7 Muscle-Building Mistakes

You can’t reach your fitness goals if you’re making these muscle-building mistakes! There’s no sense in putting in so much work and effort that’ll cost you nothing in the long run. Taking the first step to a healthy lifestyle is important, especially when you want to make a change for your body for the better!

Making the decision to build muscle allows many doors to open for maintaining healthy well-being; you’ll manage a healthier weight, increase your metabolism, look and feel amazing, and above all, your future body will thank you later. But during it all, it’s critical to know how to do it correctly. Forget all the myths and legends you’ve heard and learn from these seven common muscle-building mistakes instead.

The Most Common Muscle-Building Mistakes

1. Poor Diet

Muscles are made in the kitchen, not in the gym! Mostly. The number one mistake people make when building muscle is not eating enough, eating the wrong foods, and not eating at the correct times. Feeding your muscles should be a priority, especially after a workout, because your body is searching for protein and carbohydrate sources to turn glucose into glycogen. This allows your muscle to repair and grow. Eat clean, drinks lots of water, and never skip meals!

2. Wrong Form and Exercises

What’s the point of going to the gym when you’re training incorrectly? Leave your ego at the door and ensure you have your basic lifting form down before adding weight. Suppose you’re developing bad habits with form and even doing the wrong exercises. In that case, you’re not only putting your body’s safety at risk for injury and long-term strains, but you aren’t targeting the correct muscles that’ll maximize growth.

3. Overtraining

Yes, there is such a thing. It’s important to remember that your muscles grow and recover outside of the gym. Training too often interrupts the repair cycle for your muscles and limits their growth. It’s time to get over the “more is better” mentality and realize quality workouts are what’s best. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the gym pumping weights for three hours every day of the week. This makes you prone to muscle tears and trauma. It’s essential to always pay attention to what you do outside the gym. Take the time to stretch, eat right, get enough sleep, and drink lots of fluids!

4. No Balance Between Muscle Groups

Does chicken legs sound familiar to you? Exercising and dedicating to one muscle group is a huge mistake while building muscle. Not only does it make your body look un-symmetrical, but there are many reasons why you should focus on all muscle groups. You won’t get muscle imbalances or injuries (aches and pains). Two, your strength will improve quicker. Three, it builds muscle faster.

6. Too Much Cardio

According to bodybuilding.com, too much cardio can hamper your muscle gain by slowing recovery and burning calories that your body needs for the process of building muscle. Always take a step back and look at the bigger picture of your fitness goals. If you’re looking to lose more fat, cardio should be considered. If you’re looking to build more muscle, limit cardio instead. It’s important to keep the balance of the two in mind because cardio promotes a healthy heart needed for lifting heavy weights.

5. Listening to the Wrong Advice

Everyone has different fitness goals, and everyone has different body types. This is crucial because everyone can easily fall into this trap and make this common mistake. Although you may look up to someone that looks good at the gym or someone online posting fitness videos, you should still find out what your body type is because yours might be different than theirs. Their exercises may not necessarily be beneficial to you. Depending on the body type you have determines the exercises and diet you should be carrying out.

7. Aiming For Perfection

It’s all about the journey than the destination. It’s important to set realistic goals for yourself and achieve them along the way. Nobody is ever perfect, and even people with amazing physiques still think they’re not perfect, even though many think so. Take your fitness journey and own it. Love the body that you have while working for the one you want.