If You Have Been Working Out And Cannot Gain Muscle Mass Anymore – This Might Help
If you’ve been lifting for a long time you have no doubt experienced some relatively easy gains followed by some disheartening plateaus. If you are struggling and cannot gain muscle mass like you used to, you aren’t alone. These types of plateaus don’t just happen with trying to build muscle either, it seems that many who have a decent amount of weight to lose find that what was once working well is now ineffective, or at least inefficient and needs to be intensified.
Unless you have put on a fair amount of muscle in the past, chances are that you can get sufficient results from training in a similar manner to what you are accustomed. Your body’s frame is really only intended to put on a certain amount of muscle. The amount of muscle mass we need versus how much muscle mass we would like is probably quite a bit different. Having said that though, there are ways gain more muscle despite a recent lack of gains.
How To Gain Muscle Mass (at first)
I’ve always loved basketball and as far as sports goes, that was my focus. I needed to be lean, quick and strong enough to post up the guards I played against.
When I was a freshman I was 5’10” (still am) and weighed in at a lean 155lbs. Yes, I was quick, but that was a little too small for my taste. By my Junior year I was up to 175lbs — still lean and quick enough to be an efficient point guard.
After basketball season ended I decided I wanted to play football my senior year, after-all I knew I wasn’t going to get a chance to play in college so I might as well experience it. That is when I started focusing my workout routines on gaining muscle.
By try-outs/practice I was up to 195lbs and feeling great. I literally gained 20 pounds of mostly lean muscle mass. Football season came and left and I settled in at about 10lbs lighter.
In the end, I lifted hard & I ate a ton. Then entire point to all of that is that when you are young, or at least first beginning to really train, you will be able to gain lean muscle relatively easily. You will get spoiled and start to think how easy it is… and then you’ll stop.
If after all of your efforts in the gym and you have never experienced a major muscle growth and you simply cannot gain muscle, then you are simply doing something wrong.
I Cannot Gain Muscle – Now What?
In reality, I’m not going to be able to lift and eat just like I did in high school and expect to put on another 20lbs of pure muscle — not that I need or even want to. However, after getting lean and losing the body fat I’d like, it would be nice to put on some muscle again.
I train for probably 3 months out of the year where I focus on gaining muscle mass, another 2-3 months out of the year (depending on my year) leaning out and the rest of the time maintaining. I like to break my year up to focus on different aspects, much like how the Visual Impact Muscle Building workout is designed to do.
One factor that can make it difficult to continue to add muscle once you’ve gone through your initial gain is that your body has adapted. If you cannot gain muscle your body is probably no longer in an anabolic state and you have reached your body’s “natural” size and genetic limit … or have you?
Anabolic Again Muscle Building Protocol
Brad Pilon (author of Eat Stop Eat) & John Barban (author of Adonis Effect) have teamed up to put together a course that focuses purely on jump-starting your body again.
What Anabolic Again is:
“16 Week muscle building workout system designed for advanced weight lifters to overcome plateaus in both muscle size and strength gains. ”
If you want to check it out ====> Anabolic Again
Here is a quick checklist from their site to determine if this is a good course for you to consider:
- You haven’t gained muscle in years
- You always use the same weights during your workouts
- You’ve tried dozens of different workouts over the years, and while they were fun and unique, none of them really got you over the hump.
- You have tried every supplement you could think of, from creatine to beta-alanine, nothing works the way it used to.
- High Protein diets do nothing more than give you gas.
- Eating massive amounts of Calories only makes you fat.
- You are ready to grow again.
When Beginners Can’t Gain Muscle
Anabolic Again is a very highly focused system targeted for experienced weight lifters only. If you are just beginning to workout then this really is not the answer for you. If you are just beginning and are finding that you cannot gain muscle there are many things that you could be doing wrong.
You have to remember that when you are lifting to build muscle you have to really break down the muscle tissues and then allow sufficient rest for your body to repair and rebuild.
While doing this though, you don’t want to work a muscle group more than once a week – you may have heard the saying “you build muscle at home, not in the gym” and it’s true — you need to rest.
You cannot gain muscle by working out only, you have to eat right and recover.
Kelly-Fitness Overhaul
April 4, 2011 @ 7:10 pm
I checked out Anabolic Again a few months ago. It is a good read for sure. Anything that Brad puts out is going to be backed by a bunch of scientific evidence. He really knocked it out of the park with Eat-Stop-Eat, so anything that he puts out, I buy!
-Kelly
Sam- Look Like An Athlete
April 8, 2011 @ 2:28 pm
Trying to overcome a plateau can be difficult and discouraging when you see your gains stop.
Some things I recommend:
1. Go heavier
2. Take an entire week off from workouts
3. Switch the rep ranges every couple of months (as you mentioned above)
In the last 6 months I have put on 20 pounds of muscle and my fat percentage has not increased following the third approach. Like you I do 8-10 reps per set for 2 months, then switch to 4-5 reps for a couple of months and down to 3 reps for a few weeks.
This approach shocks my system to avoid plateaus. However it is important to use proper rest. It is easy to overtrain and that is what you have to watch out for. So I have to pay attention to my body just so I take a day off here and there when I feel it is necessary.
-Sam
Kevin - Fitness B&W
April 9, 2011 @ 8:15 am
Solid advice Sam! Thanks for stopping by… Adding 20 pounds of muscle in 6 months without increased body fat is awesome!
Dave - Not Your Average Fitness Tips
April 10, 2011 @ 4:21 pm
I think it’s an important point you made that your body is only intended for so much muscle mass. I see too many people just trying to get as big as possible when their frame would actually look much better with a little less mass. It’s funny how easy muscle building seems in your teens and early twenties.
Michael @ somebodylied.com
April 2, 2012 @ 3:40 pm
I personally think that newbies should milk the shit out of beginner strength programs. There exists a high correlation between strength and muscle mass. Once these gains slow down and the trainee becomes an intermediate a split workout should come into play as they find it hard to recover from total body workouts. It is all about being humble and I can admit myself that I have gone back to a beginner strength program as I am not as strong as I thought. Overcoming plateaus I feel should mainly come from the overload principle not doing these “muscle confusing” techniques that many gurus advocate. I do feel that once you hit genuine plateaus you have probably just reached your muscle potential.