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Avoid These 5 Mistakes

In the last ten years of working in gyms alone, I have spoken to countless new gym goers who initially believed paying for a personal trainer, or coach was an unnecessary expense to get a result they could easily achieve on their own.

Then, six months down the line, we end up having another very different conversation that generally goes along the lines of “I’ve been doing this for ages, and I’m just not seeing any changes, and now my *insert body part here* hurts. I don’t know what to do”. 

We then get them booked in for a consultation, and Within three months of working together, they can’t believe the changes that have happened so quickly and say, “I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner”.

So if you are serious about making the most of your time in the gym and getting some serious results here are the Five mistakes you should avoid at all costs.

1. Going In Without A Plan

As the old saying goes, “Failure to prepare is preparation for failure!”

I see so many new gym goers believing they can just go in off the cuff and throw a workout together and expect decent results. Randomly hopping on any bit of kit available, doing a quick set of ten, barely breaking a sweat, stopping to rest for 5 minutes before thrashing out another quick set of 10.  Barely even warming up the target muscle group before skipping over to the next piece of kit with no thought to the exercise order, execution, intensity or even just how much rest time taken, which are all very important factors, to building muscle and getting stronger. 

unfortunately due to the minimal effort during each set there hasn’t been enough stress on the target muscles to stimulate growth and realistically the only thing that has been achieved here is the use of around 200 calories of energy as they moved their body around in space for 30 seconds during each half-assed set.

2. Copying the greats part 1

The next common mistake is a double-barrelled effort. The first part of this two-punch combo failure is watching YouTube videos of famous bodybuilders or powerlifters and trying to copy what they do, everything from their training programme to how they stand right through to how they execute a lift. That seems logical, as those guys are strong and muscular, and that’s the goal, right? However, no matter how well-intentioned this is, it is inherently flawed for many reasons. 

Right from the start, your bone/body structure (anthropometry), i.e. leg length, arm length, Torso length, body shape or any combination listed, may not allow you to move in the same way as your idol. Unfortunately, when you are new, you have no understanding of this and no idea that what you are doing looks nothing like what you are trying to emulate. The knock-on effect is your poor form inevitably leads to an injury further down the line, which I see repeatedly.

A quick example of this I frequently see is when someone around 5’6″ and weighing no more than 70 kg tries to deadlift in the same style as Eddie Hall, arguably an all-time great, pulling 500 kgs for a world record and topped out around 164 kilos in body weight in his prime and standing at 6’3″. These are two vastly different species with entirely different leverages! This might seem obvious, but apparently it is not. Needless to say, back injuries swiftly follow.

3. Copying the greats part 2

The second smoking barrel comes from not understanding that workout programming for their favourite lifting idol *insert name here* is not suitable for new lifters! This often leads to new lifters watching a professional bodybuilder’s workout routine and deciding that the program that said pro used must be the secret to massive gains. Therefore that is the programme for them.

The programme inevitably has way too much volume, so recovery is next to impossible for them. They are then crippled with DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) every session as they haven’t developed the tolerance and experience needed for that much volume. The backlash of that is they either end up missing more sessions than they can train, causing no muscle growth to take place, or they physically cannot recover from session to session. This is because there is only so much muscle damage our body can recover from and rebuild more muscle before the anabolic window closes so to speak.

There really is such a thing as too much!

4. The swing

The swinging technique happens in every gym you go to. Often, because lifters have plateaued in their training and do not understand how to use other methods to progress any further, they just add more weight. Unfortunately, this was never the answer for them, and now all they are doing is using their entire body to move the weight through space instead of the target muscle they actually want to grow.

I do want to add that seasoned lifters do use experienced lifting techniques like rocking through the movement, which, to the untrained eye, looks a lot like swinging. However, what it looks like and what it is are two completely different things. So when the new lifter turns up at the gym the next day witnessing this rock through the movement they watched on Youtube without any context, guess what? They begin swinging the weight around, telling themselves they are smashing it like the legends of the time. In both instances, zero muscle growth occurs.

5. Never Maintaining Tension Throughout The Entire Set

One of the most important factors in building muscle that is always missed when new gym goers decide to go it alone is understanding how to create and maintain tension throughout the body. Learning this skill not only allows you to transfer and direct force effectively, but it also protects you from becoming injured! 

This is crucial to yielding powerful results from your bodybuilding or strength training efforts, and failure to harness it leaves massive gains on the table. I honestly believe this is one of the first things a new lifter should be taught right out of the gate.

In summary

Getting good results from training is more complex than it is sometimes made out to be, and this is why so many people have devoted their entire lives to studying it. Save yourself time and money by investing in a good Personal Trainer or coach right from the start! They will teach you as much as you need to know about training and nutrition to get all the benefits without years of studying!

If you’re not sure who you can trust, generally, a good rule of thumb is to look for one of the busiest Personal Trainers in the gym. If they seem expensive, chances are they are worth every penny! Ask for a consultation with them so you can ask them questions, and to see what questions they ask you, they should provide you with a pathway toward your goals.

I will dive deeper into how to pick a good Personal trainer in the next blog.

If you want to work with us either 1-2-1 or online to reach your health and physique goals, contact us now to get started on the journey to a fitter, stronger YOU in half the time.

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