Cori (00:00):
Welcome to the Redefining Strength Podcast, everything you need to succeed on your health and fitness journey, even the stuff you don't want to hear. I'm working so hard, why am I not building muscle? I want to go over seven common mistakes we often make when we're trying to focus a little bit more on that muscle building side of recomp, and these are more often something I think we encounter when we especially come out of a fat loss phase because it's very hard to let go of the habits that work to get us to one goal, but often those habits are truly what are holding us back from seeing the next outcome we want to have happen. So I want to talk about the mistakes that are holding you back and some of the hard mindsets we have to break. So number one, you don't have a plan.

(00:42):
You repeat consistently to build and you're not tracking progress. So we often think if I'm working hard, I'm going to be moving forward and hard work feels like a lot of control and you think, well, if my workouts are hard and I'm constantly sore, how can I not be building muscle? But you're not necessarily actually progressing. Moves a soreness is potentially an indicator of a lack of recovery. It also just means you're doing a lot of new things, but true progression comes from doing a little bit more with things you did than the week before. But if you're constantly randomly stringing together workouts, if you think about it, if you do pull-ups on Monday, one one week, and then on Thursday the next week, you could feel like they're really hard that Thursday the next week and end up doing fewer pull-ups because you've had all these other things before that fatigue you versus if you did them every single Monday after the same thing, you would adapt and you'd be able to see, okay, am I progressing in terms of being able to now add weight to my pull-ups, or can I do another rep or can I slow down the tempo?

(01:34):
So you want to keep things on specific days of the week and keep those workouts consistent. Now over time, you can cycle progressions. You can use the same but different to change up moves, right? It's not just about adding weights, but you want to have that clear progression you repeat weekly so that you can see that build. And I recommend a lot of diversity movement over that week because if you have the same squat three times in that week, you're going to compare to each day in the week. But again, there's other things that have fatigued you, but you want that clear plan so that you can try and do one more rep the next week so you can try and do a little bit more weight the next week so you can feel that extra control or even see a point of diminishing returns where maybe you do have to change something else up, but if you don't have that consistent progression, that plan that you're repeating, you can't really see what's working.

(02:16):
Same thing goes for your macros, and I'm going to take a slight tangent here because I think it's an important point. A lot of times we get stressed out where we can't necessarily track something perfectly right? It's a casserole, it's a soup. We go to this restaurant, even those things even imperfectly logged because we don't know exactly how that person cooked that restaurant meal consistently logged. We can track progress if you always go on a Friday night to one place, and this is why I do when I want to drive towards a specific muscle building goal or even fat law school, I'll go to similar or the same places over and over again because I know if I'm repeating those things in those macros, even if it's slightly off, I'm doing it consistently so then I can adjust being like, okay, I'm not seeing progress.

(02:58):
What can I tweak to make sure that I am right? So it's about that consistency sometimes over even perfection that really helps us gather data to then adjust off of what our lifestyle actually looks like. But you need that clear plan in place to follow, otherwise you can't make changes. And I even want to bring up the consistency in macros. So while that's very important with fat loss, it's also very important if you want to focus on gaining muscle without gaining fat because if we're not consistently eating enough and we have our macros all over the place and they're up and down and we're not following one ratio, we're not going to see the results that we want or we won't know what is or isn't working. And if you want to be able to make accurate changes and not just be frustrated that you're working really hard, that clear plan in place that you could progress, super important and then tracking what you're doing with it because that data gives us the feedback to know are we actually even implementing the plan as it's supposed to be laid out?

(03:44):
Because a lot of times we think, okay, I'll pick this from this plan and pick this from this plan. Okay, well, the systems have to all work together. Number two, mistake number two, you're only focusing on lifting more and not onus other forms of progression in your workouts. While weights are a sort of cheat code we'll say to building muscle, right? They help you push that progression. The more weight you can handle, the stronger you're going to be, the more muscle hypertrophy or muscle gains you're going to see. However, the more advanced an exercise you are, the more you've probably over the years really pushed loads. So you can't necessarily just keep adding weight into infinity. It's why people aren't lifting 10,000 pounds despite training consistently. Maybe some people are, but I'm not personally, and so I've seen my numbers go up over the years as I've even strengthened different things.

(04:29):
But there is a point where you sort of hit that ceiling and that's where you have to think, okay, well can I do one more rep with a specific load? Can I add in a different type of resistance with this? So do bands and barbells or bands and dumbbells? Can I do a different tempo? Can I change the posture position? There's so many other ways to create that progression, and that's even why over every three weeks, I like to switch up the types of moves being included, even if it's the same training techniques, but we even want to consider training techniques, which I think are so often overlooked as ways to push progression, whether it's using cluster sets or ten seven three one design or rest pause technique. There's so many different ways we can really push our training to that next level. And while again, weights are so amazing, those different types of tensions, the different types of movements that we include to use all three drivers or muscle growth are really key.

(05:18):
So just make sure that you are making yourself uncomfortable in some way and pushing that challenge. Again, it goes even back to the thing of like, well, do I use higher reps or lower reps? Lighter weights are heavyweights. Every weight should be heavy, and you should probably use a diversity of rep ranges, be it lower reps to work on the maximal strength so you can lift more and those higher reps to recruit more muscle fibers takes a muscle closer to fatigue. Work on that strength, endurance, they all have value because they also all impact different things. Improving our recovery. And don't be afraid to use unilateral moves or moves that make you check your ego and actually have to go down in loads, adding more instability, doing the one-sided moves. Those are great ways where yes, you can't go as heavy, so a lot of times we feel more uncomfortable, they challenge our, they're awkward, but those are also the things that we need to drive growth because they even improve potentially your mobility or your stability, which then can help you lift more on the heavy bilateral lifts that you really love.

(06:10):
Mistake number three is not prioritizing your training correctly. And I bring this up because if you're an endurance athlete, you maybe have prioritized your long distance runs or rides or whatever else first in your day, and that is really key when you're driving towards a race and you want a pr, but if you think about it, you are prioritizing what's most valuable to you at that point. If gaining muscle is most valuable, you need to prioritize that strength work over putting cardio first During fat loss phases, we might even find that sometimes cardio does go earlier in the day we lift later if that's really how our schedule works, although I'll even argue cardio potentially after there is very valuable as well. But you want to put first what you want to prioritize. So if you're trying to build muscle, you need to put that strength work first.

(06:52):
Also, you need to think about how frequently you're working stubborn areas, so we're not putting the priorities in the right place sometimes and we're thinking, oh, well I'll do that, bro. Split body parts, split work the area once a week. That might not be enough. Training frequency for your specifically stubborn areas. Now this might mean doing less volume per workout, but hitting them more consistently and in prioritizing things that way. The frequency over how much volume you're doing per workout, you're actually going to be fresher for a lot of those reps and sets you do, because if you think about it, if you're doing 10 moves in one day, that 10th move is definitely not getting the same priority that the first move did. However, if you're only doing two or three moves, but you're doing three workouts for it and you have that 24 hours even between a lot of those to recover, you're going to find that potentially you're a lot fresher for more of the moves and then you're going to be able to push a little bit harder to get the results that you want because if it challenges you, it will change you.

(07:41):
So you need to be able to challenge yourself to that true a hundred percent intensity or as close as you can as frequently as you can, and then even consider how you're ordering moves in your workout. If you're doing more of an anterior posterior split or full body workout, but you're putting an area of your body that you really want to be fresh for at the end, that's not going to have your full attention, your full output, even if you haven't worked that muscle, your energy, your mental focus is just not going to be there. So make sure that you are prioritizing things and putting them first in your workout that you really want to work, even if sometimes that means you're doing an isolation move to really target a stubborn muscle group. I will use preti moves where I really do the quad isolation, so like leg extension type stuff before I even do my squats.

(08:21):
And yes, then I have to check my ego with squats, but because I really want to focus on just my quads and really working them, I will put that first or your glutes might be an example of that or your back, whatever it is for you. You might put some of those pre fatigue or that preti work in there, especially when you are really trying to build stubborn muscle groups. Number four, you're not eating enough. This is especially hard coming out of a fat loss phase because we might be eating more than we were. We might feel full, but you have to retrain your body to eat more. And then the hardest part too is that as you're eating more and as you're building more, you're going to have to eat more on top of that. So this can be a really challenging part because we always think about hunger cues, right?

(08:59):
That's what we're taught. Listen to your hunger cues. Well, if you're trying to build muscle, you have to eat more, so you're going to potentially have to eat when you don't have the appetite. And this can be finding more calorically dense foods. It's also about how you adjust your macros. But eating more is the most underutilized technique and the thing that I see so often lacking when people are trying to build muscle where they're training really hard and they think just because they're not hungry, they're eating enough when they're not, you got to eat more. And then you're even going to see the scale go up as you build lean muscle because it's not just the muscle that's burning more calories, it's all the other metabolic processes involved that are increasing the caloric needs that you have. So eat more to build. So often we're training really hard, but the fueling is just not there, and this is not an excuse to go pick out on whatever you want and overeat to a horrible extent, right?

(09:44):
It's still only a small surplus that we really need, but that surplus, again, has to be increased over time because it's no longer often a surplus as we've built. So just be conscious of that and really consider your macros there. That really helps. It's not just a free for all. Go eat whatever you want. The quality of your fueling does have impact. Mistake number five is we actually don't focus on hydration enough, but being hydrated is super key to building lean muscle. It not only helps protect your joints, but if you're dehydrated, you can see declines in your performance. And building lean muscle is all about performance. If you are not able to push hard in the gym and you should be pushing so hard that mentally, sometimes you get burned out from pushing so hard and need a deload week just for that. But if you're not able to push hard, you're not going to see progress because something feeling hard, and again, this goes back to even having that plan doesn't mean you're actually moving forward.

(10:32):
It could just be that you're really depleted and you're dehydrated even. So what feels like a really big effort isn't actually driving that progression the way that you need. So focus on that hydration just because it does lubricate joints, it transports nutrients and oxygen to the muscles, which is key, right? It helps with muscle protein synthesis. So as we're increasing our protein and focusing on building muscle, it helps with that. We want to also use it because it's going to help in that recovery and that repair, but again, it will also help make sure that we are able to perform to the extent that we want because we can see a lack of hydration or dehydration impact our recovery as well as our ability to get that full output. Then number six, you are not making time for recovery. I know we always focus on how can I fuel in a different way?

(11:16):
How can I train harder? But you can only train as hard as you can recover from. If you're not sleeping well, you're not going to see those muscle gains. If you're not taking time to improve your mobility and stability with prehab work, you are not going to be able to lift as heavy and you're going to see injuries and aches and pains start to pop up. The harder you want to push in the gym, the more you need to focus on that recovery. And that's not just about time off, although you will need it, and mentally you should even need it if you're pushing really hard, but your body needs that time to repair and rebuild if you're constantly feeling sore, if you're starting to dread your training, if you're seeing your numbers decline in your plan, it might be time for a deload week.

(11:50):
You might need to look at your recovery in terms of your hydration, your right, are you fueling in the right way? You also want to take a look at your sleep. If your sleep is starting to be impacted in any negative way, you're over training, which is what we usually think, but I would actually argue we're under recovering. What can we do to improve that sleep? How can we improve our mobility work? How can we make sure that we're doing things to de-stress? Because stress is even going to have a negative impact on our muscle gains, and that might mean including a few more walks. It might mean spreading out our workouts or doing a little bit lower volume for a little bit. It could be taking a full deload week where we even go to body weight movements and focus on that mind body connection just for a little break.

(12:25):
And I know it's hard to slow down, but ultimately, if we proactively slow down, we end up speeding up a lot. And mistake number seven, you are letting the scale sabotage you. It is really hard to see that number go up if you've just especially come out of a fat loss phase, but it has to, and it's going to initially simply because you're going to no longer be in a calorie deficit, you're going to start to store glycogen and water weight, and you need these things. And if you're pushing hard in your workouts from being sore, you're going to see the scale jump even potentially on days, but you're going to need to eat more. And once you've filled those glycogen stores, it's not like they just keep overfilling, right? So you're going to see that initial jump on the scale if you're coming out of a deficit, and this is where too, you don't necessarily go to a surplus.

(13:05):
You start to increase up to maintenance. And just even in doing that, you're giving your body sort of a surplus and that it's more than it was getting before. So it has to learn how to handle that. So that small increase up is really key, but you need to see that scale go up because you're no longer going to be depleted, and that's when going to fuel your training. And then as the scale goes up, the hardest part is that we see that and we slightly freak out, and we might then go back into a deficit. We might add in more cardio. We might think, stop there, where we need to even keep increasing calories further because we're going to be burning more. And so this is where you do have to see, is my hunger going up? How is my sleep doing? How am I progressing in terms of my performance in the gym?

(13:40):
And that's where that plan comes back in, into place, right? But we have to then use even tracking as a means to know that we're doing the right things. This is where if you're still tracking your macros, it can be so key versus just eating whatever you want. Having that plan in place, we can see the progress in these other ways and know that we're doing the right things to trust in it too. And then take measurements, take pictures. Again, set other performance goals potentially to help you push, but don't let the scale sabotage you because it's going to increase, but it shouldn't just keep going up really, really fast. If that is, then you're making an excuse for something else. And look at your fueling, look at your consistency with your macros. Look at how you're pushing in the gym, but don't let it sabotage you because it's going to need to go up potentially to help you gain muscle. And ultimately, look, I'd love to hear if you're making any of these mistakes, what was eye opening for you? What you're really doubling down on if you are focused on building that lean muscle.