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1. Don't Open Your Mouth When You Can Open Your Ears:
2. Don't Hop On The Low-Fat Bandwagon:
3. Don't Rely On Only Three Big Meals:
4. Don't Think You're Above Skepticism:
5. Don't Assume You Are Smarter Than Your Body:
7. Don't Work Through Pain:
8. Don't Deny Yourself The Pleasures Of Breakfast:
9. Don't Try To Live Off 1,000 Calories:
10. Don't Ignore Structure:
- You might think you have something really important to say, or some super rare knowledge to share, but let me break this down for you - you don't.
There are people out there that are way smarter than you that you need to be listening to. Open up your ears and you might actually learn a thing or two.
2. Don't Hop On The Low-Fat Bandwagon:
- Just don't do it. Saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats all have a place in your diet. Yes, saturated fats and trans fats (margarine, fatty cuts of meat, milk, eggs) need to be severely limited due to health risks, but what about the others?
Why deny yourself the benefits of healthy fats when they are just so great? Get your monounsaturated fats in the form of nuts, avocados, natural peanut butter, and various vegetable oils.
Polyunsaturated omega-3's may be found in fish, flax seeds, and walnuts. Omega-6's, on the other hand, are found commonly in grains, eggs, and poultry. The typical American diet is rarely lacking omega-6's.
3. Don't Rely On Only Three Big Meals:
- This is a very unproductive way to eat. In fact, it has been shown in multiple studies to severely decrease your metabolism. The lower your metabolism, the less calories you burn.
So wouldn't it make sense to want to increase it? Luckily, we are able to do just this by implementing meals at 2.5-3 hour intervals. More frequent, lighter meals have been proven to increase metabolism time and time again.
4. Don't Think You're Above Skepticism:
- This might sound stupid coming from a writer, but hear me out. Don't believe everything you read. Just don't do it. Sure, there is a lot of well-researched and reputable information out there, but there's also a lot of garbage in the fitness world.
While one guy might say something about so-and-so, another might say the exact opposite. Take everything with a grain of salt.
5. Don't Assume You Are Smarter Than Your Body:
- I hate to break it to you buddy, but you're not. Your body is beyond smart - it's like a freakin' 23rd century robot. Here's an example - let's say you have really weak glutes. You head out to the track to run some sprints. After a thorough warm-up, you're ready to go.
You blast off the line and everything is looking good. But on the inside, your body is sending signals all over the place to accommodate this movement.
It realizes your glutes are weak and unable to perform properly in the triple extension necessary to carry out a sprint. It then sends a signal to the hamstrings letting them know that they need to pick up the slack because the glutes are failing miserably.
- Because the glutes are only working at 80%, the hamstrings are now working at 120%. They are lengthened and becoming very tight. About ten yards later, a sharp pain runs through the bottom of your thigh and you end up with a pulled hamstring.
The point is - your body is smart. It will compensate for individual muscle weakness. You need to address each and every weakness you have in order to avoid increased imbalance and eventually injury.
- You know, the lower body. And before you ask, no - you can't bench with your legs. We call that the squat! Too many people, particularly the younger guys, focus all of their efforts on upper body work and completely ignore the lower body.
If you didn't complete catch the previous point, balance is key in preventing injury. Learn to love the squat, deadlift and lunge, as well as all of their variations. You won't regret it.
7. Don't Work Through Pain:
- I know, you don't want to wimp out. All of your friends will see it as weakness and call you terrible names. Well, suck it up. Pain is not just random. If you're feeling serious sharp pain anywhere in your body, something is wrong and probably needs to be fixed.
If you continue to work through the pain, you are soon going to be looking at the long and arduous road of rehab. I pushed through some shoulder pain back in high school and ended up with a very badly strained rotator cuff. Rehab was not fun. Learn from my mistake.
8. Don't Deny Yourself The Pleasures Of Breakfast:
- You know how you always hear that breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Yeah, well, your mom is right. A solid morning meal high in protein and carbohydrates will go a long way in brightening your day.
With no morning meal, what energy are you running off of? Well, I'll tell you that you're probably burning muscle because your body has no other efficient energy source. Besides, bacon and eggs is definitely the breakfast of champions. You wanna be a champion, don't you?
9. Don't Try To Live Off 1,000 Calories:
- Regardless of what your health teacher told you, starvation is not the answer to your weight loss dilemma. More clean calories and more exercise is.
With a solid weightlifting program and a smidgeon of cardio, 1000 calories does not provide enough energy for your body to work with. As with skipping breakfast, you will just end up burning off your hard-earned muscle. You worked way too hard over the past 8 months to let that happen!
10. Don't Ignore Structure:
- Anatomy isn't just for geeky lab scientists. Again, we're coming back to the fact that your body is indeed quite smart. If you don't understand the structure of your body, how are you going to know what is needed to fix your imbalances? You're not.
I'm not telling you to go out and buy some complicated 700-page anatomy textbook or take a college-level anatomy class, but I will definitely advise some internet browsing.
11. Don't Think You Are Too Advanced To Warm-Up:
- You might think you're too advanced to dedicate 10 minutes of your session to warming your muscles and stimulating the central nervous system, but I guarantee you that your body is thinking that you're not too advanced for injury.
Stepping into the gym and immediately hitting the iron is not the ideal way to go. You run with the increased risk of injury and decreased performance. Spend a few minutes performing a low-intensity mobility and soft tissue warm-up followed by a specific warm-up for your first exercise.
12. Don't Skip Out On Core Work:
- Your core controls everything. All movement is initiated from the core. It constantly works to stabilize you, regardless of the situation.
Without some degree of core strength, performing these movements would be hell. A variety of direct abdominal and lower back work a few times per week goes a long way. Hanging leg raises, planks, glute-ham raises, good mornings - whatever floats your boat.
13. Don't Ignore The Importance Of Strength:
- I don't care what anyone tells you - without a solid base of strength, your gains aren't going to be near as good as they could be. Everyone these days classifies "strength" as specific to powerlifters and strongman competitors; completely useless to the bodybuilding crowd and the recreational lifter who just wants to look good at the beach.
But think of it this way - heavier weights have a greater impact on the cross-sectional area of muscles, right? So wouldn't it pay to be benching 225 rather than 135? I'd say so. You need a solid strength foundation to truly reach your growth potential.
14. Don't Dismiss The Idea That Less Might Actually Be More:
- Yeah, I went there. I'm no fan of the typical chest/triceps/shoulders split in which 4 different exercises are performed for each muscle. Your anterior delts are actually extremely tiny in comparison to your chest, so why do both groups need 4 different exercises? They don't!
Your smaller muscle groups generally get enough work from your big compound exercises such as the squat, bench press, and deadlift. Stick to the important compounds and stop dedicating so much of your gym time to pea-sized muscles!
15. Don't Attempt To Train For Opposite Goals Simultaneously:
- Case in point: A competitive powerlifter training to run a marathon. Do you think there's any way in hell he's going to gain strength while running well over 100 miles a week trying to prepare for the Houston Marathon? No sir.
When training for two goals, you're only going to get half-@ssed results from either of them. The same applies to gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time. If you run both goals together, you get mediocre results at both ends. However, if you focus on one at a time, you get great results from that particular focus and you are able to spend time on the other aspect in another cycle.
16. Don't Write Your Own Programs Without A Strong Anatomy Background:
- This brings us back to Part 1's point - don't ignore structure. How do you expect to write a well-balanced training program without, at the very least, a basic understanding of anatomy and physiology?
You might be able to get something down that looks decent on paper, but in reality the chances of it really working out are slim to none. Learn about the body - your body in particular - and then start programming. Don't get me wrong, it's an important skill to possess; but stick to the proven programs until your knowledge is up to par.
17. Don't Avoid Corrective And/Or Prehabilitative Work:
- Even with a proper warm-up and balanced training, you still run the risk of injury. It happens to the best and most knowledgeable of us. To work around it, adopt the prehabilitation mentality.
Let's fix it, even though it's not broken yet, because it will probably break soon. Look at your past injuries and problem areas. Determine the most important and then implement corrective or prehabilitative work for that specific area into your program.
18. Don't Think Goals Are Just For Idealists:
- Goals provide motivation like you don't even know. They may prove useful to anyone, especially those who constantly need to see some kind of improvement. Develop goals for every aspect of your life.
It may seem a little stupid, but when you accomplish even the smallest one you get a pretty wonderful feeling inside. Set goals for your individual workouts - let's say next Tuesday I'm supposed to bench. I hit 225 lbs for 5 reps this week, so next week I want to hit 230 lbs for 5 reps. It's as simple as that!
19. Don't Go Into This Without A Plan:
- Sure, roaming around the gym rotating through whatever exercises were on your mind during math class might work for a while, but you will eventually hit a plateau; everyone does at some point.
Proper planning is the best way to avoid this stagnation. Get real comfortable with the term periodization. If you've never heard this term before - I have nothing left to say to you.
- That is, by ignoring the previous 19 points. If you actually read through the all of these tips, then you're now more than well-equipped to make the progress you deserve. Go hit the gym and do me proud!
- You might think you're too advanced to dedicate 10 minutes of your session to warming your muscles and stimulating the central nervous system, but I guarantee you that your body is thinking that you're not too advanced for injury.
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