Fitness coach Sophie Allen, 30, reveals the reasons why you’re not building lean muscle

A Sydney fitness coach has revealed the real reason why you’re not building lean muscle, and what you can do about it right now.

Sophie Allen, 30, said she credits the biggest changes in her physique to a combination of resistance training and something called progressive overload – which many don’t know about and which can hold you back from your dream body.

Progressive overload is the gradual increase in stress placed on the body during weight training to increase muscle growth.

You can progressively overload either by increasing the weights you’re using or upping the number of reps you carry out at the gym.

‘To put it simply, in order to build lean muscle mass, we need to be working our muscles harder than the week before to reap the benefits,’ Sophie wrote on her website. 

‘It doesn’t need to be major changes, it’s been suggested anything between 2.5 per cent and five per cent is suitable in helping you build lean muscle.’ 

For those wanting to see changes in their body, the 30-year-old recommends you either increase the resistance, up your time under tension or take shorter rest periods.

‘The tempo we’re moving in an exercise puts stress on our muscles and we want to be putting our muscles under stress for longer periods of time to maximise muscle growth,’ Sophie said. 

She recommends you up your sets and reps over time, and if you ever finish a set thinking you could do a couple more reps, go for it and it will pay dividends.

Sophie famously transformed her body over the course of a year with a combination of nine ‘fat loss hacks’ which she said really made her muscles pop.

‘The first thing you need to do is eat less than you burn in a day,’ Sophie said previously.

She typically eats somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 calories per day – depending on whether she is ‘cutting’ or ‘bulking’.

Bulking encourages muscle growth while cutting is good for burning fat.

Sophie does both in order to build up the muscles she wants to like her glutes, but also tone others such as her abs.

She typically fills her day with plenty of lean protein, green leafy vegetables, fruit and complex carbohydrates such as sweet potato.

The second thing the PT said you absolutely must do is ‘move your body more and consistently’.

While Sophie doesn’t work out seven days per week, she did explain that she aims to get 10,000 steps per day and doesn’t rest until she has hit her targets.

‘Movement doesn’t have to be anything specific, but certain types will require more energy than others,’ she said.

For instance, if she’s doing a resistance-based workout, she knows she will have to compensate with plenty of fuel afterwards.

Thirdly, Sophie explained that tracking your progress is absolutely critical to lasting weight loss success, but you don’t have to only use scales to do this.

‘Pictures, measurements, how your clothes fit and how you feel and your strength are all good indicators of how things are going,’ she said.

‘You should make changes if things aren’t moving the way you want.’

Sophie’s final tips include eating ‘mostly whole foods’, because these mean you’ll heave better energy, greater satiety and improved overall health.

She tries to make sure every meal has at least two cups of salad or vegetables, and limits processed foods to just twice a week.

‘Sleep a lot and make sure it’s high in quality,’ Sophie added.

She aims for between seven and nine hours, and doesn’t drink alcohol very often – as it hugely compromises your sleep.

‘Try and reduce stress as much as possible, and get someone who knows what they’re doing to write a training and nutrition program for you,’ she added.⁣

Often, when you’re doing something with someone it can also help with motivation.