#1 - Not laser focusing on getting bigger and stronger. Concentrate on your form, your techniques and actually seeing yourself becoming bigger and stronger. To build lean muscle fast, you need to be in the zone, so to speak. You need to visualize yourself as having the body that you want to have. The stronger that you become, the better your techniques will be, and the faster you will be able to recover from the exercises. This will translate into being able to train harder, which will allow your muscles to grow even larger and stronger.

#2 - Overlooking cardio exercise. Optimal cardio system performance will not be achieved by weight lifting alone. Cardio will not hinder your chances of building bigger and stronger muscle. Aerobics have been shown to speed up muscle recovery from weight lifting by bringing oxygen via blood flow to the muscles. Because cardio will increase the number and size of blood vessels, this will increase the amount of oxygen rich blood will be delivered to the muscles and tissues for recovery and growth.

#3 - Over-training of the tricep and bicep muscles. These muscles actually require very little stimulation for maximum growth. Focus the majority of your efforts on training the larger muscle groups, such as the chest, back, shoulders and legs. Less is more when it comes to the smaller muscle groups. It does not make any sense to train your biceps and triceps more than you would the larger muscle groups that are 4 to 5 times bigger.

#4 - Relying too much on bodybuilding magazines. These magazines are informative and have good advice, but just sitting around reading bodybuilding magazines will not allow you to grow bigger and stronger. You must take action and get out to the gym and actually perform what those magazines are telling you to do.

Now, these are just a few of the common mistakes made by bodybuilders, whether serious or not. Do not let these things get in the way of your success. Becoming frustrated and distracted is going to kill all of your hard work up to this point.