[quote]Fandango wrote:
[quote]thrasher_09 wrote:
Thinking that deadlifts will take care of my upper back training
[/quote]
Care to explain this one?[/quote]
I just didn’t do many rows at all thinking that deadlifts would do enough for my upper back. When I started doing Pendlay/BB/DB Rows I noticed a huge improvement in my upper back. I always thought that the isometric contraction during deadlifts was enough to full stimulate it.
To be perfectly honest my biggest mistake as a beginner was being engrossed in the T-Nation articles, which led me to believe that bodybuilding was nuclear fission and I shouldn’t be training my arms.
Over the long-term the T-Nation FORUMS have been good to me, but as much as I hate to say this I would probably be further along now had I initially attached myself to something like BB.com or AnimalPak, or better yet got no information from the internet at all beyond exercise form.
I feel like I came to T-Nation inspired by the idea of bodybuilding, and then the articles convinced me that I didn’t like bodybuilding, until a year later when I realized oh wait, yes I do, WTF am I doing I haven’t made any progress in forever!?
[quote]mr popular wrote:
To be perfectly honest my biggest mistake as a beginner was being engrossed in the T-Nation articles, which led me to believe that bodybuilding was nuclear fission and I shouldn’t be training my arms.
Over the long-term the T-Nation FORUMS have been good to me, but as much as I hate to say this I would probably be further along now had I initially attached myself to something like BB.com or AnimalPak, or better yet got no information from the internet at all beyond exercise form.
I feel like I came to T-Nation inspired by the idea of bodybuilding, and then the articles convinced me that I didn’t like bodybuilding, until a year later when I realized oh wait, yes I do, WTF am I doing I haven’t made any progress in forever!?[/quote]
I feel the exact same way
Worrying about what others were doing more so then what I was doing.
[quote]Akuma01 wrote:
Lol well this is going to come up a lot-
Not eating enough. Being a fat-aphobe for the first several years of my training held me back. Id be a lot bigger if i had eaten more in the initial years of my training.[/quote]
x2
Ramping reps instead of weight
being more worried about “getting atleast 6 meals a day” rather than the right amount of kcals and macros.
Mine was not learning about proper nutrition and doing less of the Big 3(bench, squat, deadlift) and more machines. Through a lot of trial and error I have figured out what works for me and these became my core principles of my dieting and exercise plans.
dirty bulking
crossfit and olympic lifts
not having deloads
squatting ass to grass even when my lower back was rounding
total body workouts
Not eating enough.
Losing sight of goals, losing focus and just going through the motions.
Years of inconsistent training, and long long layoffs.
Jumping protocols too often… and not fully adhering to each protocol as prescribed.
Overly concerned with demonstrating strength (years of weekly max attempts on bench press).
Not having any post workout nutrition for the first 6 months.
[quote]mr popular wrote:
To be perfectly honest my biggest mistake as a beginner was being engrossed in the T-Nation articles, which led me to believe that bodybuilding was nuclear fission and I shouldn’t be training my arms.
Over the long-term the T-Nation FORUMS have been good to me, but as much as I hate to say this I would probably be further along now had I initially attached myself to something like BB.com or AnimalPak, or better yet got no information from the internet at all beyond exercise form.
I feel like I came to T-Nation inspired by the idea of bodybuilding, and then the articles convinced me that I didn’t like bodybuilding, until a year later when I realized oh wait, yes I do, WTF am I doing I haven’t made any progress in forever!?[/quote]
x1,000,000,000,000,000
Nutrition for me. Less than adequate protein intake, nearly no post-workout nutrition, eating a lot of high processed foods.
Training mistakes, where do I begin?
Biggest regret was not to have started training in my teens.
[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
Jumping protocols too often… and not fully adhering to each protocol as prescribed.
[/quote]
This.
I find that consistency is one of the most important things in strength training.
The biggest? The prejudice for hard work. I had the notion instilled in me from a young age that, if it wasn’t grueling, painful, and horrible, then you weren’t “working hard enough.” Couple that with seeing the pro-physiques and reading about their workouts, and I thought I had to put forth a truly superhuman, soul-crushing effort each and every moment in the gym if I ever wanted to gain an ounce of muscle.
I think what I’m about to say goes against the grain of popular bodybuilding sentiment, but for people with my personality and mindset, all the talk of SUPER INTENSE training is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.
It’s very easy for those who have a burning desire to put on muscle to do very stupid, destructive things to their bodies when they are told they need to push the limits and train with as much intensity as possible at all times.
In my case, I’ve done it all. Every stupid, idiotic, dangerous, destructive rep I ever did in the gym was a direct result of the mentality that I had to “work harder” and with unbelievable “intensity” if I ever wanted to achieve my goals.
I’ve sustained countless injuries and seen 90% of my workouts go to total waste because of this. Today, eight years after I first picked up a barbell, I’m still trying to figure out how to effectively train without hurting myself. And the funny thing is, plenty of people come up to me looking for advice, my friends can’t believe the transformation I’ve undergone, etc. My family tells me I’m too big, and people are always asking me when I’m going to stop trying to get bigger and just cut already.
I wish I could go back and start all over, and not have to deal with years and years of spinning my wheels trying to work around all these chronic injuries that, ultimately, resulted from my constantly pushing when my body was screaming for me to stop. Most people have more sense than me, I guess, as the whole bodybuilding world is still screaming “intensity! hard work! more!” at the top of its lungs. In the wrong hands, those words can do incredible damage.
Maybe this problem affects fewer people than I imagine, but I have to say, nonetheless, to anyone who feels constantly run down and yet feels the need to dig deeper and deeper to get that spectacular physique of their dreams – YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. You are not supposed to feel awful bodybuilding! Yes, it requires measures and devotion that many would deem “extreme,” but successful bodybuilders do not feel like they are on the brink of destruction at all times (and then tell themselves that they need to push even harder)!
[quote]somespace wrote:
The biggest? The prejudice for hard work. I had the notion instilled in my from a young age that, if it wasn’t grueling, painful, and horrible, then you weren’t “working hard enough.” Couple that with seeing the pro-physiques and reading about their workouts, and I thought I had to put forth a truly superhuman, soul-crushing effort each and every moment in the gym if I ever wanted to gain an ounce of muscle.
I think what I’m about to say goes against the grain of popular bodybuilding sentiment, but for people with my personality and mindset, all the talk of SUPER INTENSE training is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.
It’s very easy for those who have a burning desire to put on muscle to do very stupid, destructive things to their bodies when they are told they need to push the limits and train with as much intensity as possible at all times.
In my case, I’ve done it all. Every stupid, idiotic, dangerous, destructive rep I ever did in the gym was a direct result of the mentality that I had to “work harder” and with unbelievable “intensity” if I ever wanted to achieve my goals.
I’ve sustained countless injuries and seen 90% of my workouts go to total waste because of this. Today, eight years after I first picked up a barbell, I’m still trying to figure out how to effectively train without hurting myself. And the funny thing is, plenty of people come up to me looking for advice, my friends can’t believe the transformation I’ve undergone, etc. My family tells me I’m too big, and people are always asking me when I’m going to stop trying to get bigger and just cut already.
I wish I could go back and start all over, and not have to deal with years and years of spinning my wheels trying to work around all these chronic injuries that, ultimately, resulted from my constantly pushing when my body was screaming for me to stop. Most people have more sense than me, I guess, as the whole bodybuilding world is still screaming “intensity! hard work! more!” at the top of its lungs. In the wrong hands, those words can do incredible damage.
Maybe this problem affects fewer people than I imagine, but I have to say, nonetheless, to anyone who feels constantly run down and yet feels the need to dig deeper and deeper to get that spectacular physique of their dreams – YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. You are not supposed to feel awful bodybuilding! Yes, it requires measures and devotion that many would deem “extreme,” but successful bodybuilders do not feel like they are on the brink of destruction at all times (and then tell themselves that they need to push even harder)![/quote]
This, I think I may have already damaged my lower back permanently. Im stretching hamstrings everyday so that I can start squatting again without straining my back.
I was following SS and would sacrifice form for weight, hurt myself for months at a time. Now after about 3 months on Max OT I bench about 50 lbs more than ever and have the most muscle of my life.