Common mistakes for those who want to gain muscle mass:
Skipping meals
We need an anabolic environment. Unlike when losing lean mass, when we want to reduce the amount of circulating insulin, to gain lean mass we want to increase circulating insulin, which brings us to a second mistake:
Being afraid of carbohydrates
Some people are afraid to increase the amount of carbohydrates in their diet WHILE TRYING TO GAIN MUSCLE MASS and simply don’t eat carbohydrates because they’re afraid of gaining weight!
Carbohydrates from good sources, such as oats, firm-cooked potatoes, and even rice, are important and may increase your body fat if you’re a natural athlete, but that brings us to the next topic:
Gaining fat on a hypertrophy diet is normal
It’s better to make solid gains and then reduce your body fat percentage. Right? Ideally, though, you should always stay at a maximum of 15–18% for men and 20–24% for women. But obviously, you can gain lean mass and lose fat, just not make BIG muscle gains.
Not allowing your muscles the rest they need
If you train legs hard on Monday, for example, and you can train legs again on Wednesday, I have two pieces of news for you: first, you’ll hinder muscle hypertrophy because muscle “repair” and, consequently, hypertrophy occur during rest. Second, if you can train the same muscle group on Monday and Wednesday, you haven’t applied the necessary intensity and/or volume—in other words, your workout is garbage!
Inadequate sleep for hypertrophy
Want to build muscle? Sleep! If you see someone big who sleeps very little, 3–4 hours a day, THEY’RE VERY LIKELY TAKING ANABOLIC STEROIDS and supplementing with GH!
Don’t skip steps! Don’t skip steps!
Don’t think that taking steroids will let you skip steps. It may be the icing on the cake for the 0.01% who really need it, or the filling in a spoiled cake that ruins everything for most people!
Don’t make common hypertrophy mistakes
Women are increasingly taking over gyms in our country, and that’s amazing!
With more and more women entering the fitness world, we’ve come to the conclusion that each gender has, let’s say… its own particular mistakes at the gym.
One of the most common mistakes men make is overdoing the weight or duration of their workouts. Women make this mistake too, but it’s far from the most common one.
Women have tremendous potential in their training. All of them, regardless of age, genetics, height, or experience… Just avoid these common mistakes in women’s training.
It’s important to get the support you need to get started and keep reaching your goals.
