Contrary to popular beliefs, working out and dieting aren’t the only things that help you achieve the body that you want, especially if you’re trying to build muscles. Having said that, those aren’t the only factors that slow down your progress either. It’s not just because you’re training too little or eating the wrong foods, sometimes there are daily activities that affect your progress too.
1. You’re Not Getting Enough Sleep
Aside from not being able to train at your best, lack of sleep inhibits your body’s ability to store glycogen, increases your body’s level of cortisol, and create damage in your growth hormones. All of these affect muscle growth.
2. Your Body Needs More Protein
Protein helps build and repair muscle tissues because of its high amino acid content. So if you’re not eating food rich in protein, even if you work out a lot, it would be difficult for your muscles to grow further because your body lacks the nutrient that it needs.
3. You Drink Alcohol A Lot
One or two drink is fine; but booze every day definitely isn’t. That’s because the antioxidants that’s supposed to help your body grow muscles becomes busy metabolizing the booze in your body instead. Therefore, your body’s muscle growing becomes impeded.
4. You’re Doing Too Much Cardio
Cardio is great, especially for weight loss because it burns fat. However, if you’re target is to build muscles, it could actually have an opposite effect to your goal because too much cardio will burn not just your fats but as well as your muscles. This will result to you becoming lean instead of bulky.
5. You’re Training Too Much
At first, you can’t wait to get to the gym every day and pack on muscles. But if you work out every day while trying to up your intensity level, you’ll find yourself bored so you end up skipping one too many times or getting injured which leaves you with no choice but to put your workout on hold for treatment and recuperation. Although chiropractic care is an effective way to address these types of injury, it still would have been better to avoid injury at all cost. Remember that your body needs at least 2 days off in every 7 days of exercising to allow your body to heal, rebuild itself stronger and bigger.
6. You’re Too Scared To Eat Carbs
Yes, carbs is the enemy of those who are trying to lose weight, especially if you’re getting it from unhealthy sources like pizza, white bread, or candy. However, when it comes to muscle building, know that healthy carbs like oatmeal, beans, and fruits gives you the energy to hit those weights really hard.
7. You’re Dehydrated
When trying to work on a goal body, people tend to focus a lot on their workout routine and diet plan, so much that they miss out on hydration. You need to keep yourself hydrated not only because it helps you from feeling overheated but also because drinking water helps regain energy and because your body needs liquid to avoid your muscles from drying out which can affect your muscle growth.
8. You Do The Same Things Over And Over
This is usually the main cause why people hit plateau when trying to gain muscle mass. At first, yes, you have to follow a routine in order to get bigger muscles, however when you’re already near your goal you have to change things up. You have to work your muscles at different angles, volumes, and intensity because otherwise your body become too used to your current training that it stops growing because it is no longer challenged.
9. You’ve Been Stressed Out Lately
When you’re stressed out, whether it’s because of work, family problem, financial issues or romantic relationship your body’s cortisol level increases. When this happens, the muscle proteins break down and prevent your body’s progress on building muscle. Although chiropractic care is known for treating back pain and other musculoskeletal issues, know that chiropractors in Singapore can also help you manage stress by addressing the cause of it whether it’s physical, emotional or mental stress without resorting to medication which is often prescribed by other health care provider to deal with stress.
10. You Only Train Muscles You Can Show Off
If you're only training because you want to have 6 pack abs or biceps or any area of your body that you want to particularly flaunt, it’s not gonna work. Not only that this can cause injury-causing imbalances but this isn’t a way to increase your overall body mass too.