We get that worried look on your face!
All that pain with no gains? We get why you are looking so worried right now. After all, you have spent weeks training in the gym, trying to attain a physique that you can be proud of, and even flaunt. But it is not happening for you, and the reasons might well be more than one. Despite all of your efforts going into thinking and growing all the time, the result is oh no. And that’s one of the worst feelings any gym geek could experience. But you can kiss goodbye to this problem in about 5 minutes when you are done reading this article because we are going to play the doctor and diagnose the issue that is hurting your gain growth. Some of you might be surprised by the time you are done reading these lines, the mistakes made are quite common, in some cases, they don’t even sound like a wrong approach!
Are you following the post-workout decorum?
Even machines need some time to cool down after running for hours, you are just a human! It is a matter of common observation that athletes are too busy packing up stuff and huffing and puffing after a workout session, so much that they don’t even stretch for like five minutes. Why is cooling down important, some of you might ask? Well, it is an activity essential for recovery and increased flexibility. Apart from these obvious motives, the idea behind adopting a post-workout decorum is to increase your range of motion as well as cut down the percentage of muscle soreness and overall fatigue level. Guessing by that look of astonishment on your face, we are guessing this is brand new information to you. Well, the upshot of all this is that if your range of motion increases by a decent factor, eventually, your body will have the ability to enhance the percentage of lean muscles. So, stretch like rubber if gains are important for you!
What about your carb intake?
Oh look at me, I am George the gym junkie and I don’t eat carbs post-workout. Ridiculous, cut that crap and treat your body with a decent amount of carbs after a workout session. Answer us, something fellas. How do you expect a seedling to become a big giant tree if you don’t give it enough water and fertilizer? Your body needs carbs or speaking more specifically, your muscles need carbs. This is a requirement that arises out of the need for recovering in the due time on part of your muscles. If your muscles are deprived of a decent amount of carbs after a workout, then you can say goodbye to that little thought of your muscles growing and strengthening in a significant manner. So, distance yourself from folks who think carbs are bad, and fill your plate with some!
Review your eating habits!
Post-workout eating habits, that is. It just beats us that how gym geeks can throw away everything just after giving everything for like hours straight? We think that the concept of cheat meals needs a serious revisit as well. Folks, cheat meals must not serve as a tool for you to throw away all the progress you might have made in the gym. We get it that to err is human. But when you commit that error consistently, you cannot expect it not to kill any gains or progress that you might have made during your muscle maniac journey. So, we implore you to be a little patient, the gut testing time has only started. Eventually, you will build a physique that will allow you to enjoy some of the stuff that you are missing badly right now. But there is still a long way to go, you need to be of stout heart!
The mind-muscle control
We would like to use the analogy of machines once more to elucidate this point further. You see, the human mind is a curious thing. It gets intrigued even by the least curious happenings around it. And a gym full of machines is a place full of temptations, one which the minds of 90 percent of athletes cannot resist! So, what happens next? You might say, hey those weights kind of look like the deal I can manage. Or, hey that machine is surely the next step in building my perfect, lean, muscular body. What happens? You experiment too much! So, as a result of all this experimentation, your body just doesn’t have enough time to recover. Read more about time under tension, it is a thing. The upshot of all that we have just told you is that you have to focus on a particular group of muscles at one time, and don’t treat your body like an experimental rat!
You are probably overdoing cardio
Linking to the previous, it is the time under tension that allows your muscles to grow properly, and not the insane amount of cardio. Doing too much cardio is bad since it diminishes an athlete’s ability to generate a considerable force that is needed especially during weight lifting sessions. So, while it is true that cardio is an important part of many gym regimens, the idea of putting a little extra effort into cardio is just not right since it kills every chance of you accruing your lean muscle mass, which you so desperately seek! Also, if you are doing too much cardio, your testosterone levels will drop down automatically. Without going into too many endocrine technicalities, that is bad news for your lower body fat mission. Eventually, it translates into a lower lean mass as well.
Well, folks that would be all from this discussion. We wish we could go on a bit more, but the limitations of time and space force us to conclude this debate here. Nevertheless, we hope that you learned something if not everything new from this debate. And on that optimistic note, we bid you farewell from this discussion!
