Are your muscles growing?
Helen Rogers considers five possible reasons why your muscles are not growing.
Every man's ultimate dream is to build a great body. But sadly, it is not what the majority of men can achieve. Most men think that to gain muscle weight. They have to hit the gym and work out regularly. Of course, going to the gym and routine workouts are two key things to start improving your body.
First of all, analyse your workouts. When you start lifting, you make gains for a little while, but then it may happen that you suddenly stop gaining muscles. At that time, most men tended to get frustrated and give up entirely on lifting. But it does not need to be that way. You have to ask yourself the question: "Why am I not gaining muscle?" You are probably making one or more of these five mistakes preventing your muscles from growing.
You do not get enough sleep or rest
It would help if you realized that most muscle growth occurs while you sleep. So, getting 8 hours of sleep every day is essential to building bigger muscles. Because otherwise, if you do not get enough sleep, train too frequently and ignore rest days between workouts, you will seriously hinder the ability to gain muscle weight. Lack of sleep will reduce your testosterone levels and, in turn, increase the level of cortisol (a stress hormone). Too much weight training will increase your risk of injury and workout boredom. By the way, if you do not give your muscles enough time to recover, they also will not grow.
You drink too much alcohol
Alcohol is known as the most dangerous physique killer. When you drink alcohol, your body "asks" the antioxidants commonly used for muscle growth to help metabolize alcohol. It does not mean that you have not to drink at all, limit yourself to one evening per week when you can drink a little.
Your testosterone levels are low
Low testosterone levels can also be the cause of why your muscles are not growing. Your testosterone levels depend on your proper diet, the typical length of sleep, and efficient training. Besides, to increase your t-levels, you can try testosterone-boosting supplements.
Your workouts lack variety
Doing the same exercises too long does not help you achieve your fitness goal. Variety is your way to success. As well as to monitor the latest trends like top Crossfit shoes for men in 2017, you have to watch your training program and change it every month to give your muscle a different look. Moreover, it would help if you continuously challenged your muscles. If you have lifted the same weight for a few months, your muscles will not grow stronger, thus, increase the weight over time.
You do not eat enough protein
And, of course, how to gain muscle weight without protein? The most successful bodybuilders tell you that it is impossible as protein is the main body block that your muscle needs to grow. The protein contains amino acids that help build and repair muscle tissue. If you aim to gain muscle weight, you should consume at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight each day. The protein has to be a high-quality source.
Conclusion
Remember, many factors influence your body's ability to gain muscle weight - your sleep and rest schedule, your eating habits, and, of course, your fitness program. So, if your muscles have stopped growing, try to find the reason or reasons why this is happening and fix these areas.
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- ROGERS, H. (2017) Are your muscles growing? [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article269.htm [Accessed
About the Author
Helen Rogers is an editor of http://thecrossfitshoes.com, where she shares sports questions and beauty tips, all of which are result-oriented to help her readers become healthy and wise.