Regardless of your age and health goals, you need strength training to help you stay functional, slow aging, and deliver your best life. But what if, despite your best efforts, you’re not getting as strong as you expected? In other words, your progress is stagnant.
While well-known issues such as poor nutrition or erratic training schedules are common explanations, there are less apparent factors that can hinder strength improvements. This article looks at five unexpected ways you might be inadvertently undermining your strength training advancement.
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Neglecting Sleep Quality and Quantity
How’s your sleep? If you’re yawning and rubbing your eyes for half the morning, you’re probably neglecting one of the most important aspects of building muscle – rest and recovery. You need it for strength and hypertrophy gains! It’s during the deeper stages of sleep that your body releases growth hormones for deep muscle repair and rebuilding of the muscle fibers you tore during training.
Research published in Physiological Reports is a reminder of how important restful slumber is. It found that short-term sleep deprivation reduced muscle protein synthesis by 18%. No wonder! When you’re deprived of sleep, muscle repair and whole-body recovery are impeded. So, aim for 7-9 hours of high-quality sleep each night, and don’t spend an hour or two before bedtime scrolling through your phone. Blue light from devices blocks the release of melatonin making it harder to fall asleep.
Do you enjoy sleeping in on non-workdays? Resist the temptation! Keep a regular sleep schedule (even on weekends), establish a calming bedtime ritual, and practice smart sleep hygiene practices. Pay attention to aspects like room temperature, lighting, and noise.
Do you have the right mattress? A medium-firm mattress is best for most people. And if you’ve had your mattress for longer than a decade, it might be time for an upgrade.
Practical tip: Use sleep tracking apps or wearables to monitor your sleep patterns and make necessary adjustments to your routine.
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Overemphasizing Isolation Exercises
Isolation exercises, are movements where you work a single joint in a focused manner and build muscle, but they won’t maximize your strength gains, especially if functional strength is your goal. Relying too heavily on them makes your workouts less efficient. The secret to powering up your strength and hypertrophy gains lies in emphasizing compound exercise. These multi-joint movement exercises engage various muscle groups at once. This builds muscle and boosts strength in a way that teaches your muscles to work together in a coordinated manner.
Research has looked at the impact of compound movements versus isolation exercises on muscle activation and strength gains. Their findings? Study results are mixed. While some research finds that compound exercises boost muscle activation, others only show slight differences in muscle activation between isolation and compound exercises. But there’s still the efficiency factor. You can get more done in less time when you emphasize compound exercises.
These exercises not only activate more muscle fibers but also train your muscles to work better together. The functional strength you gain will help you out when reaching for an item overhead or squatting down to pick something up. It’s your secret to fostering more significant strength improvements over time.
Practical tip: Center your workouts around 2 or 3 compound exercises, like deadlifts, squats, and bench presses. Save isolation exercises for the end of your workout session.
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Ignoring the Impact of Chronic Stress
Are you tearing your hair from all the stress you’re dealing with? That can slow your muscle growth and strength gains. How does stress slow down strength and hypertrophy gains? Stress:
- Increase cortisol (a stress hormone that breaks down muscle tissue)
- Disrupts muscle protein synthesis.
- Elevates muscle protein breakdown.
Then there are the downstream effects of stress. When you’re stressed out and your mind is occupied with worry and “what ifs,” you don’t sleep as well. Plus, you might fight worry by eating more comfort foods high in sugar.
Chronic stress can also cause a sharp rise in cortisol, a catabolic hormone that triggers muscle breakdown. The cortisol effect makes it harder for your muscles to repair and rebuild after a strength training workout.
So, make sure you’re practicing self-care and have stress-relief practices into your life. Meditation, deep breathing exercises, and yoga are proven strategies that work for many people. Plus, exercise itself helps your mind and body better manage stress.
Practical tip: Practice mindfulness or meditation for 10-15 minutes daily to help manage stress levels and improve recovery.
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Overlooking Hydration Status
Did you know that even mild dehydration can make it harder for your muscles to contract with force? In turn, this can impact how you perform when you train. A 1.5% loss in body weight (not enough to feel thirsty) can interfere with strength and power performance.
Dehydration affects strength in several ways:
- By reducing blood flow
- By increasing core body temperature, makes exercise feel harder.
- By disrupting electrolytes and throwing off nerve signaling and muscle contractions
Make sure you’re hydrating throughout the day, not just when you’re exercising. Monitor your urine color as a marker of hydration. If you’re hydrated, your urine should be no darker than pale straw in color. If not, you have some catching up to do! As a guideline, you will likely need between 8 and 10 cups of water each day.
Practical tip: Carry a stainless-steel water bottle with you and sip throughout the day.
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Neglecting Mobility and Flexibility Work
It’s easy to have the mindset that to get strong, you need only focus on lifting heavy weights. But don’t forget that you still need good mobility and flexibility. If you have tight muscles and immobile joints, you won’t be able to maximize muscle activation when you strength train. You won’t be able to go as deep into squats, for example, and will have a higher risk of injury when you do.
Improving how mobile your hips and ankles are will help you squat deeper and with better form. You also need good shoulder mobility to successfully do exercises like overhead presses safely.
So, take an integrated approach to strength training. Lifting heavy things is only part of the equation for maximizing strength. Keep your workouts well-rounded by including mobility work and dynamic stretching. Focus on key areas such as hips, ankles, shoulders, and thoracic spine. Be sure you’re warming up with dynamic stretches and ending your workouts with static stretching.
Practical tip: Spend 10-15 minutes on mobility work before each strength training session, focusing on the joints and muscles you’ll be using in your workout.
Keep Your Workouts Balanced
If you’re intent on building strength, keep your workouts balanced. Lift heavy but also include mobility and flexibility training in the mix. Ensure that what you do outside of your strength-training nook is supporting your strength goals rather than hindering them. You can’t train with focus and intensity when you’re dehydrated, stressed out, or not sleeping enough. Tackle these issues before thinking you need an expensive strength-building supplement to boost your gains.
Get back to basics and tackle subtle saboteurs that make it harder to build strength. Then make the necessary adjustments. Soon, you’ll be on your way to breaking through strength plateaus and achieving the strength goals you thought were out of your reach.
References:
- Judelson DA, Maresh CM, Farrell MJ, Yamamoto LM, Armstrong LE, Kraemer WJ, Volek JS, Spiering BA, Casa DJ, Anderson JM. Effect of hydration state on strength, power, and resistance exercise performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2007 Oct;39(10):1817-24. doi: 10.1249/mss.0b013e3180de5f22. PMID: 17909410.
- Gatorade Sports Science Institute. “DEHYDRATION and EXERCISE-INDUCED MUSCLE DAMAGE: IMPLICATIONS for RECOVERY,” 2020. https://www.gssiweb.org/sports-science-exchange/article/dehydration-and-exercise-induced-muscle-damage-implications-for-recovery.
- Gentil, P., Fisher, J., & Steele, J. (2017). A review of the acute effects and long-term adaptations of single-and multi-joint exercises during resistance training. Sports Medicine, 47(5), 843-855.
- Dolezal BA, Neufeld EV, Boland DM, Martin JL, Cooper CB. Interrelationship between Sleep and Exercise: A Systematic Review. Adv Prev Med. 2017;2017:1364387. doi: 10.1155/2017/1364387. Epub 2017 Mar 26. Erratum in: Adv Prev Med. 2017;2017:5979510. doi: 10.1155/2017/5979510. PMID: 28458924; PMCID: PMC5385214.
Related Articles By Cathe:
5 Reasons You’re Not Making Strength Gains
What Role Does Hydration Play in Boosting Muscle Hypertrophy?
5 Biggest Myths about Female Strength Training
How Your Body Adapts to the Stress of Exercise & the Importance of Not Overtraining
Resistance Training: Getting Lagging Body Parts to Respond
Strength Training: Avoid These 5 Mistakes When Lifting Heavy
Do You Have to Lift Heavy Weights to Build Muscle?
Related Cathe Friedrich Workout DVDs:
STS Strength 90 Day Workout Program
All of Cathe’s Strength & Toning Workout DVDs
Total Body Workouts
Lower Body Workouts
Upper Body Workouts