You decided to change your life, for whatever reason. Maybe you would like to look like an athlete, you would like to get rid of pain, you would like to get extremely muscular, or maybe you want to improve your quality of life. Time to join a gym, lift some weights and get stronger, so you can finally enjoy a longer walk without pain or feel more confident in your own skin. But…where to start? You are not a specialist in the subject, and apart from what a lot of people think, there is a lot more to a squat than just a “good exercise for legs and glutes”, and there is a lot more science behind training than just a “4×8 to grow, 4×15 to burn fat”. I will share with you the top 5 mistakes I see beginners making in the gym, EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Before we start, I’d like to point out that a beginner is someone who is just starting, or still can’t hit certain numbers in the gyms. I consider you a beginner until the point where you can deadlift 1.5x your body weight, squat 1x your body weight, bench press 0.7x your body weight and do one unassisted pull-up. Yes, those are high standards to get to intermediate level, I know. And that’s the main reason why I put them here, because most of the people who can’t hit those numbers end up making those same mistakes I will mention.

But enough talking, let’s get into the problem.

Nr 1: Too much volume

“Volume” means how much you are doing, in terms of sets x reps x weight. I understand that you would like to see your body changing in front of your eyes, but unfortunately it doesn’t happen that way. Plus, all the latest research in the subject shows that beginners will respond to very low trainings volumes. You can find more here. I utilise with my trainees something around 4-5 exercises, and 2 sets per exercise, being 1 exercise per muscle group, training 2 to 3 days per week. That makes it more or less 6 total sets per muscle group/week. Their trainings last around 45 minutes, and we go on like this for 2-3 months more or less. If you train with the correct technique and intensity, you WILL see benefits. No need to spend 2 hours per day in the gym. Utilise just as much volume as you can recover from.

Nr 2: Too much isolation

Yeah, I get it, biceps curls and glute bridges are nice and give you a good feeling, described as pump, in that specific muscle. BUT, in order to get the benefits from biceps curls or glute bridges, you need to have a biceps or glutes in first place, meaning, you need to have them well developed. It is a waste of time and energy to be dispensing so much attention to very specific and small areas of your body, when the so called “compound exercises” (exercises that involve more than one joint working) will work all those muscles at the same time, save your time, build more muscle mass overall and advance you faster and further in your fitness journey. When you do a squat, your glutes work really hard too. When you do a chin-up, your biceps work a lot together with your back, and you will grow that muscle group as well. Usually my trainees start doing isolation exercises after 6-7 months in their training only. Try making your training more time efficient by doing compound exercises instead of trying to isolate everything.

Nr 3: Not enough free weights

That one goes hand in hand with the previous topic. Free weights look a bit scary a first sight, I know. But this is because you are used to watching YouTube and/or magazines with high level athletes lifting 200kg or more on their backs. Your training will look nothing like that. The squat you will do is the same as a high level athlete though. What will change is the demand. High levels athletes will squat 200kg. You will squat 50-60kg…80-100kg if you are getting stronger. Free weights will work all the main muscle groups at the same time, plus they will teach you how to control your body in time and space, they are usually more “joint friendly”, they are easier to adapt to your anatomic characteristics (I am 1,97m tall, it’s hard to use some machines, for example), AND, the most important part: if you go on a trip, literally ANY hotel gym in the world will have some light pairs of dumbbells. When you know how to train with free weights, you will always be able to train anywhere in the world. If you bias your entire training program to machines though…that might not happen.

Nr 4: Not focusing on technique a.k.a. ego lifting

Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not the kind of guy who will tell you to lift light weights only. Bouncing some heavy weights is nice, I admit. It makes you feel very good about yourself. When you sacrifice technique in order to get 10 extra kg off the floor, you are exposing yourself to unnecessary risk though. Weight training is by far the safest physical activity one can do. You have absolutely NO REASON to make it riskier by sacrificing technique in order to progress faster, simply because you WON’T progress any faster by doing that. To every exercise there is a specific technique, with ACCEPTABLE deviations to it (no repetition ever looks the same). In order to make your training efficient, you need to utilise as much weight as you possibly can lift, according to that specific exercise, the specific rep range you are utilising, that specific tempo, that specific resting period you have programmed, and so on. If you have to sacrifice any of those in order to lift heavier, that weight is not for you yet.

Keep this in mind: when was the last time you saw Cristiano Ronaldo badly injured? Has Michael Jordan ever had an injury that stopped him from playing for 2-3 months? Lebron James, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, and the list goes on. There is a reason why they were the best at what they do/did. Besides having talent and training extremely hard, they stayed injury free as long as possible, which allowed them to TRAIN MORE and MORE FREQUENTLY. Just apply that principle to your training and you will see success.

Nr 5: Not progressing weights at all

This mistake is in the other end of the spectrum. Ego lifting takes you to an injury. Not progressing your weights takes you absolutely nowhere. Think of training as studying. Let’s say you start studying math. On the first day you learn what is 1+1. After 3 weeks you are still learning 1+1. After 6 months, you are endlessly repeating 1+1. First of all, congratulations for repeating that for 6 months. I would have zero patience to do it, probably would have dropped it in the 3rd week already. That’s exactly what happens to a lot of people who join gyms. Nobody ever tells you how to progress those weights, and you keep doing them over and over. You need to give new information to your body in order to create a demand for changes. Also it is good to mention, the scientific name of this kind of training is “Strength Training”. If you are not getting stronger, there is something wrong to start with already.

The simplest way to do it is: choose your rep range, for example you will do 8-10 reps. Pick a weight you can do only 8 reps with, and work yourself up to 10 reps on the 3 sets. After you can do it, forget those weights, you already learned “1+1”. Pick a slightly heavier weight and go back to the 8 reps you were doing, until you can reach 10 again. When you are a beginner, you can easily keep progressing like that for at least one year. I can guarantee you will be a different person after one year progressing.

This is just a little guide on how to avoid simple mistakes that will hinder your progress and demotivate you to keep going to the gym. The closest we have to the fountain of youth is called “lifting weights”. Everybody should be doing it, including grandma/pa (especially those, actually). Nowadays gyms are extremely accessible to everyone here in Estonia. And if you feel completely lost in the weight room, that’s alright. You have zero obligation to know how to do anything there, and that’s why we trainers are here. Get in touch with a specialist who will help you achieve your objectives faster and safer. Join a gym, go get some weights lifted. Your life will change, I promise!

If you want more info, you can visit here and here. There you have a FREE guide on how to plan your trainings.

Bryan R. Farani

Strength Coach and MyFitness Personal Trainer