When starting out in the gym, there can be a lot of things people tell you that you should or should not be doing. Sometimes they contradict each other. Other times they’re just confusing. Today I’d like to address some of the do’s and don’ts of resistance training.
Do Compound Movements
I see too many lifters focusing on single joint isolation exercises like curls and tricep extensions. Those have their place, but before you even think about doing any of that you should be focusing on the bigger compound movements that stimulate more than one muscle at a time. The benefit of this over isolation is the ability to add way more weight, and thus a stronger adaptation response towards the heavier weight as opposed to whatever you’d get from a bicep curl.
Do Progress Your Workouts
If you want to look better than you did before, you need to be doing more than you did before! It’s crazy how many friends have come to me complaining they haven’t gained any muscle. I’ll ask to look at their program, to not only see they aren’t tracking anything, but that also means they have no idea if they’re still benching the same 135lbs they were a year ago. You can’t expect any new muscle to be added if you aren’t continually pushing your body to adapt to newer stimuli. Every week you should either be doing one more rep or 5lbs heavier than the week before.
Do Track Your Workouts
Which leads me to tracking! You MUST be tracking your workouts. How can you know you are accomplishing anything if you don’t even know what you’ve done in the past? What gets measured gets improved. You may hit plateaus or lull’s in your program where there isn’t much progress week to week. But looking back over the course of the entire year be able to see if you have changed a whole lot. Imagine if Amazon never tracked any metrics about what made their company successful. Where would they be today?
Do Phase Your Workouts
Alongside progressing your workouts, you have to make sure you phase them. This can come in different forms. You may just change the rep range mesocycle to mesocycle. Maybe for one meso you train in the 6-10 rep range. The next block, try focusing on the 10-15 rep range. Different rep ranges stimulate the muscle differently and thus open the door for new growth especially when progress is stalling. It also keeps the workouts interesting. You might even try going from a bodybuilding program to a more performance based one.
Do Train Frequently Enough
Don’t fall into this trap of only doing chest on Monday’s, and doing a ridiculous amount of volume for one body part on only one day. A muscle can only handle so much breakdown in a given session. More sets doesn’t always equal more muscle. We train so that we maximize a muscle building signal in our bodies to grow. That signal dies down after 48-72 hours. If that’s the case then we should be stimulating EACH muscle 2-3 times a week! Spread out your volume and train frequently enough to ensure optimal growth.
Do Be Consistent
Above all else, consistency is key! The best program is going to be the one you can follow week to week. Don’t stick to a program you don’t enjoy all because someone said it was the best. Cater it to your goals and you schedule. You will go a lot farther sticking with a halfway decent program for a year that you know you can follow versus the perfect program rarely followed.
DON’T Train to Failure
Leave reps in the tank! Don’t listen to your friend who's asking you to max out every session. You will burn out! Your central nervous system can’t handle pushing it to the limit every single day. Instead train each set 2-3 reps shy of failure. Stimulate, don’t annihilate.
DON’T Compromise Technique
Since you are already leaving 2-3 reps in the tank, that should help keep form in check. You can’t expect to gain muscle, and grow a given body part, if you are using momentum on every rep just for the sake of hitting a new record in weight. Yes, pushing heavier weight each time is important, but keeping the technique a priority, and making sure the targeted muscle is still being worked in the entirety of a set is the only way that progression comes to fruition. I’ve made this mistake in the past where I just kept pushing weights and going through the movement assuming I should just “grow”. It wasn’t until I backed off the weight and focused on a strong mind muscle connection that I got more growth in half the time.
DON’T Program Hop
Stick to a program for at LEAST 4-6 weeks. A lot of beginners get puppy dog syndrome where they hear about a new program that promises 5 inches on their arms and immediately jump ship. Muscle is grown through consistency and dedication to a sound program! No one ever built a physique off jumping program to program every other week. Stick to one program, assess the results, and THEN, if you are interested, experiment with another program and see if it provided better or worse results than the previous one. Over time you will find what program’s work best for your muscular frame.
