5 Most Common Muscle-Building Mistakes

To be honest, it's hard to keep this list down to just five things, but these are the main mistakes people make when trying to gain a decent amount of muscle mass. Failing to address one or more of these will seriously affect your performance - and your results.


1. Avoiding the big lifts.


If your gym programme, over the course of a week, doesn't include squats, deadlifts, some form of chin ups, and some form of bench press, then you need to stop and re-evaluate what you're doing. Ideally, your programme should have:


Squats
Deadlifts
Chin ups
Military presses
Bench press and/or dips
Rows


Once you've got all those factored in, great. You can go on to do whatever other exercises you like, but don't skip the big lifts. You simply won't get the same results doing dumbbell flies, leg extensions and curl/shoulder press supersets.


2. Not eating enough.


As trainers, we get VERY used to skinny folk saying 'but I eat like a horse'. No, you don't. Or you wouldn't be skinny. Eat more than you burn off + weight training = muscle gain. At the very least, if you ate more than you needed and never trained, you'd gain fat. If your weight stays the same, you aren't eating enough. End of story. Most people who claim to eat 'loads' turn out to be eating huge portions, but not eating often enough. A 1000 calorie meal might look impressive, but if over the rest of the day you only eat another 1000 calories, you won't gain muscle.


3. Not resting enough.


You don't grow in the gym. You grow when your body has a chance to repair itself...when it's resting. That doesn't mean train once a week and rest the other six days. You need to strike a balance. Generally, for new lifters, training three times a week, having a day (or maybe two) in between each training day works. As you get more advanced, you can train more often, but only if you plan your training intelligently.


If you train every day, don't get enough sleep and constantly push yourself, you'll burn out. The most obvious indicator of burning out is a lack of progress in either your size or strength increases. If you hit a plateau, look at your rest and see what can be improved. An hour earlier to bed? An additional rest day? A weekend off?


4. Relying on supplements.


Really, this needs it's own blog post. Suffice to say, the clue is in the name - supplements. They are designed to supplement an existing good nutrition and training plan, not replace them. I have yet to train anyone who couldn't simply get better results from addressing their nutrition plan, than from spending money on supplements. 'Fat burning' supplements in particular are a huge con. They simply won't have any effect on fat loss until your diet is 100%, and I mean 100%, perfect. My diet isn't that perfect, and neither is yours - so don't waste your money on something that will make 0.1% of difference.


I'll add a caveat to that - probably, for convenience sake, a basic whey shake, multi-vitamin and Omega 3's are worthwhile investments.


5. Changing your routine every five minutes


There's a current trend (things like P90X) to promote 'muscle confusion' as the way to get big and lean. Well, it's generally rubbish. Your body responds to progressive overload. It likes getting used to doing an exercise well, and being able to get stronger at it. That takes time, and can't be achieved by chopping and changing your plan every time someone comes along with a fancy new idea. Pick a plan, stick with it for AT LEAST six weeks before considering changing. If you're wanting to get bigger, get more muscular, then consistency and progression are key. Not jumping on every latest fad.