Some Common Mistakes

[Kofte]

Just want to put this out here, so you guys don't make the same mistakes I did when I first became interested in aesthetics/lifting; this mistakes are common and most likely you've done one or more of these in the past.

1. The Six Pack:

When I first started my routine basically looked like this:

-10 minutes ab routine on ground

-10 minutes more crunches

-10 minutes more crunches

-10 minutes weighted crunches

-20 minutes other body - workout done.

2/3ds of my workout was devoted to my core because I believed a six pack was the answer to everything. Although, I got a six pack because my diet sucked and my body fat was low enough, my body was tiny.

What you should do: Fit a reasonable amount of time for abs on a day of a split (or 2 days if needed - I do it on my back day), and focus on movements such as planks and hanging leg raises. Most of your compound lifts throughout the week will hit your core, so don't think you are neglecting them.

2. Fear To Gain Weight:

I remained at around 125 pounds despite playing hockey, track, and tennis for quite some time because I was honestly scared to lose my six pack, which I look back to and it wasn't even defined. To go anywhere in lifting, you have to put that fear away because to get big you need to get mass, which brings me to the next point:

3. Hitting Your Macros:

In my case I wasn't hitting my macros at all, despite being heavily active I ate around the normal macros of what a nonathletic adult consumes. Therefore I wasnt gaining weight or muscle at all and reached a stagnant point where I felt a loss of motivation because my lifts were going nowhere. Over the course of a few years of hitting my macros (which i eat around 4000ish) I gained weight gradually until I am at the 165ish where I am now. Find a macro calculator online and add 500 calories or deduct 500 calories depending if you are bulking or cutting.

4. Lifting Big:

Light reps for definition is shit, don't do it. Basically lift big or go home. Don't sacrifice your whole form, but find a weight that pushes your body to where you aren't comfortably doing 3 sets of 10 without a struggle. You will see great changes everywhere in pushing your muscles to lift bigger.

5. Neglecting Compound Lifts

In compound lifts I basically mean Bench, Squat, Dead lift. All of these use large portions of muscles in your body, but many people dont do them. Research the form online and watch videos and if needed ask assistance at the gym, you arent truly lifting unless you do these in my opinion.

6. Not Having a Routine:

Self explanatory, if you dont have a routine and jump from place to place, you wont get results. Look for a routine online, Steroids has linked a good site on many posts(www.muscleandstrength.com), if you dont have a routine already, go get one. I personally do a four day split (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun)

Ill probally think of some more later, but these are the basics, I still havent reached my goal in anyway, currently trying to bulk to 180

[Smush]

Good post.

[Steroids]

best post iv seen, actually agree with every point. stickied, gj.

[dmonspawn]

I guess I can add a few things for this, not sure how many would agree with me but at least something I post should hopefully help somebody. Im not in college studying kinesiology yet or have my CSCS cert but this should help and make sense none the less. I will be covering S&C for athletics.

Often I see MANY athletes at my own school waste their time on machines that generally work some part of their upper body and the most free weight action that anyone gets is benching or some DB work. Squat racks are almost never used unless someone is doing pull ups/chins. See the problem here? Many teenagers often rather train for girls or to look good naked than their given sport... not saying you cant have both looks and good overall SPP but your SPP should come first. To keep this simple Ill do it like the OP...

1. Isolation VS Compound

Compound wins by default. DO NOT waste your time with some sort of shoulder raises, get military pressing, STOP with the lat pull down, instead son go do some pull ups or barbell rows. When you are training for your given sport you should be training multi joint/muscle movements to train your CNS to recruit multiple muscle groups simultaneously for the best response. Compound lifts are not as unrealistic to your sport as when will you ever be on a machine curling or doing flys? Maybe in BB machines and goofy(using term loosely) exercises like flys and curls work but you NEED to train your entire body. This now leads me to point number two.

2. Performance VS looks

Like I said above you are an ATHLETE NOT A BB'er! Train as such! This brings me into training as I do know a lot of BB'ers who do compound lifts such as the squat and deadlift but the methods to the madness is a little different. First off one of the most noticeable while looking at someone's programming is their rep/set schemes. A person training for good hypertrophy will generally do reps in the 6-12 range and for a lot of movements the magic number is 10. Sets are generally 2-5. Training for hypertrophy will also have lower percentages and sometimes less overall load and will focus in the 60-70% range. While this is great for enlarging your muscles you need to build raw strength power and speed. If you are looking for strength the 5x5 style works well with many of the major lifts with 80-ish%. For ME(Max effort) which is great for building up your maximal strength and power doing singles with 90% of your major lift will build the most strength with only a total of 3 reps. The only problem with the latter is that form breakdown will happen often if you are not VERY well versed with the lifts which can lead to future injuries. DE(Dynamic effort) is similar but you only use 50-60% of your 1RM and do it for 10x2 or 8x3 generally and this will help you build explosive power as the idea is to lift the weight very fast without form breakdown.

OLifts and all of their derivatives are also great for building up your speed and power. Remember you need to focus on maximal strength and speed to have the most benefits to your CNS!

3. Diet

Too often I see athletes having the classic high school brown bag lunch. A PB sandwich on white bread, some sort of chips or crackers, a piece of fruit and some other snack. Now I am not going to preach something I don't personally do: everyday I bring two lunch bags(reusable) with all my food and the macros written on the bag or container. Diet is very important for proper recovery and to supply good fuel to your body to use when you are performing your intense training. You think those pretzels with the white flower will help you when all that is converted to sugar quickly and doesn't provide much in the way of nutrients. Choose Whole Wheat and natural/organic foods. Eat more veggies than fruit and make sure to get a balanced ratio of Carbs(unless cycling or on keto), essential fats and, protein. People are shocked at how I eat and what I refuse to eat(haven't ate fast food etc since 09'..) and act like its so hard. Its NOT! People somehow get the idea that a normal PB sandwich is healthy, same with pretzels etc. There is Absolute junk, okay food, healthy(what people think) and then HEALTHY. I know it can be expensive but do your best!

Thats it for now, Ill add more to this and edit when I feel like doing so.

[FearMy Def]

agreed tbh

good topic

[Mortuls]

was thinking about abs workouts, then saw this topic  :nice:

Gj.

[I Meleed I]

First time I've seen this.

Good post, I wish everyone would read this kind of post first before posting thread on this section.

[Godspk]

Good post.

[Ready Ok FOE]

lawl

[Dominatus]

I lol'd.

[World alone1]

Decent post here, thanks for the advice

[Skidddz]

125 pounds lol wat

[Dog]

3. Doesn't fucking matter, just eat a lot of calories

 

4. No, progressive overload = hypertrothy no matter what the rep range.

 

5. Those exercises are all tools for a bodybuilder, not a neccessity, you can gain muscle on each body part without doing any of them, but i don't see why any bodybuilder wouldn't.

 

6. Routines are not needed, do your compounds first and track your progress with them, then just murk your muscles

[Woonskep]

ty ty

[Kofte]

3. Doesn't fucking matter, just eat a lot of calories

 

4. No, progressive overload = hypertrothy no matter what the rep range.

 

5. Those exercises are all tools for a bodybuilder, not a neccessity, you can gain muscle on each body part without doing any of them, but i don't see why any bodybuilder wouldn't.

 

6. Routines are not needed, do your compounds first and track your progress with them, then just murk your muscles

3) Bulking yeah, cutting no

 

4) If you're gonna do progressive overload, your gonna be lifting heavy soon

 

5) You can but its a waste of time to not do them

 

6) It helps organize having a routine