1) Are you consuming enough calories? For some hard gainers you may just as well insert the words ‘under eaters’. Lack of muscle mass is often due to this. Eating lots and often is the key to weight gain in bodybuilding! Consuming food every two hours is a sensible rule of thumb which will enable you to take in the required amount of calories. Make sure you snack lots on food such as: dried fruit and nuts, yoghurt, cottage cheese, cereal and milk, protein bars, fresh fruit, and protein shakes, etc
2) Are you getting enough protein? To build muscle mass fast you should aim for 1.5 grams of protein for each pound of bodyweight per day. Great sources of protein include: chicken, fish, turkey as well as dairy products. Eat lots of everything and do not be too concerned about eating low fat products, you need the calories remember. Sure you need quality calories but make your life easier and eat everything, remember you can go through a cutting up stage in a few months time. Taking whey protein shakes is another great way to get on board quality protein, purchase the big 5 pound tubs to get the most for your money.
3) Have your routines gone stale? If you can dictate out loud your session off the cuff then that likely means you have been using the same workout for a decent length of time already. If you do not stimulate your muscle in a variety of ways then it will stop growing. How about varying things around using, super sets, drop sets, partials, negatives and so on. You may just try doing the same routine only backwards and se how that change works, how about doing 10 sets consisting of 10 reps for just one exercise like the benchpress (get ready to be sore!) or even allow yourself a week off from working out and let your body totally recover. There are endless variations that are possible make sure you use them.
4) Are you getting enough down time? When was the last time you saw someone go into the gym pump iron and then walk out half a stone heavier? Never. Clearly then your muscle do their growing at home after you have pumped out. You are limiting your muscle growth if you do not allow enough time for the muscle to recuperate. If anything over compensate and give your body more than enough time to grow. Try limiting your workouts to one muscle group per week. Also decreasing the amount of sets done for each body part, try just 3-5 intense sets per bodypart per workout. Why not try them yourself, you might be pleasantly suprised by your progress!
5) Are you drinking enough water? Your progress will suffer dramatically if you aren’t drinking enough. In order to grow, your muscles need copious amounts of water. Take a bottle of water with you, leave it in the car and always sip on it.
So the initial question: ‘Why am I not getting bigger?’ as you can see, has more than one answer. Answer the list of question in this article and if you need to adjust something then start doing it today. The problem for your limited growth may well be the one point above that you do not meet. Change is required if more than one of these points is not being addressed by your bodybuilding lifestyle. Of course there are heaps of other reasons why you might not be growing but the above are the usual culprits. Now go hit the gym and gain some weight!
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