Biggest Mistakes

[iron addict]

Looking back on my training carreer, the two biggest training related mistakes I made were training to failure WAY to frequently (I used to hit failure on most everything every workout years ago) and not changing up the loading frequently enough. I suspect that is the case with many of you, and IMO you will be wise to correct it if that is the case.

Iron Addict

 

[huskyguy]

I would have to say overtraining and not giving myself a rest when I needed it. Its easy to get too enthusiastic, thus limiting alot of our potential gains.

 

[DADAWG]

I would have to say overtraining and not giving myself a rest when I needed it. Its easy to get too enthusiastic, thus limiting alot of our potential gains.

very true for me

 

[ManOfMuscle]

I also used to train to failure on almost every lift. It can be very hard to get past that mentality that you aren't pushing yourself hard enough.

 

[Behemoth]

I remember the old days... you haven't worked out hard enough unless you at least throw up in your mouth a little.

 

[jcp2]

reading Flex magazine for the first time. I made great gains playing football in hs, we didn't do any isolation work.

 

[blackbeard]

Excellent point IA..
I see many people in the gym going to failure on just about every move they do and then wonder why things arent moving up

 

[getfitdoc]

2 biggest mistakes,,,

over-emphasizing:
bicep curls and leg extensions

 

[0nyx]

thanks for the info . experience is the best knowledge to learn from somebody

 

[thetopdog]

I still make both those mistakes way too often

 

[jocktheglide]

the training to failure thing yes your right, but the mags taught us that back when we started in general I can remember reading flex, M and F, musclemag, etc saying training to failure on all sets is what makes gains. I think I made the best gains last 5 years without training to failure and YES more rests.

 

[luquillo78]

When you get used to train to failure, then when you don't, you feel you didn't give everything you had. Hard to correct. Now I go to failure on 1 or 2 sets of the whole workout. Is that ok?

 

[BIG_TRUCK]

When you get used to train to failure, then when you don't, you feel you didn't give everything you had. Hard to correct. Now I go to failure on 1 or 2 sets of the whole workout. Is that ok?

Thats how i feel now. If i get all 8 or whatever of my last set... I didnt go heavy enough! It's hard when you want to get as big as you can as fast as you can. A damn good man once said, "slow is accurate, and accurate is fast"! -SFAS 04 1SG Sinko

 

[Behemoth]

Why go to failure and not be able to do much more afterwards when you can just stop one rep short of failure, rest a minute or two, and bang out a bunch more reps? I don't get it.

 

[AngryMuscles]

biggest mistakes...

Doing 10 sets of everything and everyday..believe adding more volume will make me grow
smoking
not eating enough
not resting enough

that was like 2 years ago...thanks Steroidology

 

[WannaBe]

Doing sets of 5-8 reps for biceps and triceps. Arms would not grow.
Once I started doing 10-12 reps my arm size exploded.
Some body parts respond to low reps and some high. Go figure????

 

[Mudge]

Depends on the fiber makeup percentages, some people utilize a variety of reps by choice, to attempt and cause hypertrophy in all fibers.

 

[jocktheglide]

Depends on the fiber makeup percentages, some people utilize a variety of reps by choice, to attempt and cause hypertrophy in all fibers.

ok, slightly off topic mudge, but I might have a problem maybe due to my fibers. Ok I hear all these people high repping and pushing huges weights. here is my dilemna for some reason I develop easy fatique for anything past 10 to 12 reps of anything. for example I can rep 95lbs on the bench for 10 reps and I get fatique really easy no joking here seriously. then I can jump to 115 and do 10 only again then 135 and ten again my muscle must fatique faster than normal. I can do 225 for 10 also in fact I can do this for like 4 sets as long as I rest 5mins in between each set. do you think its because my muscle fiber make up is the so called fast ones majority as opposed to a runners make up who can rep and rep and rep all day? I know I have a couple of friends who I seen rep 135 all day, but cant push over 200lbs on the bench like I can.

 

[goliath23]

Biggest mistakes I see and have done.
- only doing leg extensions
- not squating low enough
- boucing at the bottom of the squat
- relying on wraps too much when squating
- not a full range of motion
- way to many sets
- bad technique

 

[Ponderosa]

great thread. hope the under 30 crowd reads and takes note.

biggest mistake: failing to come to the realization that I GO TO THE GYM TO BE HEALTHY AND TO FACILITATE AN ACTIVE LIFESTYLE, not to sustain an injury inside said gym. looking back, half my injuries are sports related, the other half are gym related (poor training, over training). rediculous. what a moron i was. grrrr...