Do you feel discouraged & demotivated when heavy training brings negligible or no result? This becomes all the more frustrating when you are not able to figure out the reason. We are going to share some mistakes you may be making during your workout that may be the reasons why your muscle building exercises are not working at the optimum level.
- Not having a proper diet:
You are training hard & doing an excellent job – building your athletic ability, improving your strength & VO2 Max Levels, building muscles & focussing heavily on strength & resistance training. However, you are seeing only minimal gains. What could be the reason? You have not been focussing on “Nutrition” which plays the most important role in your fitness regime. You have missed out prioritising your diet. Do not be mistaken that all the food you eat is going to build up fat. If you are supporting your training with the right kind of nutrition, whatever food you eat will supply the energy required to fuel those intense workout sessions rather than being stored as fat. Following a regular diet aligned with your fitness goals, be it go lean or bulk, is going to give you the desired results.
- Doing too much too early:
Make sure that you do not do too much too early. Getting into the right zone with steady & linear progression will help you experience muscle gain at every stage of your athletic/bodybuilding program. If you go with a smooth progression, slowly increasing the difficulty levels & increasing weights you will reduce the chances of injury. Have patience & you will see the results. Your genetic predisposition to physical training & injury risk will give you essential insights to personalise your physical training.
- Not doing the right workout:
Building muscles makes you stronger & healthier. You need to do the right exercises with correct posture that build muscles. Two of the most important exercises to do are squats & deadlifts. These two exercises impact the entire body & if you manage your loads correctly, these exercises are best bet for building that supreme strength. Other important exercises that should be part of your workout routine include pull-ups, chin-ups, rows, lat pulldowns, leg press, chest & shoulder press. Besides working on specific muscles, these exercises also help you strengthen your core. However whether you should do more weights-less reps or moderate weights- more reps depends upon your genetic predisposition to different muscle fibre types. For instance if you have more of a fast twitch muscle fibre type as compared to slow twitched, you are well placed to do power training than endurance training.
- Replacing your diet with supplements
Including supplements in addition to your diet/nutrition is ok if you want to build that strong muscles & you are not getting enough protein from your diet. However, never take a short term approach to replace your diet which offers your right protein absorption & nutrients with supplements which contain lead & arsenal that can negatively impact your body in the long run.
- Alcohol lowers your metabolic rate
When we talk of workout, alcohol not only lowers your testosterone level but also reduces the metabolic rate of your body. Thus your body won’t be able to utilize the energy the way it is supposed to & you would not be able to generate significant results. It is not easy to maintain optimum level of fitness & working out at your maximum VO2 Max level if you are training with a hangover. Your genetic test reports through Passion for Fitness will guide you about the genetic predisposition to alcohol sensitivity which can give you insights on impact on alcohol consumption on your overall fitness.
- Not pushing yourself enough
You want to build muscles, you are midway in your fitness objective but you have become content & happy. However, in order to build strong muscles, you should strive to go to the next level. You won’t see any results if you do not make the efforts to reach the next level. You should always focus on raising the bar & increasing the difficulty may be to increase the weights, repetitions or sets.
- Your body is as unique as your fitness goals
Figuring out what works for your body is important if you want to achieve your fitness goals & maintain a consistent fitness level. Your body is unique & what works for your neighbour or friend, won’t work for you. One size fits all approach does not apply for nutrition & physical training. The proportion of fat or carb in your diet would be different from that of your friend. This is the reason why some people do not put on fat even when they consume excess carbs while for others waistline increases even if they eat 5% more carbs.
It is the interplay of your genetics & lifestyle that plays a major role in your overall fitness level. Discover your personal traits & learn about your specific genetic predisposition to nutrition & fitness. By subscribing to our personalised fitness programs, you will not only receive information about genetic response to various aspects of nutrition & fitness but also be coached by an international fitness coach who will cover both genetics powered nutrition & exercise aspects of the program that help you maximise your fitness potential. Sign up here.
