1. Sleep is the best legal performance-enhancing drug on the planet. Once, a regular sleep routine for a minimum of 7-8 hours is established, you will see miraculous results in your productivity, recovery, concentration, mood, and immunity.
2. Complete range of motions for exercises is more important than how much weight you lift! Apart from you, no one cares about how much you lift. Leave your ego out of the door.
3. Self-massage, mobility stretches & muscle activation provide your body with the essential recipe to protect yourself from injuries. Dynamic stretching warm-up is the way to go. Here is a quick Dynamic stretching routine for your reference.
4. Fast ( 2 to 4 seconds) UP/ concentric motion) and Slow (4 to 6 seconds) Down/ eccentric motion. Time under Tension (TUT) followed by a rhythmic tempo is the best way to maximize muscle growth.
5. Gaining muscle does not make you look bulky. Having too much fat on your body does that.
6. One of the best ways to increase strength and muscle mass is to use "mind-muscle connection". Make the best out of your every rep. Every movement must be controlled and deliberate with a clear focus on the muscle for which the exercise is being done. Activate your muscles mentally.
7. Supplements are not steroids. They are also not essential. There are limited safe supplements and maximum are marketing garbage. The safest and best supplements are Creatine, Coffee & Whey Protein. Even these supplements give you just 2% of additional push. Rest 98% of the push is the human taking the supplements. So even if you don't take supplements - you will get results (considering all other aspects are also fine-tuned in your life as stress, sleep, hydration, and nutrition).
8. Investing in knowledge and coaching from proper Certified Nutrition and Fitness Consultants is a much wiser choice than learning from YouTube, following fitness influencers, copying celebrity diets and workouts from magazines, buying expensive gym memberships, buying waste supplements or just doing some random time waste in the gym. It's your hard-earned money. And, time is also money. Don't waste either.
9. Feeling stressed and anxious - meditate. Can't Meditate or don't know how to? Start with BOX Breathing. Inhale from Nose-> Hold -> Exhale completely from mouth. Repeat!
10. Gaining muscle is a slow process. Don't expect more than 200-400 gms of muscles a month and that too in the initial years of your Natural Strength training while being in calorie surplus as compared to your Maintenance Calories. Any more weight than that, and you are probably gaining more fat than muscles.
11. Just compare yourself with yourself. Everybody is different and you will never have the same physique as your favorite movie star or social media influencer. Yours' might even be better than theirs!
12. You can never outrun a consistent Bad diet! An intense workout will just burn 100-125 calories and not more! Your being regular in your workout does not give you license to spoil your diet daily.
13. It's more about being consistent and Frequent in your routine rather than being PERFECT! You are human and not a machine. All or nothing mindset has hurt more people than Something is Better Than Nothing attitude toward their Health Routine.