So the story is you've been going to the gym for a few months now, and you haven't really seen any progress and you've made little to no gains. Now you're totally frustrated. Everyone around you that you workout with seems to be getting there, but not you, so what's up with that?
1. You aren't telling the truth
My first four questions to someone who claims they've steadily been going to the gym and not seeing results are, how often, for how much time, and what exactly are you doing during that time, and what are you eating? If you are concentrated on gaining muscle and having a ripped physique, going to the gym 2x a week, spending 30 minutes doing a few curls here and there, talking on the phone, maybe running around the track leisurely, and then coming home to beer and pizza is NOT you busting your a-- at the gym for months. This is you wasting your time and sabotaging your efforts to see any gains. And don't tell me you know for sure that in the last 10 weeks you had the perfect diet, if you haven't charted a single thing you've eaten in forever.
2. You have no clue what you're doing
Are you one of those people who goes in the gym and follows what someone else is doing and then has no clue what they actually did or why they did it? You need to create or follow a plan for you, and not someone else. Seriously, how are you going to know if you are making any progress when you aren't even measuring anything you are doing, you have no clue what you're lifting or what muscle groups you did or didn't work the other day, or you don't have any clue about proper form because you don't know how to correctly use the equipment you're on. You have nothing to compare your progress to. You're just going in there blind and hoping things come out in your favor. Start again. Take your starting pictures and measurements, jot down what you're doing in each workout, chart your progress, and chart what you eat. You or a potential trainer, cannot find out if there is an issue with your program if you don't even have an idea of what you're doing and where you started, and where you want to get to.
3. You have a trash diet
If you are body building, nutrition is equally as important as how much you're lifting. You will destroy your progress if you don't pay attention to what it is you are putting in your mouth. The fantasy of being able to eat like trash and just work it off, is a fantasy unless you are working out at practically Olympic levels of training, and even then at that level, most Olympians have very clean diets because why risk throwing it all away if you are say sick or injured and can't work out for a while.
4. You aren't eating enough
Your body needs energy for the work it is doing. Starving yourself or not eating enough for your energy output will put your body in a holding pattern where it will try to hold on to calories and store them on the fat side, because it thinks you're dying or is responding to your stress levels. Feed your muscles. Make sure you're getting in protein whether that's the vegan kind or lean meats. If you begin working harder, revisit your caloric needs to compensate for the new energy you will need to help build muscle.
5. You're using friggin' baby weights
If you can practically throw your weights around, you are not working hard enough. You should not be able to easily make it to your last set still full of pep. It should be a bit of a struggle. You're also wasting valuable time doing what, 12 sets to even get a little burn. Like come on, work smarter, not harder. If you want to see change, you have to challenge your muscles and the only way to do that, is to start with what you can lift, and with your program, over time, add more and more resistance or heavier weight, so that your body does not simply adapt and your muscles stop growing. This should not be a change you make the one time. Each time you are able to get through your sets with ease, start gradually increasing the weight again so that it becomes challenging again. Conversely if you are going heavy to the point where you can't even get through more than a few reps, you are going to burn out quickly or get injured.
6. You've been gone for a month
Oh have you been consistently working out? Didn't think so. Do not expect to see progress if you are not actually putting in the work. Sure life can get in the way, but you disappear for long stretches, or you're here one week, off the next, and you will not see returns. What you will be doing is practically starting over every time you go to the gym. Muscle building requires consistency and challenge and if neither of those are happening, you are wasting your time. Start a program when you know you can commit to being there and allowing progress to happen.
7. What are you actually training for
Are you at the gym to build muscle and make gains or are you there to run a marathon? You've got to make up your mind because the training for the two are two different things. A lot of people go into the gym and are all over the place. They're running 10 miles on Monday, and playing basketball on Tuesday, and doing Aerobics on Wednesday and Lifting on Thursday and Friday. It just doesn't make sense for what you say you want to achieve. You need to be focused on your body goals. NO that is not to say you can't do other things, but for muscle gain to happen, you need to be consistent with a program that is designed to actually help you accomplish that.
8. You're up until 4am all the time
You need sleep. You especially need sleep when you are trying to build a healthy set of muscles. When you skip out on this, you do not allow your body to repair itself well, or to help those muscles grow. Lack of sleep can release stress hormones which will help break down muscle as opposed to help them grow. Make sleep and rest an absolute priority for you.
9. You STILL think you can spot train
For the billionth time...you cannot spot train. Your muscles do not work independently of one another. A lot of people still go into the gym with this idea that all they want to do is train for a set of six pack abs so they do all these crunches ad nauseum and still don't have abs...well, when on earth have you seen a person with flabby arms, a saggy butt, back fat, cottage cheese thighs, AND a six pack??? Think about it. I'll wait. Make sure you are consistently working through your muscle sets in tandem so that you can actually see progress and stop trying to spot train because you'll just be spinning your wheels. And for goodness sake, do NOT skip leg day!
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