I have often said that it’s as complicated as you want to make it. The mentality of ‘just pick up heavy stuff’ will only get you so far. As you improve, your training must evolve. Lifting is a game of diminishing returns.
When you start, you can grow muscle just by looking at a dumbbell. You will be able to lift more weight or do more reps in almost every session without having to think about it. Alas, a few months later, your progress slows down. Sometimes, it stops altogether. What do you do now? You need to become more strategic. This article aims to arm you with some knowledge to keep getting results from your training. First things first…
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To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. In my last post, I covered what to expect during your first weeks on a fat loss diet.
In this article, I aim to tackle the opposite: What can you expect in your first weeks on a muscle-building diet? I am 10lbs heavier in the picture on the right. Useful Links: July 2019 Update | One Month Update | Three Months Update
I haven’t written a “bulk update” since July 2019 because there was nothing new to add. I continued to eat, gain weight at what I considered an appropriate pace, train hard, and learn more about myself as a lifter, which helped me design better and better programs for myself overtime. No one likes to read a story that starts well and ends well, so I figured I would wait until something interesting came along. Well, what came along was a world-wide pandemic and an order from the British government to maintain social distance and stay at home as much as possible. My gym and all others in the UK closed down at the same time as many other fitness facilities across the world. I haven’t done a home workout since September 2018, when I moved from London to Portsmouth, went back to university, and joined a local commercial gym. At the time, I was only three months into serious lifting, so a pair of adjustable dumbbells still posed an adequate challenge to my strength. I am a bit further along my training career now, so, at first, working out at home felt like a problem rather than a solution. How was I going to make progress? Was I going to make progress? How much would I eat? Read on to find out what I chose to do and why. It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well. Following a maintenance phase, in the last month I have resumed high-volume training and a calorie surplus to induce hypertrophy and gain more muscle.
I feel like I am in a better mental place to welcome this process than ever before, as I find myself better equipped, from a psychological standpoint, to deal with the inevitable fat gain and the increasing number on the scale. Sharing my thoughts on the topic on Instagram, I received some great comments about the relatability of the fear of weight gain. So, in this article, I aim to provide some strategies that have helped me and might aid others in the mental struggle against the scale and the mirror. Trust the process. To complement last week’s article on fat loss, this week I aim to cover three of the most common reasons why you might be struggling to gain muscle despite your best efforts.
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Nikias TomasielloWelcome to my blog. I’m an online fitness coach with a passion for bodybuilding, fantasy, and bread. Want to work with me? Check out my services!Archives
May 2024
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