Many people misunderstand the definition of increasing weight. Many of them think that as long as they gain weight, the goal is achieved. What needs to be increased is muscle mass. To increase muscle mass, we need lifting weights or what people now call fitness training or gym. Because by lifting heavy weights, the muscles can grow stronger with rest and also the right food. But building or increasing muscle mass is not as easy as imagined. Many people feel that they have been doing vigorous exercise but are still not gaining muscle mass. Here are the answers of the questions: Why are my muscles not growing.
1. Not Eating Enough
Eating is one of the important elements that can help muscle development. There is such a thing as pre workout and post workout. Pre workout is food that is consumed before exercise. Meanwhile, post workout is food that is consumed after exercising. If these two things are forgotten, it is difficult for muscles from growing.
Many people may think that why eat after exercise, so all the exercise that has been done is in vain. Eating after exercise is important to help muscle recovery. It remains for you to determine what food to eat. It is at the time after exercise that the body needs nutrients because it will be absorbed quickly. Hence it is advisable to eat nutritious foods such as carbohydrates, protein and fiber.
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2. No Exercise Variation
Being diligent in going to the gym or exercising may not necessarily increase muscle mass. The cause of this failure lies mostly in the type of exercise performed. Doing just one kind of exercise will not be effective. One type of exercise will only be able to carry it up to a point and then stop there.
What needs to be done to overcome this problem is to do a variety of exercises. There are many muscles that we have, such as shoulders, chest, legs, back, arms and stomach. Each of these muscles has many variations of exercise. Combine exercises from each muscle to increase muscle mass. If you just do the same exercises over and over, your muscles will get used to it and stop from growing.
3. Wrong Exercise Technique
Those who are just starting fitness training are advised to be accompanied by a coach. This is so that they can get an important basic training. One of them is exercise technique. Because if you often lift weights but use the wrong technique, then it is not the muscles that will be trained but can actually be injured.
Each of these exercises targets specific muscles when performed with the correct technique. The wrong technique actually makes the muscle target being trained not reach and can actually increase the chance of injury when you increase the load. Prioritize training techniques over how much weight to lift because technique is more important than the ego of lifting heavy weights.
4. Less Hard Exercise
Increasing muscle mass to the target made is not as easy as imagined. If someone says that having a good body and a six pack is easy, why doesn’t everyone have a good body? Getting in shape and increasing muscle mass requires hard training, this is what often makes people fail in the middle of the road.
You need to do hard training to increase muscle mass. Routine to the gym and lift weights that are ideal for building muscle. Even with very vigorous exercise, results may not be visible in one to two weeks. Keep in mind again that doing a healthy lifestyle for a month is not necessarily able to replace the free lifestyle that you have been doing for years.
5. The use of supplements is not optimal
When you are just starting a healthy lifestyle with a fitness routine, what you will usually meet at the beginning are a number of people offering supplements. Buying and using supplements cannot be arbitrary. If you can’t get the most out of your workout, then no matter how expensive the supplements you buy are useless.
For those who are just starting out in the gym, what should be done first is to determine the exercise menu, improve technique, find out how to use the tools at the gym, and improve their diet. After you have done all that, then you can take supplements. It is important to remember that the most important thing is the food you eat every day. Don’t make supplements as the main menu, supplements are only tools to achieve the target weight you want.
6. Using Too Light Weights
Weightlifting is indeed an effective way to increase muscle mass. Because at this moment, the muscles will be damaged and then restored again through the food consumed and also rest. The problem is how heavy the load must be lifted to increase this muscle mass.
Lifting weights that are too light will have no impact on the muscles. All you have to do is use moderate to heavy weights. Muscle can only develop when trained using moderate to heavy weights. When you use regular weights, there is no reason for your muscles to strengthen themselves and growing.
7. Too Often Cardio
Have you been lifting weights for a long time but you haven’t gained weight? If so, try checking your training menu. Do you guys put too much cardio on the exercise menu or not. Doing cardio is important for burning fat, but if you do it too much, it can actually reduce muscle mass.
Muscle mass can decrease if you continue to do cardio. Especially if you don’t balance it with a lot of eating, the faster your muscle mass will drop. Especially for people with ectomorph body types. The ectomorph type needs more weight training than doing cardio.
8. Inconsistent
A temple cannot be made overnight, increasing muscle mass cannot be done just doing one to two exercises in the gym. One day of practice, three days off, it can’t be like that. The inconsistency of this exercise makes people reach the desired body weight longer. Exercise, diet, and rest need to be done simultaneously.
The condition of the body as it is now has been formed over the years. Hard training in the gym, diet, and rest that is only done for a few months are not necessarily able to shape the body that you want. Keep doing the exercises, don’t skip the diet, and don’t stay up late every night if you want to gain muscle mass.
9. Lack of Break
Hard exercise and diet alone are not enough to increase muscle mass. One thing that people often forget is rest. The body needs to rest to recuperate from hard work and exercise. Even the engine needs rest, otherwise the engine will overheat and then break. For those who want to increase muscle mass, rest must be adequate.
As much as possible avoid staying up late. Because at night, the body must rest to regenerate damaged body cells. Including the muscles that will be repaired, of course, after being given nutrients from the food eaten. Try to get 7-8 hours of good quality sleep a night.
Read Also: 10 Warning Signs That You’re Getting Too Much Exercise
10. Lack of Protein
Just as long as you eat, it can’t make your muscles mass growing. There is one macro nutrient that you need to fulfill in order to increase muscle mass. The nutrition in question is protein. For those who want to increase muscle mass must consume large amounts of protein.
For adults, you need at least 10% of the number of calories that enter the body every day. Or about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight. So you can calculate for yourself how much protein you must consume. Foods containing protein can be obtained from chicken, beef, eggs, soybeans, and milk.
