Top Five Muscle Building Mistakes and How to Avoid Them!

Have you been spending hours at the gym without any results to show for your hard work? Chances are that you are doing something wrong. Muscle building is a science. Every aspiring body builder is a scientist and his body is his or her laboratory. Merely going to the gym in a random fashion and working out with whatever equipment catches your fancy won’t help you to build muscle. Let us find out about the top five muscle building mistakes so that you can avoid them.

Mistake 1: Over training

Over training is one of the most common mistakes in muscle building. Most beginners are prone to making this mistake. When you start pumping iron for the first time, your body reacts to it wonderfully, and you begin to pack on muscle very fast—at least for the first couple of months. Most beginners get really excited and may decide that to take their training to the next level they must do more exercises and more sets. It’s a case of too much too soon. The body quickly reaches its plateau, and pretty soon, you’re just feeling tired but not seeing any visible gains. Why does this happen? When the body is stressed, the amino acid levels (the building blocks of muscle) decrease, Cortisol (or stress hormone)

levels rise, the body becomes calorie deficient, it enters a catabolic state, and the muscles are under great trauma. Externally, endurance levels, immunity, sleep patterns, and muscle wellbeing suffer. This might be followed by weight loss, irritability, mood swings, and a decreased libido and concentration levels.

High intensity workouts are great if you know how to perform them properly. Beginners should avoid going the hardcore high intensity route, because they will not see any gains, and may in fact harm themselves.

Mistake 2: Insufficient rest between workouts

Recovery periods or rest periods between reps and between successive workouts are crucial to improve fitness and strength levels, and muscle quality and volume. If muscles are not allowed to rest, they enter a catabolic state, become nutrition deficient, and eventually degenerate, thereby defeating the purpose of training. You should also keep in mind that your muscles do not grow in the gym; they actually grow in the rest period between workouts.

It is essential that the same muscle groups should not be trained every day, especially if you are training at very high intensity. Alternating between muscle groups everyday can lead to effective results by providing rest for overworked muscles and at the same time training other muscles.

Mistake 3: Insufficient Post Workout Nutrition

One of the major mistakes made by aspiring body builders is insufficient or improper nutrition, and the most overlooked factor in nutrition is post-workout nutrition.

The 60 minutes window after your workouts are crucial to muscle development. Post workout, the muscles have depleted levels of glycogen, carbohydrates, and protein. They require nutrition so that they can grow and respond to the demands placed on them by the intensive workout that you have just done. If you don’t provide your starved muscles with adequate nutrition during this crucial stage, you may as well hang up

your gym shoes. You are not going to build any muscles by starving your muscles, especially after your workout.

A dosage of 0.8—1.2 grams of high glycemic carbs per kg of body mass, and 0.4 grams of protein per kg of body mass is a great way to replace the lost nutrients and reenergize the muscles. Since post work out the muscles need “immediate” relief and a source of energy which is quickly absorbed a liquid diet is preferred. When carbs and proteins are taken in these quantities, insulin levels spike up. This is good news for rebuilding muscles and enhancing protein synthesis, since insulin acts as an anti-catabolic compound post workout, which is just what your tired muscles need.

Mistake 4: Not Including Compound Movements.

As opposed to isolation movements, compound movements utilize multiple muscle groups in conjunction. This is a better option since in real life we don’t just utilize isolated muscle groups to perform work; we use many muscle groups simultaneously. Hence, compound movements mimic real life movements, e.g., performing deadlifts is similar to picking up heavy luggage from the floor. While doing compound movements, the BMR is raised much beyond the body’s usual capacity and hence more calories are burnt. So in a sense they are cardiovascular in nature.

Compound movements also increase testosterone levels. With enhanced testosterone levels, fat loss can improve and muscle mass can increased. The bench press squats, and overhead presses are great examples of compound movements.

Isolation movements are great but it is compound movements that will help you to build the core of the body that you want.

Mistake 5: Lack of focus and motivation

Just as in any other activity that you pursue in life, muscle building requires focus and motivation. Even if you are all geared up when you start out, but are unable to follow through with consistent hard work, you will not be able to see the kind of results that you want to. Maintaining a journal is a good way to stay focused, since it will keep you aware of your progress and highlight dead zones, if any. Goal setting and attaining them one at a time is another way to stay motivated. Don’t try and design complicated workouts. Design them to fit your routine and your temperament so that you can be consistent.

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