6 Mistakes When Trying Build Muscle
6 MISTAKES WHEN TRYING BUILD MUSCLE
I used to be very skinny. I struggled for years to gain weight. I made all six of these mistakes in my early twenties. Since then, I have gone from 65kg (10.5 stone) to 89kg 14(stone).
Hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes, so you don’t waste as much time as I did when I was younger.
1. Not eating enough.
I regularly have clients who are underweight claim that they eat loads of food. When I get them to track their food intake on MyFitnessPal it shows they are massively under-eating. If they were eating loads like they claim they would be gaining weight, even if it was fat. If you’re trying, but not gaining weight, you simply need to increase your calorie intake. It's that simple. What often happens is they eat one or two large meals, but don’t eat much for the rest of the day, or they eat a lot for a couple of days, but then under eat for the rest of the week.
If you want to build muscle, you have to eat enough calories consistently.
2. Impatience
A big mistake is people try and rush gaining muscle. Building muscle is a slow process, and to gain a significant amount will take a long time. You can gain 1-2lbs a month when you first start out. Gaining 15lbs in the first year is realistic if you’re doing everything right, but even rate of muscle gain won’t last, the next year you would do well to gain half that. At my stage, I would be happy gaining 1kg in a year! People often try to bulk up too quickly and end up gaining too much fat without gaining any extra muscle if they tried bulking slower.
3. Avoiding doing leg workouts
As obvious as it should be to train your legs, it’s very common for people to avoid it as leg training is hard. The muscles in your legs are large, and make up a large percentage of your total muscle mass, so it should be obvious why not training your legs is a bad idea.
4. Not doing the big exercises
This is another common mistake you’ll see across gyms. The big exercises use the most amount of muscle, and so will build the most muscle.
Base your routine around these exercises,
Squats
Deadlifts
Bench press
Overhead press
Rows
Chin ups
Dips
There’s nothing wrong with doing curls, flys, push downs etc, but don't do them instead of the big exercises.
5. Relying on supplements.
People often look at supplements first before sorting out their nutrition and exercise. They are designed to supplement your good nutrition, not replace them. This subject is the one I probably get the most questions from my male clients. They are looking for a short cut that doesn’t exist. For the sake of convenience, fish oil, vitamin D, multivitamin and whey protein can be useful. However, they are far from essential. Don’t place too much importance on supplements. Get your diet sorted first.
6. Not sticking to a routine
You need to be consistent and achieve progressive overload in order to build muscle. This takes time, and can’t be achieved if you keep changing your plan. Go on any fitness forum on the internet, and you’ll see beginners asking if they should change their routine, or they have already done 6 different programs in 3 months. They can’t understand why they haven’t made much progress. This also goes back to point 2 and not being impatient.
Make sure you stick to your routine for at least 6-12 weeks.
Hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes, so you don’t waste as much time as I did when I was younger.
1. Not eating enough.
I regularly have clients who are underweight claim that they eat loads of food. When I get them to track their food intake on MyFitnessPal it shows they are massively under-eating. If they were eating loads like they claim they would be gaining weight, even if it was fat. If you’re trying, but not gaining weight, you simply need to increase your calorie intake. It's that simple. What often happens is they eat one or two large meals, but don’t eat much for the rest of the day, or they eat a lot for a couple of days, but then under eat for the rest of the week.
If you want to build muscle, you have to eat enough calories consistently.
2. Impatience
A big mistake is people try and rush gaining muscle. Building muscle is a slow process, and to gain a significant amount will take a long time. You can gain 1-2lbs a month when you first start out. Gaining 15lbs in the first year is realistic if you’re doing everything right, but even rate of muscle gain won’t last, the next year you would do well to gain half that. At my stage, I would be happy gaining 1kg in a year! People often try to bulk up too quickly and end up gaining too much fat without gaining any extra muscle if they tried bulking slower.
3. Avoiding doing leg workouts
As obvious as it should be to train your legs, it’s very common for people to avoid it as leg training is hard. The muscles in your legs are large, and make up a large percentage of your total muscle mass, so it should be obvious why not training your legs is a bad idea.
4. Not doing the big exercises
This is another common mistake you’ll see across gyms. The big exercises use the most amount of muscle, and so will build the most muscle.
Base your routine around these exercises,
Squats
Deadlifts
Bench press
Overhead press
Rows
Chin ups
Dips
There’s nothing wrong with doing curls, flys, push downs etc, but don't do them instead of the big exercises.
5. Relying on supplements.
People often look at supplements first before sorting out their nutrition and exercise. They are designed to supplement your good nutrition, not replace them. This subject is the one I probably get the most questions from my male clients. They are looking for a short cut that doesn’t exist. For the sake of convenience, fish oil, vitamin D, multivitamin and whey protein can be useful. However, they are far from essential. Don’t place too much importance on supplements. Get your diet sorted first.
6. Not sticking to a routine
You need to be consistent and achieve progressive overload in order to build muscle. This takes time, and can’t be achieved if you keep changing your plan. Go on any fitness forum on the internet, and you’ll see beginners asking if they should change their routine, or they have already done 6 different programs in 3 months. They can’t understand why they haven’t made much progress. This also goes back to point 2 and not being impatient.
Make sure you stick to your routine for at least 6-12 weeks.