Possible reasons for the lack of growth are of concern to almost all athletes. Not everyone can figure this out on their own. Find out why you are not building muscle. Today's article is devoted to the question - why don't you grow muscles, which interests many novice athletes. This can happen, both in the presence of initial growth, and in its absence. It should be noted right away that there can be a lot of reasons for this phenomenon. Today we will try to deal with the main ones.
Very often, novice athletes, coming to the gym, are sure that this will be quite enough to gain muscle mass. However, you need to know that muscle growth occurs outside the gym, and during training, the muscles are destroyed. Remember, you must first destroy the muscle tissue and then ensure that it rebuilds. Only in this case growth is possible.
It should be noted that many athletes do not understand all the processes that take place. After all, it may be more effective to skip one lesson so that the muscles recover, than to “finish off” them at the next workout.
Insufficient time for muscle recovery
This is the first reason for the lack of muscle growth. The first thing an athlete should do when asking himself why your muscles are not growing is to find out if he gives his body enough time to rest. Among the main reasons for non-recovery, the most common ones can be noted:
- Exercising too often and the body does not have enough time to recover.
- Malnutrition.
- The athlete consumes fewer certain nutrients.
- Uneven meals.
- Sleep disturbance.
- A lot of stress in everyday life.
As mentioned above, during training, muscle tissue is destroyed and then the body needs time and building materials to repair these damage. Thus, you must pay a lot of attention not only to the training process itself, but also to recovery.
First of all, observe the regime. If everything is in order here, then the reason for the lack of growth should be sought in the training program. So smoothly we move on to the main mistake made by athletes in the training process.
Inappropriate muscle stress
Here mistakes are possible only in two directions: the training is very light or too hard. However, things are not as simple as you might think. Each of the above reasons may have their own sub-reasons. So, heavy training can be for the following reasons:
- Very high volume of training;
- A large number of methods are used to increase the intensity of the lesson;
- Not enough rest time between sets;
- Large working weights, etc.
It must be said that there are a lot of reasons, and it makes no sense to list them all. The same can be said for the lack of severity of training, which can arise due to:
- Small working weights;
- Low volume classes;
- Excessive pauses between sets;
- Poor movement technique, etc.
Any athlete should try to make their training more difficult, not simplify it. You always need to look for new exercises or angles that can "surprise" the muscles, preventing them from getting used to the same type of effort.
With a low technique of performing the exercises, a large number of muscles take part in the work, which should not be done. As a result, the entire load is also distributed to them.
To ensure muscle growth, there are two basic principles to keep in mind:
- Load progression;
- Supercompensation.
In short, according to the above principles, concepts such as very difficult and easy, you will constantly alternate. If it was hard for you at the last lesson, then it will definitely become easier at the next one. It is thanks to the adaptation of the body to a certain load that the muscles are able to grow. If the load remains at the same level, then the growth will stop.
According to the principle of supercompensation, after each training session, the muscles become somewhat stronger than they were before. In turn, the principle of load progression implies a constant increase in muscle load. Failure to understand these principles also leads to the arrest of muscle growth.
Slower muscle growth in advanced athletes
In principle, there is nothing difficult about gaining about 20 kilograms of muscle mass. If you remember everything that was discussed today, then this goal can be achieved in a year or at most two. The most difficult thing awaits you in the future. As mentioned above, the body adapts to stress and even an increase in working weights or the number of approaches and repetitions may not affect muscle growth arrest.
It is important to understand that for constant progress, the very mechanism of stress that the muscles receive must change. Your body should constantly be amazed, and only then will progress be permanent. Often, even experienced athletes do not understand what they should change in their training program. However, before talking about the training itself, you should dwell on the mode. Since muscle mass has increased over a certain period of time, you will need more food and time to recover from exercise. Of course, it is quite difficult to realize it from a psychological point of view, but the fact remains that way.
Now it is necessary to say about the training program. Muscle growth cannot be linear. Thus, the athlete needs to ensure the presence of micro and macro growth cycles.
And this applies not only to the muscles themselves, but also to other body systems. In parallel with the growth of muscles, the body's need for energy increases, bone tissues, ligaments and joints should be strengthened, and the cardiovascular system should develop. Most bodybuilders focus on the development of the contractile apparatus of the muscles, while forgetting about the rest of the body.
The body must develop harmoniously and this applies to all human systems, and not just the muscles.
Learn more about the causes of stagnant growth in this video:
