If you google ”big muscles fast”, you will get an ocean of sites selling lifting programs designed to help you accelerate your muscle construction. The programs may look good on paper and contain some fine advice, but the results are never what you expect them to be. Sooner or later, you will find that’s all hype.

Why do so many bodybuilding routines fail miserably?

a. Because they mimic the workouts of professional bodybuilders

Many routines fail miserably because they copy the nonsense actions of professional bodybuilders in the gym. Most pro routines consist of too many exercises. The end result is exhaustion without much progress. As a natural, you shouldn’t follow the split of Ronnie Coleman. You simply don’t have to. It’s better to focus on a few exercises and get really good at them.

b. Because people expect too much

Lifting routines are not magic. They can’t produce results beyond the natural potential. Besides, every single routine follows the same basic principle – fight, recover, fight. Yes, there are routines that work better in some situations, but at the end of the day, there isn’t a perfect program. Moreover, you should know by now that virtually every popular routine promises results that it can’t deliver. If you want to know the real results that you can expect from a routine, divide everything by 3. For instance, if a routine promises 15lbs of muscle gain, divide that by 2-3. You get roughly 5-7lbs. This is the max amount of muscle that you are going to gain if you follow this routine. Sad? Not really. Better to know the truth in the beginning than to cry later.

c. Because they don’t have a progression mechanism

The heart of every program is its progression mechanism. If you are doing a routine that does not contain one, you are not training optimally. In general, there are three ways to progress – by adding weight, reps or advancing to more difficult versions of an exercise.