The Five Biggest Mistakes Killing Your Gains!

INTRODUCTION

Most people get onto weight-lifting with this simple idea in mind: LIFT THE DAMN WEIGHT.

When they start to get more experienced, so does the amount of weight they lift, so does the possible amount of injuries if they do things incorrectly, AND, so does their « growth potential » stops short of their actual potential because of these 5 stupid mistakes.

I hope this article can really help you get more gains. Let’s dive into the five stupid mistakes you might be doing, that are killing your gains.

THE FIVE MISTAKES

First mistake

The first mistake, and I see this often at the gym, is not pushing to true failure. Pushing to failure is very important for muscle gain. Even tho it brings a lot of fatigue (your body is very tired afterward), it is in the last few reps that your body actually tears apart muscle.

For example, let’s say we did a set of 12 reps. These 12 reps didn’t tear apart the muscle, it’s the few last 4 reps that did it for example. So, going to failure is a fundamental principle for muscle-growth. Try to go to failure on one set per exercise, at least, or more if you want to and if you see it doesn’t have a huge impact on your over-all performance.

And when I say failure, it’s not « it hurts so I drop the weight », I’m speaking about when your muscles CANNOT perform another rep, with all the might and power you want. True failure is difficult to reach because it requires you to have the mental to go through pain.

By the way, some studies have shown that stopping 1 to 2 reps shy of failure gave similar results… well, do this on every other set if you want to. However, when you can, go to FAILURE. GO. TO. FAILURE. You’ll see how much your muscles will grow in such a short time when you simply go to failure. Think of this: the last reps are the most important, so the most of them you can perform with good form (do not cheat even on the failure sets), the more you’re going to build muscle, because your body wants you to succeed next time.

Remember, weight-lifting is all a question of body adaptation.

Second mistake

The second mistake, and I also see this often at the gym, is not controlling the weight enough on the eccentric phase. The eccentric phase is when you lengthen the muscle, this means when you go back to the original position of the lift. In a bicep curl, it’s when you lower the weight, in a push-up, it’s when you lower your body, in a tricep extension, it’s when you lower the weight too, but, however, in a lat-pulldown for example, it’s when you « lower » the weight up back to it’s original position.

Think about when it’s harder to lift. The hardest part is not pushing, it’s controlling back the weight. So control back the weight to its original position, and you’re going to put your body in a situation of Time Under Tension, meaning it will have tension, it’ll be tense, contracted. In this way, you can gain tons of muscle and avoid killing your gains by lifting like a chimpanzee.

Third mistake

Cold exposure right after exercise is the third mistake you should absolutely avoid. Listen up, cold exposure in and of itself isn’t dangerous for muscle-mass, and even if you take a cold showers 30 minutes after exercise, it might be all right.

However, studies have shown that being exposed to cold right after exercise (cold showers, ice baths) could lead to reduced gains. When you’re working out, your muscles get filled with heat and acid, etc etc, and so when you make these muscles colder, what fundamentally happens? The heat and acid go away. And, in this manner, you’re left with… a cold muscle that stopped the muscle-building process.

Just, try to take a cold shower minimum 30 minutes after exercise. It’s not a huge mistake to be honest, but it can truly have a bad impact on muscle-growth.

Fourth mistake

The fourth mistake one might make when one starts lifting weight is to not performing a full range of motion.

« Range of motion is the capability of a joint to go through its complete spectrum of movements. » Your range of motion is the entire range of every motion of the exercise, meaning, in a bench press, it’s the whole range of the movement. It’s the distance and range between lowering the weight down and lifting the weight-up. This range of the exercise, that you should always go through entirely, helps you build muscle because it challenges your muscles 100x more than if you simply tried to lift the weight up like a monkey.

For example, if you do only a quarter of the bicep curl exercise, you’re not going full range of motion. You need to go all the way down, and all the way up, until your elbow is at a 90 degree angle and your bicep is fully flexed, still maintaining good posture overall throughought your body and always focusing on your biceps and not using any other muscle to lift the weight.

This is very important, because if you don’t go full range of motion, you cannot target the muscle properly, and you don’t give it enough of a challenge. You need to train through the full range of motion (ROM) of the exercise, so as to make sure to really build muscle and really target the muscle and really do something, instead of doing bullshit around in the gym.

Fifth mistake

Not eating enough calories/protein. Not eating enough calories is one of the worst muscle-mass destroyers in the history of humanity. When your body doesn’t have enough calories, it takes it from fat, but if you’re in too much of a deficit (above a 500 calorie deficit), most times, your body will also burn muscle. So, if you’re in a too big of deficit, your body will take a lot of its resources from your muscles, because they are also rich in calories.

That’s why natural bodybuilders looks so skinny when they cut down. Enhanced bodybuilders can keep the muscle-mass, since they are full of testosterone and growth hormone. However, natural bodybuilders often become way skinnier than before when they prepare for a competition because their body naturally takes a lot of muscle when you go down to levels of body fat reaching near 5-8%.

So, avoid being in too much of a deficit, except if you’re really fat or you’ve got a very important deadline to reach your goals. Simply stay in a 300 to 500 calorie deficit, and do not worry about your weight-loss, it’ll take time but you’ll eventually have your wanted physique.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading, I hope this article was of help to you, and I’ll see you next time. Bye.

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