The 2 Biggest Rookie Mistakes That Will Stop You Gaining Muscle

On the face of it, bodybuilding is simple: train, eat, rest and grow. Pretty much everything involved in succeeding in bodybuilding comes under the umbrella of training, eating and resting. Should be a cakewalk, right? Should be – but it’s not. The amount of variables within those components make succeeding or not succeeding a crap shoot for the rookie, and they will soon learn that bodybuilding success is not just about reading and having ‘the knowledge’ down, but also experience. Even people who have trained for years still learn new stuff, and anybody purporting to know it all is full of you-know-what. Anyway, I’m going to cut to the chase now and take you through the 2 biggest mistakes rookies make when they begin bodybuilding, which leave them with sub par results for their efforts.

1: Doing Too Much

In their keenness to get a jumpstart on building their physique the rookie trainee will be tempted or misguided into doing far too much. ‘Too much’ usually takes the guise of…

1. Training too many times a week, or…
2. Training too long, or…
3. Doing too many repetitions, or…
4. Doing too many sets, or…
5. Doing too many exercises…

Or… a mixture of several of the above.

The truth is, for the beginner especially, a regime of around 4 days a week (no more) of 1 hour maximum is enough. How many sets and exercises will largely determine how long your session is, but there’s seldom any need to go over 10 sets of 10 reps.

Training isn’t about going until your muscles are as worn as an old tire. Do that and you won’t recover properly, and, the weight you use will be so little you can’t possibly lift heavy for many reps and sets. Training is about going heavy, so a good rule of thumb is using a weight that allows you to train with good form for around 5 – 10 reps of 3 – 6 sets.

You will often be surprised by how little you need to do in order to signal your body that you need to grow. Again, this is something quite personal to each individual and is something you will get a feel for yourself with experience.

2: Not Eating Enough

“But, I don’t want to get fat.”

Listen, if you eat like a rabbit, you’ll become one. Seriously though – you need to eat more to grow. If you are training like a demon in and around the recommendations I’ve given above, and aren’t growing, it’s because you’re not eating enough – and maybe not enough of the right things.

Most people do add some fat when building muscle, it’s just a part and parcel of it – but it’s temporary. Gaining muscle and losing fat doesn’t happen at the same time – one requiring a calorie excess (guess which?) and one a deficit. That’s why you ‘periodize’ your training so you gain muscle and limit the fat to as little as possible for as long as you wish, and then switch to a slight calorie deficit whilst continuing to train to preserve muscle and lose the fat.

That’s how it’s done.

Make sure you are getting plenty of whole foods and a good mixture of nutrients – good protein especially, around 1 – 1.5g per lb of bodyweight is the ‘industry’ standard which tends to hold well for most people.

And if you still don’t grow – you’re still not eating enough.

Think on.