup contains 8 ounces, this translates to roughly 9 cups each day.
4. Overworking
Your muscle tissue is damaged during exercise and is later repaired. It might seem reasonable to assume that when you train out more, your ability to gain muscle will increase.
This isn’t the case, though, as exercising too frequently might make your body burn out because it won’t get the rest it needs. Due to the suppression of your immune system, this might cause your stress hormones to rise, increasing your risk of injuries and even illness.
Additionally, overtraining might harm your central nervous system and have a negative impact on your performance.
5. Not Sleeping Enough
This relates to point 4 because getting enough sleep is crucial for muscle growth. The second most important factor in encouraging your body to mend and recover is sleep.
Sleep deprivation prevents your body from growing and repairing itself. Lack of sleep can lower your energy levels, raise your stress hormones, which makes acquiring body fat easier, and have a bad impact on your workout.
6. Consuming insufficient carbs
Low-carb diets like paleo or keto may work for you, but not everyone should follow them. If you’re working out hard, you’ll need energy, which your body can receive from carbohydrates in the form of glucose.
These carbohydrates will encourage you to lift more weights in the gym, which will result in superior muscle-building outcomes.
You should choose complex carbs like wild rice, steel-cut oats, and sweet potatoes to maintain a clean carbohydrate consumption.
7. Not Extending Far Enough
Without stretching before or after your workout, you’re skipping a crucial step in gaining muscle.
After an exercise, stretching not only aids in recuperation but also gets your body ready for the next workout. Without stretching, you run the danger of injuring your muscles.
The muscular fascia, which functions like a sack that retains your muscle tissue, should also be stretched. Stretching the fascia is crucial because it gives your muscles more room to expand. This can be done both before and after the “pump,” in between sets.
8. Failure to Lift Enough Weight
You must up the intensity of your workouts if they are not challenging you.
You are not lifting a heavy enough weight if you can complete an exercise with 20 or more repetitions.
Pick a weight that is difficult for you to lift for more than 10 to 15 reps while maintaining proper form.
9. Excessive Weightlifting
The rate at which you lift the weights is crucial because muscle gain takes place while your muscles are under tension for a prolonged period of time.
For instance, your muscles won’t get the essential amount of time under strain if you complete a set of 10 repetitions in just 10 to 15 seconds. Sets should last at least 30 to 45 seconds if you want to increase your muscular mass.
10. Using poor form when lifting
Here, you should use a weight that is both demanding and manageable for the repetitions while maintaining proper form.
If you can’t regulate the weights, you’ll be working every muscle but the one you’re trying to target. Your joints and tendons will be used more than your muscles if the weight is too high and your form is sloppy, which increases your risk of injury.
11. Failing to use the mind-body connection
Although it may sound strange, it is crucial to pay attention to the muscle you are training.
For instance, to maximize muscle gain when performing a bicep workout, concentrate on the bicep and squeeze. You are not really engaging the bicep if you are performing bicep curls while just going through the motions.
Squeeze and intentionally contract the muscles you are using to make them bigger and stronger.
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