|
Why
does muscle growth slow down or stop?
You know what it’s like you train hard for
months and make some progress in muscle size and strength, but after a while
the results seem to taper off and gains seem to be slow or non-existent!
But why?
There can be a number of reasons why muscle
gains slow. Firstly let’s look into each possibility a little further to
assess the most likely causes.
Muscle size is directly related to muscle strength. The stronger a muscle
becomes the bigger that muscle will grow, this is one of the reasons why
many bodybuilders train for strength in the off season as any gain in
strength will mean a gain in muscle mass. Equally any loss in strength will
often mean a loss in muscle mass, although this will be a small loss and
usually goes unnoticed, the problem is if you are in a catabolic state (body
breaking down more protein than being deposited) then you cannot be in an
anabolic state (building up) which means you WON’T be gaining muscle. The
fact is big muscles can only be built if the body is in an almost constant
state of anabolism.
But if you are training hard then surely muscle gains should be constant,
right? Wrong!
Let’s go through some reasons why strength and thus muscle gains slow:
-
Muscle recovery has not occurred before the next
workout
-
Not enough quality nutrition
-
Not enough energy stores of carbohydrates in
muscles
-
Incorrect training / incorrect application of
training
-
Illness or injury
-
Emotional stress
1. Muscle Recovery
Muscle recovery is one of the most overlooked principles in muscle building,
it is also one of the most important because if a muscle is not fully
recovered then you cannot possibly make further muscle gains no matter how
scientific the training. Muscles can only grow bigger AFTER they have fully
recovered. The reason for this is because muscles actually break down when
they are worked hard, protein filaments within the muscle fiber shatter
under the stress of the workload. After a workout the muscles are a little
smaller than before the training – yes, when we train muscles do seem larger
but this is caused from the increased blood in and around the working
muscle. The blood is needed to remove waste products from energy metabolism
(Lactic Acid) as well as fragments from the breakdown of protein. – Now all
lost protein within the cells must be replaced and this occurs during rest.
ONLY AFTER full recovery do our muscles become larger through an
over-compensation process where the cells take in more protein than the
pre-workout state. It does this because if the muscle ever goes through that
same level of stress again there will be more protein available to break
down, at this stage the muscle has adapted to the stress. The result of
muscles containing more protein is a greater volume of fluid within the
cells, thus muscles are bigger.
Muscle growth slows when we don’t give them enough time to fully recover. It
is also important to state here that the more muscle you build the longer
recovery takes, simply because you will be training harder. When I was at my
peak of strength in squatting I could only train on squats once every ten
days unless I reduced the poundage of course!
2. Not Enough Nutrition
The most important principle in muscle building is nutrition. Many top
bodybuilders have stated that at least half the battle in their bodybuilding
career is learning about their individual nutritional needs and making sure
the body is nourished with the right amounts to support muscular growth. The
timing when providing certain nutrients has also got to be right or these
nutrients may be used for many other processes rather than protein
deposition.
After training has stimulated muscles to grow all the cells must gain
sufficient nutrients as well as energy for the chemical reactions necessary
for growth to occur. If the correct nutrients are not present the muscles
cannot deposit the extra protein for recovery and growth. Think about this
analogy, a new house cannot possibly be built properly if there are not
enough bricks available. Only when the builders receive enough bricks can
the house grow into full development!
The same diet
Many weight trainers stick to the same diet and believe that just because
they are eating a healthy diet with good quality protein their muscle will
keep growing after each successful workout. The problems here are that the
body requires high quality protein and extra energy constantly throughout
the day for all basic bodily needs as well as for muscular growth. The fact
is that once you build some muscle you must supply extra nutrition (mostly
protein and energy) in order to grow additional muscle mass. Think about
those huge bodybuilders who consume over 6000 calories per day they never
started bodybuilding by consuming that amount of nutrition they simply
worked up to it as their body and strength levels grew. Additional growth
will require additional nutrients, if you think about the house analogy
again; a bigger house will always need more bricks – nutrients are the
bricks!
Protein Usage
As just stated some protein will be used to maintain muscle that has already
been built from previous workouts, protein will also be needed to maintain
all other tissues and other types of muscle, such as smooth muscle and
cardiac muscle, also our body needs proteins to make antibodies and
thousands of enzymes everyday to help with numerous chemical reactions
including those reactions that actually build the muscle. If the same diet
is used over months or even years the protein intake must be used for many
other chemical reactions because these reactions are more important for
survival than building muscle to look good, thus there won’t be enough
protein left for further muscular growth. Sticking to the same diet simply
means the muscles can only recover back to the pre-workout state without any
additional growth. One trick is to adjust the diet by consuming more quality
protein and calories every time you increase your strength levels by about
5%.
Nutritional Rules
However it’s not as simple as eating more food there are “nutritional rules”
that need to be applied in order to maximize the effects of your nutritional
intake. For maximum effects around 30 grams of high quality protein must be
supplied every 3 hours in order to keep the body’s amino acid pool topped up
full. This doesn’t include time asleep, although many top bodybuilders
actually set an alarm during the night and have a protein meal ready to eat.
This may help some people who through work/responsibility issues find it
hard to eat enough meals during the day; however this tactic won’t be
necessary if the amino acid pool is kept high during the day as there will
be sufficient protein available for muscles to grow during sleep.
It’s not an easy answer to simply eat more protein either because the body
also needs the correct nutritional and energy supply to help along the
chemical reactions required for muscle cells to lay down additional protein.
For fast muscular growth the body also needs to be supplied with quality
nutrients at regular intervals throughout the day and in the correct
quantity in order to limit possible fat storage. There needs to be a fine
balancing act to maximize growth from the training but also to limit fat
weight gains.
Will Brink’s excellent muscle building nutrition e-book covers many of the
calculations involved for each individual as well as numerous other
nutritional details beyond the scope of these articles,
click here to view
muscle building nutrition.
But how do I obtain so much protein without
feeling stuffed?
You may believe that constantly increasing protein and energy intake may
mean eating more food than your stomach can handle but there are some tricks
to use so you don’t need to keep eating expensive meats or fish. It’s
possible to obtain high quality protein sources by combining cheap vegetable
food sources together within a meal. Some vegetable sources are only classed
as poor quality protein because they lack one or two of the nine essential
amino acids in its structure. However if these foods are combined with
another vegetable food source that contains the missing essential amino
acids in high amounts then the protein can be transformed into a high
quality source if eaten at the same meal.
Click here to learn about combining plant sources to make high quality
protein!!!
3. Limited Energy (carb) stores in muscles
Weight training is anaerobic exercise which means muscles will burn
carbohydrates for energy during the exercise. The muscle cells can only
store a limited amount of this energy source, and if these levels are lower
than normal it will affect the strength levels on all exercises. Even though
the muscles will probably not be smaller because the problem is energy
related and not loss of protein, it may result in a poor workout and reduce
the chance of stimulating muscular growth. Low carb levels will render any
workout ineffective for stimulation of muscle growth, one reason why you
should never do aerobic exercise before weights. Stretching and lighter sets
of the same exercise should be enough to warm up a muscle. Sufficient energy
must be present in cells in order to generate enough intensity of effort
during the exercise. The intensity level is what actually causes stimulation
of growth. If you are only just maintaining the muscle previously built then
muscle growth will slow.
4. Incorrect training
Incorrect training is a common reason why results start to diminish. In fact
it’s more often incorrect application of the training rather than simply
doing the wrong exercise. Intensity of effort is the key to stimulating
muscular growth, which means you need to train the muscles harder at each
workout, this is necessary because the muscles always adapt to the last
level of stress by becoming stronger and bigger. If you can perform ten
repetitions but last session only managed eight before reaching failure then
your muscle have grown and become stronger, you train for strength it’s as
simple as that!
Many experts believe that too much high intensity training will eventually
stop growth and I agree, but it is not the process of constantly training
harder which is the problem, it is more to do with the issue of recovery. As
a muscle is trained harder it always takes longer to recover, remember the
statement above “the more physical stress a muscle receives the more it is
broken down!”
This is the reason why many top coaches make athletes train in cycles, the
body gets chance to recover fully at the end of each cycle. The human body
tends to adapt better in cycles and this type of training usually brings
constant results over the whole course of the cycle. Strength and muscle
gains are a classic example of this phenomenon. When Power lifters start a
new cycle they attempt to push the level of intensity up at a gradual rate
until they peak just in time for a competition. Many rest for a whole week
or more after peaking.
5. Illness and Injury
Having an illness such as the common cold will often cause the muscles to
weaken and become slightly smaller. The reason is because protein turnover
is directed more towards creating antibodies for the defence against the
illness. Defending against a virus is more important for survival than
building muscle thus it is inevitable that our body will take some protein
from muscle and use it for the manufacture of antibodies. It must be
stressed that this is not a direct process; it’s a case that antibodies are
created from the amino acids that circulate in the blood pool, thus the body
tends to break down muscle protein to keep the pool maintained. The net
result is less protein within muscle cells giving a weakened state, and of
course slightly smaller muscles.
An injury can have a similar effect on muscle loss. The protein turnover is
increased and directed more towards repairing the injury with the net effect
of muscle protein being broken down to maintain the bloods amino acid pool.
6. Emotional Stress
Relationship problems, family issues and many other forms of emotional
stress can cause an indirect loss of muscle. Stress of this type can result
in a loss of appetite and/or force the body to use up more energy than the
regular diet provides, energy used up by constant worrying or the way many
people cannot settle when something is on their mind. Ok this may seem like
very slight energy usage, indeed it is, but because it is usually a constant
process over days it adds up to a lot of calories. In cases of emotional
stress any gradual loss in muscle will result from insufficient nutritional
intake as discussed above.
In conclusion to the issues of slow muscle growth I believe the most
important factor from the list is adequate nutrition, after all it’s
sometimes possible to gain muscle even if we lose out on some sleep but if
nutrition is down then the body must use proteins from our stores.
Building muscle mass is so much more complicated than just visiting the gym
a few times each week, it’s a science, and if you want to maintain constant
muscular growth you must use scientific principles, not only the correct
principles in training but also the use of correct nutritional needs for
each individual. If you’re training hard then you’re half-way there and no
reason why you should not be building muscle at a constant rate, if muscle
growth slows then you'll need to recalculate and adjust the diet
accordingly.
Good Luck & never give up!
Check out Will Brink's Muscle Building Nutrition covers all topics important
for muscle growth
Muscle Growth Articles
Over-training Causes no Results!
Rest
wisely & Gain More Muscle!
Choose correct Supplements
Truth
About BodyBuilding Myths
Ideas for
getting Big Growth
Muscle Building made easy
Six
steps to boost muscle gains
Gain muscle
weight easily without pills or supplements
How much muscle can I gain when I start training?
Tips when
results are slow
Supplements are they necessary for huge growth
Constant
muscular growth requires a Positive Nitrogen Balance
Best supplement to take boost energy
Basic muscle building routines
helped me gain ten pounds of muscle in three months
Does
supplement creatine help to increase size of muscles
Strength training strategies to build size
Body Works Articles
Body Types which one
are you?
Muscle soreness
after exercising
Myths
about ab muscles
Weight training & everyday life
Boxing to Develop Extreme Fitness
What's your
genetic potential for gaining muscle
What
are side effects of taking steroid pills
Fat Loss
Help
Benefits of Online Fitness Coaching
Three
different energy systems work to contract muscle during exercise
Complete muscle
recovery produces fast muscular growth
What
is delayed onset muscle soreness or doms its causes best for growth
What's your
best repetition range for building muscle
Why
does muscle growth slow down or stop?
Muscle growth
occurs when cells adapt for survival
Health Tips
for Exercising, Dieting & Lifestyle Changes
7
Reasons Why Your Muscles Stop Growing
Muscle
contraction and growth explained in very simple terms
Feeling faint light headed after weights
All
information on this site is not intended as medical or professional advice.
We urge all our web site visitors to seek medical / professional advice
before beginning any weight training program, exercise, or any diet. In no
event shall bigmusclesfast.com be liable for any damages, whatsoever
including direct, indirect, or consequential. Please read our disclaimer.
|
