Past the point of diminishing returns
Lifting day in and day out, monitoring your macros, taking your Supps, and pushing yourself to the limit in the gym. However, there’s a point of diminishing returns. If you’re doing “everything right” but find yourself getting weaker or stuck on a plateau, something’s up. While there are a myriad of reasons things could be going south with your gains, here are some of the most common mistakes that may be giving you less than ideal results.
Your workout schedule is too strict
Yep, you guessed it. One of the number one reasons you’re not getting enough mass is because you’re probably “doing the most”. Chill, you’re on your way to a mental and physical breakdown. If you find you’re not reaching your goals as fast as you’d like try taking a week off *gasp, the room goes silent*. Seriously though, you can still stay active and fit just take a sabbatical from the weight room. It’s okay, we won’t tell anyone.
The order of your exercises are wrong, wrong, wrong.
Going to failure with chest fly’s and dips is an almost sure fire way to decrease your chest press performance later on in your routine. The order of your exercises greatly predict how much strength and energy you’ll have left for secondary movements. Try putting the most important or large muscle group exercises (bench press. deadlift, squat, etc.) first and leave the accessory movements for later. That way your body will be ready to push out some huge numbers.
Your form is tore up from the floor up
When know you want to add weights. You want to post your squat numbers on facebook, instagram, snapchat, and every form of social media there is. Unfortunately for your gainz, that’s not going to work. Just like a leaky basement, if you’re foundation is wrong you’re all sorts of messed up. You can get away with this at lighter weights, but once you start to get with the big boys, your cracks will start to show. Take some weight off the bar and practice perfect form.
Also, focus on a mind-muscle connection that lets you truly feel which parts of your body is most affected by a particular exercise. This will automatically have you thinking about the way your shoulders are positioned for a bench press or engaging your lats during a deadlift.
Your recovery plan is flawed
What’s that? A recovery plan involves more than just a shake? Sadly, yes. If you’re going to break down those rock formations you refer to as muscles and expect to comeback with the strength (and size) of hercules you’re going to need some rest. But this doesn’t necessarily mean sit and the couch and watch football rest. You can do things like foam rolling, stretching, and light cardio to encourage blood flow and loosen up tight muscles.
There you have it. 4 arch nemesis’s of hard earned gainz. Try making these 4 tweaks to your already stellar workout and watch your strength and size increase in proportion to the work you’re putting in.
Hit us up in the comments section below. What other problems do you feel everyday bodybuilders face in reaching their goals?
