Weight training and improving your physique is a balance of discipline and strategy, not excess. Save yourself a lot of time and frustration by avoiding these common mistakes in and out of the gym.
The major misconception with weight training, and most things in general, is the idea that more is better.
This is hardly ever the case in bodybuilding, and as I hope all of you know by now, better is better.
Media, magazines, and especially magazines have engrained us with the notion that you have to kill yourself in the gym by following the latest and greatest muscle building routine that’ll tack on lean mass in 3 weeks, take the newest super supplement guaranteed to obliterate fat and add pure muscle, and eat only the cleanest superfoods grown with a pedigree that certifies they’re the lineage of food grown and harvested in the garden of Eden.
Joking aside, let’s get into some of the most common issues that are completely useless or even worse, could be hindering your progress in the gym.
This is hardly ever the case in bodybuilding, and as I hope all of you know by now, better is better.
Media, magazines, and especially magazines have engrained us with the notion that you have to kill yourself in the gym by following the latest and greatest muscle building routine that’ll tack on lean mass in 3 weeks, take the newest super supplement guaranteed to obliterate fat and add pure muscle, and eat only the cleanest superfoods grown with a pedigree that certifies they’re the lineage of food grown and harvested in the garden of Eden.
Joking aside, let’s get into some of the most common issues that are completely useless or even worse, could be hindering your progress in the gym.
1. TAKING TOO MANY SUPPLEMENTS
Supplements are just that. Supplements. So often I get asked, “what should I be taking?” I always reply with, “first things first, how’s your nutrition and training looking.”
Most folks tend to put the cart before the horse, so to speak, and put an emphasis on taking the latest promised muscle building supplement before learning about the foods they need to actually promote strength and muscle increases and the most effective training methods to improve their strength and physiques.
There’s no need to blow hundreds of dollars a month on gimmicky supplements. Real food always comes first. Once that area has been covered, by all means add a high quality whey protein supplement, fish oil, multivitamin, creatine, and caffeine to your regiment.
Supplements are just that. Supplements. So often I get asked, “what should I be taking?” I always reply with, “first things first, how’s your nutrition and training looking.”
Most folks tend to put the cart before the horse, so to speak, and put an emphasis on taking the latest promised muscle building supplement before learning about the foods they need to actually promote strength and muscle increases and the most effective training methods to improve their strength and physiques.
There’s no need to blow hundreds of dollars a month on gimmicky supplements. Real food always comes first. Once that area has been covered, by all means add a high quality whey protein supplement, fish oil, multivitamin, creatine, and caffeine to your regiment.
2. TOO MUCH TRAINING VOLUME AND TOO MANY WORKOUTS
Is overtraining real? Yes and no. No in the sense that you cannot technically train yourself backwards and lose strength and muscle, but very real in the sense that you can too much and end up spinning your wheels and training yourself into the ground.
Folks have the mentality that “more is better”, especially with the volume associated with their workouts. “if 3 sets of 10 reps are good, then surely 6 sets of 10 will be better!”
I’m not saying don’t increase volume over time, but it’s all relative to how your training program is designed and what your nutrition is like.
Muscle grow outside of the gym with rest and recovery. If you’re constantly pulverizing them into dust multiple times a week with high number of sets, chances are you’re over working them and not giving them adequate time to recover and grow.
If you want to get bigger and stronger, focus on rest and recovery, not sets and reps.
Is overtraining real? Yes and no. No in the sense that you cannot technically train yourself backwards and lose strength and muscle, but very real in the sense that you can too much and end up spinning your wheels and training yourself into the ground.
Folks have the mentality that “more is better”, especially with the volume associated with their workouts. “if 3 sets of 10 reps are good, then surely 6 sets of 10 will be better!”
I’m not saying don’t increase volume over time, but it’s all relative to how your training program is designed and what your nutrition is like.
Muscle grow outside of the gym with rest and recovery. If you’re constantly pulverizing them into dust multiple times a week with high number of sets, chances are you’re over working them and not giving them adequate time to recover and grow.
If you want to get bigger and stronger, focus on rest and recovery, not sets and reps.
3. SETTING UNREALISTIC GOALS
Chances are you’ve seen some god-like physiques and phenomenal aesthetics on your latest Instagram feed and you feel a body like that is completely attainable and can be yours with just a few months of lifting heavy, bro.
I hate to burst your bubble, but you will never look like that. Never.
I’m not trying to be a negative Nancy, but typically the photos you see in social media and on the cover of magaiznes have been overly enhanced, doctored, and touched up. Oh, and not to mention the guys and gals with these exceptional physiques are not natural and are annabolicaly enhanced. That means they juice. Or if they’re not juicing, they’ve worked extremely hard (not to say guys on gear don’t work hard) for months to diet down and look fantastic for the one day necessary to take some great looking photos.
There also may be that one guy you know who started working out a year ago and now he’s putting up 405 on bench press and squatting a Volkswagon. Yes, this does happen. Will it happen to you. Most likely not. Some folks are just genetically gifted and can train very little for a short amount of time and make tremendous gains. I’m not one of these people, and I’m willing to bed you aren’t either.
So understand that training is a long term game and nothing spectacular will happen overnight. Be realistic when setting goals and focus on hitting short term milestones to stay motivated and realize your own personal progress.
Chances are you’ve seen some god-like physiques and phenomenal aesthetics on your latest Instagram feed and you feel a body like that is completely attainable and can be yours with just a few months of lifting heavy, bro.
I hate to burst your bubble, but you will never look like that. Never.
I’m not trying to be a negative Nancy, but typically the photos you see in social media and on the cover of magaiznes have been overly enhanced, doctored, and touched up. Oh, and not to mention the guys and gals with these exceptional physiques are not natural and are annabolicaly enhanced. That means they juice. Or if they’re not juicing, they’ve worked extremely hard (not to say guys on gear don’t work hard) for months to diet down and look fantastic for the one day necessary to take some great looking photos.
There also may be that one guy you know who started working out a year ago and now he’s putting up 405 on bench press and squatting a Volkswagon. Yes, this does happen. Will it happen to you. Most likely not. Some folks are just genetically gifted and can train very little for a short amount of time and make tremendous gains. I’m not one of these people, and I’m willing to bed you aren’t either.
So understand that training is a long term game and nothing spectacular will happen overnight. Be realistic when setting goals and focus on hitting short term milestones to stay motivated and realize your own personal progress.
4. EATING MORE UNNECESSARY CALORIES
“Clean” foods. “Dirty” foods. Whatever labels you want to put on them, if you eat too much of anything, you will put on body fat. Period. And when your common bro decides to start bulking to add some mass, they often feel its okay to shovel more of anything and everything in their face in order to get bigger.
This tends to be a rookie mistake, but I still witness guys who have been training for a decade eating pizza and burgers everyday because they feel its necessary to build muscle.
This is the fast track to adding size, but sad to say, it’s going to be mostly fat.
In general, if you follow this “bulk and cut” routine with emphasis on the dirty bulk, you could put on 20 pounds of scale weight, cut down, and ultimately only have a net gain of ONE POUND of lean muscle. All that fat and nothing to show for it.
So if you’re looking to add lean body mass, understand it is a painfully slow process. Focus on increasing your calories slowing through moderate amounts of carbohydrates and even smaller amounts of protein. Contrary to what you may think, you don’t need to eat a cow’s worth of protein to build muscle. If you’re bulking and your carbs and fat are high, protein requirements are less of a concern.
“Clean” foods. “Dirty” foods. Whatever labels you want to put on them, if you eat too much of anything, you will put on body fat. Period. And when your common bro decides to start bulking to add some mass, they often feel its okay to shovel more of anything and everything in their face in order to get bigger.
This tends to be a rookie mistake, but I still witness guys who have been training for a decade eating pizza and burgers everyday because they feel its necessary to build muscle.
This is the fast track to adding size, but sad to say, it’s going to be mostly fat.
In general, if you follow this “bulk and cut” routine with emphasis on the dirty bulk, you could put on 20 pounds of scale weight, cut down, and ultimately only have a net gain of ONE POUND of lean muscle. All that fat and nothing to show for it.
So if you’re looking to add lean body mass, understand it is a painfully slow process. Focus on increasing your calories slowing through moderate amounts of carbohydrates and even smaller amounts of protein. Contrary to what you may think, you don’t need to eat a cow’s worth of protein to build muscle. If you’re bulking and your carbs and fat are high, protein requirements are less of a concern.
5. JUMPIING FROM PROGRAM TO PROGRAM
Muscle confusion. Mix it up. Keep the muscle guessing. I’m sure you’ve heard these techniques are necessary to make sure the muscle doesn’t adapt to your training. There is some truth to the notion of prolonging adaptation, but gimmicky programs like Insanity have over-hyped the idea of muscle confusion.
What happens is people will find an attractive program either online or in a magazine and try it out for a few weeks. If they run the program and complete it all the way through with decent results, they may feel it was inadequate and jump to another more enticing program. Instead of sticking with a routine that was proven to work for the individual and merely increasing the weights, reps/sets, or frequencies, they felt it would be better to try something different.
In all actually, it makes very little difference what program or routine you follow. The main principle you should be following is progressive overload. This mean continually adding weight to the bar. You could do the same three exercises forever but if you continually strive to get stronger with the movement, whether by increasing the weight, reps, or both, you will grow. Period.
Muscle confusion. Mix it up. Keep the muscle guessing. I’m sure you’ve heard these techniques are necessary to make sure the muscle doesn’t adapt to your training. There is some truth to the notion of prolonging adaptation, but gimmicky programs like Insanity have over-hyped the idea of muscle confusion.
What happens is people will find an attractive program either online or in a magazine and try it out for a few weeks. If they run the program and complete it all the way through with decent results, they may feel it was inadequate and jump to another more enticing program. Instead of sticking with a routine that was proven to work for the individual and merely increasing the weights, reps/sets, or frequencies, they felt it would be better to try something different.
In all actually, it makes very little difference what program or routine you follow. The main principle you should be following is progressive overload. This mean continually adding weight to the bar. You could do the same three exercises forever but if you continually strive to get stronger with the movement, whether by increasing the weight, reps, or both, you will grow. Period.
If you’re going to takeaway anything from this post, it should be this: think more, follow less. Do what is in your best interest and don’t worry about what you see in the media or what the big guy at the gym is spewing. Analyze your nutrition, training, rest, lifestyle, and find out the most conducive way to optimize your progress. Understand that nutrition and training are paramount before any supplement, yes even whey protein. Be your own best critic and when something stops working or never worked, realize it’s time for a change.
