I’ve been a regular gym rat for a very long time now and in all these years I know I made a lot of mistakes. It is due to those mistakes that I started questioning if I will ever achieve my dreams when it comes to physique and performance. I’ve had too many failed diets and training attempts. Now, after years of experience, trial, and tests, I’m going to the gym and seeing other people making pretty much the same mistakes. Therefore, in the process, I learned the importance of doing everything alright as long as you want to achieve success.
I know that working out can become complicated. It is more complicated than some people may think “meh, just lifting some weights”. If you ever tried to gain muscle, you know that it is way more than just “lifting some weights”. You need to remember what weight you lifted last week, pay attention to your form, plan which order to do your workouts in (and then all the stations are busy), have that mind muscle connection, and… give it your all. That’s far from easy. That’s why many people make a lot of mistakes. With all of this said it is no wonder there are so many injuries or poor progress around.
Nonetheless, remember that nobody is ever perfect in the gym! You don’t have to be either. But avoiding some mistakes is highly beneficial for your goals. Just stay focused and learn about these mistakes. Therefore, I will share some of the biggest mistakes that people tend to make in the gym which significantly ruins their way to success.
Going In Without a Plan
If I had to guess, I would say that this is the number one mistake that gym goers are making. There are simply way too many people who go to the gym not having the smallest idea what they are about to do. This may be forgivable if you’re an absolute beginner who has never been to the gym.
However, consistently showing up without a plan and general focus for the session will definitely not bring you any results. You are going to do yourself a big favor if you equip yourself with a basic training program. This is going to offer you more structure and consistency, which will bring results! It doesn’t need to be professional or fancy, especially as a beginner. Not having a plan and heading to the first machine you see will work no good as muscles are growing when trained correctly.
Skipping the Warm Up
In all my years in the gym, I’ve seen way too many people walk right into the gym and head straight to the squat rack or bench station. That may work for some particular people, with particular needs, but most people out there will need some sort of warm-up protocol. Underestimating the importance of a proper warm up is too common among way too many people. That’s a huge mistake. Warming up is a crucial element of any workout! It helps you prepare your body, mind, muscles, and tissues for the training session. This will significantly lower the chances of injuries! Lots of people are not warming correctly, or skipping the warm up part at all. But warming up will get the blood flowing through the muscles, helping them to expand and contract with peak efficiency!
Warming up is different for everyone, but a good starting point is a quick 5 minutes general cardiovascular exercise that will help increase blood flow. Then add some relevant mobility flow to address any joint stiffness that may block the movement during the workout, which will block the workout efficiency! I always stretch all my joints before the workout, then make sure I have my heart rate increased before starting my workout. Warming up properly means that you take your muscles through a full range of motion while your heart rate is up. Dynamic stretching can really help. Go for leg swings, light band work, bodyweight lunges, and so on. Warm up with lighter weight movements. May also warm up for each exercise, in particular. Such as having a few empty bar bench presses before your actual bench press.
Improper Form
Should I even mention that an incorrect form of exercise is unlikely to bring any results and worse – it increases the likelihood of injury? Well, yes, it does. Way too many people are making the mistake of performing various exercises incorrectly. The same person can do one movement perfectly, and the other one incorrectly. That’s why it is a matter of years in the gym to master most of them. Keep in mind that resistance training is centered around generating enough volume to damage muscle fibers so they can grow bigger and stronger. Having poor forms will not generate enough volume on the right muscles and too much volume on the wrong muscles and joints. This issue is extremely common to arise because of an incorrect amount of weight.
Going for a really heavy weight on a barbell, and only going a quarter of the way through the range of motion isn’t going to work the right kind of muscle for growth. On the other hand, it may put too much pressure on other parts of the body. Do NOT go for ego lifting, proper form ensures that you lift what you want to lift. Heavy weights will come with time. Do not make heavy weights a priority, keeping your form should be your top priority. This is how you ensure the gains keep on coming. For example, I’ve seen way too many guys bicep curling with their lower back rather than biceps. This works no bicep muscles, but it puts way too much pressure on your lower back, which eventually is very likely to lead to lower back pains!
Changing Exercises Too Frequently
You may have heard that in order to grow muscles, you need to “shock” them. This means that you can’t have the same 3 chest exercises over and over again, without changing anything, and see your chest grow. This is the reason why I tend to see too many people in the gym making the mistake of changing exercises too frequently. It is important to remember that to strengthen or grow a particular body part, you will need consistent and targeted stimulus.
This alone will require practice. This is one of the reasons why gains are a marathon, not a sprint. You really need to repeatedly practice a movement if you want to get better at that movement and really dial in your mind to muscle connection. Practicing can recruit as many muscle fibers as possible. This way, you can really squeeze the juice out of the exercise, yielding the best possible results.
Poor Exercise Selection
This is another mistake that will significantly stop you from making progress in the gym. The type of muscle groups you train, when you train them, and what order you train them in – all matter more than you think! In order to get your strength training routine working for you, you should make sure you know why you’re doing the exercise that you’re doing (and of course, as said earlier, do it correctly).
Two of the most common mistakes I can mention here are: doing your isolation exercises before compound lifts and not scheduling enough rest between workouts. That’s why, if you do dumbbell curls before your deadlifts, it may leave your legs undertrained. This is because your main energy reserves went to dumbbell curls, and this taxes your ability to max out your deadlifts. Therefore, as long as you work isolation exercises (only one joint bend), then you better save it for the end of your
. Start with heavier compounds. The same is true about rest. You don’t need more or fewer rest days, you need to group them correctly. Leave certain muscle groups to rest while the others are working. This ensures you avoid overtraining and burnout, but still make sure you go for the results in the gym.
Ignoring What You Do The Rest 23 Hours of Your Day
This one is not about the mistakes literally in the gym, but it is still one huge mistake that significantly hinders your progress in the gym. This one hits pretty close to home, but it is the reason why a lot of gym goers suffer from the frustration of achieving no results, despite the fact that they may work hard in the gym. Keep in mind that even if you’re going hard in the gym for one hour a day, that is not enough to make up for a sedentary lifestyle and/or a poor diet.
Too many people seem to work hard and regularly in the gym, yet they have no results. That is very likely due to their incorrect lifestyle and low quality diet. More often than not – both. It is crucial to remember that you’re in the gym just one hour a day, and more often than not, not even every day. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the other 23 hours in your day will reflect your goals. That’s just as important as that one hour of hard banging weight is. If the rest of the hours are not in line with your goals, your one hour in the gym is unlikely to bring much or any results. This applies to your recovery, diet, sleep, social life, and so on.
Thinking Everyone Is Looking At You
Another mistake that I often seem to notice in the gym is something called “gym anxiety”. Trust me, it is a much bigger problem than you may think of it. And yes, it can significantly hinder your goals. Of course, this is especially true for people who are new to training and/or those who are starting their lifting journey without a so-called “fitness influencer physique”. Yeah, I know it is much easier to sit here and yell at you that NO ONE CARES than actually understand it… but yes, that’s actually true.
Yes, it is easier said than done to ignore the part of your brain that tells you that everyone is watching you, and worse – judges you due to maybe somewhat imperfect forms. But hey, remember, we’ve all started somewhere. And we’re all in the gym to deal with those imperfections! In the end, you need to stop this, and the only way to get over this barrier is to face it head-on. This basically means that you should expose yourself to that uncomfortable situation in the gym. The more frequently you do it, the easier it gets each time. Allow yourself to get over that fear, but remember that you get over it with time. Everyone can do it, you can do it too!
Avoid These Mistakes With Iron Daddy
Lifting weights doesn’t seem to be much complicated, however, they are far from as simple as they seem. As you can see, there are a lot of mistakes that people make in the gym and they hinder their progress. If you are unsure where to start or have questions regarding the form, muscle group, the order in which you should do each exercise, warming up, and so on – I always recommend asking a personal trainer for help. Personal trainer is one of the best investments when it comes to getting bigger and stronger.
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- Keep in mind that everyone in the gym is a lifetime learner, and everyone is a beginner when it comes to some aspect of the gym! Therefore, train with purpose to your own goals and needs, be confident, and continue learning!
