If you want to build up muscle over time, it's crucial for you to develop good habits. Building muscle continuously requires you to be regularly doing the right thing and taking the right steps. Unfortunately, people sometimes get into bad habits without being aware that they're risking their health and adversely affecting their progress. To help you make the right decisions, here is a list of the 7 worst muscle building habits and how to avoid them:

1) Steroids. This is, without a doubt, by far the worst thing you can do if you're trying to build muscle. Taking steroids is dangerous and has a wide array of negative side effects: Vomiting, nausea, mood swings, acne, bad breath, premature balding, tremors, jaundiced skin, swollen joints, liver damage, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and a shrinking of your adult height. If that's still not enough reason to avoid steroids, there's more: Impotence, sterility, testicular shrinkage, pain when urinating, and male breast development. That's all that needs to be said.

2.) Over lifting. Yes, trying to lift more weight than your training partner can be highly motivating, but be careful about it. Not only can lifting too much weight decrease your muscle gain, it can also cause you severe injuries. If you find yourself unable to lift or lower a weight, or can't lift it with a controlled motion and have to use momentum to get it up, then you're lifting too much weight and need to lower it before you hurt yourself.

3) Eating too much protein. Everyone knows protein is good for you and helps you build muscle, but it's possible to consume too much. An average person's protein intake is about a gram or less of per kilo of body weight a day. A muscle building athlete consumes more, at about 1.7 grams of protein per kilo of bodyweight. Consuming more than this could lead to osteoporosis and irreversible kidney damage. You could even damage your heart over time, due to protein byproducts released by your body.

4.) Taking stimulants, like ephedrine, which - among its other side effects - can cause heart palpitations, heart attack, and strokes. While they're not illegal, it's still not a good idea to use them, though if you do, use them with great care. You could try, instead, caffeine pills which are less dangerous to your health. If you don't know what to use, or have questions about what you are using, consult your doctor.

5.) Working out on an empty stomach to burn fat. Energy comes from your body burning carbohydrates, which means that if you haven't given your body any carbs, there's nothing to burn, and no chance at having a good workout. Instead, you'll be unable to lift easily or well, you'll get the shakes, maybe even a dizzy spell when you stop due to a crash in blood sugar. Try a pre-workout snack like rice, fruit, or fresh vegetables.

6) Failing to stretch or warm up properly. In order to prevent debilitating injuries such as ligament strains and muscle tears, it's extremely important that you prepare your body for exercise. This also has the effect of improving your performance, range of motion, and posture. Spending about 10 minutes warming up is a wise and effective use of your time.

7.) Not keeping track of your training. Without a training diary, how do you keep track of your progress? How do you record your personal bests? A training diary, or log, is not only easy to do, it's also very motivating. It's a good idea for everyone to have one.

So, keep an eye on those seven deadly sins of muscle building, and with a good dash of common sense, you should be able to avoid all of the bad and dangerous habits and have a healthy, safe workout.

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