Whether your extremely lean or a bigger guy, trying to gain lean muscle mass is not an easy thing to accomplish. If your getting frustrated from not seeing gains and seem to be stuck in the same place at the same weight, its time to reevaluate your routine and tackle the problem head on to start seeing the progress you want.  If you seem to fit the bill in most of the 5 reasons below, wipe your slate clean and start over.

1) No Patience – If you really are getting serious and are truly starting out, the first part of your training is going to yield you results that you absolutely cannot see – none the less are they extremely important in furthering your results to achieve your goal. Typically your coordination improves with each exercise, and your brain improves at communicating to your muscles to use more of your muscle fibers to lift stronger and harder. So stop looking into the mirror after a few weeks and getting angry with yourself for not seeing those bulging biceps. Be patient and stay persistent because the results will arrive.

2) Too Much Cardio – If your main goal is to have massive size and strength, cardio should not be the main factor of your workout. This doesn’t mean that you throw all cardio out the window all together, but your main priority is hitting the weight room followed by light cardio sessions. Try to hit 30-40 minutes of cardio, but you do not need to be doing any more than that.

3) Structure – For maximum strength and muscle size grown, you need to eliminate the randomness in your workouts and stick to a dedicated plan. Working out specific muscle groups with the same amount of sets and reps one week and changing it is extremely effective. For example, week one of for your chest and triceps, 3 sets of 12-15 reps, week 2: 3 sets of 10-12 reps, week 3: 3 sets 8-10 reps.

4) You’re Not Keeping Track – We’d all like to think we can remember everything but we simply just cannot. By keeping a training log to keep track of your workouts, amount of weight used, repetitions, tempo, and amount of rest will help you track your progress and help improve overall gains.

5) Cheating your Reps – By doing half or even quarter reps, your going to get half the results! Learn how to perform the full range of motion for every exercise you perform because it will truly help in the long run to maximize your gains. If it means using a lighter load, do it.

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