I recently saw something that really got under my skin and it’s something I see time and time again – and could quite possibly one of the biggest workout program mistakes out there.
This mistake is lack of customization.
The situation that sparked this post was reading something online where one person was asking what the best method was to build muscle.
After his posted his question, on came the replies. One guy came to his rescue, stating that he should use a bodypart split, eat a high protein diet, and smash the crap out of his muscles each and every workout.
That was what he said he needed to do to see results.
Another guy came in and said that he should basically eat whatever came in front of his face – hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, pizza – everything. Basically, according to him the best weight gain diet is the ’see-food’ diet. See a food and eat it.
Now, while both of these suggestions to have some validity, the thing that bugs me is that do they really know this individual?
Nope, they are going by what worked for them.
For all they know, this guy could be naturally thin, really struggle to put on muscle, and hammering his muscles with a body part split would actually be the fastest way to lose more muscle mass not gain it.
Different body types will require different training principles. This is true regardless of whether your goal is weight loss or muscle building.
If you’re going to be asking others for advice on what you should do, it’s important you either:
A. identify your own body type and then ask others who have a similar body type (since then, what works for them might very well work for you).
B. research yourself on the special needs of certain body types so you can better determine whether the advice you’re receiving will be valid or not.
If you don’t take the time to address this, there’s a high chance you’ll be misled.
So, while you should seek out help to reach your goals, do so with caution. Don’t ever follow something with a blind eye and no cross checking. Unless you are fully confident it is from a trusted source and that person does do some inquiring about your own particular body type and past training and diet history, you may wind up making some big training mistakes that will cost you time and progress.
If you are a hardgainere and would like to get on a workout program designed by a fellow hardgainer, one program you might want to check out is Vince DelMonte’s No-Nonsense Muscle Building Program. By looking at his background, you can tell that he is going to identify with this type of individual better.
=====> No-Nonsense Muscle Building
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