If you've been spending a great deal of time in the gym lately but are lacking results to go with all that effort, you could be making one of these vital errors. Have a look over them and ensure that YOU are not making any of these mistakes on your quest to building muscle.

Sin #1:

Repeating the same workout over and over again.

How many times have you gone to the gym and casually lift the same weights; same exercises; same workout order; and same lack of progress? A great definition of insanity is doing the same thing but expecting a different result. DON'T DO IT! You really must be changing the stimulus that's being presented on your body if you hope to see any results develop.

You don't have to make massive changes in your workout, just alter something as simple as the rep number, exercise order, number of sets performed or rest time duration. Do something different every single session and you are on the path to true gains.

In addition to that, do a complete overhaul of your workout every four to six months or so to really spark some progress. This could involve getting onto an entirely different split or just performing all new exercises.

You'll also avoid boredom much easier this way and we both know that boredom is one of the biggest factors at play in people skipping the gym altogether. You don't want to be that guy.

Sin #2:

Forgetting to track results

When was the last time you hit a PR? Don't know? Shame on you. If you aren't tracking the weight you're lifting, how are you ever going to really know when you're getting results? Sure an increase on the scale is a good way to tell you are making progress, but you likely also want to get stronger as well as this will be indicative of muscle growth.

Keeping a daily record of all the weight you lift will not only allow you to feel more accomplished when your lifts do go up but it will also help you spot such things as overtraining. If you are noticing that your lifts are actually dropping and it is a regular occurrence, it might be time to have a good look at your plan and see if you are getting enough rest in.

But wait. Don't just track the raw weight, make it a little more detailed so you can get the full picture.

Some other things you should be tracking include:

· How much sleep did you get the night before?
· Was food or drink did you consume before your workout?
· Was the time of the workout the same as usual?
· Did you change your warm-up at all and if so, how did this affect how you felt and performed?
· Have you been more active than usual in your daily living?
· Are there any other stresses at play in your daily life that could have impacted the results you saw?

By answering all these questions in your training log you will be able to get a much better picture at all the factors that are at play concerning your workout.

If you are serious about results, it's time to get serious about tracking.

Sin #3:

Broken focus

Here is how I see many people live life. First you want to open your own business. Next week you want to become a firefighter. The week after that you want to go to Paris to own some expensive French cuisine cafe! You will most likely fail at everything you do because of your broken focus and lack of discipline to finish what you start.

How to avoid this costly error?

A lack of focus equals a lack of results. Start treating your training the same way you would treat your career. If you change your career every few weeks, you will inevitably become a jack of all trades, master of none. It will not become a question of if, but a question of when. Your training to build a jaw dropping physique is no different.

Pick one training program approach and stick with it.

There are a lot of options and it can be difficult to choose just one. However, look at this has a positive, and make your life simple by choosing just one and stick to it for it's entire program length. Many programs won't start to produce noticeable results for a few weeks to a month anyway. If you short-circuit it before this time, how will you ever know if it would have worked? You won't. Then you'll just go onto the next latest program only to drop off that a short while later.

You must trust the author of the program and take responsibility for your decision. Do not consult others about a program someone else has written, they are not the author of the program and will only confuse you. Go straight to the source and consult the author of the program if you require clarification, otherwise execute every single detail as prescribed. Focus instead on making sure you are doing every single exercise right and are feeding yourself the proper nutrition you need. Without food you can't grow. You wouldn't try and build a house without bricks would you?

So have a good look over your current fitness program and make sure you are not making these critical errors. If you are, you likely will not only not get the results you are seeing but you will be wasting a great deal of your time!