Are you making tangible gains week in and week out? If you’re like most persons who workout on a daily basis, you’ve ran into a zero-progress rut before.
Unfortunately, even the most precise application of cutting edge training and diet techniques can leave you feeling disgruntled and looking de-muscled. To make physical improvements on a regular basis, you need to eliminate all sources of error in your routine. In fact, the difference between success and failure is so small that if you’re making just one of the nine mistakes listed below, you could be severely limiting your body’s progress. Take a critical look at your routine to identify which of the following errors you’re guilty off, and then take action.
Mistake: Using the same weights, week after week. When is the last time you made some really big gains in the strength department? So often we fall into a pattern, continually choosing the same weight for an exercise instead of challenging ourselves by trying to move up. While getting stronger isn’t directly equated to building bigger muscles, it’s certainly linked. If you don’t build up to lifting a considerable amount of weight for plenty of reps with perfect form, you’ll never develop impressive size.
Corrective action: Continually doing the same weight, same sets, and same reps week after week, even when you aren’t making progress isn’t the optimal way to train. Instead, you need to incorporate the concept of periodization into your training. You should cycle periods of strength training if you have a bodybuilding-styled training and strength endurance training routine. You can do one month of each to increase in the areas you are falling short in.
MISTAKE: Using weights you can’t manage properly. While becoming stronger is important, poundage at all costs is a definite progress killer and can result in an injury that takes you out of action. There are a lot of people who use weights they can’t handle with good form. Impeccable exercise form — no yanking, no dropping, no heaving, no excessive ranges of motion, no blasting into a repetition, is pivotal to training safety.
Corrective action: Cut back your working weights by 10 percent, tighten up your form, and then gradually build your weights to gain the strength or growth you’re looking for.
Mistake: Not allowing adequate recovery time between workouts. Rest generously between workouts. I know a lot of bodybuilders minimize their recovery time and maximize their workout frequency. This sometimes leads to inadequate results. Remember muscles grow between workouts, not during them.
Corrective action: For a change, try weight training on just three days each week, and concentrate on other areas while resting on the other four days. Try dividing your overall program or split your training into two parts to see which works best for you.
Mistake: Avoiding the hard exercises. The major muscle builders are exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, military presses, dips, rows, and pull-ups. These are the ones you have to become very good at.
Corrective action: You don’t need to move the equivalent of a Volkswagen or anything. Take it slow — give yourself a chance to become accustomed to certain movements, and quit “wussing” out in your workouts by switching your tire shuffles to just regular shuffles.
Mistake: Not giving 100 percent. If you’re loafing in the gym or chatting your training partner, or flirting, you’ll never get far in the strength and growth department. While you don’t have to train until you literally drop, you still have to train hard.
Corrective action: Concentrate on the exact moment you find yourself in and put everything you have into every exercise . Don’t do the exercises half-heartedly or lazily go through the motions.
Mistake: Neglecting your health. Without good health, you can’t train consistently. Without training consistency, you can’t make notable progress. Without good health, your body can’t recover optimally. Good health is at the bedrock of transforming your body. Don’t wait until you no longer have your health before you appreciate it.
Corrective action: Look after yourself so you minimize your chances of getting injured or ill. Avoid harmful activities and environments. Over-training can make you sick, as it helps to suppress your immune system. Take care of yourself and then you can take care of your training goals.
Mistake: Sticking with a plan or exercise that’s not working. Too many people find a program in a book or magazine, and then stick to it with the fervor of a religious zealot, despite their better judgment. While you don’t want to use this as an excuse to stop doing the more difficult exercises, if an exercise is seriously causing you pain or is not working the intended area or muscle, there’s a problem.
Corrective action: Personalize your program, finding what woks best for you. There’s probably no single workout that works well for everyone. Even good programs have to be fine-tuned to fit the individual.
Mistake: Selling yourself short. Setting limits on yourself is the surest route to failure. Don’t expect the impossible, but believe you can achieve a lot. Set your sights high, and you’ll be pleased with the results.
Corrective action: Set realistic but challenging short-term goals. Give your absolute best effort to reach those targets, and then set new goals. Be driven. To measure your progress toward those goals, write them down and keep a training journal, recording all your results. As the weeks go by you need to be able to see and feel small but gradual improvements.
Mistake: Treating nutrition as a “nice-to-do” rather than a “need-to-do.” Nutrition may be last on this list, but it should be first when it comes to your workout plan. The road to results is littered with people who failed to reach their destination because they mistakenly thought that working out was the only prerequisite while completely ignoring their nutrition. What you eat, and when you eat it, is a huge factor in working out. And what you consume must be high in quality to provide the abundance of nutrients needed to recover from hard training.
Corrective action: Feed your body five to six times a day. Cut down drastically on unhealthy fats like margarine, fried foods, foods that contain hydrogenated oils and enrich your diet with healthful fats like virgin olive oil and oily fish such as salmon and mackerel. Eat generous daily helpings of vegetables, fruit and unrefined grains. If your diet is lacking in variety, take a daily multivitamin to ensure that you’re getting adequate amounts of the vitamins and minerals that are essential for enhancing your body.
From: The Nassau Guardian
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