Common Issues in the Workout Gym

Hello Everyone,

I have decided to put up a little article about some of the mistakes I see and hear about in a workout gym.  There are a lot of different myths about the quickest way to achieve results, what food to eat, when to work out, etc. In the follow article I will help clarify some of these issues I see every day.

1)      THE QUICKEST WAY TO RESULTS IS EFFORT AND TIME: I always hear these commercials and personal trainers who claim to have a fool-proof way to get abs in 10 days or lose 10 lbs of fat in a week with some ridiculous diet or to gain 10 lbs of muscle in a month with some supplement.  99.9% of these are wrong and are based on theoretical ideas and physiology, but is not practical. The only true way to gain muscle is to train hard all the time with a proper periodization plan. The only way to lose 10 lbs is by lessening the amount of calories in and increasing calorie expenditure. All the diets such as ketogenic Diets and Low fat diets and Atkins temporarily make you lose weight but its not permanent because they don’t hit the root of the problem. Weight loss does not have anything to do with exercise or nutrition. It is a psychological problem. Someone who is overweight needs to teach themselves to exercise more and eat less and put hard work into the weight loss program. No one that got into the Olympics (excluding those who took performance enhancing drugs) got there by taking the easy route. If you can force yourself to work out every other day and say no to the cheese burgers, eventually weight loss becomes a habit and you don’t need to try and loss weight your body naturally adjusts to your new lifestyle. This can’t happen with a quick diet because the body knows it’s not permanent. If you are looking for hypertrophy, weight loss or any other fitness based goal then DO NOT fall for the quick schemes. Put in hard work and the results will last you a life time.

2)      DO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOUR PERSONAL TRAINER SAYS: Yes, your personal trainer is a professional is some regards but  being a personal trainer I know all too well just how easy it is to be one. To get a Canfit Pro certification is one of the easiest certifications to get. Anyone, after a few weeks of studying can pass the test. Along with that, remember, your trainer is being paid on commission and sometimes sells fitness equipments on the side etc. It is a job for them and they need to make money. Some trainers (not all) will lie and bend the truth to make the client have more trust in them or think that their personal trainer is better than everyone else. I have worked at commercial clubs (not saying what ones due to privacy issues) but I can say that 90% of them are not all they are cracked up to be.  A lot of them do not even have any real education, not even a diploma in fitness. A lot of the trainers were good a particular sport and decided that that’s all they knew how to do so they took their Canfit pro and wahhlaaa Super expert at everything fitness related is born.  I know I just bashed personal trainers but with all that said I have met some that are very good and very knowledgeable. The trainers I like tend to be the ones that own a smaller club with fewer members. I find that the bigger companies just hire anyone because they have so many people to take care of it does not matter what your qualifications are. The smaller clubs tend to be pickier due to the fact that there are less people so there is not as much of a demand for personal training so the manager can take more time in finding appropriate trainers.

3)      ALWAYS USE FULL RANGE OF MOTION (ROM): It makes me physically mad when I see people doing chin ups, squats, crunches etc and only move about 5cm. What good is that going to do you? Yes, that 5% of your muscle is strong but what about the other 95% of the muscle that is never stimulated like that 5%. ALWAYS USE FULL R.O.M. For example a chin up is from a hanging fully flexed should joint (meaning arms straight) to going up and putting the chin over the bar. If you jump up and go from a 90 degree bend in the arm to the chin  and back to 90 degree bend you are only doing half the exercise.  Same with squats; the end R.O.M is in a seated position with knees bent at 90 degrees. I always see some stupid bobble up and down which is just a huge waste of time. No matter what exercise, go as far as your body will allow you. If that means you have to reduce the weight then that’s normal and after a few weeks of training you will be able to do the heavier weight but with full R.O.M which is obviously what you want.

4)      ALWAYS CHANGE UP YOUR WORKOUT:  If you are one of those people who come in and do the exact same workout every time you go to the gym then you need to change up your program every 2-3 weeks. The body only gets stronger when it is forced to do something that it does not normally do. After a few weeks of the exact same thing the body shuts off and goes into sleep mode.  It is like anyone who falls asleep during a meeting because the boss has been talking about the same thing for the last hour and has not changed the subject. You get bored and stop caring. The body is the same way so keep your workouts interesting and different. I would not change the workout daily due to the fact that the body does need some repetition to get the results but after a few weeks the results will not continue and eventually you will plateau meaning you have no improvements in muscle size or strength. I also could not do the same workout every day because I would get so bored I wouldn’t even feel like putting in any effort. Always change up the program when you feel like it’s getting boring to keep your body guessing.

5)      GIVE YOUR SELF GOALs:  You do not want to do reps and sets for the sake of reps and sets. You need to have a purpose. This purpose CANNOT be to lose weight by next year or be able to do a one arm chin up in 3 months. These long term goals are good but you need to have smaller daily goals that you set for yourself. An example would be to do 12 reps of 150lbs squat instead of just doing 11 that you did the day before. Very simple almost easy goals are going to help you a lot more than one distant goal. If everyday your goal is small but achievable such as adding even only 2.5lbs to an exercise or add one rep or do an exercise in a different position, then you will see a lot more results. Do not just do the exercise till fatigue; write down exactly what you did and what you want to accomplish next time.

6)      TAKE DAYS OFF: The body does not adapt if it is under constant stress. If you work out 3 times a day for a month straight you will not get any results and you will actually detrain yourself.  The body only gets stronger when you rest. So take at least 2 days off a week making sure you even out your training days.  Don’t train five times a week all in a row with two days off. Train two days, take a day off, train three days and take a day off. Always spread out rests and workouts if you can.  

7)      DO NOT OVER ESTIMATE YOURSELF: If you are new to working out or are trying a brand new exercise always start small and build up. Don’t jump to the hardest weight because you will get hurt. If you have not already done a certain weight or number of reps then play it safe and set a smaller standard and blow past it. Don’t try to lift that 200lbs bar that you lifted 20 years ago when you were on the high school football team. Start with the bar itself, you may be surprised how much heavier it seems after20 years of baconators at Wendy’s. Simply put; better safe than sorry.

8)      YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE TOO FOCUSED ON DIET: If you are the average person just working out for fun, stress relief and to get into better shape than do not go crazy on calorie counting and reading food labels. IT DOES NOT MATTER! As long as you are eating a balanced diet from all the food groups and not eating junk food in between every meal then you are doing the best thing for yourself in terms of diet. It’s more common sense than anything. If you would classify it as junk food then don’t have as much. If it’s an apple, orange or some type of fruit or vegetable have as much as you want.  I always hear people say things like “ oh well this has anti oxidants so I should have more of that.” or “ I hear riboflavin is good for you so I’m going to buy food with extra riboflavin in it.”  The funny thing is if I ask the majority of people what riboflavin does in the body or what an antioxidant is they don’t know. Why are you so quick to put things in your body if you have no idea what it does? The simple fact is that all vitamins (except for D, which comes from the sun) can be ingested in adequate amounts with a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables, grains and dairy. If you are one of those people who are constantly taking pills and vitamins even though you do not have any medical deficiencies then you are peeing most of them out anyways. Eat a balanced diet and forget about the commercials that say you should buy certain food because it has some extract of a foreign  plant because it won’t help you much , if at all.  

 These are just a few of the bigger issues I see and hear about. There are probably hundreds more but that would take too long to go through all of them. If you see someone doing some of the above things do not  go and tell these people what they are doing is wrong. Simply put it in the back of your head so that when you workout you don’t make the same mistakes.  I hope this article has helped and if you have any questions feel free to email me with any questions or comments.  THANKS