COMMON TRAINING MISTAKES

1) Not being properly fuelled for training. There’s nothing worse than going into a training session feeling like shit because you’ve tried to eat as little as possible leading up to your workout. Let’s be clear, you’re not going all beast mode on half a rice cake.

2) Doing sloppy warm up sets with shite form because ‘they’re just warm up sets’. Tip: deadlift 30kg, the same way you deadlift 100kg - lifting is a skill that required practice and all reps are an opportunity to practice those skills.

3) Lifting too heavy at the expense of form. No one is interested in how much you can grind up off the floor; if people are staring it’s because your spine looks like it might snap in half, and they’re also pissed you’ve stolen all the plates.

4) Lifting too light because you can’t deal with the discomfort; working to an 10RM using a weight you can actually lift for 20 reps isn’t forcing any adaptation. And for those who ‘don’t want to get too big’ - NAY FUCKING DANGER PAL.  

5) Focusing too much on the small details, like the timing of your intra-workout carbs, when it’s nearly 6pm and so far all you’ve had is a Mars bar and 12 coffees. Nail the basics. 

6) Believing that you need to lift at a certain rep range to get stronger. If you work to a 12 rep max, and you can gradually lift more weight for 12 reps, then you’re stronger. You don’t need to work to 1-5 rep maxes; progressive overload is where it’s at.

7) Sticking to exercises you like. We all tend to enjoy doing things we’re good at, which training-wise, generally means exercises we’re stronger at, which pretty much guarantees that we’ll end up training all of our strengths, neglecting all of our weaknesses, and exposing ourselves to all kinds of potential injuries.

8) Thinking that the way to build muscle is to perform the craziest shit you can think of, with bands attached to every body part, swinging upside down from a cable machine with a chain dangling between your legs because it hits the bottom part of your left pec really well - when VOLUME will always be king when it comes to building muscle.