Revealed: 8 Common Issues That Can Ruin Your Fitness Gains
Think you know everything needs to be known about muscle building? Check this list to make sure you’re avoiding the most common dietary and training mistakes that can ruin your fitness gains.
8 Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Fitness Gains
Everyone that lives a fit and healthy lifestyle will want to see results. Results are what motivates us to do even better, and workout harder. We like to look in the mirror and see all the gains we’ve made; it’s uplifting.
But, sometimes, we struggle to see gains. And, we can’t seem to understand why. Well, it’s most likely down to one of these three things:
1. Excessive Snacking
A lot of people will often complain that they don’t see any results. And yet, they spend a healthy amount of time in the gym and do lots of physical exercises. If you’re doing this and not seeing gains, the problem is with your nutrition.
However, often, people will say they eat well and list off their daily meals. The main meals they eat are healthy, but the problem lies in between those meals. The problem is excessive snacking. You might be eating too many unhealthy snacks throughout the day. A few packets of crisps, some chocolate, a cookie.
All of these things add up and make your ‘healthy’ diet, a lot more unhealthy. Most snacks are high in sugar, fat, and calories. Three things you want to avoid to stay fit and healthy. But, it doesn’t have to be this way. You can snack, and remain healthy. As seen on here, there are loads of healthy snacks for you to eat.
2. A Serious Injury
Being injured is never fun, and can be a major setback to your fitness gains. You’ve spent ages working hard and getting your body to a good standard. Then, you pick up a serious injury and can’t exercise properly for weeks or months. As a result, your gains start to fade away slightly.
Injuries can prevent you from performing to the standard that you’re used to. You may be unable to do certain movements or lift heavy weights. It can have serious consequences on your gains, trust me.
Plus, as per bolingriceatlanta.com, there’s overwhelming stress that comes with an injury. You feel annoyed and stressed out because you can’t do the things you want to do. So, you end up in a tough mental battle, and may lose the motivation to work out.
All in all, even a small injury can seriously ruin your gains.
3. A Poor Workout Regime
Sometimes, the reason behind your ruined gains is that you aren’t working out properly. You may be exercising infrequently, or doing things wrong. You could be attacking your workouts in a bad way too.
Most people think that you should workout for as long as possible. But, as I stated in this article, you need quality over quantity. A shorter, more intense, workout is far better than a drawn out one. Have a look at how you’re exercising, it could be what’s holding you back.
4. Eating Carbs Late
Get your carbs from your early meals.
Any bodybuilder would advice you to eat all the time, a lot of calories, during the mass-gaining phase. True, except that carbs from your dinner and late-night meals can be easily stored as body fat.
So try to get your carbs from your early meals and reduce them to minimum in the evening. This will help your muscles recover properly overnight.
5. Not Forcing Progression
No matter how hardcore your workout is, if you don’t challenge yourself, you’ll never get bigger/better. You need to stimulate your muscles to grow, and by constantly lifting 200 pounds 12 times daily, you’re definitely not doing it.
I’m not saying you’re not doing it right; any workout is better than no workout, right? But if you want to get real results, you need to try a progressive method to build muscle. Remember, not challenging your body means not wanting it to change.
Outdo your previous performance each time you exercise.
Add more weight, do more reps or shorten the rest periods to force progression and ensure your muscles are constantly growing.
6. (Not) Training To Failure
Training to failure is a very disputed concept that has caused a lot of misunderstandings. Even though you need to do it to challenge your muscles, training to failure should be limited only to the last set of your workout.
So perform your workout reps as usual (10-12), but force progression in the last set by doing as many reps as you can. This will increase protein synthesis for 24 hours after the workout is finished.
7. Not Eating Fat At All
Most of you would say “I don’t eat fat because I’ll get fat!”, right? Nope, this is not right at all. This is an outdated philosophy, and excluding healthy fats from your diet can limit your strength and muscle gain.
Fish, olive oil, avocados, seeds and nuts are great sources of healthy fats. Make sure these foods make about 20% of your daily caloric intake.
8. Skipping Breakfast
There are numerous benefits of eating breakfast every day, as I already stated here.
Keep your fitness gains on track by starting your day with a breakfast rich in proteins and carbs. For instance, oatmeal is a great source of complex carbs (and fiber) and eggs are bodybuilder’s main protein source for breakfast.
A perfect breakfast caloric ratio is 40% protein, 50 carbs and 10% fat.
Hopefully, after reading this, you can see why your fitness gains may be stalling. If any of these things is the reason behind your struggles, you need to fix it! Do whatever you can to get back on track and start making gains once more.
