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We’ve all made mistakes in the gym before, everyone has to start somewhere, perhaps you’ve made some of these mistakes too?
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Lifting too heavy –
Lifting heavy weights will do great things for your physique – if you lift within your means
Ego lifting to shift poundage outside of your current capabilities will only put you at risk for injury and shortchange your own progress
Lift in a controlled fashion, use muscle contractions to create movement to efficiently build your physique while staying injury free.
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Only doing cardio –
Cardio is great for burning some extra calories and promoting cardiovascular health.
However, it will not bring you the physique sculpting effects strength training does.
Strength training will build a leaner, more muscular physique which Is the desired goal for most trainees, so focusing more on strength training with supplementary cardio (if you enjoy it) would be the better approach to take.
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Not logging your training sessions –
Going into your sessions without a set plan and just going by feel is a sure fire way to hit a plateau very quick.
Keeping a log book of your training sessions is key for progression as you keep yourself accountable of what you have previously done and therefore you know what to do to take yourself further.
Even if it’s “just” 2.5kg added to a lift each week, after a months time that’s a whole 10kg more than you have previously lifted, and that performance gain will be reflected in your physique.
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Lack of focus –
Showing up to the gym is great. But you need to make your session count as well.
Getting distracted by your phone and letting your 1 minute rest times become 5 minutes before performing lacklustre sets due to your mind being elsewhere is not the greatest combo for producing results.
Let gym time be gym time and cut out all distractions for that hour or so.
Focus your efforts into the intensity and progression of your sets and reap the rewards.
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Following body part splits –
Body part splits are great if you are advanced enough and have the time to train 5-7 days a week.
Problem is, most of us aren’t, and would benefit from a 3-4 day a week split combining more muscle groups into each session, multiple times throughout the week. For example: 3 full body sessions a week on a MON-WED-FRI setup
Hitting a muscle more frequently (provided you have recovered) will have you growing it faster. Missing a session isn’t the end of the world because you still have the chance to work it again 1-2 more times that week. More off days equal better recovery and more time to do things outside of the gym.
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Picking unsuitable exercises –
There’s a certain stigma that you must do certain exercises or else you will not get results. However, this is definitely not true and if a certain exercise debilitates you, the results you may get from it will be quite short lived.
Find new exercises that you can perform completely pain free to begin with, stick to those and then work on your mobility / flexibility if those are the limiting factors in exercises you currently can’t perform.
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Bonus mistake – Not putting your weights away after use!!! 😉
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