A Huge Strength Training Mistake

August 11, 2009 on 7:50 am | In Muscle Building Articles, Strength Training | 8 Comments

A lot of mistakes in training programs are often overcome by two things:  hardwork, or the person being a superior athlete. 

However, there is one mistake that can really cripple strength gains.

THE MISTAKE:  Not enough emphasis and time on your primary exercises. 

(Embarrassing story) When I started lifting, I made a lot of beginner workout mistakes. I used to go to the gym early on in high school and break up my days by body part.  Next I would do 3 sets of 8 reps of every exercise I chose and moved on.  No wonder why I was weak!

Out of the numerous mistakes I made, not emphasizing the primary exercise was my largest one. 

Always learn form our mistakes!

Is a machine chest press as effective as a bench press for strength and muscle building in the upper body?  Nope.  Then why do the exact same sets and reps for them? 

THE FIX:  Even though this is a problem, the training solution is simple.  Focus your workout on a primary compound exercise that will get you the best results.  Some great choices are pressing, pressing variations, squat, deadlift, olympic lifts, full body explosive movements (jump), and weighted pull ups. 

Instead of performing 3 sets of 8 repetitions perform somewhere between 5-8 sets AFTER THE WARMUP of 3-5 repitions on most days (the exception is a repetition effort workout where you will perform more reps to start).   This includes strength gaining days and explosive days.  Keeping the reps lower allows for less muscle fatigue and more total weight moved.

Check out the Synergy Athletics Sample Workout Series on Youtube.  The annotations on the side of the video are clickable to the next video.

Also, I posted up another YouTube Training Series that includes videos of us training at EliteFts, The Underground, Westside, Defranco’s and with the Diesel Crew. 

Note all the compound lifts to start each training series!

- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

PS.  Start thinking about your training goals!  I’ll be letting you on the inside tomorrow, posting about my personal goals.