I’ve made a lot of mistakes when it’s come to gaining new lean muscle mass.
Granted, it’s not as easy as everyone says it is if you’re not trying to gain tons of body fat in the process.
I can remember starting an eating plan and by the end I was just fat.
Then another time I felt like I was eating so much, but when I was done I hardly gained any weight at all.
Then I’d get done with a bulk cycle and I’d actually be WEAKER than I was when I started.
What the hell?
If you’re having similar problems like I was, keep reading to the end of this post because I have 5 common reasons guys can’t gain new muscle mass.
And I’ll even explain how to fix it.
1. You’re Not Eating Enough
There’s one proven fact of body composition and it’s this…
To cause a loss or gain of body mass, you need to create an energy imbalance.
In other words, if you want to lose weight, your body needs to be in an energy deficit and if you want to gain weight (including muscle mass), your body needs to be in an energy surplus.
And the quantity of food that you eat is more important than the quality.
That’s not to say that quality doesn’t matter, because it does.
However, quantity is just more important.
The Fix: Eat More
In order to gain more muscle weight, you need to provide more fuel for your body to create new lean muscle mass.
So you need to do 2 things:
- Eat enough protein – Eat 1g of protein per 1lb of target body weight per day. Keep this amount consistent as you keep gaining weight.
- Eat a caloric surplus – Use any one of a hundred maintenance calorie calculators to calculate your maintenance calories and then add 300-500 calories. Stick with this amount for 3-4 weeks before making any adjustments. If things slow down, eat more calories.
The only exception to this is if you’re a completely untrained novice in the gym.
If you’ve never lifted weight before (or you have less than 6 months experience), you can gain lean muscle mass without eating a caloric surplus.
After that, you’re like everybody else and you simply have to eat more.
In most cases, fixing this one problem is enough to start seeing more strength increases in the gym and weight increases on the scale.
Now, in some cases you might see the scale go up, but you’re not getting stronger or seeing your lift numbers increase.
Then this might be the problem…
2. You’re Not Pushing Yourself Hard Enough in the Gym
When I attempted my first bulk, I went into it thinking I was going to become a mass monster by the end.
I started eating in a caloric surplus and I was doing this training program with a lot of high volume and the workouts seemed pretty easy.
To me, this made me think “I must be getting stronger because these workouts are so easy.”
Flash forward to 5 months later and I was looking at myself in the mirror.
I had gotten fat.
I looked back and I had actually gotten weaker than when I had started.
And when I took another 2 months to cut away all the extra body fat to reveal all the new lean muscle I had gained, I was embarrassed to learn I had only gained about 2 lbs of actual muscle.
The reason?
I didn’t push myself hard enough in the gym.
I didn’t know it at the time, but unless you can see you’re getting stronger by increasing the weight or reps or number of sets from workout to workout, you’re not building new lean muscle mass.
The Fix: Reduce Exercise Sets and Increase the Weight
Most guys fall into the trap of adopting some high reps, low weight workout that promises to give you big fluffy muscles.
Now, to an extent, this is true.
You do need more volume in order to increase muscle hypertrophy (size).
However, you need to challenge your muscles to get stronger in the main compound lifts in order to confirm that you’re pushing your body hard enough.
To do that you can follow these 2 steps:
- Reduce the number of sets – On compound lifts like bench press, squats, deadlifts, and overhead press, reduce the number of sets to 3-4 and perform 5-7 reps per set. This rep range promotes more size and strength to your muscles.
- Increase the weight when appropriate – Your goal for each workout should be to lift more than you did last time. If you reduce the number of sets and reps, you should be able to progress faster and see more strength increases sooner. Increase by 2.5lbs on upper body lifts and 5lbs on lower body lifts when you’ve reached the upper threshold of a rep range.
OK, say you’re lifting in the right rep range for your main compound lifts, but it still seems like you’re not gaining new strength.
What else might be the problem?
3. You Don’t Have Enough Exercise Volume
One thing I try to promote when it comes to strength training is minimalism.
I like the idea of going into the gym, lifting weights on the bare minimum number of exercises to create a great-looking body, and then getting out.
However, some guys make the mistake of doing too little when they workout.
They do 3 sets of barbell squats and then they call it a day.
At their next workout, they do 3 sets of bench press, and then they go home.
Now in the beginning, this might work OK…
…but eventually, your body won’t be able to progress with this kind of minimalism and without at least a little more volume, you’re gonna be repeating the same lift numbers over and over again without being able to get any stronger.
The Fix: Add Accessory Exercises or More Volume
A common fix for this problem is to make sure you’re performing some helpful accessory exercises that support your compound lifts.
For example, if you’re doing barbell bench press, you can add dumbbell bench press, dips, tricep pushdowns, or something similar to support your progress.
For deadlifts, you might want to add rack pulls, deficit deadlifts, or just some additional abdominal work to see your lifts go up.
Now, if you’re not interested in adding additional exercises to your routine, you can simply add more volume to your main compound lifts.
Don’t try to perform the extra volume at the same intensity because you’ll burn yourself out, but instead try something like this example…
On bench press day, do 3 sets of 5 for your main strength sets and then 3 sets of 10 with 70% of the weight lifted for your strength sets.
This not only adds volume to your workout, but gives you the opportunity to become better at executing the motor patterns for the bench press.
Well, let’s say your diet and your training appears to be on point, what else could be affecting your ability to gain muscle weight?
4. You’re Not Resting Enough
I can remember at one point in my college career trying to find a way to “hack” my sleep.
I was having a problem getting all the things I wanted to get done in my day and my first instinct was to simply find a way to sleep less.
(It turns out I actually had a priority and scheduling problem, but I digress.)
So I tried to cut back my sleep to about 6 hours a night.
This caused 2 things to happen:
- My focus in class went way down – It got to the point that I actually had to pop some caffeine pills before I went to lecture to make sure that I could keep my eyes open and could coherently answer questions when I was called on.
- I stopped gaining strength in the gym – All of a sudden, I wasn’t able to move up in lifts. I was plateauing across all my compound exercises, and in some cases I started to do worse than the workout before.
The Fix: Sleep More and Get Your Priorities Straight
The real thing you need to do for this problem is to sleep more, but that’s easier said than done.
That’s why I also included the phrase “get your priorities straight,” because until you can do that, you can’t get more sleep.
There are a number of things you can do to make time to workout, but the most powerful one is to schedule and prioritize your daily tasks to be absolutely sure that everything you want to get done… WILL get done.
For example, every day I make a schedule using Google Calendar for the very next day.
I estimate how long things are going to take, schedule the things that I absolutely want to get done, and fill in the gaps with everything else.
Then, when tomorrow comes, I stick to the damn schedule.
When I do this, not only am I getting enough time to workout, cook for myself, catch up on work, and even watch TV…
…but I get enough sleep too, which is the point I wanted to make.
Now, if everything else is in place and you still have a hunch that your muscle-building progress isn’t progressing as quickly as it should be, there’s one more thing that could be holding you back…
5. You’re Making Yourself too Stressed
College is one of the most awesome times in your life.
It’s important to remember that because it’s also one of the most stressful.
Now, I’m not saying that it’s actually more work than any other point in your life (because it won’t be).
What I’m saying is it SEEMS like it’s a really hard time because if you’re anything like me… it’s the first time you’ve been really challenged in terms of your work ethic, productivity, and responsibility.
For many students (maybe yourself included), it’s a weird situation to be told that these classes and assignments are going to affect how successful you are later in life, but it’s up to you to get them done.
No one is going to tell you to go.
No one is going to call your parents if you don’t show up.
It’s your responsibility. You gotta get it done.
And because of it… this can make things into a stressful hell.
Seriously, I can remember being almost in tears for the final exam of my Chem 101 class.
I ended up passing the class, but it was a fight from the beginning to the bitter end just to stay afloat.
Plus the professor mumbled the entire time to the point of everyone in the class yelling “speak up” repeatedly (screw that guy).
The Fix: Change Your Mindset and Your Routine
You have to come to terms with this brutal fact in life…
With many things, you can’t change what happens TO YOU. You can only change HOW IT AFFECTS YOU.
In other words, a lot of stressful things are going to be thrown in your way in all phases of life, but you can choose to be a victim of those things, use those things to drive you even harder, or find take time to unwind and destress.
One way to decrease stress in your life is to get control of your schedule like I mentioned in problem #4.
Make a schedule every day and include adequate time to make sure everything gets done.
Additionally, start every day with a 5-10 minute ritual of writing down things that you’re grateful for.
This simple task will seriously influence your mood for the rest of the day in a very positive way.
Also, if things get really stressful, find a quiet spot and practice some self-hypnosis to de-stress yourself.
“Self-hypnosis? Kyle, what are you smoking?”
I’m serious. It helps. Try it once and you’ll love it.
Just look up something on YouTube to get started.
Finally, make sure that you reward yourself for doing good work.
Don’t forget to take time to hang out with friends, play some video games, and binge a few TV shows.
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” … as the saying goes.
“…or makes you want to murder your roommate.”
Which Mistake Are You Making?
Now that you’ve checked out the possible mistakes you’re making trying to gain muscle weight, which of these do you think that you’re making?
Leave a comment below and tell me.
Then, I want you to tell me what you plan to do to fix it.
As soon as you write it down, you make some neural connections in your brain that let you know that you’re serious about your goal.
So do it. Now!