You may be asking yourself why you’re not gaining muscle?
Listen, I get it.
I’m a former skinny guy myself.
It took me years to figure out how to change and shape my body.
I’ve tried everything from high rep body building pump work to all barbell lifts in order to get strong as fuck.
So, I may have learned a thing or two anecdotally from myself and clients I have coached both online and in person over the past 10 years.
Whether you want to build a bigger booty , build some guns for the beach, or just want an overall more toned and sexy looking body, I got you covered in this article.
Muscle Building 101
I’m not going to dive too much into this since I wrote a whole article HERE.
But, let me briefly break it down for you so you know the how’s of building muscle.
You pick up a weight and lift it.
Doing this places a stress on your muscles which creates a “muscle building signal”.
Then your brain is like “ok, these bad boys are getting in some work, let’s grow them bigger and stronger so that they can better handle this next time”
Over time your body adapts in order to better handle the stress placed on your muscles each week.
And as you continue to do this, and the more you do (progressive overload), the more muscle you will build.
Let’s Talk About That Progressive Overload:
Progressive overload is basically doing more over time so that your body has to keep adapting.
The reason for this is because your body is smart.
It does not want to change because it’s stubborn as fuck… it literally does not want to change unless it has to.
So you have to give it a reason to change.
And this is done by doing more work over time aka progressive overload.
For example, if all you do is bicep curl 20 lbs for 10 reps week after week, you’re never going to get the guns you want because your body doesn’t have to do much to change.
That’s why you have to keep progressing in order for your muscles to grow.
So, the next week you’d have to do either more reps, more weight, better technique, slower tempo, etc…
That way, your body keeps adapting to the extra work and stress and keeps growing to better handle that stress.
10 Reasons Why You’re Not Gaining Muscle
Now that you know how muscle is built, let’s dive into why you’re not gaining muscle like you want to.
Reason #1 Why You’re Not Gaining Muscle: You’re not going hard enough in your workouts
When you go into the gym you usually see one of two things…
People going through the motions with the lightest weight possible to “tone” their muscles.
Or, people picking up way too much weight and using all of the momentum in the world so they can crank up just to get one bicep curl.
Also known as ego lifting.
These are also the type of people who use weight lifting belts for everything since their core strength is non-existent but that’s another topic for another time.
The right answer is right smack dab in the middle – lifting heavy with good form.
“Heavy” is going to be relative to you. My weight is different from your weight and everyone else’s.
Listen, it should be hard. It should be challenging. You should make grunting noises and funny faces.
There is something called “mechanical tension” which has been shown to be the main driver for muscle growth.
And therefore, mechanical tension is the goal.
Basically, this is creating enough tension and fatigue in the muscle so that you recruit enough muscle fibers in order to send a strong enough signal to build muscle.
This is done by going close to failure, or more specifically, 1-4 reps shy of failure.
Failure being you can’t do anymore reps even if someone is about to throw you in front of a fire breathing dragon.
(Anyone get that game of thrones reference? No, ok…)
So, those last few reps close to failure should look like your life depends on it.
If you don’t do this, you’re not going to send a strong enough signal for your body to change which is a huge reason why you’re not gaining muscle.
Going to Failure:
You may be sitting there reading this asking, “Well, how the hell do you know what failure is?”
Well, you can always go to absolute failure on an exercise where you’re literally going until you can’t go anymore.
That would be a good start so you know what failure feels like.
Another way is to film yourself in the gym doing an exercise so you can look at your last few reps to see if they were challenging enough for going close to failure.
And as a result, you can’t bullshit yourself.
So, first and foremost, you must be lifting close to failure in order to create a muscle building signal.
And this is how muscle is built.
To Do: Make sure you’re lifting heavy enough to go close to failure and you’re trying to go up in either weight or reps over time.
Reason #2 Why You’re Not Gaining Muscle: You’re not eating enough
This is one of the most common mistakes I see people making.
On one hand, they want to gain muscle, but on the other hand, when the scale starts to spike up they go straight back into a deficit.
This constant back and forth is only hurting your gains and a big reason why you’re not gaining muscle.
Just like a car goes nowhere when it’s stuck in the mud, you’re going to be spinning your wheels in this dieting dilemma as well.
You either want to gain muscle or lose body fat… stop trying to do both.
You’ll get much better results having a separate muscle building phase and then a cutting phase later on.
That way, you can put all of your focus on gaining as much muscle as possible and then when it’s all said and done, you can lose the extra body fat in the future to reveal the new muscle you gained.
The takeaway?
Eat like you want to gain muscle.
The sooner you accept this, the better.
To build muscle, you must be in a calorie surplus to give your muscle’s resources to build.
Just like you have to give your muscles a reason to grow in the gym, you have to also give them the energy to grow outside of the gym which is where that growth happens.
Think of breaking them down in the gym, and then eating enough outside of the gym to fuel your workouts and help them grow back bigger outside of the gym.
To Do: Shoot for a 200-300 calorie surplus and embrace the journey!
Bonus Tip: Not Eating Enough Carbs
Carbs are not the enemy they’re made out to be… I promise.
The reason being is that they provide your muscles with glycogen – the fuel your muscles use to contract during exercise.
And the more glycogen you have, the harder you’ll be able to go into your workouts which means more overall growth.
So don’t be scared to eat your carbs!
You get an insane pump.
They taste amazing.
They give you a ton of energy to crush your workouts which helps you go to failure and progressive overload.
And they also help you recover between workouts so you can go hard on the next one.
They’re almost essential for gaining muscle.
Can you gain muscle without them? Yes, you can if you’re in a surplus.
But… have fun pushing hard enough in the gym without them.
Soon you’ll feel like a deflated balloon and trust me.. From personal experience it’s not fun.
Takeaway: Not Carbs = Not Gaining Muscle
Reason #3 Why You’re Not Gaining Muscle: You’re not being patient
The one drawback with gaining muscle is that it takes a long fucking time to do.
It’s not like weight loss where you can lose 10 lbs in a month.
If you’re a beginner, you may be able to build 1 lb of muscle in a month if you’re a woman and double that for a man.
So, in 6 months, that would be about 6 lbs for women and 12 lbs for men.
When you think about it, not much right?
Now, of course it’s going to vary from person to person, but the point here is that this is a long game.
Imagine where you’ll be if you set a whole year towards building muscle?
Your total physique would be transformed since muscle shapes out your body.
Therefore, you better flex your patience muscle because it’s going to take you a lot longer than that which is why I recommend being in bulk for at least 6-12 months.
The progress I’ve made has taken me 10 years of consistently working out to get to where I’m at right now.
Most influencers don’t want to admit that but it’s the truth.
Yeah, it’s a commitment but if you want to maximize your gains, you gotta embrace the journey.
The problem I see a lot is that people go back and forth too often which I talked about in point #2.
One week they’re in a surplus and they think they see a little bit of fat so they go into a cut, then they go back into a surplus when they feel lean enough again and the cycle continues.
The problem with this is that you’re never allowing your body the ability to adapt to the surplus.
So stop that shit right now.
Stick with it and trust the damn process.
Keep in mind WHY you’re doing this… to build muscle. Not to lose body fat.
You can always do that later.
Reason #4 Why You’re Not Gaining Muscle: Your too focused on “bodybuilding” movements
Any exercise will build muscle up to a certain point.
But, if you’re only performing “isolation” type exercises, you’re not going to send a strong signal and to be quite honest, it’s not very efficient either.
I don’t know about you but I’d rather work more muscles in less time then have to stay for hours to make sure every muscle is worked.
This is why compound movements are great because they work so many muscles at once and allow you to lift a shit ton of weight with them.
Then you can sprinkle in some isolation work to add more volume to muscles you want to build.
So, find which exercises feel best for your body and allow you to build the best mind to muscle connection.
Meaning, which ones allow you to feel the target muscle working the most?
Do that one. This will be different for everyone.
For example, a barbell bench press may allow me to feel my chest muscles contract, but a DB bench press may feel better for you.
So it may take some trial and error to see which ones feel best and don’t for you.
And include all different types of exercises in your program as well as different rep ranges to make sure you get the best results possible.
Rep Ranges
We know through research that you can gain muscle anywhere from 1-30 reps.
However, from a practicality standpoint that is not always the best thing.
Usually the 1-5 rep range should be reserved for strength based exercises to help you get stronger.
The reason being is these exercises like your barbell squats, deadlifts, bench presses, etc use a ton of muscles.
So, your bigger muscles tend to do the brunt of the work compared to your smaller muscles which is great for building those muscles but not so much the smaller ones.
This is where isolation work can come in handy at the end of your workouts.
Plus, the amount of volume needed to build muscle within a low rep range like 1-5 reps is a lot on your joints and central nervous system which means it can be hard to recover from and can lead to injuries and overtraining.
This is the reason why don’t only want to do 1-5 rep training.
On the opposite end, doing 15-30 high rep work can build muscle too except that it focuses a lot on muscular endurance and your brain tends to give out before you muscles do.
Which means you have to have the mental strength as well because it’s BRUTAL.
Don’t believe me? Try going to failure on a set of 25 reps…. And come back to me lol.
Therefore, that leaves us right in the middle again (see a theme?)
The best and most optimal range is that 6-12 rep range because it allows you to create mechanical tension needed by going close to failure without it being too fatiguing or stressful on your body.
That’s not to say you should never go in the 1-5 rep range or the 15-20 rep ranges… improving your strength and endurance is still very important to gaining muscle.
It’s just that if your goal is to build muscle then the most of your work should be within that 6-12 rep range.
Generally speaking you can either do it all at once and do a split looking like:
50%: 6-12 reps
25%: 1-5 reps
25%: 15-20 reps
Or, you can have phases where you do two of them like:
75%: 6-12 reps
25%: strength or endurance
Then rotate through them.
And that’s the secret sauce.
Reason #5 Why You’re Not Gaining Muscle: You’re doing too much
Instantly when you think of building muscle our minds go straight to more work.
I know mine did lol.
When I first started lifting, I would go to the gym six days a week and dare I say sometimes even 2 times a day.
Yikes.
Sometimes I would be sitting there in the gym feeling like I was going to puke.
Literally… and I thought that was how you were supposed to feel.
Can you believe that?
I thought my body’s way of rejecting something was what I was supposed to feel or else it would be pointless.
So please… if you feel light headed or like you’re going to throw up, you went way too far.
Anyways, let’s revisit how you build muscle so that you can see why more is not always better.
There is a three part equation that needs to be complete to build muscle.
First, you need to create stress which is done by lifting weights.
Again, this sends the muscle building signal.
But, for that signal to actually go through, you then need to recover back to your baseline.
Because without recovery, you’re never going to allow your body to adapt and you’re going to burn out.
This right there is where a lot of people mess up.
They never allow their body’s to recover so they’re never allowing their body to build muscle.
They workout to create a stress, don’t recover, workout again, and the cycle repeats.
Therefore, their body is never able to adapt since it’s not recovering.
So if you think more is always better, you’re going to keep beating yourself down into the ground and will never make progress.
You should try to rest at least 48 hours in between muscle groups.
But you know your body best.
If you feel too fatigued for your next training session and are always sore, then you may be doing too much for your body.
Which is why proper programming is so important when you’re trying to build muscle.
This is why I like either 3 or 4 days splits since both allow for the proper amount of volume and recovery.
Reason #6 Why You’re Not Gaining Muscle: You’re not doing enough
On the flip side, maybe you’re not doing enough which is why you’re not gaining muscle.
I know it’s crazy, right? I just got done saying that you may be doing too much.
Again, this is why proper programming is so important.
Research shows that the optimal volume in terms of sets for building muscle is going to be within that 10-20 sets per week range.
If all you’re doing is 5 sets per muscle group, then you’re not giving your body the amount of work it needs to build muscle.
So if there is a muscle group you want to build up, make sure you’re giving it enough work throughout the week.
Ideally, you split this up between 2 sessions because trying to do all sets in one training session is not going to allow you to train that muscle hard enough.
If you do 10 sets of biceps in a workout, by that 10th set you’re going to be gassed.
But, if you split it up 5 sets and 5 sets, you can go harder on those 5 sets without over fatiguing.
Reason #7 Why You’re Not Gaining Muscle: Your technique is dog sh*t
The goal is to use muscles and not momentum.
You don’t want bigger muscle taking over for the smaller muscles.
This will promote bad posture and limit how much you can lift.
So, slow down, leave your ego at the door, and feel the target muscles doing the work.
Don’t be the guy or girl who grunts and twists their back just to curl up some weight.
It’s much sexier to lift lighter and have perfect form.
I like to have my clients aim for a 2 second concentric (picking up the weight) and a 3-4 eccentric (lowering the weight).
Make sure you work on proper form first and EARN the right to add weight.
Until your form is good enough, you should not be adding weight.
Reason #8 Why You’re Not Gaining Muscle: Not getting enough sleep
Believe it or not, most of your recovery comes from sleep.
This is when your body releases certain muscles building and recovery hormones.
Also, the more sleep you get, the more energy you’ll have to push hard in the gym and recover from your workouts.
So, try your best to get around 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night.
If you struggle with this, create a sleep routine and get off your TV shows and phone before bed.
That would be a great first step!
Reason #9 Why You’re Not Gaining Muscle: Your treating your workouts like cardio
This is not a boot camp class.
It’s also not a cardio exercise to get your heart rate up.
Now, your heart rate is going to 100% go up if you’re pushing yourself hard enough from reason #1.
Another way to know if you’re lifting heavy enough is to feel like you need to rest in between sets.
But that doesn’t determine whether or not you’re gaining muscle.
You should be out of breath begging for the rest to start and looking at the clock tick wishing that it would slow down.
Aim for 2-3 minutes of rest in between your sets when focusing on building muscle.
This is important to make sure you can continue to lift an appropriate amount of weight to create the mechanical tension so that you can build muscle.
If you only take a 30 sec break, you’re not allowing your muscles to recover enough for the next set.
So, you’ll have to drop the lbs or reps which is going to drop your muscle building progress with it.
Make sure you’re resting long enough so you can recover in between sets and lift heavy!
Reason #10 Why You’re Not Gaining Muscle: You’re not eating enough protein
This one should go without saying but it’s something I see all of the time.
There is a two part equation to gaining muscle.
The first part is breaking the muscle down in the gym.
The second part is building it back up with… you guessed it… protein!
So, it’s essential to get enough protein in your diet.
Research shows that .7-1g per lb of your goal body weight is a solid enough range to do exactly that.
If you really want to get nitty gritty, eating protein every 2-3 hours to keep muscle protein synthesis spiked (your muscle building signal) can help.
But…
The most important thing is making sure at the end of the day you get in the .7-1g per lb of bodyweight.
Final Thoughts
I know this may seem like an exhaustive list of why you’re not gaining muscle.
That’s because it’s not something that is easy to do and takes time.
So keep this list as a reference to make sure you’re doing everything you need to build as much muscle as possible.
Make sure to be honest and ask yourself which, if any, of these mistakes you’re making and correct them.
-Bob
Ps. If you’re interested in 1:1 Online coaching to help you build muscle, you can apply HERE