Post by Steve Gardener on Sept 20, 2009 9:44:00 GMT
Inspired once more by one of the legion of MT members with his 'I've been training for 3 years and made no progress' comment the following are things you might be doing to hurt said progress. Be aware NO ONE is immune from these, even your ever knowing all seeing scribe. ;D
Eating
This is the NUMBER ONE PROBLEM - quite simply not eating enough to grow on. It goes thus: eat less = loose weight, eat the same = stay the same, eat more = ...grow?
If you aren't including a little extra protein and carbs (for the new body-weights energy requirements and to spare the protein for building/anabolism) then why do you expect to see a change? If you eat enough for, lets say, your 200lbs body but wish to get to 205lbs then calculate what grams of the macro-nutrients you'll need when you weight 205. Providing your stimulating said growth with the workouts it'll come. It might not be over night but it will come.
Even thinking, as I have seen, 'my diet is perfect' (and I've seen this written) is silly. It's a case of is it bollocks, if it was you'd be growing!!
Not planning
This is a major oversight of man a newbie. It can be as simple as not thinking about what reps, pounds, exercises you'll be doing in the next session (or forgetting your training dairy... oops) and for which there should always be at the very least a baby step forward. Be that 1 rep, 1 lb and so on at some point of the workout... it doesn't have to be on every set and every exercise. Or more a lack of short, medium and long terms targets.
For those of you who fall into they 'do what?' regarding that last sentence it goes thus. A general expression of 'me wannum be bigger' is all well and good but I ask 'how?' (a la the Red Indian in Cowboys and Indians LOL). The reply is not 'training d'uh'. It's 'well in the next session I will lift/rep X' (short term) and in three months I'll be lifting X for reps and by the end of the year XX'.
Go to the gym at the very least with half an idea of what you wish to achieve by that sessions end. Having this target in mind will, even with the odd occasion when you're unable to make it mean that over the many weeks, months and if you've trained as long as I have, years you'll have made progress. You wont have been going through the motions and claiming 'I workout' (get you, you beast) instead it'll be 'I bench double what I used to do' (insert target of choice).
Over training
Not complicated this one but one even the most experienced fall prey too (gear/AAS helps offset it). You train hard, you're nice 'n' sore, you haven't quite recovered yet, you train the same again. Now and again... no big deal. But all the fucking time? Yeah you'll be worn out and eventually not just stagnating (see maintaining below) but actually falling back. You become injury prone, joints ache and you'll always sore.
The analogy I've seen used goes thus: hammer hits nail, does so a few times until, the head of the nail is level with a piece of wood. Job done. Ditto training (hammer) and targets/your body (the wood). Now over training is to carry on hitting it. Fucks the nail (you don't wanna train) and smashes the wood (body is fucked). Get it? Hammer (train hard) then stop, rest and recover and move on to the next session or target.
'Same old, same old'.
As per the thread: do the same thing all the damn time and what do you get...?? The same damn results. Sometimes you need to change things up. From as simple an idea of changing the order of the exercises to doing new ones.
Not cycling
If I set myself a target of (as per this years Xmas lifting session) a 200-kilo bench press (my old PB being 190kg) and I make it I know I cannot stay holding onto a 200-kilo bench for months. I MUST drop back.
Analogy time: fast sports car... drives at 140 all day. But, if needed, can be pushed to 200 for a few minutes on a good clear straight road. You cannot and indeed should not drive at 200 all day cos guess what... yeah the engine will blow the fuck up! Ditto being full on. I expect to bench the hoped for 200-kilos for 1 damned rep on one damned day. I'd LOVE to do it all year round but that aint gonna happen. What I can and should (and have to) get is a higher 'not full on' bench when I back off.
Example: using assistance etc last year. I began my assault on the 190-kilo with the following in mind. In May of that year I did an assisted 180-kilos. Come late September and clean I did a touch n go 170-kilos. I knew from previous experience 'on' I add 20-kilos. So I started training with 190-kilos (10 up from the previous PB) in mind. I played around with a bench percentage program but fell back into my 'do singles' approach which works for me. Come Dec 20th I hit 190-kilos, which was - then - a life time PB. I should have, and will see where I am at before I hopefully go back 'on', an off one time single of 180-kilos touch n go. Then a 6-8 week touch of something (with my aching joints probably deca and something else) to get me those 20-kilos. In that way I get stronger both off and on, do not over do the assistance and plan to succeed. But at the same time I'm not pedal to the metal all year round. Indeed this year, aching joints etc, meant a back off of NO BENCH at all for nigh on 8 months. I've gone from 8 months of no bench and a test session of 140-kilos for a few singles (yes, no bench and I can still do more than some of ya LOL) to my next session (the 3rd) of multiple singles with 150-kilos. I HAVE been using a Nautilus iso-lateral lever bench thing (you sit up) and am currently alternating that with free weights sessions. It's kept my chest strong but given my wear and tear on the free weights a rest.
I may tweak my current program (dropping press to get more from the bench if my shoulders hurt) and hope (and plan) to see a single rep with 200-kilos come Xmas. The same thought process can be applied to ANY program.
Rest
For those with less than the perfect lifestyle, ie: most of us, and work it's hard enough making gains. Now, as many of our younger brethren do, to then gout out on the razz until the early ours and try and workout the next day as per... not gonna be one of the PB days is it?? Those 'indulging' in a little recreation narcotics (coke etc) are making it twice as bad.
Your best sessions will follow, usually at least, a good nights rest, hot relaxing baths and showers, the sports massage you like and so on. I don't think 100% lying on your ass between sessions works cos I've tried it and the body prefers some movement but train and RECOVER. Not train and cane it party boy.
Injuries
My bug bear. I'm 45 and have been training 30 years plus (started aged 15). Do I have injuries and issues - fuck yeah. But you can get them at any time and any age. In a way the worse ones are the little niggles. If you have a major one (say a massive back one or pec tear etc) only morons and the obsessed keep at it and make it worse. The more sensible rest and recover, train differently and heal the fuck up.
If not you are doomed to keep hammering away at the injury and yes this will kill progress (see my nail and hammer analogy elsewhere). Be warned - stop hurting yourself and get better then train again. But don't fuck the same problem up all over again. Learn from the mistake and try to avoid the same injury happening.
Illness
It's no good bitching about a lack of progress if you've an iffy gut, a chill or worse. Train if you can but you'll see more progress once you're back to normal.
Stress and issues
Back in the day when I did an honest days graft I was hard pushed to 2 whole body workouts a week. When we were busy at the factory I worked in then I could easily do 60 hours and on occasion close to 80 hours a week working 21 days without a break. Equally moving house, getting married, getting divorced, being involved in a major court case, or following the death of a loved one and the like can all have the same effect as my hard days graft did. They wear you out. Not only mentally but via stress hormones your body releases you end up mentally AND physically fucked. Now working out is, as per, still possible and may even act as a stress release but do not expect your best gains during these times.
'Maintaining'.
Do the same thing, be that eat, train, or rest and you'll stay as you are. We all have times when we have to do it but they are not growth times. Figure this in before you bitch about 'me no make no progress'.
Fini
There should be enough info in the above that many of you not making progress will recognize some of the points as mistakes you make and which are holding you back. Don't make me rap my knuckles upside your head and say 'hey dufuss, wasn't you paying attention' ya hear!
Eating
This is the NUMBER ONE PROBLEM - quite simply not eating enough to grow on. It goes thus: eat less = loose weight, eat the same = stay the same, eat more = ...grow?
If you aren't including a little extra protein and carbs (for the new body-weights energy requirements and to spare the protein for building/anabolism) then why do you expect to see a change? If you eat enough for, lets say, your 200lbs body but wish to get to 205lbs then calculate what grams of the macro-nutrients you'll need when you weight 205. Providing your stimulating said growth with the workouts it'll come. It might not be over night but it will come.
Even thinking, as I have seen, 'my diet is perfect' (and I've seen this written) is silly. It's a case of is it bollocks, if it was you'd be growing!!
Not planning
This is a major oversight of man a newbie. It can be as simple as not thinking about what reps, pounds, exercises you'll be doing in the next session (or forgetting your training dairy... oops) and for which there should always be at the very least a baby step forward. Be that 1 rep, 1 lb and so on at some point of the workout... it doesn't have to be on every set and every exercise. Or more a lack of short, medium and long terms targets.
For those of you who fall into they 'do what?' regarding that last sentence it goes thus. A general expression of 'me wannum be bigger' is all well and good but I ask 'how?' (a la the Red Indian in Cowboys and Indians LOL). The reply is not 'training d'uh'. It's 'well in the next session I will lift/rep X' (short term) and in three months I'll be lifting X for reps and by the end of the year XX'.
Go to the gym at the very least with half an idea of what you wish to achieve by that sessions end. Having this target in mind will, even with the odd occasion when you're unable to make it mean that over the many weeks, months and if you've trained as long as I have, years you'll have made progress. You wont have been going through the motions and claiming 'I workout' (get you, you beast) instead it'll be 'I bench double what I used to do' (insert target of choice).
Over training
Not complicated this one but one even the most experienced fall prey too (gear/AAS helps offset it). You train hard, you're nice 'n' sore, you haven't quite recovered yet, you train the same again. Now and again... no big deal. But all the fucking time? Yeah you'll be worn out and eventually not just stagnating (see maintaining below) but actually falling back. You become injury prone, joints ache and you'll always sore.
The analogy I've seen used goes thus: hammer hits nail, does so a few times until, the head of the nail is level with a piece of wood. Job done. Ditto training (hammer) and targets/your body (the wood). Now over training is to carry on hitting it. Fucks the nail (you don't wanna train) and smashes the wood (body is fucked). Get it? Hammer (train hard) then stop, rest and recover and move on to the next session or target.
'Same old, same old'.
As per the thread: do the same thing all the damn time and what do you get...?? The same damn results. Sometimes you need to change things up. From as simple an idea of changing the order of the exercises to doing new ones.
Not cycling
If I set myself a target of (as per this years Xmas lifting session) a 200-kilo bench press (my old PB being 190kg) and I make it I know I cannot stay holding onto a 200-kilo bench for months. I MUST drop back.
Analogy time: fast sports car... drives at 140 all day. But, if needed, can be pushed to 200 for a few minutes on a good clear straight road. You cannot and indeed should not drive at 200 all day cos guess what... yeah the engine will blow the fuck up! Ditto being full on. I expect to bench the hoped for 200-kilos for 1 damned rep on one damned day. I'd LOVE to do it all year round but that aint gonna happen. What I can and should (and have to) get is a higher 'not full on' bench when I back off.
Example: using assistance etc last year. I began my assault on the 190-kilo with the following in mind. In May of that year I did an assisted 180-kilos. Come late September and clean I did a touch n go 170-kilos. I knew from previous experience 'on' I add 20-kilos. So I started training with 190-kilos (10 up from the previous PB) in mind. I played around with a bench percentage program but fell back into my 'do singles' approach which works for me. Come Dec 20th I hit 190-kilos, which was - then - a life time PB. I should have, and will see where I am at before I hopefully go back 'on', an off one time single of 180-kilos touch n go. Then a 6-8 week touch of something (with my aching joints probably deca and something else) to get me those 20-kilos. In that way I get stronger both off and on, do not over do the assistance and plan to succeed. But at the same time I'm not pedal to the metal all year round. Indeed this year, aching joints etc, meant a back off of NO BENCH at all for nigh on 8 months. I've gone from 8 months of no bench and a test session of 140-kilos for a few singles (yes, no bench and I can still do more than some of ya LOL) to my next session (the 3rd) of multiple singles with 150-kilos. I HAVE been using a Nautilus iso-lateral lever bench thing (you sit up) and am currently alternating that with free weights sessions. It's kept my chest strong but given my wear and tear on the free weights a rest.
I may tweak my current program (dropping press to get more from the bench if my shoulders hurt) and hope (and plan) to see a single rep with 200-kilos come Xmas. The same thought process can be applied to ANY program.
Rest
For those with less than the perfect lifestyle, ie: most of us, and work it's hard enough making gains. Now, as many of our younger brethren do, to then gout out on the razz until the early ours and try and workout the next day as per... not gonna be one of the PB days is it?? Those 'indulging' in a little recreation narcotics (coke etc) are making it twice as bad.
Your best sessions will follow, usually at least, a good nights rest, hot relaxing baths and showers, the sports massage you like and so on. I don't think 100% lying on your ass between sessions works cos I've tried it and the body prefers some movement but train and RECOVER. Not train and cane it party boy.
Injuries
My bug bear. I'm 45 and have been training 30 years plus (started aged 15). Do I have injuries and issues - fuck yeah. But you can get them at any time and any age. In a way the worse ones are the little niggles. If you have a major one (say a massive back one or pec tear etc) only morons and the obsessed keep at it and make it worse. The more sensible rest and recover, train differently and heal the fuck up.
If not you are doomed to keep hammering away at the injury and yes this will kill progress (see my nail and hammer analogy elsewhere). Be warned - stop hurting yourself and get better then train again. But don't fuck the same problem up all over again. Learn from the mistake and try to avoid the same injury happening.
Illness
It's no good bitching about a lack of progress if you've an iffy gut, a chill or worse. Train if you can but you'll see more progress once you're back to normal.
Stress and issues
Back in the day when I did an honest days graft I was hard pushed to 2 whole body workouts a week. When we were busy at the factory I worked in then I could easily do 60 hours and on occasion close to 80 hours a week working 21 days without a break. Equally moving house, getting married, getting divorced, being involved in a major court case, or following the death of a loved one and the like can all have the same effect as my hard days graft did. They wear you out. Not only mentally but via stress hormones your body releases you end up mentally AND physically fucked. Now working out is, as per, still possible and may even act as a stress release but do not expect your best gains during these times.
'Maintaining'.
Do the same thing, be that eat, train, or rest and you'll stay as you are. We all have times when we have to do it but they are not growth times. Figure this in before you bitch about 'me no make no progress'.
Fini
There should be enough info in the above that many of you not making progress will recognize some of the points as mistakes you make and which are holding you back. Don't make me rap my knuckles upside your head and say 'hey dufuss, wasn't you paying attention' ya hear!
