Labrada.com 8 Common Mistakes That Slow Muscle Growth +1 Minute Mason Jar Omelette

Hi ,

Last weekend I was in the gym with my son, NPC Nationals bodybuilding champion Hunter Labrada and California IFBB Pro champion Pat Moore. We were there working on a shoot for an upcoming training video. As I was looking at these two bodybuilding champions, I thought to myself about something that they both have in common: focus and perseverance.

The focus part is the ability to stay single-mindedly locked into the attainment of a specific goal. The perseverance part is the ability to repetitively perform the tasks necessary to achieve that goal, regardless of challenges. It takes an incredible amount of both of these attributes to accomplish the level of physical development these two champions possess.

So how does this apply to you?

Because focus and perseverance are things that all of us can apply to our exercise and nutrition program if we want to improve. Even in small doses, focus and perseverance can be the catalyst that helps us to attain our physical goals.

This week I would encourage you to write down your goals, as this is the starting point for your focus. And then I would encourage you to commit to a certain number of workouts that you will do each week. Schedule them, just as you would an important appointment. You’ll find that doing these things will help you see better results from your hard work in the gym.

In the relentless pursuit of more muscle, we can often become our own worst enemies. This is particularly the case when we hear that something worked for … well, anyone: a friend, a pro, a guy in an ad, or the biggest guy in the gym. Ask them—they’re usually begging you to, right?—and you’ll get a crazy answer about two-a-days, double-dough pizzas, and twice the recommended dosages.

The truth is that many of these guys succeed in spite of their excesses, not because of them. Here’s a list of what I believe are the eight biggest mistakes that bodybuilders make—all of them a case of doing more when less would have been better. Take a look and see how you could be wasting your time, money, and energy.

"During the Lean Body Challenge, I had several goals that kept me both inspired and motivated along the journey. I wanted to change my daily lifestyle and push myself to the limit. I also wanted lose 50 pounds of fat, which many people told me could not be done. Their negativity fueled my passion to show them wrong! I wanted to prove to myself that I could indeed change as long as I kept myself in check and always stayed on track.

At the end of the challenge, I could not believe my final weigh in and what the scale showed. I had lost just over 93 pounds and 16% body fat. At the beginning of the challenge there were a lot of different exercises that involved body weight that I couldn’t do because of my state of physical fitness at the time. As the challenge progressed, I saw and experienced that those types of workouts became easier and I could do them longer. That was when I knew that I was changing and my goal of a different lifestyle was getting closer to reality.

I blew my goals out of the water. Not only did I lose 93.4 pounds of fat, 70 inches overall, and 16.3% body fat, but I instilled a lifestyle that I will keep forever. "