1. EGO LIFTING
This is by far the biggest mistake i see in beginners and also in some regular gym goers. Trying to lift with your ego, letting all form go to ruin in the attempt to try and either outlift the person next to you or impress the opposite sex. Now this is mainly a guy thing but here is the truth about ego lifting. Firstly you are putting yourself at much greater risk of injury, secondly the experienced guys and girls are having a laugh at your pathetic form and probably posting videos on youtube of you right now. And last of all – it is alot harder to lift with correct technique than to throw weight round like a demented ape. So quit trying to be a hero and lift sensibly – feel the muscles working, use good form and full range of movement and start with a weight that you can do a full rep with!
2. OVERTRAINING
Its kind of easy to get carried away when you first start going to the gym and want to do that 1 more set or 1 more exercise but more isn’t necessarily better. Your muscles need adequate rest and proper nutrition to grow so doing 4 sets on 8 exercises for chest every other day is actually detrimental to what you are trying to acheive. Rest days are important too. If you are enjoying the gym the last thing you want to do is burn yourself out.
3. NOT USING PROPER TECHNIQUE
As a personal trainer i see this everyday in the gym and the amount of people doing it is staggering. Doing this will either lead to injury or on the flipside nothing at all. Doing Squats and Deadlifts with poor form is exremely dangerous and can cause serious injury, and they are just the main offenders – another one i see is pull ups – using every part of your body apart from your back and not even getting your chin to the bar is going to acheive nothing!. If you are unsure, employ a personal trainer to show you how to do these exercises safely and get the results you want!
4. NOT HAVING A PLAN.
When you walk in the gym you should know what bodypart you are going to be training, which exercises, how many sets and what rep range. Having a workout split detailing these things will help you to journal your workouts and keep a track of what weights you are lfting. Planning ahead is very important – if you do you will reap the benefits and if not you will fall short of reaching your goals
5. NOT BALANCING CARDIO AND WEIGHTS.
Most girls avoid weights in the fear they will get too muscular- i hear it all the time, so they spend most of their time in the cardio section but you arent going to get than toned lean muscle look from cardio alone – you are just going to look skinny. And for guys, just hitting the weights won’t get your abs popping through without the right amont of cardio. So it needs to be a happy balance of the both of them.
6. UNDERESTIMATING THE IMPORTANCE OF NUTRITION.
Make no mistake, it doesnt matter how hard you train, how good your training split is, what preworkout cocktail you have,
If you don’t get your nutrition right you won’t get anywhere. NUTRITION is at least 70% of the puzzle. Period!