8 things you shouldn’t do in the gym

You definitely know what to do in the gym. To crystalize technique, to train wisely and to maximally focus on each exercise. The list of what you should or shouldn’t do is longer. Words such as “don’t cringe” or “don’t bend the arms” are the common advice from the trainers. Although, there are a lot of wisdom which are not bound to specific motions. Look at 8 things you shouldn’t do if you want to multiply your results.

1. Don’t ever sit during leg training 

You have already finished exhausting serie of leg curl and the only thing you are thinking of is of sitting and having a break. You can do so but maximally for second or two. Long sitting after leg training could be counterproductive. The walking helps to empty muscle from the side products (such as hydrogen ions) of highly intensive training which can lead to muscle tiredness. 

If you keep sitting on the machine or you sit after exercising, you reduce blood flow into muscles. The blood helps to swill metabolic side products, therefore limit of its flow extends this process and the body needs more time to prepare for another serie. In other words, if you sit during leg exercising, the regeneration will be more difficult and will require more time. Try to be in motion and this is not applicable only for leg training. The frequent sitting and breaks won’t be prosperous at other exercises too.

2. Never blindly copy the exercise someone else is doing 

You know it when someone has flu and soon, everyone else has it. This can also happen with the incorrect exercising technique. One person is doing something wrong, and sooner or later, you see other people to perform the same exercise with the same incorrect technique. This can be applicable twofold at heating the arm rotator cuff or at Romanian deadlift which many body-builders change into sloppy pseudo – deadlift.

Just because the most ripped guy in the gym is doing some exercise, it doesn’t mean that he is doing it correctly. The watching is good point where to begin when you are learning new exercises but it is only the beginning. To work with educated and informed trainer or training partner can help you mostly at beginnings.

You might be interested in these products:

3. Never prove anything to yourself in front of other people 

The gym is not the place for competing or proving who is better or who is worse. The opposite! The gym should present the place where anyone can come and exercise, despite the person is a beginner or professional body-builder. Don’t prove anything to anyone by lifting heavy weights which are over your power. You don’t want to get hurt and the person of interest won’t even notice your effort.

4. Don’t ever look for reasons to hide that you don’t train legs 

When you visit the gym for some time, you notice some trends among people. Almost everyone is training chest on mondays and some of them are training the legs on the evening when there are few people to see that they squat with low weights. If you don’t have perfect legs, stop looking for reasons to hide your weakness, for example by  wearing trousers or shortening the range of motion at exercising.

Instead of hiding your weaknesses, seize it and attack it. Multiply your effort for building massive legs instead of making excuses how much your knees are hurting. The building of the best body is not only about the days when you are exercising chest and arms. If you aren’t able to include 1-2 hours per week of leg training, you probably don’t belong to the group of trainees following the motto: “No pain, no gain”. You also shouldn’t forget that the majority of famous body-builders consider legs as the problem part of the body. That’s why they try to give them a lot of time and to perceive the leg exercising as a challenge, not as an obstacle.

5. Don’t waste your time with mobile phone in the hands between series 

In this age, everyone has a mobile phone in the gym by their side. If they are having it because of listening to music, it is the better case. Many people think that not taking a photo in the gym during training and not putting it on social media, it’s the same as if you weren’t in the gym at all.

What’s worse than “selfies” in the gym is when someone is exercising on the machine which you are waiting for. It is fine but as soon as this person stops exercising, keeps sitting on the machine with a mobile phone in the hands. This is something you should avoid in the gym. The mutual respect and following of certain rules should be the priority for every trainee. If you see someone sitting on the machine and not performing the exercise, don’t be afraid to warn the person. The atmosphere in the gym is created by us.

If you don’t want to waste your precious time in the gym by looking to mobile phone but to train quality, leave your phone in the changing rooms. Maybe you will see that without dispersing, you can concentrate better on the exercises and your training will become more effective. And you can take pictures after that.

6. Don’t ever leave the accessories and dumbells scattered 

If you take something, put in back on the place. The same applies to other things, you should follow this rule in the gym. If you take the dumbbell, you should put it back to place after training. Don’t forget that keeping the gym clean, you make your and other people’s training better. This is also applicable for exercising accessories which are in the gym.

7. Don’t ever become comfortable 

We do many things in order to be comfortable but “comfortable” is not what you want to be at endurance training. Exercising is a science and one of the most basic principles is based on a concept called “progressive overload”. When you add weight to your bench processes, muscle tissues respond – in the presence of the right nutrition and regeneration – more growth and power. When you stop adding weights or push more repetitions, you get into a comfortable routine and body doesn’t have a reason to adjust. So you will never keep your training under control and in one pace of growth.

8. Never add weight before your technique is correct  

Body-builders always rush for adding weights because they think it’s the sign of becoming bigger and more powerful. Beginning body-builders, unfortunately, frequently sacrifice the technique to make quick weight progress. This is not a wise solution. It is mostly dangerous, mostly concerning exercises of the whole body and technical lifts such as squats and deadlifts.

To learn how to do biceps lift is easy but to learn how to perform deadlift is not. Look at the videos with manuals on how to perform exercises, get help from experienced body-builder, read the solid instructions for deadlift and train, train, train. Resist the need to add more weights until you are able to perform the correct technique. This makes the huge difference in your strengthening career. 

Write us down into the comments what you have met from this list and what you would add to this list. If this article was helpful to you or you think it could help to your friends, support it by sharing.