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5 common muscle building faux pas’ that slow down or halt muscle growth

Pittsburgh personal trainer - Muscle Building faux pas#1:

• Training like a Professional Bodybuilder, more so Training with the one body part a day mantra:

Pittsburgh personal trainer - This body part split was made popular in the 70’s and 80’s and is just as ineffective now as it was then, unless you are on massive amounts of anabolic steroids.

The volume of work per body part that pro bodybuilders use is not conducive to muscle stimulation but rather muscle annihilation unless you are on massive amounts of roids. The body cannot repair itself by laying down new contractile proteins fast enough to repair and recover with too much volume.

Over training or using significantly too much volume puts your body into a catabolic (or muscle wasting) state and not an anabolic (or muscle building) state.

Muscle Building faux pas #2:

• Not using the body’s naturally occurring hormones , testosterone and insulin

In order to correct this problem, this can be done in several ways

1.  Keep your workouts short and intense—no longer than 45-50 minutes.  Anything longer than that and your body’s testosterone production goes down and your body’s hormone cortisol goes up. Cortisol is a muscle wasting hormone (a stress hormone)
2. Use big major compound movements / exercises that use legs—Squats, deadlifts and cleans are all major compound exercises that use the legs and causes the body to release and produce more testosterone and IGF-1 factor (insulin growth factor 1) hormones.
3. Take in a liquid protein within 30 minutes of resistance training—this should be a combination of simple carbs and protein.  The perfect post workout drink is low fat chocolate milk.

Muscle Building faux pas #3:

• Not Cycling Your Workouts Properly

Solution:  Every 4-6 weeks change your program

Work on macrocycles and microcycles.  Change your focus every 6 months or so but change your approach every4-6 weeks.  Use scientific principles, SAID (specific adaptation to imposed demands), FITT (frequency, intensity, time , type), and GPO (gradual progressive overload) when putting together your workouts.

Muscle Building faux pas #4:

• Wasting Your Money on Expensive, Worthless Supplements

Solution:  Stick with whole food sources of nutrients and invest in a good protein powder and creatine

Fact: 98% of the supplements on the market today are worthless crap!

The only real source of supplements that will make any measureable difference will be a good protein powder and a good creatine.  All of the other vasodilators, extreme pump formulas and any other garbage are just that.  These supplement companies are selling supplements supposedly used by their models and 90% of the time the models don’t even use their crap they use large amounts of anabolic steroids.

Muscle Building faux pas #5:

• Using the “Muscle Confusion Principle” and Not Having a Plan

Solution:  Have a clear cut precise plan of attack

This was another great bit of knowledge from the 80’s that has resurfaced by late night infomercials.

They advised that in order to “keep your muscles guessing” and to prevent your body from ever adapting to your workouts you should do something completely different every time you entered the gym.

With this type of training (without clear purpose or vision) you inevitably fail to reach your destination.  If someone said they wanted to get to a certain location and had no map, could they ever arrive? 

You need to have a clear cut vision and purpose to your workouts.  You need to have a rhyme and reason for why you are going to the gym.  You need your road map to success.

The way to achieve this is to have a good split or routine that is biomechanically sound and is focusing on big compound movements for all body parts. 

These are five common muscle building faux pas’ and solutions that will enable you to meet your goals faster than ever. 

Scott Hayward is an exercise physiologist and owner of bodyXchange personal fitness training center located in Pittsburgh, Pa.  Hayward has trained sports stars from the NFL, NCAA, MLB, Hollywood Movie Stars and Rock Music Icons.  Hayward can be reached in his Pittsburgh, PA gym or by emailing him for consultations through his web siteswww.getfittllc.comand www.pittsburghfitnesstrainer.com