For years, that meant thinking of resistance exercise in absolute terms. A workout wasn’t a success unless I could no longer move my muscles at the end of a session, even if I needed a spotter to save me from being crushed by a barbell (yeah, that happened). 

But, what if I told you that pushing your muscles to the point that they can’t lift a weight isn’t the point? 

Whether you’re trying to add muscle mass, improve a few muscle groups, or are just using resistance training to improve your overall health, the idea of seeking failure is misunderstood and misapplied, and a big reason why many people don’t see amazing results from their workouts.

There’s a big difference between breaking a muscle down so it can grow, and demolishing it to the point that it’s harder to recover. 

Muscle growth is directly connected to muscle fatigue. But, if you want to build stronger muscle fibers or add muscle mass, failure is best used sparingly.

In fact, in most cases, the best approach for both short- and long-term growth is about finding a way to push yourself hard, add reps, sets, and weights, without hitting that point where your muscles stop working. (And that’s separate from injuries, which are much more likely when training to failure.)

To help you understand how hard to push and the right intensity for your workouts, we turned to Jordan Syatt, owner of Syatt Fitness. In this post, he provides 5 different questions that you should consider to help you build a more effective approach to your workouts. -AB

Should You Train to Failure?

By Jordan Syatt

Think back to the first time you ever lifted weights. What did you do?

You probably walked up to a dumbbell rack, picked up the heaviest weight you could hold, and performed some exercise movement — heck, any exercise movement — to the best of your ability. Rep after rep after rep. And you did so until you could no longer move the weight. 

Then you rested, probably until you felt fresh again, and repeated the process. Sometimes, a little naivety and simplicity is a good thing.

But, that simplicity is also why so many people are frustrated by what they do in the gym. Beyond the exercises you perform and the frequency and volume of your workouts, most people don’t know how hard to push on any given set. 

They don’t know how to build muscle. And they don’t know how to build strength. What they do know how to do is perform exercises listed in their training session.

There’s an important distinction. The results you see from your time spent in the gym is a combination of many factors. For muscle growth, it’s a matter of muscular tension, metabolic stress, and muscular damage. There are many ways to manipulate those variables, but most people assume that pushing every set to the last rep where your muscles are aching is what needs to be done.

It’s the reason why “training to failure” is one of the most highly debated topics in the fitness industry and, truth be told, it’s extremely misunderstood.

I’ve spent enough time studying the topic to know that there’s no simple answer. Some people swear that taking every set to failure is the secret to success while others insist it’s a recipe for guaranteed injury and “overtraining.”

The answer, as most things in life, depends entirely on the individual as well as their needs, goals, and preferences.

If you’re going to commit to training sessions, you might as well make sure you’re personalizing those workouts as much as possible. 

So, before you take another set to muscle failure, here’s what you need to consider. 

Question 1: Is Training to Failure Necessary for Muscle Growth?

Research on training to failure is, unfortunately, scarce. Increasing muscle hypertrophy is often necessary for physique competitors and strength athletes to improve performance. Since training to failure “may activate a greater number of motor units” and potentially enhance muscle hypertrophy, training to failure is often warranted among these individuals.[2] 

Willardson et al. is perhaps the highest quality review of the literature pertaining to failure-based training. After examining the data, the authors concluded that training to failure is a valid method to use in order to enhance muscle hypertrophy, facilitate maximal strength gains, and break through plateaus.

However, it’s important to note that Willardson also stated “training to failure should not be performed repeatedly over long periods, due to the high potential for overtraining and overuse injuries. Therefore, the training status and the goals of the lifter should guide the decision-making process on this issue.”

Linnamo et al. found that training to failure resulted in a significantly greater increase in the secretion of growth hormone compared to non-failure based training. While this finding in no way, shape, or form proves that training to failure is better than other methods, it may lend credence to the success so many athletes, bodybuilders, and fitness enthusiasts have had with failure-based training.

There are other studies, but what really what matters is, how does this apply to you?

So let’s start there: You. After all, it’s your goals and training style that will play the biggest role in determining if and when you should push your body to failure. And that decision comes down to asking 5 questions.

Question 2: Are you Breaking the 90-Percent Max Rule?

Training intensity is perhaps the single most important factor in deciding whether or not training to failure is effective or even appropriate. Training intensity refers to the percentage of weight being lifted in relation to an individual’s 1-repetition maximum (1-RM).

In my opinion, training to failure at intensities at, or above 90 percent of your 1-RM should be avoided. 

Training to failure with such heavy weights will do very little (if anything) to enhance muscle hypertrophy and may actually hamper strength gains. If you’re going to hit absolute or complete failure, you don’t want to do it with the maximum amount of weight you can push, press, deadlift, or squat. 

Furthermore, training to failure with near maximal weights will almost inevitably result in a breakdown of technique, drastically increasing the likelihood of injury. Don’t get it twisted: weightlifting is a lifetime activity, but you need to be smart about the risks you take. 

Generally speaking, training to failure should be reserved for training percentages ranging from 50 percent to 85 percent of your 1-rep max. 

While I rarely prescribe training to failure at either of these end-ranges, I believe that they are appropriate guidelines to follow for a majority of intermediate and advanced trainees.

Keep in mind, though, training to failure at 50 percent of your 1-RM can take an inordinate amount of time to complete and may not be well suited for those with time restrictions. On the other hand, 85 percent of your 1-RM is still heavy weight and the use of a spotter is strongly encouraged.

Question 3: How Often Should You Train to Failure? (Check Your Training Age)

There are three major categories signifying the current “level” of a given trainee. I call this “the trainee continuum” and they are: beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

An individual’s training status will determine what they need, and therefore someone who is a beginner might require unique methods of training that may substantially differ from someone who is at an intermediate or advanced stage.

For example, beginner trainees must, first and foremost, work on developing proper form and technique in compound movements such as the squat, bench press, deadlift, and chin-up.

Consequently, training beginners to absolute failure would likely do more harm than good as maintaining proper form becomes exceedingly difficult in a fatigued state. 

In other words, if you’re a beginner and haven’t been training for, at least, 2 years consistently, then you’re likely best off not pushing to muscle failure, even when you’re below 90 percent of your 1-RM.

What to do instead? You can try the “reps in reserve” (or RIR) method. RIR is great for beginners and also incredibly effective for advanced lifters. 

Instead of pushing towards complete failure, you want to push to a different level of fatigue. For example, you’ll set a goal rep range (say, 8 reps) and make sure you have 2 reps in reserve (2 RIR). This way, you’re able to work towards a level of intensity that challenges your muscles, but you’re purposely leaving a number of reps in the tank. 

It can take trial-and-error to figure out how many reps you truly have in reserve, but — when you do — it’s a great way to add reps, weight, and more sets, while mastering form, fatigue, and recovery. 

If you’re not a beginner, intermediate and advanced trainees can push to failure more often. If you’re following the 90-percent rule, and sticking between 60 to 85 percent of your 1-rep max, you can train to failure between 2-4 times per week. 

How do you know how often you should push? Glad you asked because that will depend on your goal and the exercises you perform. 

Question 4: What is Your Goal?

An individual’s desired goal will dictate numerous components of their program, not least of which includes whether or not they should train to muscular failure.

Take, for example, the differences between powerlifters and bodybuilders. Powerlifters are focused on maximal strength development (including training their nervous system to handle more weight). Consequently, they train at relatively high intensities of their 1-RM. Additionally, powerlifter’s place a distinct emphasis on full-body, compound movements, which require a great deal of skill to maintain proper form.

In bodybuilding, the goal is muscle growth and, as a result, train at comparatively lower intensities of their 1-RM because strength is not always the answer. What’s more, bodybuilders tend to emphasize smaller, isolation movements designed to target individual body parts, which require less skill to maintain proper technique.

Because of these different approaches and the types of exercises performed, bodybuilders are able to train to failure more frequently than powerlifters. 

It’s important to note, however, that many elite powerlifters also train to failure on a regular basis. In fact, as a world record powerlifter myself, I regularly utilize failure-based training within my programs. That being said, I rarely train to failure in big, compound movements and almost exclusively use intensities between 60 percent to 80 percent of my 1-RM.

Question 5: What Exercises Are You Performing?

The more skill required for a lift, the less frequently it should be performed to failure. Conversely, the less skill required to perform a lift the more acceptable it becomes to train to failure.

Snatches, for example, are arguably the single-most complex lift and training them to failure is dangerous. Simpler multi-joint movements, such as variations of the chin-up, bench press, and lunge, are suitable for failure-based training but should be performed with extreme caution. Same can be said for exercises like squats.

Finally, single-joint exercises, including bicep curls, triceps extensions, and calf raises, are the least complex of movements and are far more appropriate to train to failure.

Question 6: What is Your Mindset?

Failure occurs when an individual is unable to complete another full repetition. This tends to happen due to the onset of fatigue.

Fatigue, however, is a truly subjective term and is nearly impossible to quantify. Based on pain tolerance, willpower, and other psychological factors, what constitutes muscular failure for one individual may only be slight discomfort to someone else. As such, it’s difficult to know whether a given individual is training to true muscular failure or simply cutting the set short.

Furthermore, it’s important to note that while some individuals derive pleasure from training to failure, others do not and attempting to force them may, in fact, deter them from strength training. Understanding the psychology of your clients (or yourself) and how they respond to training is of the utmost importance to long-term program adherence.

While it’d be easy to make a blanket statement about training to failure, ultimately it depends on your answers to the questions above. Failure-based training is a valuable tool in your training arsenal when applied correctly. If it fits your goals, needs, and preferences then use it wisely and with caution

Stop Failing. Start Succeeding

At Born Fitness, we help you make sense of fitness and nutrition information. If you want to create a plan for your life, here’s how you can stop guessing and start living healthier.

READ MORE: 

3 Rules for Building Bigger Arms

Faster Fat Loss: How to Add Workout Finishers

How Low Should You Squat, Really?

Works Cited

[1] Aragon, Alan. “Training to Failure.” Alan Aragon Research Review. Alan Aragon, Mar 2009. Web. Web. 9 Mar. 2013.

[2] Schoenfeld, Brad. “The Mechanisms of Muscle Hypertrophy and Their Application to Resistance Training.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 24.10 (2010): 2857-2873. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20847704>.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Training to Failure: 5 Questions You Need to Answer appeared first on Born Fitness.

The question seems almost non-sensical, like asking if you know how to blink. But, the way you breathe while sitting at your desk is much different than how you should breathe while on a run, or when you squat with 300 pounds on your back. And, we’re not just talking about breathing heavier as you get tired.

Your breath is far more powerful than you think because breathing is so deeply tied to many essential structures of your body, including your spine and ribcage. It might seem impossible, but the way you breathe can do everything from preventing back pain to make you significantly stronger on squats, deadlifts, presses, and almost every exercise imaginable.

Before you complete another workout, it’s time to find out if you’ve been breathing the wrong way, and what you can do to make a small change that leads to incredible results.

The Power of Your Breath

Most fitness tips do not provide instant gratification. It takes a lot of reps and sets, sometimes across a span of years, to change your body.

And while no workout will instantly slash fat or make you more muscular, there are a few techniques that, like magic, can have an immediate impact on how well you train and feel. The Valsalva maneuver, which is a way of breathing, is one of those techniques.

Part of the reason it has such a dramatic impact is that for the majority of people, how to breathe when you exercise is completely overlooked.

When you learn about training, almost everything focuses on the usual suspects:

• How much weight you’ll use
• The reps and sets
• The exercise selection
• What equipment to use

All of these are important parts of training and exercise. But, all of these cover what you do. They tend to avoid how to do it.

While there’s no shortage of exercise explanations you can find online, it’s rare that tips on correct form provide a detailed explanation of how you should breathe.

But, the way you breathe on different exercises can make all the difference between staying pain-free and seeing more progress. Enter the Valsalva maneuver.

To understand how and why this technique is the key to no back pain and lots of strength gain, it’s time for a quick test.

The Soda Can Test: How to Know Your Spine is Safe

To understand why learning how to breathe properly is important, all you need to do is think about a soda can. When it’s pressurized and sealed, it’s very strong. You can stack several bricks on top of it and it won’t budge. But, if you open the can and let that pressure escape, the weight would crumple the can underneath.

Think about breathing in the same way: do it right and you’re unstoppable, do it wrong and you get crushed.

Correct breathing can make every exercise a safe and effective movement. Think about it: No one argues whether exercise is “good” for you, but plenty of people debate whether certain exercises should be avoided because of the risk of injury.

For example, you might know the squat as one of the best exercises for developing strength and building muscle. Or, you might think of it as an exercise that causes back pain. That alone means that plenty of you avoid squats (or avoid doing them with added weight) when, in reality, it’s not the exercise that’s the problem; it’s how you’ve been taught to do the movement.

“Everybody tells you to inhale on the way down, and exhale on the way up,” says Mark Rippetoe, owner of the Wichita Falls Athletic Club and author of Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training. “That is complete and utter BS. If you do that, you will hurt yourself.”

Now, Rippetoe isn’t suggesting you shouldn’t breathe. What he’s saying is that the typical breathing cue is incomplete and leaves out many vital details. And that if you’re just breathing — and not practicing the Valsalva maneuver — then you’re at risk.

“When you Valsalva, you’re protecting your spine,” says Dr. Belisa Vranich, clinical psychologist and author of Breathe: The Simple, Revolutionary 14-Day Program to Improve your Mental and Physical Health. “Most people don’t understand that you have to take a big breath in to be able to protect your spine [when you lift].”

When you inhale deeply, you create what’s called intra-abdominal pressure. The term describes forces within your abdominal cavity or the area surrounded by the muscles on the side of your abs (your obliques), your pelvic floor (on the bottom), diaphragm (on top), rectus abdominus (the area known as the six-pack), and several back muscles.

When you have a heavy load on your back, this pressure is your friend. It’s no different than the soda can.

WIthin your abdomen, the pressure you create with a deep inhalation helps keep your spine rigid and stable.

“Air is support to the back,” Rippetoe says. So the way you should lift when you squat is to inhale deeply and brace your torso, hold that breath (and bracing) on the way down, then either continue to hold it on the way up or exhale through pursed lips when you hit the most challenging part of the lift.

Before you try the Valsalva maneuver, there’s something you should know: in order for it to work for you, you first have to master an even more fundamental skill.

Are You Breathing Well? (Here’s How to Find Out)

Consider this Breathing 101. Because you know how to breathe, it will be quick. But, if you want the Valsalva maneuver to work, then you need to make sure you’re breathing correctly.

To understand how you breathe, it’s important to visualize your diaphragm as two separate parts.

Your diaphragm divides your insides into an upper (thoracic) cavity and a lower (abdominal) cavity. Think of it as the muscle that powers breathing. When you inhale, your diaphragm pushes downward against your abs, drawing air into your lungs and creating more space for them within your body.

“The lungs will fill like a vacuum once the diaphragm drops downwards,” explains Dr. Kathy Dooley, a chiropractor and anatomy instructor based in New York City.

However, a number of things, such as bad posture, can prevent your diaphragm from doing its job effectively.

“When your abs are gripping your diaphragm, it will not let you take a big inhale,” Vranich says. “If you go to take a big inhale, you’ll have to take it with your shoulders because your diaphragm is being squeezed.”

So what should it look like? If your belly moves outward when you breathe in, it’s a sign that your diaphragm is working correctly. It might make you feel self-conscious because it will look like you’re creating a gut, but you’ll feel and perform a lot better.

On the flipside, consider what happens when you don’t breathe correctly. The result looks something like:

This is known as “vertical breathing.” And it achieves the biologically necessary goal of getting you oxygen (because, ya know, you still need to breathe and your body won’t let that not happen). But, it creates a host of other problems.

The Risks of Poor Breathing

If you’re a vertical breathing, it can be a literal pain in the neck. That’s because this type of breathing tightens the muscles in your neck and shoulders. If you have your massage therapist on speed dial, vertical breathing may be why.

This style of breathing doesn’t deliver oxygen as well as a diaphragmatic breath, so you’ll have to inhale more frequently, which can elevate your blood pressure, pulse, and level of anxiety.

Even crazier? Your diaphragm attaches to your spleen, liver, and small intestine, and doing it wrong can cause a domino effect of health problems.

“If you’re breathing up with the chest, you may not be creating the ‘massage’ for your lower organs to encourage your smooth muscle (tissues in the gut) to act like it should,” Dooley says. “You’d be surprised by how much breathing affects your gastric emptying, and how much breathing affects things like IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).”

And then, of course, there’s how bad breathing affects your ability to use the Valsalva maneuver.

If you’re breathing “up,” using your chest, shoulders, and other muscles to pull air into your body, you can’t create the type of intra-abdominal pressure that will protect your spine when you lift—even if you took in the biggest breath you possibly could.

“If you’re building good intra-abdominal pressure, you don’t necessarily need to raise your chest upwards [when you inhale],” Dooley says, who adds that the reverse is also true: If you’re raising your chest upwards, you’re not building good intra-abdominal pressure.

Here’s a simple way to tell whether you’re using your diaphragm well. Look in the mirror and watch yourself breathe. If your chest and shoulders are moving up and down in a way that looks like the illustration above, you have some work to do.

How to Breathe Better (And Lift Weights Better Than Ever)

Here are 3 exercises that can help you breathe better and keep your shoulders down.

Breathing Exercise #1: Diaphragm Extensions
While Vranich teaches several techniques, perhaps the simplest method is an exercise that requires you to lie on your back and just breathe. (Yup, it’s really that simple.)

To perform the move, lie flat on your back and place any light object—it could be a book, a pillow or whatever you have handy—on top of your belly button. Rest your hands at your sides and cast your gaze slightly downward, so you can see the book somewhere in your field of vision.

Inhale deeply into your belly, raising the book as high as you can. When you exhale, watch the book lower. Keep breathing in this manner for a few minutes.

Vranich recommends you don’t worry about your pace of breath at first, just notice how breathing into your lower body feels. You may find that performing the technique slowly brings a sense of calm.

That’s because slow, controlled breathing initiates a “rest and digest” response from your body called the parasympathetic nervous system. For this reason, you may want to try breathing in this manner before bedtime, or even at the end of your workouts (when it can help bring your heart rate and signal to the rest of your body that it’s time to chill).

To start, try using it for a minute or so at the front of a training session to teach (or remind) you of how diaphragmatic breathing feels.

Breathing Exercise #2: The 90-90
As the name suggests, the “90-90” indicates that you’ll have a 90-degree bend in your hips, and a 90-degree bend in your knees. And you’ll need a Swiss ball.

Lie on the floor, place your heels atop the ball, and adjust your feet so that you have those right angles at your hip and knee. Dooley shows you how to set up for the exercise in this video:

The object is to inhale into your lower abdomen. Rather than just trying to press upward with the belly, think about filling the whole abdomen in every direction. When you inhale, your abs, your obliques, and the muscles in your lower back all should press outward.

“What we’re looking for is for the abdomen to fill in 360 [degrees] on the inhale,” Dooley says. “These muscles all around you are muscles of exhalation, therefore they need to expand when you inhale to build proper intra-abdominal pressure.”

Stay in the 90-90 until you feel like you’re getting the hang of breathing with all of those muscles, or for as long as your workout will allow. If you typically don’t have a whole lot of time to train, don’t worry about it. Even a minute will be helpful.

Breathing Exercise #3: The Dead Bug (AKA Dying Bug)
This exercise takes the good intra-abdominal pressure you’ve learned and applies it to moving your arms and legs.

To set up for the move, you’ll lie on your back with your hips and knees bent 90-degrees. (No Swiss ball for your heels this time.)

You can hold your arms straight overhead, or press them against your abdomen to feel the pressure you’re creating. Inhale, then exhale slowly as you lower the heel of your left leg to the floor, lift it back to your starting position, then lowering and raising the heel of your right leg.

You’ll do all of this (moving both legs down and back up) on a single exhale, maintaining stiffness in your core as you move. Once you’ve completed the movement with both legs, inhale and repeat. Perform 5 to 10 reps, where moving your left and right leg is one rep.

“This is a fantastic drill for learning how to build intra-abdominal pressure and build core stiffness but ambulate the limbs,” Dooley says. “It has a lot of carryover into things like squatting and deadlifting because you’re trying to maintain core stiffness and abdominal stability while you’re trying to ambulate the limbs.”

How to Valsalva Maneuver Like a Pro

If you know how to breathe deeply into your lower abdomen, then the first cue of the Valsalva is pretty simple.

“Big breath in,” Rippetoe says. “Before every rep, take a big breath.”

Just as you did when you performed the Supine 90-90, the breath should fill your lower abdomen in every direction. That’s half of the battle.

The other half is bracing properly. Here’s where the work you did in the Dying Bug comes into play. You want to engage your abs, your obliques, and the muscles in your back, holding them all stiff as you start your descent downward. Exhale when you reach the top. Then inhale and repeat.

As with anything, the little details matter. The Valsalva maneuver is not something you want to hold throughout a set. Exhale after every rep. Then, inhale and reset before your next rep.

One of the knocks on the Valsalva is that it elevates your blood pressure, which most of us tend to think is a bad thing. And it is, but only if your high blood pressure is chronic. In other words, if you walk around every day with a systolic/diastolic combo that’s well above 120 over 80, then you’ll want to consult with your doctor.

But, the blood pressure lift from the Valsalva is temporary—when you perform it, the pressure goes up. When you stop, it returns to baseline.

However, if you have a known risk factor like an intracranial lesion, then yes, you should speak with your doctor before trying the Valsalva maneuver. Same if you have hypertension that you haven’t addressed. As with anything, exercise common sense and communicate with your doctor if you have any concerns.

READ MORE: 

How Low Should You Squat, Really?

The Truth About the 7-Minute Workout

The Tension Weightlifting Technique: How to Make Every Exercise More Effective

The post Valsalva Maneuver: This Technique Will Fix Your Back Pain appeared first on Born Fitness.

But let’s assume all of those are equal, and yet, here you are, still sweating day-after-day at the gym and not looking like the other people putting in the same work.

We’ve all been there and it’s an awful feeling, but one that can be fixed with a simple adjustment. One of the biggest factors that determine whether or not you’ll see the results you want comes down to two words: weightlifting technique.

More specifically, creating tension. If you want to start seeing your efforts pay off, it’s time to learn that it’s not always what exercises you do, but how you do them.

Why Tension Matters

For a moment, forget weightlifting technique and think bigger picture. We know that there are 3 primary factors that determine how much much muscle strength and size you’ll build when you lift: metabolic stress, mechanical tension, and muscle damage. Let’s focus on the first two because the third is a byproduct of the work you do. 

• Metabolic stress refers to the burning sensation you feel in your muscles as you pump out rep after rep. You can increase the amount of metabolic stress you produce by performing more sets, or more reps inside of those sets.
• Mechanical tension broadly refers to how engaged your muscle tissues are when you lift.

People spend a mountain of time thinking about category number one. You’ve probably wondered many times about how many sets and reps you should perform, and when and how often you should change those numbers over time.

Most people, however, don’t spend nearly as much time on category two (tension), which is a huge missed opportunity. This is where weightlifting technique comes into play. 

“Tension and its twin, relaxation, are the alphas of strength and conditioning,” says Dan John, a world-renowned fitness coach and author of several books on training. “They are the most important two concepts. And they are exact opposites of each other.”  

The trouble with tension — like any weightlifting technique — is that it can be difficult to learn. Which also means it’s challenging—and time-consuming—to coach. Many trainers won’t take the time to teach it.

“When I’m teaching someone to do a correct kettlebell swing, I first have to teach them to grip the ground with their big toe. For a person who’s new to lifting, that might take a day,” John explains.

He adds that each of the other key elements of the exercises—buttcheeks squeezed together, abs firmly braced, lats pulling back, and then making all of this to happen at once—takes days if not weeks to learn. “So teaching someone the kettlebell swing—which at the top, is basically a vertical plank—might take the better part of a few months. And yet I see people teach that exercise and 72 others on the first day of a class.”

To be fair to trainers, not everyone wants to take the time to learn any weightlifting technique. It’s not exactly as much fun as losing fat, building biceps, or seeing your abs pop. And a big part of a trainer’s job is to make exercise fun to prevent you from being bored. After all,  making exercise enjoyable will keep you doing it and coming back for more, and that’s when results happen.   

But, here’s why you’ll want to take a little time to master the tension weightlifting technqiue (while still making your workouts fun)—and how it can make every exercise you perform more effective.

How Your Weightlifting Technique Prevents Injuries

Another secret smart trainers know: creating tension can help you fix bad biomechanics and reduce how much you are hurt.

“I’d argue that a lot of what people call ‘lack of mobility’ can be attributed not to lack of flexibility but to lack of stability, which you can establish through coaching tension,” says Tony Gentilcore, owner of CORE, a small-group training facility in Boston.

Here’s what he means. Let’s say you’re having trouble staying upright when you squat. Your torso leans forward as you descend. Lots of people will blame that on a lack of mobility in their thoracic spine (upper back). But there’s a good chance that what’s actually to blame is your core. You’re not stable enough in your midsection to descend as far as you should. If you learn how to create more tension in your core, then suddenly the “mobility issue” goes away.

Here’s how it works. If you’re an experienced lifter, perhaps you’re familiar with the terms “kinetic chain” and “energy leaks.” If not, here’s a quick primer.

The kinetic chain refers to the body’s joints (ankle, knee, hip, shoulder, etc.) working together. Think of your body as a cohesive unit. When you walk, for instance, it’s just not your legs doing the work. Anyone that’s ever had a back injury knows this all too well because even the simplest (seemingly unrelated) movements can cause pain.

An energy leak occurs when there’s insufficient stiffness (a.k.a. tension) around one of those joints.

So let’s say you’re performing a back squat and your knees cave inward. That’s an energy leak. And it’s a problem because, not only does that leak put stress on the joints, it also fosters a muscle imbalance. When your knees cave in, your body asks the surrounding muscles to re-center your knee. Over time, you’re strengthening one set of muscles at the expense of another. (You’re also burning metabolic fuel that could otherwise be put toward another rep.)

Maybe that’s something you can get away with if you only ever use light resistance when you train. But as the weight gets heavier, the risk gets bigger.

“For advanced guys, you might have 400-500 pounds on your back,” says strength coach Jason Ferruggia. “So to minimize injury risk, you’ve got to maintain full-body tension throughout the set.”

What does that mean? When you think of weightlifting technique, you usually just think about the muscles you’re working. But that’s just part of the story. You need to prepare your entire body for a lift, and, oftentimes, it’s the muscles you wouldn’t even think about.

Staying with the squat example, most people are worried about their knees or their back (or both). But creating “full-body tension” often times starts in neither of those two places. You’ll begin with your grip on the bar and then focus on your breathing and abs, which is what actually protects your back from injury.

When you take a big belly breath (think about filling your stomach with air so that if you have a belt around your natural waist you would feel it become tight), it creates a natural lifting belt that protects your spine. This is known as bracing your torso. (Here’s a story that explains how it works and how to do it. You can skip down to the section “The Problem: Incorrect Breathing” if you want to see it straight away.)

So in this case, tension is protective. Your grip creates tension that sends a signal to your brain saying, “I’m about to lift heavy weight.” That’s important. If you then “pull” your elbows down and back (imagine someone’s hands trying to push your elbows up and you have to resist against them), you’ll engage your lats, which also protect your spine. Then, when you take your belly breath, you add the final piece of full body tension, which will protect your spine. This type of approach can prevent an energy leak that causes your form to break down and injury to occur.

Just as tension protects you when you squat, it keeps you safer when you perform other exercises. A shoulder that’s engaged is less likely to wind up in an unnatural position when you overhead press. Having your torso firmly braced will help protect your lower back when you deadlift.

As mentioned earlier, the heavier of a weight you use, the more important weightlifting technique and proper tension becomes. The same is true for the number of reps—the more you perform, the more challenging it is.

“Every rep beyond 5 or 6 or so becomes increasingly more difficult to do, so you open yourself up to more injury risk,” Ferruggia says. “That’s why I like low reps on the big lifts. It’s really hard to maintain that tension while maintaining good form. So a lot of times people say beginners should do high reps. No, it’s the opposite.”

How Tension Builds Results You Can See

Tension isn’t just about playing it safe. On almost any exercise, even bodyweight movements like planks or pushups, full-body tension can dictate what you get out of the exercise and help put your body in an optimal position.

What do we mean when we say “full-body” tension? Exactly that: Your entire body. “It has to literally be from toes to forehead,” John says. “If I ask you to do a plank and you forget to breathe because you’re so tense, that’s when I know you’re doing it right.”

In fact, go ahead and try that right now. Do a plank while creating as much tension as possible within your body. Here are a few cues that will probably change the way you think about planks (and make the thought of going for 60 seconds seem like the hardest thing you’ve ever done).

1. Push out through your heels while pulling your elbows toward your toes.
2. Squeeze all of your muscles: That means pressing through your forearms into the floor. Contract your glutes as hard as possible, as if you’re trying to crack a walnut. Squeeze your abs tightly as if you’re about to be punched in the gut, repeatedly. Even flex your calves. That’s called an RKC plank (watch Contreras explain), which differs from the way most people will do planks.

Try it and you’ll see that a plank can fry your entire body in a matter of seconds—5 seconds is a great place to start, and 15 is a mighty hold. (Conversely, you know those hours-long World Record-setting planks that you sometimes see grabbing headlines? Here’s why they don’t do a whole lot for your muscles and wind up producing more back pain than anything.)  

In addition to making exercise more efficient, learning to create tension can improve the “mind-muscle connection.” Any bodybuilder will tell you that this link helps you activate the muscles you actually want to work when you exercise. (If you’re skeptical, Contreras has proven this phenomenon using an EMG.)  Studies show that both internal focus (i.e. you trying to direct your body’s efforts with your mind) and external verbal cues (i.e. a coach telling you to focus on a specific part of a move) can increase certain muscle activations, so focusing on tension should help you produce better results.

Here’s the tricky thing: When you start trying to create full-body tension in your workouts, you’ll probably wind up feeling weaker at first. Ferruggia—who’s written about this phenomenon —says while your performance (and especially total reps) may suffer at first, “the strength gains you make by using proper full-body tension are going to transfer better to the real world.”

Translation: You won’t be one of those people who can leg press hundreds of pounds but can’t move a couch. And as you get used to using full-body tension, Ferruggia adds that, in time, you will surpass your previous numbers. “Eventually you will be stronger than you were.”

How to Create More Tension When You Train

Finding a great coach who can help provide cues, correct your weightlifting technique, and build programs that work is always a great choice.

The reality is that many of you won’t go that route for a variety of reasons, so you’re going to need to learn how to do this on your own. The good news is that we’ve teamed up with some of the best coaches to develop a plan that helps you do that. Here are some of the things you can try right away to start ensuring optimal tension for all of the exercises you perform:

• First, let’s set a ground rule: You’re going to steer clear of machines and isolation exercises for just a little while. But don’t let that message confuse you; there’s nothing wrong with machines, and they can be great tools and extremely effective at delivering results. But they can also let you “get away” with a lack of tension by providing external support. So if you can learn tension, then every exercise you perform — including the machine work — will become more effective.
• Ground rule #2 (we promise it’s the last one): Perform fewer reps per set—at least initially. Coaches agree that while improving full-body tension will eventually second-nature, early on it will make everything feel more difficult, so no need to increase the risk of error by doing more reps.
• Full-body tension may sound like a lot to learn—after all, you have more than 600 muscles — but nearly all of the cues you’re going to learn come down to five areas: Your shoulders, core, butt, feet, and grip. If you were to scan just those five things on every exercise, and made sure they are engaged, you’ll make a lot of progress right away.

Weightlifting Technique Upgrade: Your Grip

The trick is learning exactly how to cue those muscles for the different exercises you do. Probably the easiest cue to learn—and the one people fail to do the most often—is gripping the bar. We mean really grip it. Too many people, when they’re doing an exercise like dumbbell curls or farmer’s walks, will just secure the dumbbell handle between their thumb and first two fingers. What you want is to have every finger in your hands be at an I’m about to crush this bar! level. For barbell work, that means squeezing the life out of the bar while simultaneously trying to pull the bar in opposite directions (think about removing a sword from a sheath). “If you’re just squeezing the bar as hard as possible, that kind of cues the rest of your body,” Ferruggia says. “The tension will radiate out from your hands.”

Weightlifting Technique Upgrade: Your Core

The next spot you want to work on is your core. Because the core includes your abs and hips, tension will make a big difference in squats, deadlifts, overhead presses. The quick-and-dirty answer is to say “brace” your core. What’s that mean? As we mentioned before, pretend you were about to get punched in the gut—or better yet, shatter a 2×4 with your abs (like this badass martial arts instructor). Produce something even close to that kind of engagement in your midsection, and you’re going to be better off when you lift—and you’ll provide more support and stability to your spine.

Training core stability outside of your full-body lifts will also be helpful. Eric Cressey, who trains hundreds of MLB players and other pro athletes, has a set of 5 exercises that train all of the dimensions of core strength in a relatively short amount of time. A good way to learn proper core engagement for movements like pull-ups is to try this “hollow” position drill from Gentilcore (and note how it isn’t so “hollow” after all, you definitely are not doing a “suck and tuck” here no matter what old-school ab training or bad Pilates instructors might have told you). And to make sure you aren’t creating all of this stiffness at the expense of your mobility, try Dr. John Rusin’s hybrid quadruped position drill.

Weightlifting Technique Upgrade: Your Shoulders

Some of the common cues you’ll hear for your shoulder are “pack the shoulder,” “flatten your shoulder blades,” “pull the lats down,” or “flex the pecs and lats.” All of them are trying to achieve basically the same thing: For you to keep your humerus (the upper arm bone) in your shoulder socket. Gentilcore tells his clients to “pretend like you’re squeezing an orange in your armpit during the entire rep and you’re trying to make orange juice” on lifts like the Deadlift. Try it, and you might be surprised what you feel in your shoulders and back, and how much lighter the weight becomes.

Weightlifting Technique Upgrade: Your Butt/Glutes

On just about every exercise where you’re standing, your butt should not be relaxed. You want it engaged and supporting your body. What’s that mean? Squeeze the cheeks, or even “turn coal into a diamond in your butt cheeks.”

Weightlifting Technique Upgrade: Your Feet

Lastly, let’s talk about your feet. Just as your grip can help you generate tension throughout your arms, firmly pressing your feet—and especially your toes—into the ground can send tension up your lower legs.

Coaches will often tell you to “grip the floor with your toes” (as Dan John described earlier), or “screw your feet into the floor,” or “push the floor away from you.” Use whichever one you find the most useful. One other note for your legs: Push your ankles out. Same with your knees. Valgus knees, or having your knees collapse inward when you lift, is a form fault that can lead to a host of issues and injuries.

Remember: Learning Tension is a Process. Try, try again.

Ready to start putting these cues to work and getting more out of your training? Good. But there’s one last thing you should do: Be patient.

Every coach we spoke to agreed that cues are an essential way to help our brains to trigger tension. But any lifter who’s been coached has experienced information overload at one point or another. You’re doing a squat then someone tells you to screw your feet into the floor. Then they tell you to pull down your lats. Then they tell you to brace your core. The result of trying to do too much at once? You get confused.

So, instead, try focusing on one or a few aspects of tension at a time. As they become second-nature to you, add a new cue. In time, you’ll be doing this stuff without even thinking about it.

Full-body tension takes time—sometimes a lot of it—to master. “Tension is an underappreciated concept even among the elite athletes I work with,” Rusin says. “It’s something you can be getting better at no matter your experience level.”

READ MORE: 

The 4-Step Biceps Builder

Why Weight Machines Are Better Than You Think

Better Posture, Injury Prevention, and Building the V-Taper

The post Tension Lifting Technique (Make Every Exercise More Effective) appeared first on Born Fitness.

This is the type of (sarcastic) feedback that makes exercise so frustrating. Lots of talk that sounds good, but nothing that definitively shows you how to get from where you are to where you want to be. 

Most fitness information is a road that leads back to where you began. We say the same things, try to hit the restart button, only to end up back in the same place 3 to 6 months later.

Fitness is like climbing the corporate ladder; you don’t go from intern to executive after 4 weeks of hard work.

Case in point: You know that in order to see results you have to work hard. Or more specifically, that you have to work hard, over time, consistently, oftentimes for many years for you to look the way you want.

In your heart, you understand that this is a reality. But when you’re in the gym, reading magazines, or seeing your friend who eats like crap and still looks 10 times “better” than you, it’s not an easy reality to swallow and it’s one we easily forget.

Fitness is like climbing the corporate ladder; you don’t go from intern to executive after 4 weeks of hard work.

But when those four weeks feel like 4 years, it’s easier said than done. And it’s the reason why so many people start a plan and fizzle out before ever achieving the good stuff.

You believe you don’t have the right workout, the right trainer, or the right body. The reality, you keep on falling for the same training trap over…and over…and over again.

We want to believe in the instant fix. And while many fitness professional will tell you that 4-week solutions are not the answer (myself included), they won’t offer a different route to not only seeing results, but knowing how to recognize when you’ve taken a wrong turn.

Let’s change that. This guest post by Jon Goodman, author of Ignite the Fire, looks at training from the eyes of a trainer, to help you anticipate and navigate your fitness goals more effectively. The result is a new level of understanding that identifies the landmines before you step on them and blow up your progress. -AB

Avoid The Training Traps

Armed with the right information and the requisite dedication, any fitness goal is attainable. Sure some take longer than others taking into consideration both your starting point and loftiness of your goal. But it will happen as long as you don’t fall into a training trap.

For years I worked in a small training studio. Almost every member worked out with a trainer in some capacity. A few years ago I joined a large commercial gym closer to my condo. It was the first time in many years I’d been in a facility where the majority of members don’t work directly with a trainer.

For two years I went to that gym and saw the same men and women. Aside from a few exceptions, nobody seemed to be progressing. These were people who consistently went to the gym and seemed to be working hard but didn’t have any noticeable changes.

I understand why it happens; there’s a lot of mis-information, conflicting information, and abundance of information out there.

What you must know is that the importance of the quality of the best program in the World pales in comparison to your willingness to do a program. Any program.

My best recommendation is for you to find a program that seems good, and stick to it even if you think that you found something better. I’m not saying that you didn’t necessarily find something better; I’m just saying that what you have is good as long as you don’t change it.

Training Mistake #1: Muscle Confusion (the other one)

I knew a trainer, Paul, who was working with a client (Jeff) who wanted to lose fat and put on muscle. They agreed that Jeff would add muscle mass first, and then focus on burning fat, and Paul created a program with those goals in mind.

A month into training, Jeff was looking and feeling good, but then Paul decided to have Jeff do Tabata-style training (a high-intensity interval workout) instead.

At the 3-month assessment, Jeff hadn’t come near to his original agreed-upon goals. Paul had fallen into the trap of program hopping and Jeff ’s results suffered.

If Paul had stuck with hypertrophy training for the full 3 months, Jeff would have met his goals. (In addition, Jeff would have gained a lot more from the Tabata training during the next phase of his training with the added muscle mass.)

It might seem like a new program is just what you’re looking for but I urge you to stay the course. There are no secrets when it comes to fitness despite the fantastical promises that many savvy marketers might have you believe.

What it comes down to is this: A different program might be better than the one you’re one. It also might be worse.

The only absolute is that hopping from one program to another before seeing it through will stall your progress.

While P90X made it popular to talk about muscle confusion, the concept of changing up your workouts causes confusion in a different way; your muscles aren’t given a program that allows them to progressively become stronger, more powerful, or more efficient.

If you come across a new workout that sounds great, file it away and start it up after you’ve finished your current plan.

I know that sometimes this can be difficult. If you aren’t noticing the types of gains that you think you should be getting from your current program it can be frustrating.

The first thing to do is to learn to identify progress markers.

Look for improvement on primary movements (squat, deadlift, upper body push, upper body pull patterns) as indicators. If your squat is getting stronger than you don’t need to worry as much if your leg extension strength seems to be plateauing.

Some programs are built to include a period of overreaching followed by supercompensation. In simple terms, this means that you’ll beat yourself to a pulp for a short while (usually 2-3 weeks) and your strength throughout that period will decrease.

The supercompensation phase occurs during a period of planned rest and recovery. Results, if done right, can be quite remarkable. The struggle that many trainees encounter with this type of training is that they become disenchanted.

The overreaching phase is hard work, and the motivation to continue as you see your strength diminishing can be hard to overcome.

The final reason why you may think that your current program isn’t working has nothing to do with what you’re doing in the gym.

The list below highlights four of the most common home habits that can hamper results. If any of them exist, then you increase the likelihood of stalled progress.

• Lack of adequate rest.
• High stress levels.
• Poor diet.
• Alcohol consumption.

Here are a few quick tips to improve upon each of the 4 home-time habits:

Lack of rest

Aside from advising you to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night, sleep quality must be a priority as well.

Everyone knows that shutting off electronics at least an hour before bedtime is a good idea. The reality, it’s not practical for most.

If you’re going to be using electronics, figure out ways to reduce the light being emitted from your electronics. F.lux is an app that automatically adjusts the light based on the time of day.

In your bedroom eliminate as much light as possible. If you have a router or TV, cover the blinking blue or red light before going to sleep. Finally, committing to 5 to10 minutes of light meditation before going to sleep works wonders to quiet your mind so you can rest easy.

High stress levels

There’s no “easy” advice because most stressors are hard to remove. That said, how you perceive stressors can always be managed.

Five to ten minutes of meditation in the morning and night works can help clear your mind and calm your heart. If meditation is difficult, try starting with a ritual of gratitude. It’s as simple as writing down 3 things that you’re thankful for in the morning and 3 things that made the day awesome before bed.

Poor diet

When you break it down diet is pretty simple: Lots of lean protein, lots of veggies, lots of healthy fats, healthy carbs especially surrounding workouts, and a fair amount of fiber (especially if you’re over 35 years of age). Obviously this is a very basic overview but if acts as a good baseline.

Alcohol consumption

Don’t drink. If you have, which you don’t, don’t drink on days that you train. (Editor’s note: I drink, as it’s part of my social life. So if it’s the same for you, I recommend limiting carb intake during the day. Just consider your booze your carbs.)

Training Mistake #2: Progressing Too Quickly

This mistake surprises a lot of people because the goal of fitness is to become better each workout. But sometimes the focus on becoming stronger or resting less can actually work against you.

In the words of trainer Tim Arndt, “fitness is simple, it’s just not easy.”

Linear progression works great for anyone with less than a year of serious strength training. This working out thing isn’t complicated unless you’re at a very high training level. What matters is that you work your butt off trying to get a bit better every day.

Doing a squat on a bosu ball isn’t necessarily a bad exercise, (although you’d have to work pretty hard to convince me that it’s the best choice for whatever it is that you want to accomplish) but if you can’t perform a good squat without a bosu ball, you should be working on that first.

Here’s the funny part: I felt compelled to join in and justify exciting exercises. It seemed great workouts needed something that made them different in order to be seen as good. Everything else was boring and outdated.

As much as I try not to listen to others speak, those on the gym floor were talking about their programs and why they worked.

“If you do a curl to press to squat then you use more big muscles and burn more fat.”

“I do all of my exercises on a ball because it forces me core to engage. I don’t even need to train my abs directly anymore.”

Even though I had 12 years of training experience and knew this wasn’t true, I couldn’t help but get sucked in.

I tell you this embarrassing story because I hope that it makes you recognize that you’re not alone. With 12 years experience in the weight room (seven as a trainer) and a degree in Kinesiology, I also fell into the trap of thinking that there was something new that I might be missing out on.

Progress: Don’t Skip This Step

There’s a myth that you need to “trick” or “confuse” the body in order to adapt. I don’t know what those words mean, but I’m pretty sure that the body isn’t something that you can fool.

The body attempts to stay in homeostasis (a state of balance). Whatever your training goal, the body wants to stay where it is and you want it to adapt.

It takes a sufficient amount of continual effort to move the body to a new homeostatic point. This is why it takes a lot of consistent effort to force your body to adapt, but once it does, maintaining becomes a less involved task.

Attempting to progress too quickly by making the weight too heavy or changing to a fancy variation of an exercise is like trying to skip a step. There are no tricks – just focus and hard work every day.

So how do you know if you’re progressing too fast?

One way is to understand the difference between soreness and pain. Oftentimes, lifting too heavy leads to poor form and injury.

Even if you don’t have a major injury, you could be doing damage to yourself leading to nagging pain. But delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is not bad, so what’s the difference?

Generally DOMS is tender to touch and subsides within a maximum of 72 hours. Pain, on the other hand, is more pinpointed and often occurs in the joints. It can also last more than 72 hours.

A good way to figure out if the weight right for you is to focus on your ability to “feel” each rep.

Aside from low rep powerlifting, lifting weights should be controlled throughout the entire motion. Know what muscles you’re trying to target and focus on feeling them work through the movement. It sounds simple, but the mind/muscle connection is powerful and can make a big difference.

Success in the gym doesn’t happen overnight. There’s a reason why so few people achieve their fitness goals. It’s hard and requires pig-headed discipline and the ability to delay gratification.

But you know what? Nothing worth having comes easy. There are no tricks. Avoid the traps, work hard, sleep well, eat right, and get better every day.

—

Jonathan Goodman is the author of Ignite the Fire, a book that teaches how to become a personal trainer and build a successful career. To learn more about his personal training books and free collaborative resource for trainers, go to the Personal Trainer Development Center.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Confessions of a Trainer: Your Workout Is Not Your Problem appeared first on Born Fitness.

Exercise science isn’t rocket science, but it’s still a science. Without knowing it, most people are making some of the biggest workout mistakes.

After all, there’s a reason that some workouts—while apparently similarly—offer very different results. People who design programs for a living understand what works, and it’s oftentimes not what you think. There are many relationships—such as fatigue, force coupling factors, recovery, total work capacity, and many more (such as your performance goals)—that play an under-appreciated role in great workout design.

A good program strikes a balance between what you want to do and what you need to do, so you can keep training pain-free.

That’s why I turned to Sean Hyson, C.S.C.S., author of the 101 Best Workouts of All Time. As the title would suggest, Sean has quite a bit of experience working with people who are known for designing incredible workouts. And as Fitness Director of Men’s Fitness, he’s seen a bit of everything. He identified some of the most common errors people make when creating workouts. -AB

The 5 Biggest Workout Design Mistakes

Everybody wants to be his own personal trainer. You feel like nobody knows your body better than you do, so who better to figure out how to make it bigger, stronger, and leaner? The problem is that you are your own worst enemy, and your own ego, imagination, and preconceived notions of what it takes to change your body can hold back your progress (despite your “insider knowledge”). But eventually, we all want to take the reins of our own training, so if you’re going to do so, or already have, at least know the pitfalls to avoid.

Mistake #1: Doing Way Too Much

This is easily the most prevalent and destructive problem among beginners and experts. Sometimes you just can’t imagine doing fewer than five sets for an exercise, when in reality (and especially for beginners) two or three is usually enough.

The problem stems from the sport of bodybuilding, and the workout routines its champions—who are always genetically gifted and often steroid-enhanced—have made famous. Through magazines, other media, and pop culture, we’re led to believe that if we want bigger arms, we need to do four different types of curls as a bodybuilder would do, using drop sets, taking each set to failure with a five-second negative, or some other advanced technique.

The truth is, thankfully, building muscle is not that complicated. At least not for people in the early stages of their training or who have no plans to use performance-enhancing drugs. Look at how many sets, on average, some of today’s most popular strength and physique coaches prescribe in a workout.

• Jason Ferruggia: 12–16 total sets
• John Meadows: 10–12 total sets
• Mike Robertson: 10–15 total sets
• Jim Wendler: 10–14 total sets

Here’s a quick primer on some popular styles of training:

Whole Body: If you’re training your whole body in one session, one compound exercise per muscle group is enough; two to three sets each.

Upper/Lower Split: Hit one main lift (such as a bench press or a squat), follow it up with two assistance exercises that train the same muscles and the opposing ones for balance, and then finish with some work for the abs/arms/calves/forearms (or any area you deem to be a weak point).

Body Part Split: Three to four sets of about five different lifts ought to do it.

Doing more work than necessary can lead to overtraining and injury, not to mention time-consuming workouts. As with medicine, you want to find the minimum effective dose that nets results. Train hard and you’ll see that you don’t need to train for too long. 

Mistake #2: Doing Too Much Of One Thing, Not Enough Of The Other

Whenever we set a goal, we tend to gear our training toward only that one thing, and forget about all the other little things that aren’t a priority. The only trouble is that those “little things” count. For instance, many guys start lifting weights because they want to build a bigger chest. They start doing all kinds of presses, flyes, and pushups in their workouts, because they’re eager to see their pecs grow.

Unfortunately, they’re not thinking about their shoulders and upper backs, and how all that extra work is going to affect them.

Remember this line, which in the fitness world is akin to the golden rule: “Whatever you do on one side of a joint, you need to do an equal amount on the other side.” While a certain amount of imbalanced training is helpful for bringing up a lagging muscle group (when it’s a major weak point), most of the time, including when you’re a beginner, you’ll make faster progress when you keep things even.

If you’re going to do 20 sets for chest on chest day, do at least that many for back on back day.

Balance is especially important for chest training because of the action the shoulders take. Pressing motions draw the arms in front of the body, lengthening the muscles on the back of the shoulders and tightening the front delts and pecs. Without rowing movements to counteract this motion, over time, you’ll develop a tight chest and rounded shoulders, setting you up for shoulder injury in addition to bad posture.

Try supersetting push and pull movements so you can always be sure you’ve done enough back work. Also, write your workouts down. Keeping a log helps you keep track of balance.

Mistake #3: Ignoring The Little Things

This is an extension of the last tip but warrants its own entry. While all you may want out of training is a big chest, ripped abs, or a stronger bench press, you have to pay attention to the small details that make them possible.

Every workout, no matter what kind, needs to begin with a warmup. Part of that warmup should include foam rolling and stretching to promote blood flow and loosen tight muscle groups.

You should also work stretches and exercises that specifically target muscle imbalances into your training from time to time. These include a piriformis stretch (what strength coach Eric Cressey calls the seated 90/90 stretch) for the hips, and facepulls to protect the shoulders. Get used to the idea that not every exercise you do will be glamorous, fun, or immediately evident as a step that brings you closer to your goal.

A good program strikes a balance between what you want to do—so you’ll stay motivated to train and enjoy the process—and what you need to do, so you can keep training pain-free years into the future.

Mistake #4: Not Understanding Anatomy

Another misconception that bodybuilding culture has injected into mainstream thinking is that the body is just a collection of disparate parts. Many people think that if they squat on Monday they can still do a full back workout on Tuesday, complete with back extensions or, incredibly, even deadlifts. As if the lower back isn’t getting enough work from squatting.

It’s true that the deadlift trains the entire back hard and it is often categorized as a “back exercise”, but it’s also murder on the legs. Just because you don’t happen to be sore in your legs after squatting (hey, it can happen) doesn’t mean your body is ready for some heavy pulls only a day or so later. This kind of thinking shows a lack of understanding of how these exercises work, and while your training doesn’t need to be ultra-scientific to be effective, it does have to respect some rules.

Rule #1: Never train shoulders the day after a chest session

Rule #2: Limit your direct lower-back training to days you squat and/or deadlift.

Rule #3: Don’t superset exercises that demand a lot of your grip, such as rows and chinups.

Rule #4: Unless you’re dead-set on body-part training, consider breaking up your workouts according to movement patterns. It’s easier to understand which exercises should be done on which day when you think of your routine as consisting of push and pull movements, rather than chest day, shoulder day, and so on.

Mistake #5: Second Guessing Yourself And Getting Bored

Hopefully, this article hasn’t thrown you into a panic, making you second-guess everything you do in the gym. Because more important than doing things correctly is that you actually do something consistently.

Thanks to the Internet, there’s more fitness information available today—right now—than there ever has been in history. With that much to look at, it’s no wonder you’re confused about what to do. The solution is to pick one thing and block the rest out of your mind, at least for a few months. (Don’t worry, it will still be here when you get back.) You’ll never make progress if you doubt what you’re doing or continually hop aboard the latest trend. A flawed program—and ALL of them are, to some degree—that you commit to is better than a superbly designed one that you’re unsure about or want to tamper with.

The best way to become your own trainer is to do what real trainers do—apply one program for a while and see how it goes, learn from it, and make changes only as needed. The key is making sure that you’re following the best workouts that follow the principles we know work. When you’ve given something a proper chance, only then will you know what does and doesn’t work for you, and you can stop getting in your own way on the path to building the body you want.

Mistake-Proof Your Workout

You want the best information without having to spend the time searching the web or guessing if your hard work will lead to results.

CLICK HERE to learn how you can make sure your workouts and diet are always on the right track.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

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