The willingness to improve your physique and go to the gym means a lot. In many cases, it takes genuine courage to step far beyond your comfort zone. Initially, doing anything is enough to see the first results, but such a strategy will quickly become ineffective. To maximize your results at the gym, you should know what to avoid. Here are common mistakes made at the gym that hinder your progress.
I bet the percentage of people starting their gym journey with extensive knowledge ready to implement is small.
But that’s okay, you have to start somewhere.
Over time, you will learn new things, experiment, and ideally discover which behaviors in and out of the gym serve you best.
My task for today is to point out to you three fundamental mistakes that you can make at the gym and thus save your time and effort.
Common mistakes made at the gym
Looking back at my own fitness journey and observing other people, I have identified the most common mistakes made at the gym. The susceptibility to them seems to be high, but the good news is that they are also easy to avoid.
Lack of a training plan
A cardinal sin! As I mentioned earlier, initially any activity will have a positive impact on your physique, but to make consistent progress, you need a training plan.
What are the signs of its absence? In my opinion, it’s improper sequencing of muscle groups, jumping from machine to machine, or even poor attendance.
A good training plan gives direction to your efforts, helps you know what to do and when, saves your mental resources, and allows you to track progress.
Solution: have a plan! You can find it online or build it yourself or in collaboration with a trainer. Remember that there is no such thing as the best training plan for X, and ultimately, you will have to experiment and modify before finding something you can work with in the long term.
Weird exercises
You can have a well-planned training program, but there’s also the issue of exercise selection. Generally, any properly executed exercise that engages the target muscle is good, but due to the inherent routine of training, it seems to force some people to turn to gimmicks.
Fitness influencers and other industry professionals often showcase movements that require placing the body in strange positions relative to the equipment, likely to create the impression of possessing deeper knowledge.
I have a feeling that people may think that some exercises are much better than others. The less common they are, the better results they bring. Sure, it’s worth experimenting and trying new movements, but not at the beginning of your fitness journey.
Basics are basics. There’s a reason why some exercises have been performed for decades. Ultimately, you don’t have to stick to them religiously, but you should at least give them a solid try.
Of the big three – bench press, squats, and deadlifts – I currently only do the first one, but I have specific reasons for that. Initially, I did all three things, a lot and hard.
I see strange variations of rowing, bicep curls, ab workouts done on machines, or forearms trained by people weighing 60kg who don’t have any clearly developed muscle group. Pointless!
Solution: try the basics. Once you have your training plan, fill it with well-known movements. Only when your training gains momentum, perhaps you will get bored with your program, allow yourself to try less standard exercises.
Lifting too much weight
In my opinion, this is not such a common occurrence, but it still happens. I don’t remember my own beginnings in detail, but I think I might have made this mistake myself.
As a beginner, not only do you risk injury by grabbing weight not matching your strength, but you also do unnecessary work because you will see the first results even when working with a small load.
Moreover, lifting too much weight will damage your technique – the quality of the movement performed and therefore the stimulus delivered to the muscle. In the initial period, it is worth spending time understanding how to properly engage a particular muscle during exercise.
Solution: decrease the weight. At this stage, more does not mean better. You also don’t have to impress anyone, on the contrary, you risk becoming an object of ridicule by trying to put more on the bar than you can handle.
Summary
The common mistakes discussed in this post relate mainly to beginner enthusiasts of bodybuilding. Fortunately, it is easy to become aware of them and avoid them, thereby making better use of your time and maximizing your results.
If you are starting to go to the gym, remember to have a training plan, focus on well-known exercises, and adjust the weight to your abilities and level of advancement.
Avoiding the three common mistakes discussed here is an important element of an objectively appropriate approach to training and a solid foundation for developing your physique.
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