5 Mistakes Killing Your Muscle Gains

Introduction

Most people who go to the gym simply lift weights for the sake of it. They want to become bigger physically or leaner or stronger, so they simply go to the gym, grab dumbells, and do a bunch of exercises. It's how we all started. However, not educating yourself often on weight-lifting in order to maximize your skills in this area of your life is a fatal mistake.

You see, if you never educate yourself you never learn, and therefore you sacrifice maybe years of training to get a body that could have been built in only two years for example.

What I'm saying here is that a lot of people search to add cool things such as supersets and drop sets and this and that but they do not focus first on improving the very simple mistakes they're actually doing, sometimes without even knowing it!

Instead of adding and adding and adding, throw the trash away and then add.

In this article, I'll explain to you the 5 major mistakes you might be making that are severely hurting your gains and retaining you back from your true potential. Correcting these mistakes could lead to a very fast spike of gains at first because your body isn't used to it. Let's start.

The first mistake

The first mistake of weight-lifters that kills the most gains is not controlling the eccentric part of the lift.

There are two parts to lifting a weight: the concentric and the eccentric. For example, in a bicep curl, the concentric is when you lift the weight up, and the eccentric is the much harder part of controlling the weight down. But, people seldom do this.

Seriously, observe people at the gym and very few are the ones who actually control the weight down. Whatever lift you do, understand that the eccentric is the most important part. It's when your muscles are the most stretched (inducing more muscle gains), and it's the hardest part of the lift that truly breaks your muscles.

Control the weight for 3 to 5 seconds. I even like sometimes on squats for example to control for three to five seconds and then pause at the bottom before trying to explode up. Do the full range of motion if it doesn't hurt your joints.

Controlling the weight also works as an ego-lifter check. Ego-lifters often put too much weight on and simply drag the weight around. They focus on swinging the weight-up and then they let gravity do the work on a bicep curl exercise for example. They arch their back, hurt their joints, and use more of their back than their biceps.

So, controlling the eccentric part of any lift (the part of the lift where you control the weight back to its original position), is a major key to muscle growth, and it enables ego-lifters to fix their form and stop arching so much.

Also, at first, you will see that you will only be able to use smaller weights compared to before. Before you might have been able to do 20kg bicep curls with quite decent form but now with great form and a real eccentric phase control you might go down to 15kg for only a few reps. Don't let your ego blind you and don't get pissed off, you're actually making more gains because now you're actually challenging your muscles.

The second mistake

The second mistake is not bettering your diet. Your diet is a major key in bodybuilding, and having a great diet unlocks great gains. But what do I mean by a "great diet"?

I mean a 100% natural diet full of healthy fats (200 grams), protein (2g per kg of body weight), and a few carbs (around 200 grams). A diet such as this can help you make incredible gains in the long term and not only that, it will help all parts of your life.

Truly, having a healthy diet composed of natural foods and being consistent with it in the long-term because you've built it in a way that you enjoy the meals you're cooking and it's sustainable, is a true key to muscle growth. It unlocks great gains. By the way, having cheat meals here and there isn't bad, don't plan them and go with the flow of life (if an anniversary pop-up for example you can have your cheat meal there).

And, having a great diet means avoiding fatal estrogenic mistakes. We'll go back on avoiding estrogenics later with the third mistake but all I can say here is that a lot of foods or drinks are very unhealthy for your testosterone levels, one of the primary hormones that help you produce muscle mass, that is responsible also for libido (your sex-drive) and your happiness and your hair health and your bone health and more.

So, avoid alcohol. Avoid sugar. Avoid artificial sugar, even in protein powders. Avoid soy at all costs too. Avoid flour too, it's not a huge testosterone killer but it's best to avoid. Be careful about dairy (do not eat a lot of dairy per day) and be very aware of vegetable oils (sunflower oil, colza oil, etc) except olive oil. Olive oil and coconut oil are acceptable. Dismiss the rest.

Most people try to build muscle by getting protein and calories by eating flavored protein powders full of artificial sugars and therefore estrogenic and highly estrogenic milk stored in plastic that is not grass-fed and local (commercial milk), whilst killing by these same means the primary hormone responsible for muscle-growth, and for their happiness and bone health and more.

So, be very careful about your diet. Your body needs fuel, especially if you train hard at the gym, so if you're not giving it the right fuel, your body will not run properly just like a car wouldn't be able to run if you gave it the wrong fuel. It's logical, and most people seldom think about that in our modern society.

Eat 90-100% natural foods, and the small amount of processed foods you have, make in sort it doesn't hurt your testosterone according to reputable sources (maybe it's some vinegar or cheese, because cheese is indeed a processed food). If you want to know more about dieting, I suggest reading the article I made here on nutrition.

The third mistake

The third mistake is to kill your testosterone which is the primary muscle-building hormone through the means of estrogenics. Estrogenics are all around us: in our food, our air, our cosmetics, our toothpaste, and our soap. It's also in our tap water and plastic bottles. In short, it's everywhere, and avoiding it is hard, but it's doable if you really want to live a better life.

Most people kill their testosterone or at least reduce it compared to their full potential because they simply are not on the lookout for estrogenics. Be on the lookout for them if you want to maximize your gains and therefore your testosterone.

Stop drinking in plastic bottles and NEVER store any hot food in a plastic container or any liquid in a plastic container. Be especially careful of fatty liquids such as olive oil for example. Suppose you drink olive oil in a plastic bottle. In that case, it's worse than water because even tho water in plastic bottles is really bad for your health, microplastics are lipophilic (they love fat) and so they leach much better in fats and in greater quantity. Microplastics can cause infertility, obesity, cancer, depression, and more as they are highly estrogenic.

Testosterone is important for your physical and mental health, it works on your muscles, your hair, your bones, your mood, your happiness, etc. Not having enough testosterone is a major component of the feminization of society and men.

Men in the past few years became more and more feminine and they still are nowadays, but a few of them are starting to meet the path of self-improvement and they're actually working on themselves and becoming more masculine. Not all, but some.

A lot of men are still weak and they lack testosterone, assertiveness, masculinity, purpose, and direction, and they develop more cancer and literally grow manboobs (gynecomastia). A lot of women are not at ease in their feminine energy and have low testosterone, making women infertile, prone to more fat and they have way more chance of developing breast cancer and any type of cancer for that matter.

Estrogenic such as microplastics, sodium benzoate (found in a lot of cosmetics and some foods), anything beginning with benz- or phyl-, 4-methylbenzophenone (4-MBC), and more are literally altering your DNA and producing a ton of estrogen in your body. Artificial sugars are also bad for you. Highly estrogenic.

I'm not going to explain the whole story about estrogenics and all types of estrogenics and more because this is not the goal of this article, but be very wary of them. Estrogenic-related issues and DNA changes can be passed on to other generations, and studies in fishes have found that estrogenic-related issues became increasingly worse at each new generation of the same family of fish even tho they weren't even exposed to estrogenic anymore (the fishes were in pure water since two generations now).

Click here to read an article I wrote about it and/or read the book Estrogeneration by Anthony G. Jay. Click here to buy it on Amazon. Super important.

The fourth mistake

The fourth mistake is having the wrong training plan. You see, there is no "better training routine" even tho some seem to work better for most people such as the bro-split (5-day split, chest back legs arms shoulders) and the push-pull-legs split (6-day split), so the training split or routine is not what I'm speaking about here.

What I'm speaking about here is the amount of volume of sets you should perform per week for each muscle group. A lot of people do way too many sets, especially naturals. You see, people who take steroids don't have to worry about overtraining, their recovering capacity has been boosted by PEDs (Performance Enhancing Drugs).

However, for most of us who are naturals, the amount of volume of sets we perform per week is important if we do not want to overtrain quickly. We want to still be able to induce incredible or almost optimal muscle growth whilst not overtraining and not spending 2 hours at the gym every day.

And so, how to do so? Well, you need to find the perfect amount of volume per muscle group per week according to your body through experimentation and from reputable sources such as Renaissance Periodization (RP Strength). I suggest checking their "muscle training tips" articles.

For example, let's say you want to know the volume of sets you should do per week for the chest. Go on and search "chest training tips RP strength" on your navigator and you will find one of their articles. Try to find the MEV (minimum effective volume) to build muscle mass and use the upper range of the MEV and then add a few sets on top of that. For example, if their MEV for back is 8 sets per week, do 10-12 sets per week for back.

I'll soon make a list of the volume of sets per week for each muscle group to grow it effectively from what I know so you don't have to even bother searching for a good volume landmark. So, stay tuned about that. A new category called "Helpful tools" might soon appear on the website.

The fifth mistake

The fifth mistake that is killing your gains is to stop short of failure. When I started really training hard, to failure, to real muscular failure then this is when I saw gains in only a few days. You see, training hard is great, but failure is better.

Try to get a great amount of failure in your training routine. Even tho it's tiring to your nervous system, try to still push hard at the gym, and really push your muscles to the last brim. When you're being too shy with your muscles, you're not making enough gains. Try to push to the point of not being able to lift the weight, even if it leads to you making time to time some weird funny noises.

Going to REAL muscular failure is harder than you think. You might have never gone to it despite you thinking you did. Sometimes, you try to lift the weight up near failure, and you can't do it so you think you reached failure or it simply hurts too much so you stop, but if you tried pushing like crazy for 15 seconds then you might have been able to do it. Sometimes it works like this.

I saw so many people training in my gym and simply not pushing hard at all. They're not going to failure it almost looks like they're not having a hard time. Some others have a hard time but they bitch out at the last moment because failure HURTS.

What I mean here is that training to failure is HARD as hell, it's really not easy. It hurts a ton, you need to have the mental for it. Really, trust me when I say this, you probably never truly trained to real muscular failure. Go all the way to failure, and even when you think you reached failure, keep pushing. If you really can't, then it's a sign you reached true failure, if you can keep pushing, then you still have some left in the tank.

I don't count when I go to failure I simply train hard and I am not overthinking. I'm going to failure on most of my sets.

But be intelligent tho, and don't go to failure on exercises such as barbell squats or good mornings, you don't want to crush the weight on the floor or get crushed by the weight on the floor. Prioritize safety over muscles, you'll thank me later when you'll be able to live to 40 years old without being in a wheelchair.

Seriously, push really hard on most of your sets. Make it a game to not be able to lift the weight-up anymore and you'll make incredible gains in the gym.

Conclusion

All of these mistakes are very common in most gyms and if people just fixed them they could get better results. Don't really overthink training at the gym or else all the fun goes out of it, still go and hit your workout out of fun and enjoy yourself. But, push hard.

Thank you for reading, and I'll see you next time. If you want to learn more about exercise, check out this article.

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