Countless times i hear people say that they are training hard but for some reason they seem to not be adding muscle mass to their body. Why is this happening and what can be done to remedy the situation?
Firstly in this situation honest self evaluation is necessary Are you genuinely training with a level of intensity and commitment that is required to stimulate new muscle growth?
Often people feel they are training hard but in reality they may not be pushing themselves past the point at which they start to feel the muscles burn. If you are stopping at this point then you are highly unlikely to make linear progress in your physique. If in fact you are training hard enough perhaps your training regime in ineffective. You could be doing too much, poor exercise selection and execution or not resting enough. Perhaps the most under-utilised, under appreciated factor mentioned so far is not resting enough. When you lift weights you are breaking down your muscle tissue If not properly rested the muscle is going to struggle to repair effectively enough to grow back bigger to deal with the stimulus created by the training.
Lack of rest leads to a drop off in energy rates which in turn can cause a lower level of training output which is going to impair your ability to attain new muscle.
Another sub category within rest is sleep. Your body is repairing itself most effectively whilst asleep. A lack of sleep has so many hugely negative effects on the body that its scary how little people recognise them. Lack of sleep negatively impacts muscle recovery, brain function, thyroid, metabolism, energy levels, stress management and pretty much every function of a human being,
It cannot be overstated just how important getting the right amount of good quality sleep is for all aspects of life but especially for muscle gain.
The last possible reason for not building muscle that I’m going to discuss today is nutrition.
It is more than likely that someone who is training hard but not adding muscle tissue to their body has and incomplete or inefficient nutrition plan in place.
Your body needs the correct macronutrients in the correct amounts to allow your muscles to grow
if you aren’t consuming the right levels of protein, fats and carbohydrates you can do all the training in the world but your body will not grow.
Nutrition is perhaps the most important consideration when it comes to physique appearance and improvement.
Your body naturally doesn’t want to put on muscle as it goes against natural survival instincts. The more muscle mass you have the more food you need to consume to maintain it. Our bodies are designed to be efficient at keeping us alive and want to find the easiest way to achieve that so if you aren’t consuming the right amounts of the food you need then your effectively telling your body that it doesn’t need the muscle mass you are trying to build. On an extreme level you are actually telling your body that the new muscle mass is a threat to your ongoing survival.
If you are someone who struggles to put on weight then you need to be eating more. Now that might be difficult but ultimately it comes down to how dedicated you are and how badly you want to grow. If you really want it then you will dig in and get the food down.
To summarise there are a whole host of reasons why you could be training hard but failing to add muscle tissue to your body. Factors such as poor training selection, poor training execution, not resting enough, poor sleep, excessive stress and incomplete nutrition to name just a few. Solving this issue requires brutally honest self reflection of everything you are doing. Most of us could be doing more to achieve our goals but very few of us would openly admit so. It requires honesty and the willingness to work harder and smarter in all aspects to achieve them.
Gaining muscle mass in an all encompassing life choice that takes far more than just going to the gym and lifting weights.
This can seem overwhelming on the surface but my advice is to reevaluate and start to slowly implement new changes to your routine. Overtime these changes will make a huge difference. Like the best things in life all that’s required is a little thought and a whole lot of hard work!
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