Gym Routines

What are some mistakes people make in their gym routines which end up costing them muscle growth and strength gains? By looking at what mistakes people make, you can see what you should be doing instead to build a beautifully muscular body.

1. Using Isolation Exercises instead of Compound lifts.

Thanks to the bodybuilding magazine industry, people are convinced that the best way to build muscle is to focus on isolating every single muscle group, and using countless exercise to train them.

This method doesn't work for a very simple reason. Muscle growth is the result of stimulating the most muscle fibres as possible. Isolation by its very nature stimulates very few.

Also, because you are required to spend so long in the gym with isolation, as apposed to compound gym routines, you typically go over the 1 hour deadline of exercise. Once you pass this time limit, the amount of testosterone in your body begins to drop. Because testosterone is so pivotal in muscle growth, you obviously want to ensure the level within your body is at its absolute maximum!

2. Exercising too frequently.

In most activities, the more you do something, the better the results you will receive. In gym routines, this actually isn't true. You do not build muscle while you are exercising; you only build them while you are resting. Exercise is only used to stimulate the growth, you then need to give you body the rest it requires to actually build the muscle.

Anything more than 1 hour of weightlifting gym routines completed 3 times a week is counterproductive and will likely result in you over training.

3. Not getting enough rest.

This is probably the biggest mistake people make. Your gym routine is important, but a solid resting schedule is even more important. The health benefits of getting 8 hours of good quality sleep is well known. Not only is it the only time your body actually builds muscle, but your body releases very important, muscle building hormones while you sleep. You are building muscle and getting growth hormones released at the same time, don't you want to maximise the length of time your body is doing this as much as possible?

4. Using supplements as a basis of diet, instead as a supplement.

Supplements by their very definition are supposed to be used after you have the basics of a good quality diet down pat. If you are not basing your diet around consuming good quality, natural foods that have the nutrients you require then all the supplementation in the world won't help you build muscle. A high quality diet coupled with great gym routines is so important!

Once you have a good quality diet, taking a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement, with perhaps a good quality whey isolate shake will help you get closer to your goal of having a beautiful, muscular body.

Avoiding the above mistakes will ensure your gym routines are the most effective, and get you closer to your goal of building muscle.