7 Solutions to Common Training Mistakes

• Updated on: 2020-03-27
• Read original article here

Building a better physique is one area where failure is a good thing. That’s because pulverizing a muscle group with a challenging set – where the last few reps are grueling  – can help you speed up your gains.
Training to failure breaks down more muscle fibers , helping you to come back bigger and stronger the next time. And this rule applies no matter how much weight you’re using.
A study in The Journal of Nutrition found that protein synthesis was increased in subjects for 24 hours following weight training in heavy-weight/low-rep and ligher-weight/higher-rep groups.
Solution: No matter what rep range you’re training in, select a weight that brings about failure at, or just before, your target number on the last set of every exercise. If you can reach or surpass your target number of reps for your stated goal with ease, add more weight.
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2. Going To Failure Too Often
Considering what you now know about failure – that it’s a good thing – you may think that failing more often is a good thing. But pump the brakes there, Mini Arnold.
Going to failure too often, as many lifters unwittingly do, can actually bring your mass gains to an abrupt halt. Australian researchers found that subjects taking multiple sets of the bench press to failure gained less strength than those who only failed on one set.
There can be many reasons for this but one of the most likely is that if you fail on your early sets, you’re unlikely to be able to engage as many muscle fibers or move as much weight for as many reps on your later sets. And when total volume and quality or reps matters, it may be best to save your fight to failure for your last set.
Solution: Scale back on how often you go to failure. Limit this type of work to the last set of every exercise. More advanced athletes performing a higher volume of sets may benefit from using failure to their advantage of the last 1-2 sets of a given move.
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4. Over-Isolating
We know that having those grainy striations in your chest is a lifelong goal but more sets of dumbbell flyes and cable work is not going to get ‘em for you. Isolating your pecs will certainly help but by focusing too much on isolation work like this, you are limiting your chances of developing the kind of detail you want. Why?
Well, you’ve got to have the muscle to detail first and that means building routines consisting mainly of heavy, compound movements .
Continuing to use the chest as an example, if your routine is usually five moves and 15-sets deep, you’ll likely want to make sure that three exercises (or about nine sets) are of the multijoint variety – presses, dips and push-ups.
The final two moves, then, can focus on isolation – flyes, cables, pec deck. Plus, the heavy moves have a greater impact on natural physique-building hormones such as testosteronea and growth hormone (GH).
Solution: Make sure that the bulk of your movements for major bodyparts are compound in nature. Presses, squats, deadlifts, rows, dips and pull-ups will all help you add more total muscle mass that you can then enhance with a tempered number of sets of isolation moves. A five-move bodypart routine, for example, should only feature 2-3 isolation exercises. 
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5. Skipping Workout Because Of Soreness
It was once believed that it was counterproductive to train when sore . The rationale was that if a muscle is still sore, it is still damaged and should thus be given additional time to recover. On top of that, very few of us are inclined to hit the gym for leg day if our quads and glutes are still reeling from last week’s squat session. But do you really need to skip that visit?
Japanese researchers found that subjects who were experienced delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) in their biceps experienced no decrease in strength, mobility or muscle soreness when repeating the same workout 48 hours later.
A better bet is to keep to your routine – hit the gym, get in a good warm-up and spend 10-15 times stretching afterward. And if the soreness is a mental obstacle for you, EGCG, BCAA and increased protein intake have all been shown to decrease DOMS.
Solution: Don’t skip workouts just because of muscle soreness. Research shows that it is not harmful to train when sore but it’s still a good rule of thumb to allow at least 48-72 hours before attacking a muscle group again. You can also supplement with EGCG, BCAA and protein and incorporate post-workout stretching to alleviate (not eliminate) the pain ahead of your session.
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7. Doing Too Much Cardio
You want to get big but you want to get lean, too. So you are as diligent about your cardio as your weight work . But sometimes, you may find that the gains come slower when you are good about doing your cardio. (We know, life isn’t fair.) When you hit the treadmill or stairclimber too often, you rob your body of mass-breeding calories.
Do too much and your body goes through primary fuel sources like glycogen and fat, then goes on the hunt for reserves…in your muscle bellies. This is particularly true when you perform lower-intensity cardio exclusively. Cardio is good. Too much? Not so great.
Solution: When trying to gain mass, opt for 3-4 cardio sessions per week. As for protocols, you may want to stick with high-intensity intervals, which have been shown to burn more fat and preserve more muscle mass than steady-state cardio schemes.
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