Build Muscle - Top Five Mistakes People Make With Their Workouts Trying to Build Muscle

 

Like many who have the goal to build muscle, you're probably firmly dedicated to your gym sessions are hardly ever miss a beat. You know that you must make sacrifices in your personal life in order to squeeze in this gym time, but that still does not detract you from your goal of seeing a weight gain and being able to build muscle faster than before.

 

BUT, despite your best efforts, there still may be some mistakes you are committing while you're in the gym.

 

Consider these top ten errors. If you are making even just one of them, you are not going to see the results you could be.

 

Gym Workout Error 1: Performing too many sets

 

While you do want to overload your muscle with a stimulus, overload it too much and you're not going to get good gains. Studies have shown time and time again that with each consecutive set you do, the benefits you derive from it are reduced. So why do four or five sets? Stop after just two per exercise but be damn sure you make these two sets FULL OUT SETS. Do not hold back.

 

Gym Workout Error 2: Lack of focus

 

How many times have you seen a person go into the gym and wander around aimlessly between exercises? Even before you step foot in that gym, you should 100% know which exercises you are going to do and in what sequence you are going to do them in. If you don't, you've got work to do.

 

Gym Workout Error 3: Not recording your workouts

 

What good are your workouts if you don't have a record of them? If you want to progress you need to record what you do down in a workout journal. List the weight lifted, the number of reps, how you are feeling generally, how much sleep you had the night before (listed at the start of the workout) and what your eating habits have been like.

 

This way, you can look at patterns for reasons you are not seeing the gains you should be.

 

Gym Workout Error 4: Spending too much time on machines

 

While machines are great to get you started with bodybuilding, when it comes to really building muscle like you want, they aren't going to get you there as quickly as free weights will. Free weights give you no guiding help thus they really make sure you - and only you, is doing the work.

 

Gym Workout Error 5 Not resting enough between your sets

 

Okay, this one is a catch 22. Some people rest far too much - these are the people who chat up the receptionist, those who seem to make friends with every other person in the building their talking so much, or those who feel the need to perform a full out stretching routine between each set. That is not going to be conducive to building muscle.

 

BUT, on the flip side of the coin, if you are in a hurry and speed through your workouts, you may not recover as fully in between each lift you do, therefore reducing the amount of weight you can lift.

 

Since how much weight you can lift is very correlated with how well you progress, this is not in your best interests.

 

Take 2-3 minutes between your bigger lifts (squats, deadlifts, chest press, etc) and 1-2 minutes between the smaller exercises (bicep curls, leg extensions, etc).

 

Are you making any of these mistakes? If so, don't you think it's time you learned how to maximize your time in the gym so you can finally make some real progress that you are proud to show off?

 

By Shannon Clark