Muscle and Strength Building Mistakes That Delayed me Getting Ripped

If I had a pound for the volume of muscle and strength-building mistakes I’ve made over the years that delayed me getting ripped, I’d have been retired at 22. You’re going to learn from a 42-year-old who’s wasted years in the gym. My muscle-building mistakes that delayed me getting lean and ripped are considerable. If you fully digest and apply these learnings, you’ll get the body you want considerably quicker than I did.

Countless Hours of Muscle and Strength Mistakes That Delayed Getting Ripped

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. How many times have you wished you could go back and make a different decision? Entire books and films have been created dreaming of this very notion. In fact, if this genre is up your street, read Replay by Ken Grimwood. You can thank me later.

Like many people across the world, I wasted hours spinning my wheels at this fitness game, making many muscle and strength mistakes. I was constantly Googling how to look like my favourite celebrity (mostly Stallone), get chiselled, and get ripped to the bone. On multiple occasions, I was convinced I had found the perfect programme to get me the lean and ripped body I wanted. I wish I could say this phase lasted briefly.

It lasted many years, and I made numerous muscle and strength mistakes that delayed me getting ripped and strong. I desperately wanted to look like Stallone in rocky 4 and achieve my own movie star body.

Avoiding Strength Building Mistakes: A Chat with My 17-Year-Old Self

Indulge my fantasy: 42-year-old me has managed to get my hands on the DeLorean from Back to the Future, travelled back to 1999, and met my 17-year-old counterpart. I’ve managed to intercept him walking to the local gym, ready for a 3-hour chest-only workout.

My gym of ‘99 was conveniently equipped with a run-down cafeteria, and I’ve managed to convince my young self I’m his long-lost cousin, Dwayne Johnson. I mention that I’ve nothing but his best gym gains interests at heart and want to see him getting lean, strong, and ripped.

So there I am, sitting opposite my younger self, him with a rip-off state-of-the-art ‘Cell Tech’ express delivery creatine shake (one of many supplements he swears by), and me with a triple vodka. How best to open dialogue with the cocky-looking, wrinkle-free youth in front of me?

How Muscle and Strength is Built, Not Through Stupid Programmes

Stop following stupid muscle-building programmes and pick one or two good, reputable sources for hardgainers like you. In this iron game, if muscle and strength were rewarded with marathon training sessions, intensity, and a do-or-die attitude, there’d be no need for Marvel’s Hulk CGI. I’d have fit the bill nicely. Muscle and strength building is simple (but hard work).

Unfortunately, for those of us with a large work ethic and the enthusiasm of a teenage boy in a Hooters restaurant, this comes as bad news. Those constant hours working out in excess of what’s required quite literally waste hours in the gym, and a large chunk of my muscle-building mistakes came from this act alone.

What Is Muscle and Strength Building?

Muscle building, or hypertrophy, occurs when you stress your muscles through resistance training, causing microscopic damage to muscle fibres. During the repair process, the body increases the size and strength of these fibres to adapt to the stress. This adaptation is facilitated by adequate protein/calorie intake, sufficient rest, and progressive overload – gradually increasing the intensity of your workouts over time. So, consistently challenging your muscles, providing them with proper nutrition and rest, is key to building muscle and strength.

Progressive Overload for Muscle and Strength Gains

Research supports the idea that progressive overload is crucial for sustained muscle growth. Studies like those by Brad Schoenfeld, one of the leading experts in hypertrophy, show that gradually increasing weights or resistance over time is one of the most effective ways to elicit muscle growth. Without this, muscles adapt to the current stress and fail to grow further.

After digesting the above, we can simplify:

•   Stress the muscle beyond a point that it’s used to
•   Rest and feed the body calories/protein
•   Rinse and repeat, and ensure that you’re training harder/doing more than last time. This is all there is to muscle and strength building.

Progressive overload is a fundamental principle for gaining muscle mass. Without continually increasing the demands placed on the muscles, they will cease to grow.”
Source: Brad Schoenfeld, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Muscle Growth Mistakes and Recovery Limits

Some additional muscle-building nuances to take note of are as follows:

•   Your body only has a finite amount of recovery ability.
•   Volume and intensity are the main drivers of muscle and strength growth. Generally speaking, if you’re going balls to the wall, you don’t need much to elicit a muscle-building adaptation.

If your intensity is lower, you need to put in more volume. You can’t have your cake and eat it. That said, there’s no need for a 3-hour chest session… ever.

Recovery is finite, and once you exceed your body’s ability to recover, you’re in a state of diminishing returns where more volume will not equate to more growth.”
Source: Dr. Mike Israetel, Renaissance Periodization.

Muscle Recovery Techniques for Building Muscle and Strength

Recovery is just as important as the workout itself. Neglecting recovery can lead to muscle-building mistakes, overtraining, and a stall in strength gains. Here are some recovery techniques you can implement:

1.  Active Recovery: Engage in light activities like walking, yoga, or swimming. These help keep the blood flowing, reducing soreness and promoting recovery without overloading the body.
2.  Stretching and Foam Rolling: Incorporating regular stretching into your routine and using a foam roller can aid in muscle recovery. Studies show that foam rolling reduces muscle soreness and improves flexibility, both essential for consistent gains.
3.  Cold Therapy: Athletes often use ice baths or cold showers for recovery. Research is mixed, but some studies suggest that cold therapy can reduce inflammation, speed up recovery, and improve subsequent performance.

“Foam rolling and active recovery have been shown to reduce muscle soreness and improve performance in subsequent workouts.”
Source: Pearcey, G. E., et al., Journal of Sports Medicine.

Following the Routines of the Genetically Elite: A Strength Building Error

I’d ask 1999 Matt, now he knows the above facts, why he’s following Mr Olympia bodybuilding workouts or the latest celebrity 3-hour-a-day workout. These workouts are for genetically elite individuals or actors with all the time in the world. 95% of this demographic is also drug-assisted.

This changes the game and dramatically speeds up muscle growth and recovery. For the average person, these workouts do nothing more than drive you to the ground, wreck your immune system, and deplete your body of its primary muscle-building hormone – testosterone.

I would have laboured my point by giving young Matt a copy of one of the best drug-free hard-gaining bodybuilding books out there: Beyond Brawn by Stuart McRobert. It’s a fantastic book and was purchasable in 1999. There wouldn’t be a Grey’s Sports Almanac (those of you familiar with Back to the Future Part 2) paradox in sight!

Tracking Progress in Muscle and Strength Building:A Critical Mistake

For the last 10 years, I’ve used Apple Notes to track my gym progress. I generally weight train 3 days a week and rarely change my programme.

Too busy to work out? I’m working on a great article that covers my life and fitting in workouts. I will attach the link here once completed.

I rest the same amount of time between sets and exercises (thanks to my fitness watch), and record my weight lifted, sets, and reps. It’s nothing sophisticated (some apps are advanced these days), but it works for me.

Progress is the name of the game.

What gets measured gets improved upon.

Young Matt didn’t track his progress and progress stalled, thus so did his muscle building efforts. He should have started tracking his progress (albeit with a notepad in 1999) and so should you. 

The Importance of Tracking for Muscle and Strength Gains

Young Matt didn’t track his progress, and progress stalled. Thus, so did his muscle-building efforts. He should have started tracking his progress (albeit with a notepad in 1999), and so should you.

To this day, I run a simple A-B-A weight training workout. I’m not the most sophisticated when it comes to tracking my workouts. My Garmin takes care of the endurance stuff. For strength training, I record everything in my phone notes and attempt to beat last time during every set, keeping my rest time consistent. I don’t always achieve this, but I do my best.

“Individuals who track their progress experience significantly better hypertrophy compared to those who do not.”
Source: McClure, S., et al., Journal of Applied Physiology.

Genetics and Strength Gains: 9/10 of Success in Getting Ripped

17-year-old Matt had been training with Damien for a year. They met in the gym and hit it off with a mutual love of working out, newfound nightclubs, and pretty females. Matt and Damien followed exactly the same workout and ate the same diet. Clearly, both were making muscle and strength-building mistakes. Damien still grew muscle far quicker than 17-year-old Matt. Damien looked like he had been weight training for five years. Matt didn’t.

Matt and Damien were, however, at similar levels of strength. Damien looked much stronger, and Matt was lean but didn’t have enough muscle to be classed as ripped. We’re still good friends (Damien’s nickname is Hulk, enough said) and have both taken DNA tests over the last few years.

Damien has received a great genetic hand, and his genetic strengths are geared towards muscle building. He is genetically elite. I score low on this front and very high on endurance genetics (makes sense, I’ve always loved hybrid training). Damien is a pure power machine.

Providing you’re progressing in the gym, eating well, and resting, your results will be optimal for you. It’s easy to keep changing what you’re doing for faster progress, but this will derail progress and severely delay your goals, as they did with 17-year-old Matt.

A Poor Workout Structure For Muscle and Strength

17-year-old Matt’s gym routine looked like he was preparing to step on stage at the 1999 Mr Olympia. Here’s a taste of it. No notes, unfortunately, as I didn’t track my workouts. Each workout lasted around two hours, and I recall them to a tee.

Monday and Thursday – Back, biceps, abs (all 8-12 reps, 30 for abs)

• Deadlift 4 sets
• Lat pulldown 4 sets
• Dumbbell row 4 sets
• Lat pulldown close grip 4 sets
• T-bar row 4 sets
• Barbell curls 4 sets
• Dumbbell curls 4 sets
• Cable bicep curls 4 sets
• Around six ab exercises, 4 sets each – it’s how I thought abs were made.

Tuesday and Friday – Chest, shoulders, and triceps (all 8-12 reps)

• Barbell bench press 4 sets
• Dumbbell flyes 4 sets
• Incline dumbbell chest press 4 sets
• Cable crossovers 4 sets
• Machine chest press 4 sets
• Dumbbell shoulder press 4 sets
• Machine shoulder press 4 sets
• Lateral raises 4 sets
• Front raises 4 sets
• Rear flyes 4 sets
• Upright rows 4 sets
• Dumbbell tricep extension 4 sets
• Cable pushdowns 4 sets

Wednesday and Saturday – Legs (all 8-12 reps)

• Squat 4 sets
• Lunges 4 sets
• Leg extension 4 sets
• Hamstring curl 4 sets
• Leg press 4 sets
• Standing calf raises
• Seated calf raises

Blinded by Ignorance

You see, 17-year-old Matt was blinded by Muscle & Fitness/Flex magazine and Arnold’s Encyclopaedia of Modern Bodybuilding. He was emulating the workouts of drug-fuelled, genetically elite bodybuilders. Matt should have been reading Stuart McRobert’s Beyond Brawn instead.

He was convinced that he needed to pound every muscle into oblivion and work them from every angle to appear carved out of granite. I wasn’t. Excluding the fact my workout routine was terrible, I was:

• Continually exhausted and certainly not muscle-building in line with work ethic
• Constantly having sore throats and the sniffles
• Hating the gym and lifting the same weights as the previous year, even though I did train reasonably hard
• Not understanding human physiology. Muscles get bigger or smaller. Appearing like you’re made from granite is from losing body fat. Hitting the muscles from every angle is a silly notion.
• Lacking diligence to calorie intake or protein – a hindrance to getting ripped
• Using terrible form

A Far Superior Strength and Muscle-Building Routine

In addition to diet and rest focus (more on that below), I would have progressed exponentially quicker with the below workout. Focusing on form, volume, and intensity, and adding weight to the bar each time. There are probably too many t-shirt muscle/filler exercises in here, but to convince 17-year-old Matt, the workout would need to look semi-appealing.

The workout is perfectly balanced at improving strength in compound exercises, weighted calisthenics workouts (more on bodyweight vs weights here) and isolation exercises to really work that mind-muscle connection

3 times a week in an A-B-A format (all 6-10 range of reps)

Workout A

• Incline dumbbell or barbell chest press 3 sets
• Parallel bar dips (weighted if possible) 3 sets
• Flyes or cable crossovers 3 sets
• Barbell/machine shoulder press 3 sets
• Lateral raises 3 sets (12-15 reps for these)
• Tricep pushdown 3 sets
• Hanging leg raises – 3 sets to failure

Workout B

• Pull-ups (graduating to weighted) 3 sets
• Dumbbell/machine row 3 sets
• Barbell bicep curl 3 sets
• Squat or leg press 3 sets
• Hamstring curls 3 sets
• Calf raises 3 sets (12-15 for these)
• Weighted cable crunch (12-15 for these)

the higher rep movements are often done rest-pause style.

you’ll also notice I haven’t included the barbell bench press or deadlift within the routine. Check the link to read more into this.

How to Implement Progressive Overload in Strength and Muscle Building

17-year-old Matt would have made tremendous strength and muscle gains. Most of my current strength (some is listed in my About Me section) came from my 30s onwards. I’ve even made progress with this workout twice a week (A-B) and working very intensely.

Research by Brad Schoenfeld supports the notion that progressive overload is key to building muscle and strength. By continuously challenging the muscles with heavier weights or higher intensity, the body is forced to adapt, resulting in hypertrophy. This principle is essential for anyone serious about getting ripped.

The muscle-building mistakes would have been severely cut short, and even though there is less volume/exercises in the mix, I would have achieved my lean and ripped goal far quicker – years quicker.

Lifting Weights That Are Too Heavy: A Common Muscle and Strength Mistake

17-year-old Matt lifted weights that were too heavy for him. His form was lousy, and the muscle was rarely optimally worked. 17-year-old Matt would add even more weight if a pretty girl was looking in his direction!

Muscle and Strength Training is All About Control

Muscles don’t know weight. They know volume and intensity. You may be benching 40kg dumbbells and hoisting the weight up and down whilst every other muscle, except your chest, gets worked. I promise you this: the man next to you with 30kg and taking 2 seconds to lift, pause, and lower the weight is working his chest harder than you and will subsequently elicit better growth.

A good rule of thumb is that you should be able to stop the weight at any point during your set. No need for super slow reps (this can work and is great for injury prevention/joint issues, but I personally find it tedious). Always control your rep speed, and you’ll rarely be acquainted with an injury.

17-year-old Matt had an ego, which fed his muscle-building mistakes. 42-year-old Matt attempts to leave his at the door. Your gains will thank you if you reciprocate.

Be a slave to good form, and your strength will come quicker, as opposed to stalling with a ridiculous weight – or worse, injuring yourself. You won’t be training at all with a dislocated shoulder, ruptured pec, or torn bicep. Lean and ripped goals can quickly turn into incapacitated and miserable, all because of ego.

Super slow training for a while can certainly teach you lifting discipline. It’s a staple I go back to for a month or two when my ego starts lifting.

How Nutrition Supports Muscle Growth

17-year-old Matt didn’t really have a grasp on nutrition for muscle building. I’d make sporadic tracking attempts, but generally, my consistency was similar to tracking my workouts – non-existent. Please bear in mind that I’m not referencing fat loss in this article (check out my other posts for that) but rather eating for muscle gain.

In order to feed the body the nutrients it requires to grow and repair following a hard workout, you need to ensure that you’re feeding it adequate calories and protein.

“Consuming 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day maximises muscle protein synthesis.”
Source: Alan Aragon, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

A Simple Calorie Calculation for Muscle and Strength Gains

Being lean and ripped is all down to diet. To build muscle and strength, you need to ensure you’re eating enough calories and protein to fuel growth and recovery.

Here’s a simple way to calculate your daily calorie intake:

• Multiply your bodyweight in lbs by 17 (16 if less active); that’s your daily calorie intake.
• Eat 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day to ensure sufficient protein for muscle repair.
• Split fats and carbs as you see fit.
• Allow for treats, but generally try to eat wholesome, nutrient-dense foods like lean meats, fish, eggs, and legumes.
• Don’t sweat meal frequency – the so-called anabolic window has been debunked.
• Track your weight gain versus body fat once a week to ensure muscle gain without excessive fat.

By following this approach, you’ll achieve the muscle and strength gains you’re after while minimising fat accumulation. If 18-year-old Matt had followed this plan, he would have seen muscle-building progress far quicker.

Muscle and Strength Supplements: Creatine and Protein Are All You Need

How else can your body create additional muscle without the building blocks of good nutrition? Not eating adequately for muscle gain will result in none. Even a well-structured programme will deliver nothing, and you’ve probably made it close to pole position in muscle-building mistakes.

Now, let’s talk supplements.

For the last 25 years, there has been endless hype around supplements with miracle promises of rapid muscle gains or fat burning. But here’s the truth: creatine and protein powder are the only proven muscle-building supplements that matter.

Creatine

• Creatine is one of the few scientifically-backed supplements that consistently shows positive results in strength and muscle gains. Creatine works by increasing the body’s ability to produce energy during high-intensity workouts, allowing for better performance and quicker recovery.
• Cheap, simple creatine monohydrate is all you need – no fancy blends or advanced versions. It’s also incredibly safe, backed by decades of research.

Protein Powder

• Protein powder is simply a convenient replacement for natural food sources of protein. It can help you hit your daily protein goals when you’re in a rush, but it has no magical properties beyond that. Whether it’s whey protein or plant-based alternatives, it’s simply a substitute for getting protein from food.
• A balanced diet rich in lean meat, fish, dairy, eggs, and legumes is usually sufficient. If you can meet your protein needs through food, you don’t need to rely on supplements.

That’s it. The rest? Pretty much snake oil. Fat burners, BCAAs, testosterone boosters, and other gimmicky powders barely have any proven effect. If 17-year-old Matt had known this, he would have saved hundreds of pounds, which could have gone towards better things (maybe even hand sanitiser investments in 2020!).

“Creatine is one of the most well-researched supplements, consistently showing improvements in muscle mass and performance.”
Source: Kreider, R. B., et al., Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

Eliminate the Perma-Cut Mode: Build Muscle and Strength Consistently

Another behaviour to throw into the muscle-building mistakes bucket is related to the above. 17-year-old Matt would panic when his abs would disappear a little following a mammoth three-week bulking crusade. The yin behaviour to the yang would be a huge calorie deficit to counteract the bulk, and as a result, he’d lose great muscle-building opportunities. This wasted years of muscle-building progress and is known as perma-cutting. This can keep you in skinny fat territory for years.

As mentioned above, muscle building requires a slight calorie surplus. It’s inevitable that some fat gain occurs, albeit kept to a minimum. There’s no need for a huge calorie bulk, and the body can only create a finite amount of muscle at a time. Any additional calories will be laid down as fat. 17-year-old Matt would be on a ‘bulk’ and eat for 10 instead of practising this slight surplus. Please don’t enter permanent cut mode – it’s hard to leave. Overtraining and underrating is also a recipe to nuke your testosterone levels.

Muscle Is a Byproduct of Strength: Avoid These Strength-Building Mistakes

17-year-old Matt prioritised wasted time at the gym and excessive volume. Long workouts can’t demand a high enough intensity to elicit muscle and strength growth, and subconsciously there’s always gas kept in the tank to take one through another two hours.

Current research suggests that 10-20 sets per muscle group per week are adequate. More near 10 if intensity is maximised, nearer 20 if a few reps are left in the tank at a set’s conclusion. Putting this into perspective, 17-year-old Matt was completing 40 sets of chest exercises per week. I’d estimate that most of those sets were junk volume.

For optimal hypertrophy, 10-20 sets per muscle group per week, depending on intensity, will maximise muscle growth.”
Source: Dr. Eric Helms, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

How Strength Training and Muscle Gains Go Hand in Hand

The overwhelming issue at hand is I didn’t make adequate strength gains and was more obsessed with magically getting strong, lean, and ripped via angles training. Let’s delve a little deeper to articulate my point.

Powerlifters only engage in around 3-4 exercises. Yes, they generally carry more body fat than bodybuilders. But if they leaned up, they would appear ripped and very well-developed. Why? Because they’re exceptionally strong. The same goes for Olympic weightlifters. Who do you think will possess the bigger chest: the person who bench presses 150kg (330lb) for reps or the individual who completes three hours of chest workouts and always plateaus at a 60kg (132lb) bench press? Does the person who completes weighted pull-ups with 30kg (66lb) strapped around their waist possess large biceps? You bet.

If you engage in a handful of basic exercises (as per the workout above) and get very strong, your muscles will grow – and that includes your abs. The muscles become revealed with low body fat, and there’s not an iota you can do to change insertions or muscle shape – that’s genetics.

Muscles get bigger on your frame, and that’s the end of the story. Focus on increasing strength across a few exercises (with perfect form) that stress the whole body, an adequate diet, sufficient rest, and adaptation opportunity, and you’ll get lean and ripped far quicker without muscle-building mistakes in sight. Teenagers really struggle with this one, and I see many cases of junk volume frequently.

Lack of Intensity and Recovery: Failing to Build Muscle and Strength

1999 Matt wasn’t inflicted with the modern-day distraction of social media or even a fully-fledged internet phone back in the day. He could play Snake on his indestructible Nokia 3310, be impressed with a new ringtone, and that was about it. Nevertheless, his intensity wasn’t where it needed to be, purely down to the excessive volume.

I’d tell Matt to work hard and train to technical failure on every set, meaning the set ceases only when good form can’t be maintained. These days, at age 42, I’m going to war when I enter the gym. My work ethic is high, and even with several endurance events under my belt, 45 minutes to an hour, and I’m toast. Any more is junk volume.

More Rest and Recovery: The Key to Strength Gains

Linked with intensity above, I would have advised Matt to train no more than 3-4 days in the gym (4 for him, perhaps; 3 for me listing these days). He would have trained hard for an hour and enjoyed days off pursuing other interests, keeping an eye on energy intake/sleep to aid recovery and muscle growth. This is a well-coined phrase but worthy of a reminder:

Muscles grow back bigger and stronger whilst resting, following damaging them with brief hard trauma.

Convincing a teenager who loved training to back off would perhaps be an impossible endeavour, but 17-year-old Matt would have cured one of what’s now a multitude of muscle-building mistakes.

Cardio Is Good, Too Much Isn’t Conducive to Getting Ripped

Nowadays, I take more of a hybrid athlete approach. I train for strength and endurance. You can’t serve both masters, and one does take a hit at the expense of the other. This suits me fine at age 42. 1999 Matt wanted muscle. 42 year old Matt wants to looks great but also chase a more complete fitness package.

I’d advise him that 30 minutes of moderate cardio/ or some HIIT (don’t be fussy on what type of HIIT) a few times a week would aid the process and be beneficial to the heart (not that such facts would inspire an 18-year-old youth with the immortality in front of him).

1999 Matt had been known to add hours and hours of intense cardio into a summer cut routine and lose strength rapidly. Cutting back on a Mars Bar a day would have been sufficient, and those gains would have been preserved. Muscle loss was plentiful, and exhaustion perpetual.

Closing Thoughts on Muscle and Strength Building Mistakes That Delayed Me Getting Ripped

We’re about wrapped up. The head spinner is that if I hadn’t made these mistakes, I’d never be writing about them. Youth really is wasted on the young. If you’re under 25 and reading this, I promise you it’s all true.

I hope this ‘muscle and strength building mistakes that stopped me getting ripped’ article has been of value to you. My aim is always to provide value in exchange for your time.

If you start applying the above, I promise you’ll double your muscle-building efforts and reach your goal quicker. It’s very hard for people to believe that the time saving workouts above will yield far better results than marathon workouts. Please do try and learn this fact early on!

I’d be eternally grateful for an email subscription. You can find the email subscription link at various locations within my website. Lots more is coming soon, and you’ll be notified when I publish a new article. I aim to produce 3 a week.

Thanks so much for reading,

Chat soon,

Matt