One very common complaint – among males in particular, is that no matter how hard you’re working in the gym, you just cannot seem to build muscle mass. You hit your workouts every day on schedule, you’re giving 110% during each lift, your pre and post workout nutrition is 100% on the dot every single day, so what’s the problem? Is your body just out to get you? Or is there something you’re doing critical wrong?
If this describes your situation at the moment, you may want to stop and take a good, hard look at the current workout routine you’re on. Are you in the gym more than four days a week? Are your workouts lasting longer than forty five minutes to an hour? (assuming of course you aren’t stopping to talk for five minutes after every set – if that’s the case, I think we just identified your individual issue). Both of these questions will help determine whether you’re currently doing volume-overload.
Some people naturally have a harder time gaining muscle. Blame it on genetics, blame it on their own body chemistry, blame it on whatever you want – it’s a fact, like it or not. That means that these people are going to have to train slightly different.
What they are going to have to do is hit their body with a good, solid workout, and then get out of the gym and REST. Their body is actually going to need to spend more time resting than it is working. For them, this is going to translate into a longer recovery period, which is when they are actually going to be building their muscles up and getting stronger (and growing bigger if diet is in line).
Every time you hoist a weight in the gym, assuming an overload is placed on the muscle, you are breaking down your muscle fiber tissue. If you then go back into the gym before this tissue has had a chance to heal, you are just going to break it down further. Talk about spinning your wheels.
You need to be absolutely sure that you have recovered in between your sessions so that rather than digressing, you progress. If you haven’t been making any progress lately in terms of size or strength, there is a good chance that this is exactly what you are doing.
Rest is vital to seeing results and something that far too many people are quick to short themselves on. They think that the harder and more frequently they work out, the faster they’ll realize their goals. For some – those who have incredible recovery systems, this is just the case. For most though, this is a surefire method to getting burned out.
So, if you aren’t getting the results you’re looking for from your workout, here’s what you need to ask yourself.
1. Are you applying an overloading stimulus? – that is, are you challenging your muscles in the first place?
2. Are you eating enough to recover – and more if you are looking to gain weight?
3. Are you giving yourself ample rest time between sessions, allowing at least two to three days of complete rest to recover?
If any of these appear to be an issue for you, that is the first place you need to look at changing in order to get yourself on the path to success.