Home Fitness 5 Common Weightlifting Mistakes to Avoid

5 Common Weightlifting Mistakes to Avoid

by John Jones
man preparing to lift barbells

When lifting weights, it’s very important to pay attention to what you are doing, and not only that, be sure that you are doing it the right way. You can cause your body severe damage if you don’t avoid certain basic mistakes.

Weightlifting is a huge exercise, and there are a lot of things to avoid, so you don’t end up missing out on your goals.

In this article, we would be highlighting some of the common mistakes that you are likely to make, ranging from your diet, supplementation, and even what you do in the gym.

man holding knee in painCheating

You may feel like you are doing this right, but no, this is causing more harm to your body. Cheating happens when you start lifting weights that are too heavy for you, and when you do this, you will end up sacrificing your form.

This happens all the time in the gym; people tend to lean backward and fling their elbows forward when doing bicep curls; this is wrong. Not only won’t you achieve as many gains as you should, but you may cause severe injury to yourself.

To avoid doing this, master how to perform an exercise, and do not use any weight to train when starting. This would help you understand what form you are supposed to maintain, and you can keep bumping the weight until you can perform the reps the right way.

It’s important to train to failure but never trade in your form while doing it.

There is something you should know while weightlifting; performing fast concentric movements puts pressure on the nervous system, and slow eccentric movements put pressure on your muscles. So, you should move fast when doing the upward part and slow down while doing the downward part. This would put much pressure on your muscle and train your nervous system on how to lift loads.

Lifting Heavy Weights Early

If you are below 18, you might want to chill on those heavyweights, its best to stick to 9-11 reps. Doing anything more than this can cause harm to your growth. That’s because, as a teenager, your growth plates located at the end of the bones aren’t fully closed, but lifting heavy weights can prematurely close those plates and harm the bones as well.

Also, if you are starting on your weightlifting routine, you may not do so well handling heavy load with low rep ranges. Although different strokes work for different individuals, but you most likely would put your body in immediate danger.

Keep playing it steady and safe, and in no time, you would get your desired results.

man holding protein shake at gymStarving Yourself To Lose Weight

Sounds silly? But we have a lot of people doing this, and we hope to reduce the number. When you place yourself on a diet, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat the foods you crave. You can decide to split your meals into 6-8 portions per day, and that way, your body metabolism keeps working to make you stay fuller for a longer period.

When you starve yourself, the body loses muscles instead of fat, and this is really unhealthy.

Relying Too Much On Supplements

If you don’t train right and diet properly, your supplements won’t get you anywhere. It is called a “supplement” because it is supposed to supplement nutrients that are missing in your diet. If your diet is in check, then taking supplements would go a long way. You can check out our Ultracore Supplements because it has all you need to build those weights and still stay healthy.

Overtraining

There is a misconception that training for hours would help you achieve your desired results faster, but that’s a lie. For weightlifting, less is usually better, because it involves you training your nervous system and joints. So when you overwork your muscles, they would suffer a lot more. You grow your muscles by resting and not by working out tirelessly and endlessly in the gym. That’s because when you lift weights, it causes tears in the muscles, and when you rest, those tears are repaired, making your muscles bigger. The rate at which your muscles would repair depends on your diet plan and sleeping routine.

Remember that, you should take a week break after 12 weeks of weightlifting, to heal any injuries and rest your nervous system.

Final Note

Nothing happens overnight, most especially in weightlifting. It requires consistency, patience, and doing it right to see any significant improvement. So don’t get discouraged and keep working your muscles.

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