5 Top Reasons Why Your Muscles Are Not Growing

Many guys when they first start working out tend to overtrain. After a month or two this question always comes up... "Why Are My Muscles Not Growing ?"

It's Monday morning and you just walked into the gym. Up first is chest. You load up the barbell and you lay down on the bench. You begin performing repetition after repetition of chest presses until you cannot do anymore.

You look at yourself in the mirror and realize that your chest is not growing at all. In fact, your body is not responding the way you would like to your workout program. This probably happened even though you believe you were doing everything correctly. You're pushing yourself in every workout -- you don't miss any workouts and still no results!

What's wrong you ask yourself.

5 Top Reasons Why Your Muscles Are Not Growing

In this article I will reveal to you the top 5 reasons why your muscles stopped growing and how to get your muscles growing again! Let's get started.

1. Many times the fact that you are pushing yourself real really hard is what stops you from making any muscle gains. Muscles actually do not grow when you're working out -- they grow when they are resting. Never ever train the same muscle group more than once per week and make sure you get eight hours or more of sleep every night.

2. One of the unknown "blocks" to muscle growth is working out for too long a period of time. After 45 minutes to an hour of intense training course levels will increase. I am talking about resistance training not cardio -- let's get that right. After approximately 45 minutes of training your body will release Cortisol. Cortisol is a known agent that destroys muscle cells.

3. As mentioned earlier sleep is very critical to your bodybuilding success. Make sure you do not skip on this vital component.

4. Consuming too much alcohol is another big culprit in stopping your muscles from growing. An occasional beer is okay however, no alcohol binging if you want to gain muscle mass and strength.

5. This one in my opinion is the biggest problem that most people have. Your diet! No matter how you do it you need to consume enough high quality protein. Protein is what your muscles use to repair themselves. If you're training heavy-- you should consume 1 g of protein for each pound of your body weight minimum. 1 1/2 to 2 g of protein is preferred. Many fitness models and bodybuilders use whey protein supplements to get enough protein in their diet.

While bodybuilding supplements are not a substitute for eating high protein healthy foods they are however a quick and easy way to guarantee that you meet your nutritional requirements.

An investment in a good blender and a quality whey protein powder will get you the muscle growth you're looking for.

There are other reasons why your "muscles are not growing" however, these top five tips are in my opinion the most important ones. Apply them and you will find your muscles responding again.

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The 10 Most Common Muscle Building Mistakes

Muscle building and weight training is a science as well as an art, and you have to treat it as such if you want to see results. Putting on muscle weight is not as simple as going to the gym and working on whatever muscle group you feel like, or even worse, doing random sets on random machines. Successfully gaining muscle mass requires 2 main ingredients: 1) carefully planning exercise workouts and 2) nutrition.

If you're new to weight training / muscle building or if you're a beginner who isn't seeing his desired results, then perhaps you are not taking enough time to ensure that you are avoiding some common mistakes. Below is a list I've compiled containing the 10 most common workout mistakes that I could find.

1) Not Getting Enough Rest: Yes, it's true; many people suffer from over exertion, whether it be in the gym or out. Over working yourself can be a serious health risk, especially if you're pushing your body's physical limits. It's important to make sure you have a good 7-8 hours of sleep during periods of high-intensity training. Your body can take a lot of punishment, but if you don't give it time to recover, then you'll end up doing permanent damage.

2) Over Working Yourself: Even if you're getting enough rest, it's still possible to over work yourself into a bad situation. Gauge your body's reaction to different workouts, and don't push yourself too hard. Stick to your training regimen. Your body will signal to you when it's reaching its limit, so listen.

3) Overly Long Sessions: While you're training, you're going to want to aim for optimizing your time in the gym and the amount of muscle growth you're getting. Exercising for too long can cause serious damage, so be careful.

4) Nutrition- Protein: Proper nutrition is the backbone of any workout plan / muscle building assignment. And protein is essential for muscle growth. Literally, without enough protein, you won't grow muscle.

5) Nutrition- Calorie Intake: As I said, nutrition is the backbone of your training, and determining the correct diet for you is necessary to achieve good results.

6) Not Enough Fluids: ¾ of the human body is made up of water, and we lose massive amounts of it during high-intensity workout sessions. Rehydrating is essential for achieving a good workout. A good fluid schedule is water before workout, mix of water and sports drink during workout, and sports drinks after workouts.

7) Focus: As is true with other sports, your mental focus determines your physical outcome. If you are not mentally prepared to deal with your training program, then you will fail. It's as simple as that.

8) Bad Form: Improper form when using machines, free weights, or plyometrics is a very common mistake among beginning body builders. It's worth your time, energy, and maybe even money to make sure you're performing all of your exercises with the correct form. If you perform exercises improperly, not only will you not build muscle, you will most likely end up injuring your body.

9) Over-Concentration: Over working a single body part is also dangerous. Be careful not to focus solely on one part of your body.

10) Diversity: Many weightlifters and muscle builders forget to diversify their workout. If you're lifting, make sure you aren't using just machines. And if you're using just free weights, incorporate some plyometrics. You can also complement your workouts with cardio training, breathing exercises, and yoga.

By avoiding such simple mistakes as these, you can improve your workout and see better results. Weight lifting and muscle building is a fun sport, but it is also serious because it has its own risks. Train safe and you'll most definitely train better.

                                                           Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/645533

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