10 Reasons You are Not Getting Stronger

Are you worried about enhancing your body strength? Do your workout practices not help you to get stronger and healthier? This can happen if you are not doing the muscle-building exercise properly. So, don’t get worried. In this article, first, we will discuss the possible reasons for not getting stronger and then mention the solutions.

1. What’s the Role of Stronger Muscles in Overall Health?

Muscles are the soft and important tissues in the body that are attached to the bones, blood vessels, and internal organs. They control the movement of your body and provide stability. But interestingly, the role of muscles is not limited to your movement and stability. You might be surprised to know that muscles are also responsible for digestion, maintaining the heartbeat, and breathing. Stronger muscles provide you with good overall functioning and a healthy lifestyle. There are a number of factors that can contribute to muscle weakness and affect muscle health and the quality of your life. The top 10 reasons that can hinder your muscle growth are described below.

2. 10 Reasons Why you are Not Getting Stronger

2.1. Improper Diet

Taking protein-rich food helps you to get stronger muscles. What is the role of protein in muscle strength? An important factor in gaining muscle mass is the right strength-building exercise. However, your strength is affected by taking an improper diet.

What is an improper diet? A diet that is high in fat, sugar, or salt and low in fiber is termed an improper diet. Consuming such foods that lack essential minerals, vitamins, and protein with your workouts can decrease or hinder muscle strength. So, you have to maintain a good balance of macronutrients (fat, carbohydrates, and protein) in your diet.

2.2. Overtraining

Being passionate about your goals is a good thing. However, overtraining can cause less muscle strength and more fatigue. People who are passionate to become stronger overnight, tend to overtrain. They lack proper guidance and overtraining can leave them with damaged muscles.

How can overtraining stop you from getting stronger? Your muscles need proper time to repair the damage that can happen during intense and continuous training sessions. Also, studies show that overtraining can increase the cortisol level (stress hormone) in your body. Increased levels of cortisol can stop the release of growth hormones that are responsible for muscle growth. As a result, your improperly intense workouts can lead you to low muscle growth instead of muscle strength.

2.3. Inadequate Sleep

Inadequate sleep patterns are another reason for hindered muscle strength. Good sleep is directly related to muscle strength. People who are not following a healthy sleeping schedule may have less strength and poor muscle mass. Now you are thinking about how sleep can make you stronger. So, sleep has a crucial role in your body’s strength. The muscle-building protein is released when you are sleeping and resting. That’s why proper nutrition, adequate sleep, and recovery time are non-negotiable prerequisites.

2.4. Poor Recovery Schedule

Martial art practitioners and bodybuilders sometimes feel that the time they spend on training is the most significant and they choose to spend most of the time in training. The fact is that your body needs to rest more after doing strength-building training or intense exercise.

To replenish your energy and maintain healthy hormone levels, it is important to get the required amount of high-quality sleep. As we discussed above, sleep works as a catalyst in the repair of damaged tissues which ultimately stimulates the recovery process. Every night you need to sleep 7-9 hours to fulfill your goals (of getting stronger) and promote overall health. People who are not following healthy sleep schedules with proper nutrition and exercise are more susceptible to having decreased muscle mass and strength.

2.5. Prioritizing Wrong Exercise Patterns

Another reason for not getting stronger is practicing the right exercises with the wrong weights or vice versa. You have to learn the lesson from the famous saying;

“if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.”
(Ronnie Coleman)

It means that if you do not perform progressive exercises, then you will not get muscle strength. You have to follow progressive overload training to get your desired results. Are you intrigued about progressive overload training? Progressive overload means increasing the weight in gradual order so your muscle can gradually train to lift more weight. For example, If you lift 250 lbs today, you need to try 260 at your next training session or after two training sessions. The bottom line is the progressive and gradual increase in training intensity and weight. 

2.6. Lack of Good Mentorship

Good mentors help you to train in the right direction and in turn, you will get more strength in less time. People who lack good supervision face difficulty in getting desired results even after heavy workouts. 

2.7. Prioritizing Quantity Over Quality

Unfortunately, our culture glorifies overindulgence. When it comes to training, many of us believe that more is better. If going to the gym 7 times a week is more beneficial, then, by the same logic, working out non-stop until you can hardly hold a dumbbell must be even better. It’s important to understand this fundamental principle. Fatigue restricts a person’s genuine level of fitness.

In other words, keeping oneself fatigued and beaten down from heavy workouts and weightlifting is as bad as it can get.

Instead, be sure to plan your workouts from a fitness expert and incorporate recovery time to give your body a well-earned break.

2.8. Having No Goals and Motivation

Setting a goal when you first begin your strength-building journey is essential for success. But occasionally, martial art practitioners have the propensity to commit some errors. They do this by establishing unrealistic goals that leave them beaten up and gassed out.

Setting realistic and smart goals can help you stay motivated.

2.9. Lack of Efficiency in the Muscle-Building Exercises

Ultimately, in order to complete the exercise as effectively as possible and maximize your strength, you need efficient training.

It means, improving your techniques, increasing hip and ankle mobility, or employing extra workouts to address limitations or power leaks. Remember that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Simply doing more of the same exercise may not be enough to solve the problem.

2.10. Expecting Instant Results from Exercises

We are often obsessed with quick results. If you expect and anticipate too much too soon, you will lose motivation.

3. What are the Signs of a Lack of Fitness?

Stronger muscles are responsible for better health and fitness. When your muscles are not getting stronger despite all the hard training. It ultimately affects your fitness and strength. The signs that show poor fitness are:

• Facing difficulty in completing daily tasks
• Lack of energy
• Fatigue

4. How to Get Stronger and Gain Muscle Mass?

Doing smart exercises under expert supervision is the best way to gain muscle mass. Focus on bodyweight exercises like push-ups, squats, and lunges when it comes to building muscles and strength. Other options for muscle-strengthening workouts include dumbbells, resistance bands, machines, and push-ups.

However, as we discussed while doing exercise, proper sleep, and diet are also key factors that contribute to your strength. So, you have to maintain the balance between training and the recovery period to get a stronger and healthier body.

5. Exercises that Can Help to Get Stronger

Exercise can get you stronger and healthier. So, you may wonder how to select the right exercises that can make you stronger. We will guide you by enlisting the top strength-building exercises. Some major exercises that can make you stronger by increasing muscle mass are listed below:

• Push-ups
• Squats
• Deadlifts
• Walking lungs
• Overhead triceps extension
• Planks
• Glute Bridges
• Pull-ups
• Biceps curls
• Boat pose

6. Diseases that Cause Muscle Weakness

People with stronger muscles enjoy good health than others. Because weak muscles can become the cause of various diseases and affect the quality of life and disturb your goals. Some common diseases that can affect the muscles and make them weaker are:

• Polymyalgia rheumatica
• Fibromyalgia
• Dystonia
• Repetitive strain injuries
• Sprains
• Inflammatory joint disease ( Rheumatoid arthritis)
• Polymyositis
• Marie’s tooth disease
• Multiple sclerosis
• ALS ( Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)
• Peripheral neuropathy
• Spinal muscular atrophy
• Muscular dystrophy
• Myopathy
• Myositis

Beware of these diseases and if you apprehend any symptoms of these diseases, immediately contact your Doctor.

7. FAQs

7.1. What Makes You Stronger Physically?

Exercise and a healthy diet are the key factors that build endurance, physical strength, and flexibility. However, you should choose a smart exercise routine followed by a recovery period. It will address your issues and help you achieve your desired gaining goals.  

7.2. How Long Does it Take to Get Stronger?

The longer and more frequently you exercise with proper recovery time, the stronger your muscles get bigger. The majority of beginners will observe considerable muscle growth within eight weeks, whereas healthier lifters may notice improvements in three to four weeks.

7.3. At what Age Do you Stop Building Muscle Mass?

However, It is challenging to gain muscular mass once muscle development has peaked. Women in their 60s and men in their 70s  are unable to gain muscle mass.

7.4. What are the Benefits of Strength Activities?

Strengthening exercise enhances the performance of everyday tasks with more efficiency. It can also slow down the aging process by slowing down the deterioration rate of bone and muscles.

8. Conclusion

Consistency, effort, patience, and perseverance while doing strength-building exercises are required to build muscle strength. It’s also crucial to have a well-balanced diet that is rich in protein to assist your efforts in gaining strength. Hopefully, the above guide will help you to completely understand the concept behind your muscle weakness. If you are concerned about making yourself stronger, you have to follow the above guidelines.

Read More: 10 REASONS YOU’RE NOT GAINING MUSCLE