You’re training like a pro, eating like a champion and yet progress has stalled. We’ve all been there, nothing more frustrating than spinning your wheels.
When progress slows or even stalls, most trainees first re-examine their training and diet regime, looking to make changes & tweaks.
Quite often it can be what you’re doing (or not doing) outside training & nutrition that’s holding you back.
Here’s several things you can do outside the gym to reignite things and get the gainz flowing again.
1. Stay Focussed
Stop listening to every ridiculous piece of advice you hear in the gym or read on the internet. Don’t take what you hear or read as being gospel.
Sure, give it a try but don’t expect it to work just because someone said it would.
You are comprised of a number of complex and changing biological systems; muscular, skeletal, nervous, digestive to name but a few.
What works for someone else’s unique collection of systems may or may not work for yours.
1. Set A Goal
Set a specific goal and create a plan of attack.
Think of your plan as a road map and your goal as your destination.
Without a plan and a specific goal you will be without focus and can easily get lost or side tracked.
2. Believe
Have confidence in yourself and belief in what you are doing.
Getting fit/building muscle is a long & tough slog that requires immense dedication and motivation.
Half your success will come from your attitude. Believe in yourself and that you will achieve your goals and your already halfway there.
3. Get Plenty Sleep
Muscle growth takes place mostly whilst you are sleeping.
A poor sleeping pattern will only result in poor progress, your muscles need time to recuperate and grow.
Aim to get up in the morning at the same time and get a solid eight hours sleep each and every night.
4. Minimize Or Eliminate Your Alcohol Intake
Alcohol has numerous negative effects on muscle growth including: negative effect on protein synthesis, lowers testosterone levels and increases oestrogens, causes dehydration, and increases fat storage.
All that hard work in the gym and proper diet is completely wasted if your alcohol consumption is too high.
Restrict your alcohol intake to less than 10 units per week. If you’re serious about your fitness goals, don’t drink alcohol at all!
5. Take Regular Time Off The Gym
Recovery from the gym can take anyway from 48-96 hrs so if you train regularly, that means your body is in a constant state of repair.
Without a periodic break from this, you’ll quickly burn out. Aim to a full week of rest every 12 weeks.
You will probably still grow during this rest period and it will completely refresh you physically and mentally.
6. Increase Your Water Intake
One of the easiest, simplest and yet effective things you can do to maximize your muscle gains, is drink more water. Water plays so many vital roles in the body and its importance cannot be overstated. In fact, your muscles alone are made up of 70% water!
Not only will drinking more water cause your muscles to appear fuller and more vascular, but it will also increase your strength as well.
Research has shown that a mere 3-4% drop in your body’s water levels can impact muscle contractions by 10-20%! Aim to consume 0.6 ounces for every pound of bodyweight each and every day.
7. Be Consistent!
Consistency is key when it comes to fitness.
Those who make the greatest gains in size and strength are the ones who follow good diet & training habits, consistently.
Be consistent with your diet, be consistent with your training.
Conclusion
A stall in progress can’t always be remedied by a training or diet tweak.
Sometimes there other factors in your life at work that are holding you back.
Next time you find your gains have slowed or stopped all together, make sure you’re following the tips above to help keep you on track for your fitness goals.