interesting thread. My mistakes are too many to mention so I’ll keep it to 4
-Mega mass 4000 (c’mon, I’m not the only one am I,)
-Always wanting to try the latest routine (I am still a terrible routine tweaker)
and the two biggies for me:
-Training once a week-this was my biggest training mistake. I worked like a dog in these sessions, squatted until I couldn’t move and watched myself getting smaller, weaker, fatter and my work capacity going to shit.
When you are worried about carrying the shopping up the stairs because it might affect your recovery, you know it is time to throw away the mentzer books.
-switching between wanting to cut and bulk all the time and just spinning my wheels for years. Mentally this is still a tough one for me, and hopefully i will be able to ignore the devil on my shoulder as I spend 2009 getting bigger and stronger.
-Not lifting while I was playing soccer – size was a factor in my not getting a scholarship.
-Trying to get shredded when I had no discernable muscle mass
-Doing full body stuff claiming it was “how athletes train” when all I was doing was not progressing. Plus, all I was doing was playing intramurals, what good is training “like an athlete” if you are going up against the tough co-ed division in intramural soccer.
-then the whole switching programs thing…finally went push/pull/legs and kept it simple…gains and strength have sky rocketed.
-NOT EATING ENOUGH pretty much the first 20 years of my life.
-Going to failure on every set for 4 sets on 3 exercises for each muscle group consistantly when I was not advanced enough and not eating enough.
-Changing my program too often.
-Not realising the importance of heavy compound lifts.
My mistake was that I didn’t bother with progression on the supplementary lifts. So whilst I kept adding weight to my bench and squat and my supplementary exercises were the same as they were months previous.
Not understanding that the body is in a constant balancing act. If something is pushing, something else is pulling. Most all of my plateaus are linked to my agonists.
Boxing a friend of mine who weighs about 30 lbs more than me. I ended up dislocating my shoulder in the second round. It’s been a little over a year now and I still cant BB bench or do any dips and maybe I won’t ever again.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
If you have been lifting weights seriously for less than 12 months with no lay offs and are posting in this thread…you just made another mistake.[/quote]
How so? I didn’t know there was a time limit to knowing you’ve made mistakes
[quote]gladieux41 wrote:
Professor X wrote:
If you have been lifting weights seriously for less than 12 months with no lay offs and are posting in this thread…you just made another mistake.
How so? I didn’t know there was a time limit to knowing you’ve made mistakes[/quote]
There is a time limit on even knowing what you are talking about. Outside of someone extremely genetically gifted (innately tuned in to what their body is responding best to), most newbies don’t know shit about their own bodies in only one year. In fact, people who have been at this for 20 years will still tell you they are constantly learning what they respond best to, especially since it changes the more size and strength you gain.
Newbies still believe nearly every ad they see in magazines. They still think the “after” picture would exist without looking like the “before” which is false in many cases (if not close to all of them). Newbies are still buying NO supplements as if the fact that they only ate 2,000cals today is a minor issue.
There isn’t much a one year newbie should do but shut up and listen to people more experienced while making it to the gym 4-5 days a week.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
gladieux41 wrote:
Professor X wrote:
If you have been lifting weights seriously for less than 12 months with no lay offs and are posting in this thread…you just made another mistake.
How so? I didn’t know there was a time limit to knowing you’ve made mistakes
There is a time limit on even knowing what you are talking about. Outside of someone extremely genetically gifted (innately tuned in to what their body is responding best to), most newbies don’t know shit about their own bodies in only one year. In fact, people who have been at this for 20 years will still tell you they are constantly learning what they respond best to, especially since it changes the more size and strength you gain.
Newbies still believe nearly every ad they see in magazines. They still think the “after” picture would exist without looking like the “before” which is false in many cases (if not close to all of them). Newbies are still buying NO supplements as if the fact that they only ate 2,000cals today is a minor issue.
There isn’t much a one year newbie should do but shut up and listen to people more experienced while making it to the gym 4-5 days a week.[/quote]
I agree with everything you said but the OP was about mistakes someones made. You don’t have to be lifting for years and years to know you’ve made a mistake at some point that you’d like to share.
I’d say almost every new lifter makes the same mistakes. I know I did and I’m still pretty green myself. But just because it’s been less than a year doesn’t mean they haven’t learned anything, especially when it comes to technique.
You did make a great point though that it takes a long time before someone can really understand what their body responds to.
[quote]gladieux41 wrote:
Professor X wrote:
gladieux41 wrote:
Professor X wrote:
If you have been lifting weights seriously for less than 12 months with no lay offs and are posting in this thread…you just made another mistake.
How so? I didn’t know there was a time limit to knowing you’ve made mistakes
There is a time limit on even knowing what you are talking about. Outside of someone extremely genetically gifted (innately tuned in to what their body is responding best to), most newbies don’t know shit about their own bodies in only one year. In fact, people who have been at this for 20 years will still tell you they are constantly learning what they respond best to, especially since it changes the more size and strength you gain.
Newbies still believe nearly every ad they see in magazines. They still think the “after” picture would exist without looking like the “before” which is false in many cases (if not close to all of them). Newbies are still buying NO supplements as if the fact that they only ate 2,000cals today is a minor issue.
There isn’t much a one year newbie should do but shut up and listen to people more experienced while making it to the gym 4-5 days a week.
I agree with everything you said but the OP was about mistakes someones made. You don’t have to be lifting for years and years to know you’ve made a mistake at some point that you’d like to share.
I’d say almost every new lifter makes the same mistakes. I know I did and I’m still pretty green myself. But just because it’s been less than a year doesn’t mean they haven’t learned anything, especially when it comes to technique.
You did make a great point though that it takes a long time before someone can really understand what their body responds to.[/quote]
What mistakes is a one year newbie truly aware of? Most of these guys are still running around acting like TBT is the end all of training routines while they focus on only eating “fats/protein” or “carbs/protein” while thinking they all need to be under 10% body fat before they ever gain a pound while never doing isolation movements.
Considering the overall lack of extremely muscular people in most gyms lately, I wouldn’t even trust that most one year newbies have even observed someone big train in person.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
gladieux41 wrote:
Professor X wrote:
If you have been lifting weights seriously for less than 12 months with no lay offs and are posting in this thread…you just made another mistake.
How so? I didn’t know there was a time limit to knowing you’ve made mistakes
There is a time limit on even knowing what you are talking about. Outside of someone extremely genetically gifted (innately tuned in to what their body is responding best to), most newbies don’t know shit about their own bodies in only one year. In fact, people who have been at this for 20 years will still tell you they are constantly learning what they respond best to, especially since it changes the more size and strength you gain.
Newbies still believe nearly every ad they see in magazines. They still think the “after” picture would exist without looking like the “before” which is false in many cases (if not close to all of them). Newbies are still buying NO supplements as if the fact that they only ate 2,000cals today is a minor issue.
There isn’t much a one year newbie should do but shut up and listen to people more experienced while making it to the gym 4-5 days a week.[/quote]
it didnt take me a year to realize that if i wanted to make more progress id have to ditch the hand-me-down weights and get a gym membership. it didnt take me 12 months to realize the way to my goals was through eating a shit ton of food and lifting hard, not cardio and circuit training.
I tried to clean with a bent bar. Messed up my back pretty good.
Didn’t eat enough and ended up being not as big as I wanted for football. Still did ok, but my size really impacted me.
Didn’t go heavy for a while.
Didn’t want to deadlift.
Didn’t work enough of form.
That’s all I can remember for now.
[Edit]
Just read X’s post and realized he’s right. Can’t really take what I have for consideration then, but as long as the mistakes are there, I will leave them.
