Chapter 6: The Most 7 Common Strength Training Mistakes

Lifting too Heavy is dangerous

The Most Common Strength Training Mistakes ( 7 Sins)

To help ensure that you do go on to see success with your strength training workout program, it’s helpful to know the main mistakes that many people make as they go along with their program as this will give you a far better indication of what not to do. 

Making even one of these mistakes could the cause for serious concern as it could completely wipe out the progress that you are seeing.

Strength training is a very beneficial form of exercise, but only when you have the right approach in place.

So let’s take a look at the main mistakes that you must know and remember at all times.

Mistake #1: Lack Of Change

If you’re someone who tends to get into a routine and do the same workout over and over again, you are seriously hurting your success.

The thing with weight lifting is that it’s all about a process of adaptation.  You must apply an overloading stimulus to the muscle tissues and once that’s been applied, you then need to back off and allow rest to take place, as we’ve mentioned.

This is what allows the body to grow back stronger and faster again so that if the same stimulus was applied again, you’d be able to overcome it.

Now, if you go back to the gym and do just that – apply the same stimulus, do you think you’re going to make any progress forwards?

You’re not because your body is now able to effectively deal with what you’re dishing out.

It’s used to that stimulus and will simply maintain a state of homestasis now.

So, in order to fully get progress moving along, it’s absolutely imperative that you are constantly changing something about your program over time.

If you’re doing the same workout for more than a few weeks in a row, you are definitely headed for trouble.

Mistake #2: Lifting Too Light

The second big mistake that many people make is using way too light of a weight.  This is often the case with females as they’re scared of getting big and bulky, but you must remember that women simply do not have the hormonal profile to do so.

Heavier weights are simply going to challenge the muscles more and that is what is needed for success to occur.

Push yourself.  It’ll be what gets you the results that you’re looking for.  The greatest way to overload the muscles will almost always be with more weight rather than doing incredibly high reps.

Mistake #3: Lifting Too Heavy

Yes, you read it right. It might seem ironic but lifting too heavy is another mistake a lot of beginners make. More often that not, lifting too heavy means you risk injuries for the sake of trying to impress that hot girl or cute guy in the gym. Let's be brutally honest here. Most males I come across have egos bigger than what their muscles can carry, myself included. There are times when you need to put that ego aside and focus on the job. 

Grunting and making lots of noise will not impress anyone. Ever heard Arnold do bicep curls with 5kg dumbbells? Our aim in the gym is NOT to move the heaviest weight from point A to point B and then back.

Rather, strength training is about utilising and recruitment of as many muscle fibers as possible during the exercise. And this can only be achieved with proper form, which brings us to the next mistake.

Mistake #4: Improper Form

Next, another thing to be on the lookout for is not using proper form. If you often find yourself falling out of good form as you go about your workout session, this could very likely lead to an injury.

Proper form is not only important so that you don’t end up in pain at the end of your workout session, but it’s also important so that you can reap all the benefits that you should be seeing from any given exercise.

If you aren’t using good form, you aren’t stressing the body as you should be and thus, the muscles won’t be responding as needed.

All in all, form is a must.  Above all else, you must be using good form. 

It’s a smart move every 4-6 weeks to lighten up on the weight in your workout program and just do a quick form check.  Go about the exercise and make absolutely sure that you are using good form.

If you have to, hire a trainer to watch you.  This will help prevent any bad habits from forming that could potentially cause more significant issues down the road.

Mistake #5: Focusing On Isolation Exercises

The next mistake that’s often made by those who are getting started with a weight lifting program is focusing far more on isolation exercises than compound movements.  We’ve mentioned earlier how much more important it is to be focusing on the compound movements as these are the ones that are going to yield the absolute greatest results for each and every rep that you take.

Yet, time and time again, people go into the gym and think that doing ten different sets of bicep curls is the way to bigger and stronger arms.

Don’t kid yourself.

Isolation work needs to be kept in check, coming only at the end of your workout session as an afterthought and ‘finisher’ to the rest of the work that you perform.

Those who focus too much on isolation exercises are never going to move ahead and see the progress they want to be.

Mistake #6: Not Tracking Progress

Speaking of progress, this brings us to our next mistake – failing to track.  Being mindful of how you’re doing as you go about your workout program is also going to be highly integral to success.

If you simply put your workout on autopilot and forget about it, never really checking in to see how the program is delivering, there is a much higher chance that you are going to run into a progress plateau and waste weeks if not months doing the same thing over and over again.

Instead, you want to be monitoring your results every step of the way.  If you see a trend occurring with your progress or you feel you aren’t moving along fast enough, do something to change that.

Change is what creates results.  Doing the same thing over and over again gets you the same thing over and over again.

But if you aren’t tracking, you won’t even notice in the first place.

Mistake #7: Failing To Rest

Finally, the last big problem that occurs in many people’s programs is simply a lack of rest or failing to get in enough rest.  They feel that the more exercise they get into their workout program, the better their results will be.

So they hit the gym, time and time again, putting in as much effort as possible even if their body is crying for a break.

At times, going to the gym can be very detrimental to your success.  In many situations, you simply are better off allowing the body to rest and recover rather than going into the gym and pushing as hard as possible.

Failing to realize this will mean shorting yourself on your progress.  Those who aren’t resting enough won’t be recovering and instead of building up stronger than before, they’ll just continually tear the muscles down further and further, growing weaker in the process.

Make sure that you are resting enough each week (at least one day off, if not two) and listening to your body.

If you feel that you need more time off than that day or two, give it. There’s a fine line between pushing hard enough and pushing too hard.

So there you have the most common training mistakes that you must be on the lookout for and make sure that you aren’t making in your own approach.

If you fail to recognize these and go forward and complete these mistakes, you are headed for big trouble down the road.

Now that you’re prepared with what not to do, let’s get to your workout programs.