top 8 weight lifting mistakes

[Piper]

thought I'd share... some interesting stuff...

press here

[Fudomyo]

How the heck can you "Try too hard"? I always break rule #2. I do each set till failure, not counting warmups of course. Occasionally squats too, though I try and avoid that one.

Breaking rule #2 pretty much means I'm going to break the wrist strap rule as well. I think I get a much better back/trap workout with the straps. But I work on grip separately anyway.

You'd think triceps would be stronger than biceps, but I'm pretty much 1:1. Interesting.

Fudo

[Steve]

Here's more of the same:

MISTAKES

Steve

[abarlament]

That grip strength thing... When I wear my weightlifting gloves that have like a wrap-around strap at the wrist, that is BAD?

[casanova88]

that's good info. i see all those all the time by inexperienced guys. i'm book markin that page...i know a lot of guys that need to read that. i think that just that little bit of info can make a big difference in training

[Piper]

Fudo....

I have a book here from Pavel Tsatsouline... he says the same thing... if you try to hard on your first set (eg.. to failure).. he says that your fast twitch muscles won't work as well... what he says is that it's quantity and quality, not how much you lift in one go...

What his principle is..... that you calculate your weight as follows... say if you lift 200lbs and do 3x8 set/reps.....

Common perception.....
Weight: 200 lbs
3x8 set/reps

200 lbs x 8 reps = 1600 lbs total per set
1600 lbs x 3 sets = 4800 lbs lifted total...

His perception.....
Weight: 180 lbs
3x12 set/reps

180 lbs x 12 reps = 2160 lbs total per set...
2160 lbs x 3 sets = 6480 lbs Lifted total...

So.. for that simple 20lbs drop in weight, you gain 1680 total weight... which is 35% more lifting or another set...

What Pavel says that it's this quantity that's important.. you should be just as tired at the end of the last set... not at the end of each set...

I don't make the rules, just spitting out whats in this book..

[Fudomyo]

It's a valid point, and I do think it has some merit, but it's still wrong.

If your left arm can curl 100 lbs, and you right arm can curl 80 lbs, which side has the bigger muscle?

Overload is what makes your body build more muscle. If getting tired made you big we'd all be huge. We could just watch some Oprah or something. In 3 minutes you have 90% of your CP energy stores built back up. So you should be able to go full tilt for another 4-6 reps.

Now I've gone to 3 sets of squats before, and this proved to be too little muscle stimulation. But 6 sets for legs works great (for me) (at the moment).

Fudo

[ExMarine]

Originally posted by Fudomyo
It's a valid point, and I do think it has some merit, but it's still wrong.

If your left arm can curl 100 lbs, and you right arm can curl 80 lbs, which side has the bigger muscle?

Overload is what makes your body build more muscle. If getting tired made you big we'd all be huge. We could just watch some Oprah or something. In 3 minutes you have 90% of your CP energy stores built back up. So you should be able to go full tilt for another 4-6 reps.

Now I've gone to 3 sets of squats before, and this proved to be too little muscle stimulation. But 6 sets for legs works great (for me) (at the moment).

Fudo

I have to agree with you on this. I used to go for quantity when I was in the USMC but I quickly reached a point that I no longer saw ANY gains in strength. So I'd up the quantity even more, track my progress (or lack thereof) and still nothing.

Finally I read some REALLY GREAT info about how slow twitch and fast twitch fibers work. There are actually several different kinds of slow twitch and several different fast twitch fibers. Muscles are adaptive and will respond to the "signals" that you send them. If you train to curl 40lbs 1000 times then the cells in your muscle fibers will adjust the amount of oxygen/water they can hold to be able to handle that long drawn out demand on endurance. However, if you keep trying to lift just slightly more than what your muscles are used to, they get a different "signal" and adapt by growing in size to accomodate for lack in strength.

Another great example of proof in this theory is a marathon runner. They push their leg muscles to complete exhaustion but they're SKINNY. That's because their muscles have been trained for endurance and not strength.

Both methods will work for increasing strength (quality/quantity). What matters is what KIND of strength you want. Do you want to be able to curl 40lbs 1000times or curl 80lbs 100 times? Obviously those numbers are purely examples for expressing my point.

Anyway, once I started training with that in mind, I've seen some continuing gains in strength and am loving it.

[Jeannie]

Thanks Piper for the 8 weight lifting mistakes.

The mistake that I see most people making is they have horrible form, and sometimes it's because it's more weight than they can handle. More often than not the person just has sloppy form and for some reason doesn't seem to care. I can't imagine why!!!

But I don't think that trying to hard is most peoples problem!! LOL More like not trying hard enough!!! I can't say that I've ever seen anyone try to hard!!

Take care!

Jeannie