What's going on Nation? I'm Scott from muscularstrength.com and today
We're going to expose the five fundamental muscle building mistakes that are holding you back from
Maximizing your muscle gains, and no I'm not talking about the people who are trying to maintain a certain look. That's totally different
I'm talking about the guys in the gym that have been lifting weights for years trying to make gains
But they still look the same as they did the first day
They walked through the door so if this sounds like you and you want to stop building some muscle
Then you need to make sure that you really pay attention and for those of you who might be seeing gains
But maybe they're not as fast as you'd like you better pay attention, too
But before we get started be sure to turn on video notifications so that you never miss a new video upload now
Let's dive right into mistake number one, and that is you think you're eating enough guys
There's no point in even touching the next four mistakes if you do not fix this one first
Your training might be flawless with no weak points whatsoever
But you will not gain an ounce of muscle if you do not eat properly to support those gains
Period and I'm not just talking about adding some protein shakes to your meal plan guys well
Yeah, obviously protein and amino acids in general are the building blocks of muscle
But you need more than just adequate protein to reach your muscle building potential
So since I know you guys love bullet points
I will summarize everything you need to know on your screen right now first off
You need to be consuming enough protein how much is enough well typically?
One gram of protein per pound of lean body weight should be enough
but if you want to be on the safe side you could even go higher and do about
1.5. Grams of protein per pound of lean body weight and remember though lean body weight is your total weight - your
Body fat, I'm not saying total weight in general guys next you need to make sure that you're in a caloric surplus
Again guys protein consumption alone means nothing if it's not accompanied by like caloric surplus
Otherwise protein is just simply used for your energy needs
Only after your body is getting enough energy and only then can
Excess protein be allocated towards building new muscle tissue now
I know some of you guys are going to bring up positive nitrogen balance
Because there are some videos on YouTube explaining that you can build muscle without being in a surplus of calories
however, I highly disagree
And if you would like to see an in-depth video on that be sure to comment below and click that notification bell
So you don't miss it once. I make it but moving on next up we have you need to be consuming enough calves
Why is important guys well?
Carbohydrates are your body's preferred source of energy if you do not provide your body with the fuel it needs
How can you expect to have the energy required to smash it workouts break POS and become stronger or bigger?
The easy answer is you can't and lastly guys your meal plan needs to be clean
And this simply means that the protein carbs fat in calories that you're tracking
They're just numbers on your muscular strength comm app guys these numbers are only
Quantities of how much you ate but you need to ensure that the quality of your food sources is
enough to maximize your muscle building potential remember that getting your
macronutrients from high-quality
Sources of food means you're also getting
indispensable
Micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals that will play a vital role
In your muscle building and your health in general
This is why when people say things like protein is protein grow and they eat shitty processed food all day
Look ripped as heck look ripped as hell and claim if it fits your macros
You should know by now that they're lying to you, and they're on drugs
So don't fall for the gimmicks guys
So now that you've got your meal plan in order and you're adhering to it every single day with
Dedication we can move on to the next mistake, that's killing your gains and that is you're performing too many exercises
Guys more is not always betta period performing
Five-six-seven, we're even sometimes eight exercises for one body pot is the very definition of killing your gains
You go to the gym to stimulate not
Annihilate your muscles okay?
It seems that most of us have this image in our head that our workouts have to be 90 minutes
And we need to just keep hammering out as many different exercises as we can find
Until that 90 minutes is up guys this is backwards thinking
I mean you definitely don't want to leave anything left in the tank
But you'll be able to see much more growth and track your progress
Performing five to ten sets on a compound movement that will be responsible for the majority of your muscle growth
versus rushing through three sets per exercise on six different exercises
I literally see guys in my gym rushing from barbells to dumbbells to machines as fast as they can
Trying to perform all the exercises they know for a specific body pot
Thinking that the more they do the more they'll benefit the more benefits
They'll get from it
But don't be like those guys for example a standard
dumbbell bench press targets every single fiber of your chest for growth you don't have to do an incline bench press and
Decline bench press and flies and push-ups and dips and cable presses and pole overs just to see growth in
fact if you were to focus on two
Maybe three exercises per body pot and try to become stronger on those exercises you would see much
faster growth
Remember we always want to work smart not hard
Which actually brings me to the next deadly mistake to your gains and that is mistake number three?
jumping from program to program
every single week
All right
so if you're performing a different exercise
Routine every single time you step into the gym you're doing it wrong you failed the gym hashtag fail
Okay, guys. You can't expect your muscles to grow if you keep confusing them all the time
Let me Blayne you lift weights and demand more of your muscles than they can handle
then your muscles in return are forced to deal with this problem by adapting and becoming stronger and
Hopefully bigger all right this stimulus
however needs to be
Consistent because if you keep changing the stimulus to a different movement pattern
Your muscles never really need to adapt because they don't know what they're adapting to makes sense right
For example if you try to benchpress a hundred and fifty pounds right now
And you can barely do it your chest will have to become stronger by the next time you try it again
It wants to be able to lift the weight because that's what you're telling it to do then
Maybe the next time you try to benchpress
Maybe you will be able to bench the hundred and fifty pounds
But you'll barely be able to get a hundred and fifty five pounds
See where this is going guys
Now if you forget all about the bench press next week and swap it in with let's say dips or flies
Would have you really done
You've just confused your chest and now it doesn't know what to adapt for
The movement pattern is completely different for those exercises so your body has to change all over again to start adapting to that movement
But this now begs the question how long should you stay on a specific program?
Well the answer is actually much simpler than you think and that answer is until you stop making gains with it
It could be three months
It could be six months or even a year from now if you're new to lifting
but when that day finally
comes in order to bust through your Plateau you will need to find a new program and stick with it until
Once again you stop making gains
So if you've reached a plateau
Go over to my site muscular strength calm and pick the program that best suits your goals and stop following it today
Mistake number four and one of my favorites is the lack of mind muscle connection?
Well so my favorite mistake to make it's just my favorite mistake to help correct
I talk about this all the time too you guys know that
Lifting weights is not simply moving an object from point A to point B
We've all seen the Planet Fitness commercials. I lift things up and put them okay
It's more than that especially if you want to see growth in fact
It's very possible that you're doing everything else right
But you're still not growing because you're not allowing the muscles that should be doing the work
Completely take over the exercises that you're performing for example. Let's say you're doing back rows
You might be using proper form and the movement might look perfect from the outside
However most people who don't know how to connect with their back muscles
Tend to overuse their biceps shoulders and even forearms in order to pull the weight back getting almost zero back
Stimulation in the process so if you're one of those guys you need to lighten up on the weight and start from scratch
focusing on engaging the right muscles for each lift
You basically need to start lifting with purpose and let go of your ego
And if you need more help with my muscle connection. I will link you guys to an awesome video
I did and I'll put it in my pinned comment below so make sure you check it out and moving on to our last
mistake some mistake number five
training too often or not
training enough
Again guys you're trading frequency can either make or break your gains
Ideally you want to be engaging and challenging every muscle group at least twice a week to maximize muscle growth
So you can take full advantage of the anabolic window why do you want to do this?
Well once you work out a specific muscle group muscle growth will be in effect for the next
24 to maybe 48 hours if you're lucky
So if you train chest today and wait until next week to train it again
You're essentially ensuring that it is not growing five out of the seven days a week
however
If you have another chest session later in the week
you're ensure that your chest is always growing now having said that a
Push-pull leg split is by far your best bet to achieve that optimal frequency
You'll be doing push-pull legs rest repeat
Which gives you enough rest and muscle stimulation at the same time?
To see gains and one more thing guys before we really drive this video home
I know a lot of you love going to the gym as much as I do
Or maybe even more going to the gym every single day might be the best part of your day, but my question to you is
When are you recovering you need to set a bit of time aside to let your body heal and recover?
You're not a machine
Even Goku only hits a new level of power or Zen chi boost
After destroying his body and letting it fully heal
I mean he sat in that healing tank for like 40 episodes while his friends were getting beaten to death by Frieza
I'm not ready guys hold on. I'll be right there, right
but if you absolutely
Need to do something physical on your rest days you can easily go for a run or do some other kind of cardio
Stretching or maybe a quick ABS routine at home to fill your needs
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For more great content and as always more good stuff coming soon. See you guys