1) Not following a programmeThis is by far the biggest mistake I see people making in the gym ALL THE TIME. In they walk through the door, shooting the breeze and saying "So, uh, what we gonna do today bruv?"
"Dunno. What you train yesterday?"
"Chest. Was gonna do biceps today."
"Oh, ok. I was gonna do chest."
"Uh, ok...I'll just do chest again with you then, cool?"
Aaargghh!!
Sorry, but turning up to the gym and "winging" it just doesn't cut the mustard. You need a proper, progressive plan in place to ensure the quickest, most effective results possible.
Why?
A properly designed programme includes a built in progression scheme that removes the guess work from your training, meaning at any one time you know how much weight to use, how many sets and reps to perform and how much rest to take. These are the most important variables in any training session and to just "wing" them is probably the biggest reason most people get little if any results from their training.
Essentially, having a programme is like having a road map to your destination. If you want to squat 200kg, how will you do this? What loading scheme will you follow? What assistance exercises will you use? What rep range? What % of 1RM? If you don't know, then how do you expect to achieve your goal? How do you expect to get from where you are now to where you want to be?
Progression is almost guaranteed when you follow a properly designed programme, because you will know exactly what to do and never end up repeating workouts and just "spinning your wheels". Each session will build on the last and you will end up setting new PR's regularly throughout the training year.
So stop "winging it" and wasting your time - get a programme sorted!
2) Doing too muchNo matter who you are, there is a threshold of training volume that will be ideal for you as an individual. For anyone, a minimum of 1 set is the lowest threshold required to stimulate adaptation in the weight room. There is also an upper threshold of training, beyond which you end up just wasting your time and don't continue to stimulate adaptation.
It's important to remember that your body progresses by RECOVERING from your training, not the actual training sessions themselves. If you're body cannot recover from your training then sorry, you're not going to progress. What you will do is over train, breakdown and end up ill and chronically fatigued - not really the goal of training right?
To this end, do we really think that it's necessary for 6-8 sets of 6-8 exercises just for your chest performed 2-3 times per week? Overkill anyone? Drug-assisted bodybuilders popularised these super-high volume training methods many moons ago (they worked because the steroids allowed them to recover from such high volumes) and then us poor old naturals came along and thought - that's how the big guys train, so that's how we must train too, right?
Er, sorry...but no.
The training volume of natural bodybuilders (including the genetically gifted) is normally far more realistic, usually somewhere around 3-4 exercises for around 3-5 sets per exercise. Again, this depends on your goal, training experience etc, but as a guideline, if your sessions are taking longer than 90 minutes MAX to complete, chances are you're doing too much. I'd bet you've got the lack of progress to show it too.
3) Doing too little This and point number 2 above are two sides of the same stupid coin. Sure, you need to keep your training volume and frequency realistic, but sorry, training once every 10 days and then moaning about your lack of "guns" or the fact that you're trousers are still too tight doesn't really require a huge amount of brain power to figure out why. You must train frequently to see physique changes, usually AT LEAST twice a week. Four times per week is great for 90% of the population, although a lot of people would actually fair better off on a basic 3 day split, which allows them to recover better and thus train harder when they're back in the gym. Obviously you're availability will affect which option (2/3/4 days per week) you choose, and your training will have to be set up accordingly (a programme designed for 4-days per week usually won't work if you only train twice) but just bear in mind that you MUST train consistently and often to see any real, meaningful results.
SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT - We are able to design super high-quality programmes around your circumstances at the gym, so pop in and see us for some advice on how to best set up your training.
4) Programme HoppingProgramme hopping refers to constantly changing programmes every two weeks in search of the "best" one. This has been compounded somewhat through certain strength coaches remarking that the best programme "is the one you're not on". Unfortunately, this advice often gets taken out of context and leads to people never actually seeing a programme through from start to finish. One minute they're building strength, then the next they've switched to fat loss cos they want 6-pack abs, before changing back across to hypertrophy 2 weeks later cos they've changed their minds again. Or they'll skip between different hypertrophy programmes, which, although are all focused on the same overall goal, use totally different methods.
Well guess what, hop too many programmes and you'll be hopping over any potential results as well.
You need to give a programme a good 8-12 week stint before being able to determine if it was effective. At the gym, we work in 4 week cycles, but each cycle is part of an overall 12-week plan built around one goal. You need to focus on your "one goal" and give AT LEAST 2-3 months, in some cases up to 4 months to give your body a chance of actually making progress in your chosen area. Once you've got your "one goal" (e.g. fat loss) put all the other factors (strength; hypertrophy; performance etc) on maintenance and FOCUS on fat loss! This is the only way you'll make genuine progress over time, by committing 100% of your energy into one main area of focus.
And stick with the one programme too! Don't switch between different programmes focused on the same goal. Programmes are usually "periodised" from lower intensity work at the start to much higher intensity work at the end, and gradually build up to this higher intensity over many weeks. But if you keep jumping programmes every two weeks, you always end up doing the "less intense" start of the programme and never getting to the results producing "more intense" section! The result? NO FREAKIN' RESULTS! So don't do this, ok!
5) Not sticking to the basicsLet me tell you something - Lock a man away in prison for a year with nothing but a squat rack, a barbell and some plates (we won't include a bench as he'd have no spotters for the bench press :p ). No fancy equipment, dumbbells, cable machines or bosu balls. What are the chances that he'd come out of that cell in a year's time in the best shape of his life? Actually, pretty damn high.
The basic barbell lifts (the squat, deadlift, bench press & overhead press) should form the foundation of any one's programme, regardless of their goal. I don't care if you train for size, strength, fat loss, whatever, these lifts must show their face in your training at some point. What changes with your goal is the programming of the lifts (sets, reps and weight used) not the exercises themselves.
These days, it's all about "functional training", using kettlebells, TRX trainers, Swiss balls and the like. And these tools are fine - I use them all myself regularly - just not at the expense of the basic lifts.
When someone comes to me and says they can't increase their upper body size, the first thing I'll do is often GET RID of half the junk exercises they're performing and replace them with some basic bench presses, overhead presses, chins and rows. All of a sudden, they grow. No flyes, lateral raises, bosu ball push ups - just basic lifts done in a progressive fashion. All these other exercises are fine, but only is added to a solid foundation made up of basic lifts.
So forget the leg extension / leg curl superset in the latest edition of
Muscle and Fiction , put some weight on the bar and squat (below parallel, by the way - no half squats please).
So there you go. Absorb this info and take your training - and results - to new heights. Don't just train hard, and don't just train smart - do both. Let me know how you get on!
