A study in The Journal of Nutrition found that protein synthesis was increased in subjects for 24 hours following weight training in heavy-weight/low-rep and ligher-weight/higher-rep groups.
Solution: No matter what rep range you’re training in, select a weight that brings about failure at, or just before, your target number on the last set of every exercise. If you can reach or surpass your target number of reps for your stated goal with ease, add more weight.
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Going To Failure Too Often
Considering what you now know about failure – that it’s a good thing – you may think that failing more often is a good thing. But pump the brakes there, Mini Arnold.
Going to failure too often, as many lifters unwittingly do, can actually bring your mass gains to an abrupt halt. Australian researchers found that subjects taking multiple sets of the bench press to failure gained less strength than those who only failed on one set.
There can be many reasons for this but one of the most likely is that if you fail on your early sets, you’re unlikely to be able to engage as many muscle fibers or move as much weight for as many reps on your later sets. And when total volume and quality or reps matters, it may be best to save your fight to failure for your last set.
Solution: Scale back on how often you go to failure. Limit this type of work to the last set of every exercise. More advanced athletes performing a higher volume of sets may benefit from using failure to their advantage of the last 1-2 sets of a given move.
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Resting Too Long
One of the most egregious mistakes a lifter can make is wasting time at the gym. Not only does this postpone your date with a killer post-workout meal, but it can also unnecessarily delay increases in mass.
When you are training for strength alone and working with extremely heavy loads, longer rest periods of 3-5 minutes are standard. But when you’re training for size, there may be less benefit. Waiting too long before getting into your next set can diminish training intensity, cool muscles and crush your pump.
The good news is that research is strong on shorter rest periods, particularly if you’re looking to build a leaner physique. One study found that lifters who rested less than 60 seconds between sets burned 50 percent more calories than a group resting three minutes.
Solution: Keep it moving in the gym. Keep a water bottle with you to avoid long walks to the fountain, keep headphones on in order to deter potential chatterboxes, then rest no longer than 60-90 seconds between sets. You’ll build more muscle, torch more calories and get out sooner.
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Over-Isolating
We know that having those grainy striations in your chest is a lifelong goal but more sets of dumbbell flyes and cable work is not going to get ‘em for you. Isolating your pecs will certainly help but by focusing too much on isolation work like this, you are limiting your chances of developing the kind of detail you want. Why?
Well, you’ve got to have the muscle to detail first and that means building routines consisting mainly of heavy, compound movements.
Continuing to use the chest as an example, if your routine is usually five moves and 15-sets deep, you’ll likely want to make sure that three exercises (or about nine sets) are of the multijoint variety – presses, dips and push-ups.
The final two moves, then, can focus on isolation – flyes, cables, pec deck. Plus, the heavy moves have a greater impact on natural physique-building hormones such as testosteronea and growth hormone (GH).
Solution: Make sure that the bulk of your movements for major bodyparts are compound in nature. Presses, squats, deadlifts, rows, dips and pull-ups will all help you add more total muscle mass that you can then enhance with a tempered number of sets of isolation moves. A five-move bodypart routine, for example, should only feature 2-3 isolation exercises.
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Skipping Workout Because Of Soreness
It was once believed that it was counterproductive to train when sore. The rationale was that if a muscle is still sore, it is still damaged and should thus be given additional time to recover. On top of that, very few of us are inclined to hit the gym for leg day if our quads and glutes are still reeling from last week’s squat session. But do you really need to skip that visit?
Japanese researchers found that subjects who were experienced delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) in their biceps experienced no decrease in strength, mobility or muscle soreness when repeating the same workout 48 hours later.
A better bet is to keep to your routine – hit the gym, get in a good warm-up and spend 10-15 times stretching afterward. And if the soreness is a mental obstacle for you, EGCG, BCAA and increased protein intake have all been shown to decrease DOMS.
Solution: Don’t skip workouts just because of muscle soreness. Research shows that it is not harmful to train when sore but it’s still a good rule of thumb to allow at least 48-72 hours before attacking a muscle group again. You can also supplement with EGCG, BCAA and protein and incorporate post-workout stretching to alleviate (not eliminate) the pain ahead of your session.
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Not Warming Up Properly
If you don’t bother increasing your core body temperature before you train, you are likely limiting your performance in the gym (and that applies no matter what your coming workout holds). So if mass matters to you, don’t just head straight for the bench for a “light set or two” or doing a few perfunctory stretches before starting your heavy work. Getting warm will not only help prevent injuries but it can actually make you more productive in the gym.
Research published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research showed that college wrestlers that replaced a static stretching warm-up with four weeks worth of dynamic warm-up exhibited greater power, muscular endurance, anaerobic capacity, strength and agility than a group that continued with static stretching. Also, static stretching has been shown to acutely diminish strength.
Solution: Invest 10 minutes or more before every workout performing active moves that elevate core body temperature and prep muscles and joints for the work ahead. Activities such as jump rope, jumping jacks, running in place and shadowboxing are good choices before moving into more challenging, dynamic exercises such as jumping lunges, power skips and empty-bar Olympic movements. New to dynamic warm-ups? Initiate yourself by spending 10 minutes on the elliptical cross-trainer before lifting.
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Doing Too Much Cardio
You want to get big but you want to get lean, too. So you are as diligent about your cardio as your weight work. But sometimes, you may find that the gains come slower when you are good about doing your cardio. (We know, life isn’t fair.) When you hit the treadmill or stairclimber too often, you rob your body of mass-breeding calories.
Do too much and your body goes through primary fuel sources like glycogen and fat, then goes on the hunt for reserves…in your muscle bellies. This is particularly true when you perform lower-intensity cardio exclusively. Cardio is good. Too much? Not so great.
Solution: When trying to gain mass, opt for 3-4 cardio sessions per week. As for protocols, you may want to stick with high-intensity intervals, which have been shown to burn more fat and preserve more muscle mass than steady-state cardio schemes.
