Whether you want to be stronger for practical reasons, are trying to stave off the weakening effect of aging, or simply know that muscle is as vital for your general health as weight and cardio health, strength training is important. However, a lot of people find that, after a while, they don’t make gains as quickly as they used to. Their progress in what kind of exercises they can do stalls, and their muscles don’t grow as expected. There are a host of different potential causes for this problem, so let’s look deeper at the main suspects.
Not Being Consistent With Your Training
Muscle growth thrives on consistency. Sporadic workouts or constantly changing programs prevent your body from adapting and building strength. If you’re lifting weights once a week or skipping key sessions, you’re not creating enough stimulus for growth. You should make sure that you have a structured plan that doesn’t allow you to stagnate in your progress or start sliding back on it. Missing workouts too often runs the risk of outright resetting any muscle growth you’ve managed to achieve. Even if you’re short on time and not able to push yourself as much as you would like, you should put in even moderate effort, so long as you’re consistent with it.
Not Having Good Nutrition Habits
There’s a common saying that needs to become a mantra if you’re trying to build muscle: you can’t outtrain a poor habit. In order to build muscle, you need to have a calorie surplus. However, the balance of this surplus is vital, as well, with protein for muscle repair, carbohydrates for energy, and healthy fats and hormone support. Learning how to eat a better diet is all about being able to track the nutritional value of the things that you eat, as well as avoiding processed foods and excess sugar as best as possible. Without proper nutrition, your body won’t have the raw materials it needs to grow, no matter how hard you train. Consistently fueling with nutrient-rich foods is one of the most controllable keys to muscle gains.
Neglecting The Recovery Time Your Body Needs
When you exercise, you’re effectively breaking down and doing damage to your muscles in a way that allows them to repair and grow back, stronger and bigger. Understanding the order of events is crucial. It’s not the exercise that grows your muscles, it’s the rest period that follows. As such, skipping rest days, sleeping poorly, or overtraining can hamper your body’s ability to recover properly. Not only does this stall muscle growth, but it also increases your risk of injury. Ensure that you incorporate rest days into your routine, and listen to your body’s signals. If you’re feeling sore or fatigued, you need a little more time at rest. Recovery isn’t laziness, it’s an essential part of the muscle-building process.
You’re Not Utilizing Progressive Overload
While consistency is important, this doesn’t mean that you should be doing the same exercises time and again. When you work out and grow muscle, your body is going to adapt to the strain that you’re putting on it until you’re not able to effectively break down and repair your muscles. As such, you need to add progressively greater challenges to keep your muscles developing. This is known as progressive overload. It can involve adding weight to exercises, performing more reps, increasing your sets, or even reducing rest time between exercises. It’s important to expand these limits with care, making sure not to overwork or injury yourself. However, eventually, everyone reaches a plateau that can only be overcome by increasing the difficulty level.
Overlooking Hormone Balance
There are a few key hormones that regulate muscle growth, as well as recovery, that you should be mindful of. Testosterone plays a huge role in building lean mass, as do growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor. If your hormone balance is off due to stress, poor sleep, or overtraining, it’s important to correct that balance. However, some men also naturally have lower testosterone levels, which can make it harder for them to build strength and recover effectively. Testosterone support supplements from providers like Pharmagear.pro can help to address that imbalance. It’s wise to start by talking to your doctor to see if your hormone levels really are off-kilter, and to come up with a strategy that might include supplements to help you get things back on track.
Ignoring Exercise Form and Technique
If you’re not using the proper form when lifting, then it doesn’t matter how much weight you’re adding on. You’re not going to see the results that you want to. Many people struggle to build muscle because they prioritize weight over proper technique, reducing effectiveness and increasing injury risk. Proper form ensures you’re targeting the intended muscles, activating them fully, and creating the necessary stimulus for growth. The most common forms of rep cheating include using momentum rather than muscle power, which means your muscles aren’t getting activated. Workout apps like Strong.app can help you check the form of every exercise to make sure that you’re doing it right.
Having Unrealistic Expectations
If you’ve only just recently started to focus on strength training, then don’t expect that your progress is going to look like a straight line upwards. When you first start out, you might find yourself feeling stronger and more confident even the second or third time working out, as your body is getting used to using those muscles for the first time in a while (or ever), and giving their growth a boost to begin with. However, beyond that, progress tends to be a lot more gradual, and visible muscle growth can take months, even with consistent effort. Pay attention to your little daily wins, such as being able to add a rep or improving your form, to help maintain motivation. You’re going to need patience if you want to see more dramatic results.
Most people are going to hit a plateau when strength-training. However, it doesn’t mean you can’t progress any further. You can find yourself breaking through plateau after plateau; it’s all about what you decide to make your goal.
