Starting the gym is new and exciting! Your motivation is through the roof. You have a routine, a plan, things are about to change! But beginner lifters can and will make some important mistakes and hopefully I can prevent you from making them! Some of these mistakes are:
Doing Random Workouts
One of the most common beginner lifters make is walking into the gym without a plan or program to follow paired with not documenting any of their lifts. While winging it and having variety can be fun, it’s not very productive. It will be very difficult to get results from just doing random movements. Muscles grow when they are trained consistently and with gradual increase in loads. Without an actual plan that is also documented, it will be hard to see if you’re getting any progress as well as targeting each muscle group.
Fix: Follow a structured lifting program and document all sets, reps and weights.
Not Using Progressive Overload
Many beginner lifters use the same weight, same reps and same sets every single week. You need to change it up! You need to increase one of those factors every week if you can. At most every two weeks, one of those needs to be increased. The body adapts and once that happens and you keep doing the same thing, your results will slow right down.
Fix: Pick something you’re going to increase for the first 3 or 4 weeks. Whether it’s reps, or weight.
Relying On Soreness To Gauge Your Workouts
Beginner lifters seem to always gauge their workouts by how sweaty they got or how sore they feel after their workout. Soreness or being sweaty doesn’t tell you whether you had a good workout or not. Being sore just tells you that you’re putting your body through something new and different. Sweating just means that your body is overheating and its sweating to regulate your temperature. You can have an awesome workout without being sore or excessively sweaty and the reverse of that is true as well. You can have a bad workout and be sore and sweaty.
Fix: Measure your workouts not by being sore or sweaty but by how many more reps you’re doing or how much more weight you’re lifting week by week. Or if you’re training to lean down, what size your body circumferences are or what your body fat percentage is.
Lifting Too Heavy Or Too Light
Some beginner lifters pick weights that are way too light because they think they can’t lift that much and they’re trying to avoid injury or you have others that lift way too heavy and their form is way off which will certainly lead to injury. A good rule of thumb is to lift enough so that it feels like you can’t lift another rep close the end of the rep set. If you can lift a bunch more, it’s too light. If you can’t lift with proper form then it’s too heavy.
Fix: Choose weights heavy enough to complete the targeted reps with good form.
Ignoring Nutrition
Yes training builds muscle, but nutrition is what supports muscle growth. It’s crucial to building muscle! Beginner lifters sometimes (most of the time) underestimate the importance of getting enough protein, carbs and fat to support their fitness goals. Protein is essential for building muscle and repairing torn muscle tissue, carbs are for energy to fuel your workouts/lifts and fat has essential fatty acids of which your body can’t make on its own that are important for nerve function.
Fix: Make sure you get enough of all your macros daily to support your health and fitness goals.
Final Thoughts
There are many mistakes made by beginner lifters and these are just some of them. There are more, believe me. But if you focus on the basics, have a proper training plan and enough food to support your goals, you will definitely get the results you desire. Good luck and have fun in the gym!
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