the official what (not) to do thread!

[StereOMaN]

- Skipping legs
- Spending two or more hours lifting (overtraining)
- taking liesurely brakes betweens excercizes
- undereating
- steroids at 17
- giving a shit what anyone thought
- avoiding water
- overloading protiene with no carbs
- thinking I looked cooler in the gym in geans and a wife beater
I can go on but long story short I was a dumb kid.

 

[donsj]

Don't go for PRs to often. Get a power rack right away. Never lift in a meet in a new shirt--I had to though 'cause I split my DD on my opener. Current PRs, Squat 365
Bench 345
Dead 365. I know weak squat and dead.

 

[pkarr25]

everyone, me and a number of other members thought this would be a good idea for a thread; everyone posts up the mistakes they made during their training career so that beginning weight trainers may benefit from them and not make those same mistakes.

alright i'll start off with a couple of my own;

- SEVERELY undereating, not realizing diet is key
- focusing on form alone during training, not focusing on progressive resistance

there's a couple more, but...let's hear it from the rest of you!

i find sometimes that i am content with where im at physically, and this seems to hurt my strength, i go from being content with how i am now to being content with being less than i am at that point, it is important to always try to improve in the weight room by working as hard as possible without hurting yourself

 

[shamrock11]

Complete focus is a must. I go to the gym with the mp3 player as loud as possible and I do not talk to anyone until I'm done. I lift at school and I know a lot of people there and it may seem rude, but I'm there to work my muscles not my mouth.

Probably my biggest problem is being over zealous with the weights. I try to go up every week and sometimes I think I may go a little fast. I try to go up in weight every set and also go up from the weight I did the week before.

Keep a log of your food intake and your work out and weights used. This way you can track your progress.

 

[USMC fighter]

- worrying about weight instead of good form, not warming up enough, over training, not doing cardio, following every workout in flex magazine.

 

[danaf1]

The biggest ones that I've seen (and apply to me) are:

- Not eating enough
- Not eating well (most common flaw by far, I find)
- Not wanting to do an exercise cause its challenging, hurts your ego, can barely do a rep, or whatever... that's all the more reason to focus on it.
- Neglecting bodyparts. Back and legs come to mind....now I rather enjoy training back.
- Lack of patience. This is another big one.... people want everything to happen in a week. Doesn't work like that. Hell, somedays it feels like you are progressing backwards....but keep at it and it will come.

I think you nailed just about everything I would say. I have never been a strong bencher, it has always been my weakest power move and was an ego crusher. I took a friends advice and just started beching anyway and doing a lot of tricep work and increased my bench about thirty pounds in a matter of weeks! Also I used to train and train but never really ate right and saw no gains. Once Istarted making my diet my priority rather than training, I saw greater gains with less gym time. I also have a friend who is really hardcore into training but he only trains his upper body so in the summer he walks around with no shirt and shorts on and has a large upper body and chicken legs. It just looks wrong. Patience is the greatest of all for me and a lot of people. When your gains begin to slow a lot of people get unmotivated and eventually quit training.

 

[kiosk]

1. Trying to gain 20lbs of muscle in a month w/o drugs.
2. Buying dumb ass suplements that dont work instead of eating well
3. Not doing any cardio (and I still dont!!)
4. Unable to train well in the morning caused partyed till 4am
5. Ordering the 20 greasy chicken wings at Hooters!!!

 

[Island Son]

get serious about stretching make it a routine during days off, not a 30-second formality after the workout. Set flexibility goals for hamstring, quad, achilles, itb, hip flexors. My knees are still paying for it... it'll be awhile before I squat like i used to.

 

[perp69]

Don't hit on the gym manager's girl friend while doing cardio.

 

[GoldenDelicious]

-worrying about fat too much. i used to grill things and eat horrible food, to avoid a measly 20 g of fat...these days i just fry the damn thing

-being impatient. gains come with time, so focus on the idea that youll look better than the other guys your age, even if you dont look like a machine right away

-neglecting boring bodyparts ie shoulders

and lots of what everyone else said