DEEPER KEMICAL
10-06-2008, 05:24 PM
Good article
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MiSTAKE #1: Neglecting to Train Your Legs
How many people in your gym do Squats or Deadlifts? I bet less than 20%. One of the reasons for this is that training your legs is harder than working your chest, arms or abs. Harder physically & mentally.
Unfortunately, exercises that are hard will also get you the most results. Your body doesn't like stress and will react by getting stronger, building muscle, increasing mental endurance, ... so it can better deal with that same stress the next time.
That's why Squats & Deadlifts are the 2 most important exercises EVEN if you only care about bigger arms & chest or 6 pack abs. They work your body from head to toe and stress your body hard by letting you use the heaviest weight. Your arms for example squeeze the bar hard during heavys Squats & Deadlifts. This isometric contraction works your arms indirectly, getting them strong & muscular. Same principle goes for your abs which need to work hard at keeping you from collapsing under the weight.
Safety depends on proper technique. If you never did Squats or Deadlifts before, start by reading the how-to articles on StrongLifts.com (left sidebar - exercise technique). Then go to the gym, start with an empty bar, focus on technique and add weight slowly but systematically. The more your practice, the better
you'll get.
MiSTAKE #2: Using Bad Technique
Weight lifting is no different than soccer, golf, swimming or any other sport. All sports have their technique that you need to learn.
Unfortunately, this is what you'll often see in gyms:
* Half Squats instead of Squatting below parallel, with hips going lower than knees.
* Half Bench Presses: not touching your chest on each rep
* Half Pull-ups: not going all the way down on each rep
Maybe nobody ever told you you were using bad technique. Or maybe you know it, but you continue because you can lift more that way. Whatever your reason: bad technique builds fake strength, is less
effective in the long-term and increases the risk of injury. Better is to lower the weight, learn to do your exercises correctly and increase the weight gradually.
MiSTAKE #3: Using Machines
Some people will tell you to start with machines to practice exercise technique safely and build base strength before you switch to free weights. There are 3 problems with using machines:
* Machines aren't as safe as you think. If the chair isn't at the right height or if you're not under the bar correctly, you'll force your body into unnatural movement patterns and get injured. This is especially tricky when using heavier weights.
* Strength built using machines doesn't carry over to free weights. Machines balance the weight for you. Free weights and body-weight exercises force you to balance the weight yourself. You'll lose strength when switching to free weights & body-weight exercise because your stabilizer muscles are weak since they never had to work before.
* Technique is different. You have to balance yourself with free weights and you're using different (natural) movement patterns. You'll have to re-learn how to do your exercises when switching to free weights.
There's nothing wrong with using machines for some exercises. But for best results, at least 80% of your routine should consist of free weight compound exercise.
MiSTAKE #4: Neglecting Weaknesses
One reader who was doing StrongLifts 5x5 asked me a while back if it's was ok if he removed Pull-ups and did Curls instead. I asked why. He replied he prefers to train his arms with a barbell than by doing Pull-ups.
Thing is, it's not about what you like or what you prefer. It's about what's effective. Pull-ups are more effective than Curls.
* Pull-ups are a compound movement: they work your upper-back, shoulders, lats & arms. You train more muscles doing Pull-ups than Curls. You also train muscles that keep your shoulders healthy so you don't get injuries from bench pressing.
* Pull-ups force you to lift your own body. More weight is more stress, thus more strength & muscle. ompare how much you would lift on Curls compared to lifting your own body-weight on Pull-ups.
* Pull-ups build real life strength: they teach you to grab & pull something towards you. Getting stronger on Pull-ups also helps other lifts like the Overhead Press.
If you don' like an exercise, it's usually because you're weak at it. Lack of strength on Pull-ups is common and some decide to give up on it. This is the wrong mindset.
You need to work on your weaknesses until it becomes your strength. Strength will come if you keep working at it and the benefits in muscle mass & fat loss will follow. As a bonus, you'll notice that the exercise you used to dislike becomes one of your favorites.
MiSTAKE #5: Thinking More is Better
Training 6 times per week or doing 20 exercises each workout doesn't mean you'll get better results. Muscles grow when you rest, not at the gym. You need rest days for optimal muscle gains. You also need mental rest: days off to do other stuff so you don't burn out mentally after a few weeks.
More isn't better. The only thing that matters is progress: are you making progress? Are you more muscular than 2 months ago? Are you lifting more weight than last year? Is your body-fat lower than 3 months ago? If the answer is "no" to 1 or more of these questions: something is wrong with your approach.
MiSTAKE #6: Not Tracking Progress Efficiently
Or not tracking progress at all. The 2 most common but also least accurate ways to track progress are weighing yourself and looking in the mirror.
* Weighing yourself is inaccurate & irrelevant. Inaccurate because it fluctuates depending on water retention, bowel content, stomach content, which foods you eat, etc. Irrelevant because 2 people can
both weigh 220lbs/100kg at 6"/1m82, but look completely different because 1 guy has 25% body fat and the other guy 12% body fat. Tracking your body-weight only makes sense if you want to gain weight.
* Mirrors are inaccurate & misleading. What you see is influenced by water retention, lightening, blood flow in your muscles, foods you ate that day, the mirror itself, and most important: your own perception. Your own mind can play tricks on you: if you have body image issues, you'll never be happy of what you see.
Better is to use accurate ways to track progress
* Strength stats. If you're lifting more than last month, you're making progress. More strength is more muscle, more muscle is less fat. If strength goes up, your looks will improve. Keep a training journal and mark personal records.
* Body fat measurements. Cheap fat calipers from Amazon cost less than 10$ (check the right sidebar on StrongLifts.com). Measure your body fat every 2 weeks. Even if it isn't 100% accurate, as long as the trend improves you're making progress.
* Pictures. Shoot pictures every 2 weeks. Compare your pictures as the months go by. Unlike mirrors, your mind can't play tricks on you since you have the difference right in front of you. Training videos of yourself are also a good idea.
Remember success breeds success. Let past success inspire you to get even more successful.
MiSTAKE #7: Lifting The Same Weight Each Workout
Ever had this happen to you that the weight you can usually lift easily suddenly feels too heavy and you have to lower the weight to get your reps? Frustrating isn't it?
Here's why it happens. Lifting the same weight each workout doesn't push your body out of it comfort zone. To get stronger, you need to constantly stress your body. Otherwise your body gets lazy and you lose strength. And that's when you can't lift the weight anymore you use to be able to lift.
The solution is simple: stress your body more. The easiest weight is to add weight on the bar. Even a slight increase of 1.25lbs/0,75kg is enough (use washers or small chains to get these increases).
MiSTAKE #8: Skipping Workouts
Because you're sick, because you're tired or because you just don't feel like going to the gym today because you had a tough day at work.
1 skipped workout turns into 2 skipped workouts. Before you know it, you didn't go to the gym for 1 week or 2. When you now go back to the gym you've lost strength & endurance, which kills your motivation. This is how many people end up quitting.
In his book "The War of Art", Steven Pressfield talks about "turning pro". To become successful at all of this, you need to become a pro. What's a pro? A pro knows that bad days are part of the game: he accepts it and trains through it.
Bad workouts are better than no workouts. Always go to the gym as planned - whatever your excuse - so you don't break the exercise habit. Usually you'll feel better once you get started.
Quick example: headaches. They always go away once you get started. Don't take my word for it, try it next time you've got a headache.
MiSTAKE #9: Starving Yourself
Training hard is only half of the game. The main reason you're not getting results is often because you're not eating enough. Even if you want to lose fat.
* Gaining weight. You need to eat more than you're doing now to build the muscle mass you're after. Otherwise you'll miss on gains. Check the guide on how to gain weight from skinny guys on StrongLifts.com (left sidebar - Best of StrongLifts.com).
* Losing Fat. You need energy to workout which your body gets from food. Without food, you won't be able to train at high intensity. Eating also improves fat loss: eating fat helps fat loss, eating protein burn more calories, etc. Hunger is the first sign you're not eating enough, plateaus the second one.
Follow these 8 simple rules. Eat breakfast, eat every 3 hours, eat protein with each meal, eat fruits & veggies with each meal, eat carbs post workout only, eat healthy fats, drink water, eat whole foods 90% of the time.
MiSTAKE #10: Not Getting Help
Refusing to ask someone to spot you on the Bench Press. Being scared to death to ask someone to help you on the way up on Pull-ups. Or simply being too close minded to try a completely different approach to training for a few weeks.
In his bestseller "Think & Grow Rich", Napoleon Hill says that one of the keys to get ahead fast is to form a Mastermind: associate yourself with people who are successful at what they do. You'll start to copy their behavior and learn a lot faster.
6 months after I got into lifting, I asked someone at the gym if I could train with him. I noticed the guy several times, he was my age and he had the kind of physique I wanted. We trained together for almost 3 years. I believe that I wouldn't be doing what I do today if I hadn't connected with him back then.
I highly recommend you get yourself a training partner. Not a beginner, but someone experienced. Someone who is already doing all of this for several years, who has the exercise habit ingrained and who won't quit soon.
---------------------
MiSTAKE #1: Neglecting to Train Your Legs
How many people in your gym do Squats or Deadlifts? I bet less than 20%. One of the reasons for this is that training your legs is harder than working your chest, arms or abs. Harder physically & mentally.
Unfortunately, exercises that are hard will also get you the most results. Your body doesn't like stress and will react by getting stronger, building muscle, increasing mental endurance, ... so it can better deal with that same stress the next time.
That's why Squats & Deadlifts are the 2 most important exercises EVEN if you only care about bigger arms & chest or 6 pack abs. They work your body from head to toe and stress your body hard by letting you use the heaviest weight. Your arms for example squeeze the bar hard during heavys Squats & Deadlifts. This isometric contraction works your arms indirectly, getting them strong & muscular. Same principle goes for your abs which need to work hard at keeping you from collapsing under the weight.
Safety depends on proper technique. If you never did Squats or Deadlifts before, start by reading the how-to articles on StrongLifts.com (left sidebar - exercise technique). Then go to the gym, start with an empty bar, focus on technique and add weight slowly but systematically. The more your practice, the better
you'll get.
MiSTAKE #2: Using Bad Technique
Weight lifting is no different than soccer, golf, swimming or any other sport. All sports have their technique that you need to learn.
Unfortunately, this is what you'll often see in gyms:
* Half Squats instead of Squatting below parallel, with hips going lower than knees.
* Half Bench Presses: not touching your chest on each rep
* Half Pull-ups: not going all the way down on each rep
Maybe nobody ever told you you were using bad technique. Or maybe you know it, but you continue because you can lift more that way. Whatever your reason: bad technique builds fake strength, is less
effective in the long-term and increases the risk of injury. Better is to lower the weight, learn to do your exercises correctly and increase the weight gradually.
MiSTAKE #3: Using Machines
Some people will tell you to start with machines to practice exercise technique safely and build base strength before you switch to free weights. There are 3 problems with using machines:
* Machines aren't as safe as you think. If the chair isn't at the right height or if you're not under the bar correctly, you'll force your body into unnatural movement patterns and get injured. This is especially tricky when using heavier weights.
* Strength built using machines doesn't carry over to free weights. Machines balance the weight for you. Free weights and body-weight exercises force you to balance the weight yourself. You'll lose strength when switching to free weights & body-weight exercise because your stabilizer muscles are weak since they never had to work before.
* Technique is different. You have to balance yourself with free weights and you're using different (natural) movement patterns. You'll have to re-learn how to do your exercises when switching to free weights.
There's nothing wrong with using machines for some exercises. But for best results, at least 80% of your routine should consist of free weight compound exercise.
MiSTAKE #4: Neglecting Weaknesses
One reader who was doing StrongLifts 5x5 asked me a while back if it's was ok if he removed Pull-ups and did Curls instead. I asked why. He replied he prefers to train his arms with a barbell than by doing Pull-ups.
Thing is, it's not about what you like or what you prefer. It's about what's effective. Pull-ups are more effective than Curls.
* Pull-ups are a compound movement: they work your upper-back, shoulders, lats & arms. You train more muscles doing Pull-ups than Curls. You also train muscles that keep your shoulders healthy so you don't get injuries from bench pressing.
* Pull-ups force you to lift your own body. More weight is more stress, thus more strength & muscle. ompare how much you would lift on Curls compared to lifting your own body-weight on Pull-ups.
* Pull-ups build real life strength: they teach you to grab & pull something towards you. Getting stronger on Pull-ups also helps other lifts like the Overhead Press.
If you don' like an exercise, it's usually because you're weak at it. Lack of strength on Pull-ups is common and some decide to give up on it. This is the wrong mindset.
You need to work on your weaknesses until it becomes your strength. Strength will come if you keep working at it and the benefits in muscle mass & fat loss will follow. As a bonus, you'll notice that the exercise you used to dislike becomes one of your favorites.
MiSTAKE #5: Thinking More is Better
Training 6 times per week or doing 20 exercises each workout doesn't mean you'll get better results. Muscles grow when you rest, not at the gym. You need rest days for optimal muscle gains. You also need mental rest: days off to do other stuff so you don't burn out mentally after a few weeks.
More isn't better. The only thing that matters is progress: are you making progress? Are you more muscular than 2 months ago? Are you lifting more weight than last year? Is your body-fat lower than 3 months ago? If the answer is "no" to 1 or more of these questions: something is wrong with your approach.
MiSTAKE #6: Not Tracking Progress Efficiently
Or not tracking progress at all. The 2 most common but also least accurate ways to track progress are weighing yourself and looking in the mirror.
* Weighing yourself is inaccurate & irrelevant. Inaccurate because it fluctuates depending on water retention, bowel content, stomach content, which foods you eat, etc. Irrelevant because 2 people can
both weigh 220lbs/100kg at 6"/1m82, but look completely different because 1 guy has 25% body fat and the other guy 12% body fat. Tracking your body-weight only makes sense if you want to gain weight.
* Mirrors are inaccurate & misleading. What you see is influenced by water retention, lightening, blood flow in your muscles, foods you ate that day, the mirror itself, and most important: your own perception. Your own mind can play tricks on you: if you have body image issues, you'll never be happy of what you see.
Better is to use accurate ways to track progress
* Strength stats. If you're lifting more than last month, you're making progress. More strength is more muscle, more muscle is less fat. If strength goes up, your looks will improve. Keep a training journal and mark personal records.
* Body fat measurements. Cheap fat calipers from Amazon cost less than 10$ (check the right sidebar on StrongLifts.com). Measure your body fat every 2 weeks. Even if it isn't 100% accurate, as long as the trend improves you're making progress.
* Pictures. Shoot pictures every 2 weeks. Compare your pictures as the months go by. Unlike mirrors, your mind can't play tricks on you since you have the difference right in front of you. Training videos of yourself are also a good idea.
Remember success breeds success. Let past success inspire you to get even more successful.
MiSTAKE #7: Lifting The Same Weight Each Workout
Ever had this happen to you that the weight you can usually lift easily suddenly feels too heavy and you have to lower the weight to get your reps? Frustrating isn't it?
Here's why it happens. Lifting the same weight each workout doesn't push your body out of it comfort zone. To get stronger, you need to constantly stress your body. Otherwise your body gets lazy and you lose strength. And that's when you can't lift the weight anymore you use to be able to lift.
The solution is simple: stress your body more. The easiest weight is to add weight on the bar. Even a slight increase of 1.25lbs/0,75kg is enough (use washers or small chains to get these increases).
MiSTAKE #8: Skipping Workouts
Because you're sick, because you're tired or because you just don't feel like going to the gym today because you had a tough day at work.
1 skipped workout turns into 2 skipped workouts. Before you know it, you didn't go to the gym for 1 week or 2. When you now go back to the gym you've lost strength & endurance, which kills your motivation. This is how many people end up quitting.
In his book "The War of Art", Steven Pressfield talks about "turning pro". To become successful at all of this, you need to become a pro. What's a pro? A pro knows that bad days are part of the game: he accepts it and trains through it.
Bad workouts are better than no workouts. Always go to the gym as planned - whatever your excuse - so you don't break the exercise habit. Usually you'll feel better once you get started.
Quick example: headaches. They always go away once you get started. Don't take my word for it, try it next time you've got a headache.
MiSTAKE #9: Starving Yourself
Training hard is only half of the game. The main reason you're not getting results is often because you're not eating enough. Even if you want to lose fat.
* Gaining weight. You need to eat more than you're doing now to build the muscle mass you're after. Otherwise you'll miss on gains. Check the guide on how to gain weight from skinny guys on StrongLifts.com (left sidebar - Best of StrongLifts.com).
* Losing Fat. You need energy to workout which your body gets from food. Without food, you won't be able to train at high intensity. Eating also improves fat loss: eating fat helps fat loss, eating protein burn more calories, etc. Hunger is the first sign you're not eating enough, plateaus the second one.
Follow these 8 simple rules. Eat breakfast, eat every 3 hours, eat protein with each meal, eat fruits & veggies with each meal, eat carbs post workout only, eat healthy fats, drink water, eat whole foods 90% of the time.
MiSTAKE #10: Not Getting Help
Refusing to ask someone to spot you on the Bench Press. Being scared to death to ask someone to help you on the way up on Pull-ups. Or simply being too close minded to try a completely different approach to training for a few weeks.
In his bestseller "Think & Grow Rich", Napoleon Hill says that one of the keys to get ahead fast is to form a Mastermind: associate yourself with people who are successful at what they do. You'll start to copy their behavior and learn a lot faster.
6 months after I got into lifting, I asked someone at the gym if I could train with him. I noticed the guy several times, he was my age and he had the kind of physique I wanted. We trained together for almost 3 years. I believe that I wouldn't be doing what I do today if I hadn't connected with him back then.
I highly recommend you get yourself a training partner. Not a beginner, but someone experienced. Someone who is already doing all of this for several years, who has the exercise habit ingrained and who won't quit soon.