Hey guys, Sean Nalewanyj here of SeanNal.com and BodyTransformationTruth.com and in this
video I want to give a very simple answer to the people who message me here on YouTube
and on Facebook and to my email, saying that they're putting their time in at the gym,
they are following a proper diet, they're supplementing, they're sleeping well every
night but they are still aren't gaining a noticeable amount of muscle mass.
Now this is a foundational beginners type of lesson so many of you watching this are
already going to have a very good understanding of the principles I'm about to outline but
I did want to address this nonetheless.
Now before I give you the 3 very simple reasons why you aren't gaining muscle right now let
me first clarify that achieving significant muscle gains for an average natural trainee
takes time and patience so if your idea of "failing to gain muscle" is that you haven't
put 2 inches on your arms in 4 weeks then it really is time for a reality check here
because the whole thing is a very gradual process and if you're gaining somewhere around
half a pound to 1 pound of relatively lean body weight per week and your lifts are going
up in the gym consistently then you're actually on the right track and you probably just need
some more time in order to see those gains unfold.
However, if you are in a place of real stagnation and your body weight, your strength and your
muscle measurements are really not budging at all, then you're guaranteed to be making
at least 1 of the 3 following mistakes.
So, Mistake #1, You’re just not training hard enough, period.
Muscle growth is an adaptive response to stress and if you aren’t using up a sufficient
percentage of your muscle’s available momentary resources on each individual set that you
perform then your body has NO incentive at all to build upon its existing resources by
increasing the size and strength of your muscles.
Your body has no idea that you’re standing there, listening to music in an air-conditioned
gym lifting barbells, dumbbells and cables.
All your body is responding to is the direct physical demands that are being placed on
it and if it already has enough available resources to respond to those demands with
relative ease, then there's really no incentive for any change to occur.
So, get serious.
Every single set that you perform should be a fully focused effort, and those last few
reps should be downright uncomfortable and very hard to perform.
So, if they're not you’re just not training hard enough.
Now my recommendation here is to perform every set within a rep range of about 5 to 12 and
to continue each set about 1 to 2 reps short of concentric muscular failure.
Concentric failure is the point in the set where you can't complete any additional reps
using proper form despite giving an all-out effort.
And this level of intensity is going to be sufficient in order to stimulate hypertrophy
to an optimal level.
Mistake #2 is that you’re Ignoring the law of progressive overload.
So putting forth a good hard effort in the gym is going to be the first foundational
step but it’s only half of the equation and that’s because in order for you to see
continual, ongoing gains in muscle size over time, you must be continually progressing
in the amount of weight that you lift and or the number of reps that you perform on
all of your major exercises.
Now this is known as the “law of progressive overload”, and it is absolutely central
to your entire training program.
If you’re bench pressing 150 pounds today, and you're still using the same weight 8 weeks
from now then your body will again have no incentive to adapt further, and your muscle
gains are going to stagnate.
So the solution is very simple and that is to keep a training logbook and for every workout
that you perform, write down the exercises that you perform, the weight that you lifted
and number of reps executed and then center your entire workout program around “beating
the logbook” by either adding extra weight to the bar on the following workout, usually
about 5 to 10 pounds for your big compound lifts and 2 and a half to 5 pounds for your
smaller isolation lifts.
Doing that or squeezing out a few extra reps using the same weights while staying in that
5 to 12 rep range, and you're going to be amazed at how quickly this adds up over just
a few months even.
So the simple combination of training at least 1 to 2 reps short of concentric muscular failure
on every exercise that you perform and progressing in weight and reps every single week is a
sure-fire, 100% guaranteed method for ongoing muscle growth and if you aren’t seeing measurable
progress right now, then one or both of these factors is definitely off.
And the final mistake is that you're just not eating enough.
Assuming that you are training with sufficient intensity, and you are focusing on getting
stronger in the gym each week then the solution to your muscle building plateau is even simpler
and that is that your overall calorie intake is too low.
Now I’ve talked about this a million times before but if you aren’t creating a consistent
“calorie surplus” every single day by consuming more calories than you burn, you
are absolutely not going to gain any appreciable amount of muscle.
Your body already has energy demands in place in order to sustain your current body weight,
and it has to be provided with the extra fuel that is necessary in order to build new muscle
tissue.
So if your overall body weight isn’t budging then you can be guaranteed of the fact that
you’re simply not eating enough.
So to get some good basic starting point numbers for your individual calorie needs in order
to gain muscle, just plug your stats into my free bodybuilding macronutrient calculator
which I will link in the description box below and that calculator is going to show you exactly
how many calories you need each day along with a breakdown of proteins, carbs and fats
as well.
And if you want to get a full understanding of exactly where all of these figures are
coming from and how they’re being calculated then I'll also link another article below
for you to check out as well.
So, I'm certainly not claiming that these 3 points are the be-all-end-all of gaining
lean muscle but they do make up the foundation of the entire process and are by far the most
important principles that you need to be aware of.
Yes, there are many other things you can do in order to optimize your gains further but
if you just employ those 3 strategies consistently, you WILL gain muscle on an ongoing basis.
It would be physically impossible for you to not gain muscle, and on the flip side if
one or more of those elements is not in place then it's going to be physically impossible
for you to gain muscle or at least to gain muscle to any significant degree over time.
So thanks alot for watching this video lesson.
If you did find the information useful here today please make sure to hit the Like button,
leave a comment and subcribe to stay up-to-date on future videos.
Also make sure to check out my complete step-by-step muscle building and fat loss programs over
at BodyTransformationTruth.com.
The link for that is in the description box below and make sure to join the Facebook page
for daily tips and updates.
The link for that is also in the description box.
Talk to you again soon.