We have all been there. It seems that no matter how hard I work out or how much I eat, I still cannot seem to put on as much muscle mass as I want. A lot of people will blame genetics before they even have the chance to troubleshoot their issues (oh yeah, you can test your genetic predisposition here if you want to go ahead and eliminate this question for yourself). In this article, I am going to go over five reasons why you aren't gaining the muscle mass that you're hoping for.
1. YOU ARE NOT EATING ENOUGH!
This is by far the most common problem that I diagnose on a daily basis. You are probably thinking this isn't your issue; and it may not be! But seven times out of ten, it’s all about calories. Ask yourself this
- Have you been tracking your calories in every day?
- How many of those come from protein?
- Carbs? (They are your friends)
- Fats?
- How many calories does your body burn at rest?
- How about during activity?
- How far apart are you spacing your meals?
The vast majority of athletes, after tracking their meals for a few days, realize that they are not consuming enough calories throughout the day to sustain their goals. If you fail to eat, your body will burn whatever is necessary to keep you on your feet. What does that mean? You guessed it… zero gains.
The enemy of caloric consumption is consistency! Eating big for a couple days or weeks and then setting it aside is damaging to your gains! This game is all about consistency and it does not happen overnight. You need to focus and eat consistently for a couple of months before you can rule out this diagnosis. The bottom line is… You may think you are eating enough, but you most likely are not.
2. YOU ARE FOCUSING ON THE WRONG EXERCISES!
Not all exercises are built the same! Its also true that every exercise has its time and place (except squats on a smith machine, we don’t do those). But there are several important factors that you need to focus on during your time at the gym. Here are the main contributors to your hypertrophy
- Eccentric Movement
- Time Under Tension
- Compound Lifts
You could argue that time under tension and eccentric cover the same thing, which is true. However, it is important to note that even half reps, or isometric movements, have little to no eccentric features, yet still provide time under tension. According to a study done by SciElo,
“People who increased the duration of the eccentric phase of a bench press repetition increased muscle activation and blood lactate response. This indicates that adding 2 seconds to the eccentric phase of lifting stimulates higher physiological demands, making the movement more challenging and effective.”
Slowing down the eccentric, focusing on tension, and then exploding on the concentric will allow you to gain all the added blood lactate and muscle activation responses, without making you a slower athlete.
Lastly, if you are not utilizing compound lifts OFTEN, you are likely giving yourself a harder time gaining muscle mass. Some compound lifts activate up to 80% of total usable muscle at once. Imagine knowing that, and continuing a routine built completely around single joint exercises? Utilize your time at the gym correctly by increasing your compound lifts that grow you all at once, and then move into your single joint exercises!
There are numerous benefits to compound lifts that I could list, but for the sake of brevity, you can go to this report from ISSA, detailing every benefit.
If your goal is mass, focus (and I mean really focus) on these three points for a few months and see what happens!
3. YOUR VOLUME SUCKS!
You will not gain muscle or get stronger with negative volume. I will say that a million times from the highest rooftop. If you are not tracking your volume and making it a point to challenge yourself, you cannot be upset that you are not making progress.
Volume is the amount of total weight lifted in a given exercise in a given workout. That is it.
If I squat 400 pounds for 12 sets of two reps, that is a total of 9,600lbs of volume in my squats alone.
If I do that for two weeks… and then I only squat 8,000lbs of volume for the next three months, what do you think is going to happen?
You will gain strength AND size with added volume. That means heavier weights and higher reps TOGETHER.
If you are a serious competitor, you need to be tracking your volume and basing your entire plan around how to increase that volume. If you are an average gym goer looking to make muscle gains, you need to be tracking your volume and basing your entire plan around how to increase that volume.
The point is that it happens often! Athletes tell me that they are working hard, but not gaining the size they want. After checking their nutrition, I often check their volume for each of their exercises, which is usually inconsistent and low.
Another tough pill to swallow, is that volume on the wrong exercises can be a waste of time. If a client wants bigger biceps, and he pumps up the volume on close grip bench press, he’s not going to see the progress he wants in his biceps. The same goes for an athlete who wants a stronger deadlift and is only deadlifting with no volume on accessory work. Volume matters on every exercise!
If you are going to spend an hour or two at the gym, pick the exercises that synergize with your goals, and plan out your campaign focusing on volume.
4. YOU ARE NOT SLEEPING!
Sleep might as well be anabolic.
In the United States today, it is not uncommon for all of us to lose out on sleep due to work or other life events. In the Army, I always used to say that there are three things you need to be competitive in the gym: Sleep, Food, and Gym time… and you can only pick two!
Unfortunately, we must find ways to add all three into our regime, but for now, left focus on sleep.
During sleep, blood glucose (sugar stored in your body that is used for energy) gets stored in the muscle as muscle glycogen (stored in all skeletal muscle instead of blood and liver; essential for any intense exercise). Guess what happens when you don’t sleep enough? You fail to restore that muscle glycogen for the next day! Even Human Growth Hormone is produced during sleeping hours and is essential for repairing your muscles. When you are not sleeping, you are not benefiting your next workout, nor your previous one. Your muscles literally SHRINK during periods of bad or abnormal sleep.
A study conducted in 2011 sought out proving that lack of sleep spawns muscle atrophy. The researchers took two groups of weightlifters and put them on strict sleeping cycles: 5.5 hours and 8.5 hours. They did this test over the course of three days, maintaining the same diet and exercise routines for both groups.
Researchers discovered that the individuals who slept only 5.5 hours had 60% less muscle mass at the end of the study, while those who slept 8.5 hours had 40% more muscle mass.
After only three days! Now imagine what happens over the course of months or years? It is time to stop putting off sleep. Here are some tips according to ISSA that may help you.
Avoid high intense activity just before bed
Performing high-intensity activities gives the body a boost of energy. Therefore, it is important that these kinds of activities are completed no later than three hours before bedtime. Otherwise, the subsequent energy-boost is likely to get in the way of a good night’s sleep.
Do not forget to factor any other high-intensity activities that are part of your clients’ lives outside of the gym.
Stay on a good sleep schedule
Though you (or your client) may think he or she is getting the same quality of sleep by going to sleep late and waking up later, this is not true. These types of patterns tend to interfere with the body’s natural 24-hour cycle (also called the circadian rhythm).
It really is best for us all to go to sleep and wake up at similar times every day.
Drink a protein shake before bed
The body has a tougher time controlling the breakdown of protein during sleep. This is problematic for muscle growth because our bodies have to break down proteins into their constituent amino acids before they can recombine them to make new muscle tissue. Protein shakes are usually composed of protein in forms that are quickly and easily broken down, so downing one of them before bed can make this process a lot easier on the body.
5. YOU ARE ACCOMODATED!
Last but not least, your muscles may have stopped responding to your workouts. This may come as a surprise to you, but doing the exact same “bro-split” every week is very likely not going to give you the same results next week as it has for the last three years. As Louie Simmons used to say,
There are hundreds of variations of exercises. In order for you to avoid accommodation, you have to change the angles, motions, and volume. The law of accommodation states that stimulus must be changed regularly in order to achieve results. Your body wants to change! It has adapted over a lot of years to be able to handle the stress that humankind has demanded of it! You need to use that to your advantage and ditch the filing-cabinet based routine you have stuck to for years and do something new. If you are a bodybuilder, go train like a powerlifter for a few months, or vice versa. You will be surprised what a little bit of change can do for your gains“In order to get a different answer, you have to change the questions.”