Why do people fail at their weight lifting programs?

Here are just some of the reasons why people fail in their weight lifting program:

1. No consistency .

You have to be consistent with your weight lifting program. I'm not going to lie to you, building muscle is hard work and it will take consistency to build quality muscle.

Remember that building muscle is a slow process and takes months to see any quality results. This is an important weight lifting tip, be consistent and your efforts will eventually pay off.

2. Poor nutritional habits .

You have to feed your body the right amount of calories, protein, carbohydrates and fat in order for it to grow. All of these nutrients must be in balance if you ever want to build muscle.

Don't let anyone tell you that you only need protein to build muscle. Protein is only 1/3 of the equation to building muscle regardless of what supplement companies may tell you.

The real trick to building muscle is finding your personal nutritional combination that will unleash your muscle building fury. Once you find this nutritional key, I guarantee your body will explode! This is a very important weight lifting tip.

3. Poor weight lifting techniques .

If you don't work the muscle, your not going to grow. If you overtrain the muscle, your not going to grow. The trick is to find a happy medium that places enough stress on the muscle in order for it to grow. This is where smart weight lifting comes into play.

For more information on proper weight lifting techniques, please see Building exercises.

4. Not enough rest .

No matter how hard you train or how much you eat, if you don't get the rest you need, your workouts are going to fizzle. It is during sleep that most growth and repair occurs. Without adequate sleep the body becomes weakened.

This is an important weight lifting tip. It is crucial to your muscle building program that you get the correct amount of sleep because muscle growth happens while you are resting, not while you are training.

If you were to lift weights on a steady basis and not get any quality rest,your body would slowly fall apart.

Weight lifting tears the muscle tissue down and the diet provides the necessary fuel and material for repair, but it is during sleep that the repair and growth process occurs. Therefore, sleep is as vital to building muscle as is your training program and diet.

To achieve your muscle building goals, your going to have to find the right balance between weight lifting, nutrition, and rest. Remember this weight lifting tip, get enough rest in order to build muscle.

Everyone has a different rest schedule and the amount of recuperation that is needed can only be determined by you. No one system will work for everyone because individual bodies differ.

It depends on your age, gender, weight, and fitness level. An older beginning trainer will need a lot more rest than a young competitive body builder.

However, when you are at the gym, you should never feel very sore and/or tired. At the gym, you should only train when you are at peak intensity levels.

That is, you should be rested, energized and ready to hit the weights hard. If you’re sore and tired (physically and emotionally), and your simply showing up to the gym to go through the motions, you should stay at home and rest for another day or two.

Going through the motions with the same weight and the same number of repetitions you always do will not get you anywhere. Your body will be simply repeating what it’s already done many times before. As a worst case scenario, you will injure yourself when you are sore and tired.

It’s better to take a day or two off and fully recuperate so you can lift more weight when you return to the gym. This way, you feel energized and are ready to pack on the weight for more strength and this means more growth.

This is the general rule: Never exercise a body part until it has not been sore for at least a day.

So, if your going to train chest today and it’s still pretty sore from the workout you had 3 days ago, don’t train your chest. Stay at home and rest. If you’re training shoulders today but your triceps are still killing you from the arm workout you had two days ago, stay at home and rest one more day.

Believe me, you’ll gain a lot more if you stay at home, feed your body and get the rest you need.

If you find that applying this rule gets in the way of your current workout schedule, than it’s an indication that you are going to have to stretch out your training schedule. There’s nothing wrong with this.

Gone are the days of training six days a week for three hours per day. Unless you’re a professional body builder on various anabolic compounds, this kind of schedule will not work for the average person looking to gain weight and build muscle.

Most athletes and seasoned weight trainers have changed their routines from the traditional two or three day split of body parts to a four day division of body parts. Others have added additional rest days between body part rotations.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say your training routine is as follows:

Day one: Chest, Back and Triceps;
Day two: Legs, Calves, and Abs;
Day three: Shoulders and Biceps;
Day four: Rest;
Day five: Repeat;

However, let’s say, more often than not, that by the time shoulders and biceps comes along, you find that your biceps and triceps are still sore from Monday’s workout. This would give you an indication that you might want to spread your training sessions out.

Here’s an alternative approach:

Day one: Chest and Triceps;
Day two: Rest;
Day three: Legs, Calves, and Abs;
Day four: Rest;
Day five: Shoulders, Back, and Biceps;
Day six: Rest;
Day seven: Repeat.

Although your not training as much, you’ll actually come into the gym more rested. This method lengthen the period between training sessions for a particular body part and increase the time available for recuperation.

Another option you might want to consider is to cut down on the number of sets that you do in the gym. If your doing 15 to 20 sets per body part - Chances are, your doing a little too much. By adding too much volume to your training, your basically increasing the amount of time you need to recuperate.

Try cutting the sets down to 8 to 12 per body part and add additional intensity to the exercise. Remember that the muscle grows from peak intensity, not from an excessive volume of training. I believe Lee Haney said it best - Stimulate Not Annihilate Leads To More Growth -

“How Much Sleep Do You Need?”

Much of the body’s recuperation occurs when you are sleeping. This is the time to grow because the greatest amount of growth hormone release happens when your sleeping. I recommend you try and get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night. Try and keep this as a pattern and don’t sway too much from the schedule.

Weight training increases the amount of sleep required as the body fully recuperates in order to get ready for the next training session. The body can’t make up for lost sleep nor can it “store” sleep so it is essential to get the sleep you need every night.

However, different people have different sleep requirements. However, generally, you want to get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep - Every night. Try and form a good sleep pattern and you’ll allow your body to recuperate fully which means more growth.

Remember, rest is an essential component to gaining weight and building muscle. Get enough rest and you’ll be coming into the gym alert, energized and ready to destroy the weights.

 

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