Many people include weight training as a part of their workout program - but not all weight training programs are worth doing. Indeed, a good percentage of the time spent on these workouts is wasted because people ignore the basic rules that govern success or failure.
So what are the most common faults that you see in people's weight training?
- Poor technique
- Lack of intensity
- Lack of variety
- No progressive overload
Each of these alone can undermine your weight training. When you combine these errors, as many people do, you dramatically reduce the effectiveness of your workouts, wasting hours of valuable workout time.
Let's look at each in turn and see how the role they play in good workouts - or indeed bad ones.
- Poor technique: Good technique is essential for any strength training work. Doing exercises incorrectly is not only unsafe, it also reduces the effectiveness of the exercise - most poor technique is actually a way of cheating to make the exercise easier.
- Lack of intensity: Intensity is the key to good workouts. Simply going through the motions is a waste of time. You are there, doing the workout, so give it everything - you'll get much more back.
- Lack of variety: Your muscles work on the principal of adaptation - as they get used to something, they find ways of doing it more efficiently. That means that in order to keep making progress you have to challenge them. Doing different exercises is a great way to keep challenging your body, forcing you to use muscles in different ways.
- No progressive overload: Progressive overload is one of the key principals of strength workouts. You increase the workload on a regular basis by using more weight, doping more reps, doing more sets, or reducing your rest time, and your body responds by developing.
