You have been going to the gym for a while. Perhaps six months, a year, or even two years. However, you are disappointed with your results because you are unable to gain the big muscles you see in the bodybuilding and fitness magazines. To properly evaluate your chances of gaining big muscles, you must be aware of the factors that determine muscle growth, and eradicate any mistakes you may be making in the gym.
Body Type
There are three body types or somatotypes as theorized by the late American psychologist and physician William Sheldon: mesomorphs, endomorphs and ectomorphs. Mesomorphs are characterized as heavyset and athletic, with the ability to gain muscle mass easily. Endomorphs tend to be rotund and gain body fat easily, but find it hard to gain lean muscle mass. Ectomorphs are lean and skinny and find it hard to gain muscle weight. Your body type is largely determined by hereditary factors. Being an endomorph or ectomorph may keep you from gaining big muscles. However, most people are a combination of the somatotypes. A combination of the right training, nutrition and lifestyle should enable you to build a lean muscular physique, if not necessarily big muscles.
Age
Your age may keep you from getting big muscles. Restorativemedicine.com says testosterone increases 10 to 20 times during puberty in males, accelerating muscle growth that training can further enhance. Testosterone levels start to decline when men hit their 40s, making it more difficult to build big muscles.
Gender
Women generally find it harder to build big muscles than men. Certified personal trainer Jill Coleman acknowledges this is because women have lower levels of testosterone. But she says that women can still build muscle through intense weight training because it releases testosterone and growth hormone, contributing to muscle growth.
Muscle Fibers
You have two types of muscle fibers. Fast twitch fibers can produce high levels of force over a short span of time, and slow twitch fibers produce small levels of force over a prolonged period. Long distance runners have a preponderance of slow twitch muscle fibers, and bodybuilders a preponderance of fast twitch muscle fibers. If your parents bequeathed you with more slow twitch muscle fibers than fast twitch, you will find it harder to build big muscles.
Gym Mistakes
Doing too many single-joint isolation exercises will keep you from gaining big muscles. You build big muscles by focusing on multi-joint compound exercises like the bench press, heavy rows, dead-lifts, overhead press and squats. If you go to the gym too often and spend hours doing set after set, you will fail in your bid to build big muscles. Your body will be unable to recover from these frequent marathon workouts, which may actually cause you to lose muscle. You build muscle with short, intense workouts using heavy weights. Go to the gym no more than three times per week. Do no more than three working sets per exercise of eight to 12 reps each, with no more than 90 seconds' rest between sets.
Nutrition
You will not build big muscles without an appropriate nutrition plan. You need more than the usual three square meals a day to build muscle. Eat every three hours, or have five to six small meals a day. To build muscle you have to eat more calories than you need for metabolism and daily activities. Eat plenty of complex carbohydrates like oatmeal, brown rice, sweet potatoes, yams and whole grain foods. Eat protein with each meal, from sources like lean cuts of meat, poultry, dairy products and whole eggs--or beans, nuts and legumes if you are a vegetarian.
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