Are You Making These 6 Dumb Lifting Mistakes In The Gym?

The gym can be an interesting place to people watch. There are some pretty large displays of stupidity and epic fails that can occur in a gym during peak hours.

No one is immune to making mistakes. I am guilty of making a few of these in the last decade, but I like to think that I have learned from them and moved on.

Here are some of the dumbest mistakes a lifter can make in the gym. Hopefully by reading this you can avoid them before finding out the hard way.

1. Curling in the Squat Rack

What would a list of dumb mistakes made by lifters in the gym be without mentioning curling in the squat rack. It’s quite simple: there are very few places that a lifter can squat - these are called squat racks and power racks. But there are a lot of places for someone to perform curls...aka the rest of the gym.

Even if the power rack is empty and there is no one in the gym, stay out of the squat rack unless you intend to perform an actual squat workout.

2. Staying Strapped and Belted the Whole Workout

I have personally made the mistake of overusing straps in my training and now I am having to prioritize grip work to make up for years of strap use. Straps are an awesome accessory to use when training back, just don’t turn them into something you depend on. Hold off on strapping up until it is absolutely necessary and give your forearm and hand strength a little love.

The same school of thought applies to lifting belts. You really only need a lifting belt for near maximal squats and deadlifts and maybe some heavier barbell rows, but that is it.

Unless you are training near maximal weights, keep the belt in your gym bag and put in the time to develop a solid core with the belt off. Then when it's time to throw up some bar-bending weight, you’ll be pleasantly surprised how much it helps.

3. Overdosing on Pre-Workout

Sometimes too much of a good thing just isn’t a good thing! Especially when it comes to pre-workout supplements. If you have ever had to run to the locker room 10 to 15 minutes into your workout with your gut rumbling and your glutes clenched….you have taken too much pre-workout.

This is especially common for people who workout on an empty stomach in the morning or several hours after a meal. The stimulants in pre-workout speed up the rate of peristalsis in your digestive tract and BAM you’re no longer lifting, you’re doing cardio while you sprint to the toilet.

Don’t get over ambitious with your pre-workout especially if you are changing which one you are using or are sensitive to stimulants in general. Make sure you give your pre-workout a test run before going balls to the wall and throwing 3 scoops down the hatch.

4. Working out Chest on Monday

The entire world works out chest on Monday. Why add to the chaos? Is it really worth waiting for benches to open up, and going to the gym with a set workout only to have to alter your workout on the fly because everyone else is working out chest too?

Take your training in a different direction on Mondays. Break away from the crowd and choose to do the exact opposite of everyone else and start the week off right and hit the squat rack! Or if training legs doesn’t sound like proper activity for a Monday, train back. Anything but chest!

5. Training for Too Many Goals at Once

We are all searching for the perfect program where we will be able to squat 1000 lbs, run a marathon, bulk up, and get shredded all at the same time. Unfortunately your body just doesn’t work that way - especially when you start to spend more time under the barbell and transition from a novice trainee to an intermediate or advanced trainee.

Our bodies are amazing living machines and they are very adaptable to training. When someone first starts working out they are able to gain muscle and lose fat while getting stronger and still being able to perform an hour of cardio every day. However, once those initial gains get topped off it is necessary to start isolating which goals you are looking to accomplish with your training.

Once you have maxed out on novice gains, getting lean and gaining muscle becomes getting lean or gaining muscle. It is important for you to consider your training status when deciding on a workout program. Remember that training for one goal at a time will benefit you more in the long run than wasting your time trying to prioritize too many goals at once.

Don’t train for too many goals at once, you will find that you have either gone backwards or stayed the same. Instead, pick a goal whether it is gaining mass, cutting, or gaining strength, and train hard at it for 12 weeks. Put everything you have into it and you will be pleased with the results.

6. Lack of a Plan

Even if you have been going to the gym regularly and follow a split routine where you know what muscles you are training on which days, most lifters fail to plan out their workouts much farther than that. As a result, it is not uncommon to see individuals wandering the gym searching for inspiration about which exercise to perform next in their workout.

This often leaves gaps in your training that can lead to an unbalanced physique or even worse, injuries. The simple fact is that if we don’t have a plan in the gym we tend to gravitate towards exercises that we like and stay away from exercises that we need.

Having a program designed by an experienced coach or trainer (like all the workout plans here at Muscle & Strength) to follow will help eliminate gaps in training that we are prone to develop without a solid plan.

Find a solid plan to follow and stick to it and you will make faster gains while saving time and energy in the gym. Remember, if you fail to have a plan you are planning to fail.

Fess up - are you guilty of any of these? What other dumb lifting mistakes do you see at your gym? Comment below to confess!