Bodybuilding Mistakes
By Lester S. Maurice

Common Workout Mistakes

1) Lift Hard All The Time... is the way real bodybuilders train.
Your body is a complex system capable of tolerating a wide variety of
stress factors. With progressive adaptation, you can withstand greater
and greater degrees of stress. Just like sitting in the sun for limited
periods, allows you to withstand stronger exposures over time. You
adapt through the increased functioning of many glandular systems.
In exercise, if a high intensity stress is applied too long, without
periods of lower intensity training, you cannot recuperate and your
physiological systems wear-down and stop functioning properly. In
other words, you get "burned out", all progress stops and a catabolic
(muscle-breakdown) process is initiated. Recent research indicates
long-term over-training not only wastes muscle tissue, it also causes
chronic health problems. Shifting intensity levels through a carefully
periodized training program will keep you healthy and your muscles
growing at a fast and consistent level.

2) The Longer You Workout... The Bigger You’ll Get!
It’s a hard lesson everyone eventually learns or ends up quitting
before they do. At some point, we all attempted 2-3 hour workouts,
maybe even longer. It's an easy pitfall, considering we’ve been
brainwashed with the, "more is better" mentality throughout our
lives. The problem is, with enough enthusiasm, you plow through each
workout, thinking you’re doing the right thing but eventually you
find yourself severely run-down. Numerous studies prove that training
within a specific "window" (no more trhen 45 minutes) helps take
advantage of your hormonal spikes (growth hormone, testosterone, etc.)
which encourages total recovery and continuous muscle growth. Training
beyond this peak only tears down muscle tissue and is
counter-productive to your efforts.

3) I’ll Do The Next Set When I Feel Ready. Instinctive training?
A flaw with most bodybuilding routines is there are no specific
guidelines on the pace your workouts should flow. Lifting "when you're
ready..." is far too subjective and will never fully stress all the
energy systems you possess. If you always rest 3 minutes between sets,
you're only training one available energy source. To build muscle
quickly, you must stimulate and tap into all three energy systems
through the manipulation of rest periods in every cycle. The pace of
your training should also match your goals for each phase.

4) I'm Training Hard If I Lift Until I can't Do Another Rep.
When you lift until failure, you normally are not training beyond your
current force-generating capabilities. Think about it. Going to exercise
failure means you have lifted to your current strength capacity, nothing
more. You can grow by lifting to failure, but you can stimulate faster
growth by using muscle overload techniques which push the muscle past
normal failure. Training at this intensity for specific intervals means
recruiting more muscle fibers and inducing a greater growth response.
You cannot reach your true physical potential without systematically
overloading each muscle group.

5) You Don't Really Have To Be Strong To Have Big Muscles.
Do you remember someone saying, "those are only showy muscles...
he’s not really that strong". It was usually whispered under someone’s
envious breath. The fact is, muscle size and strength are directly
proportional. A larger muscle is a stronger one. That doesn’t mean that
a 16 inch arm can’t be stronger than a 19 inch arm. The ability to
generate power involves many factors including the correlation of bone
size and length (functional leverage), tendon strength, muscle fiber
type, and motor unit efficiency. What it does mean is for yourself,
your 19 inch arm will be stronger than your 16 inch arm so, to increase
size, you must also increase your strength. Your program should include
specific cycles of strength training to reach your size and mass goals.

6) Supplements Don't work...
Many supplements are either low quality or not used correctly. But
some high quality bodybuilding supplements when used properly (right
dose and timing), can increase muscular growth by 5-10%. That may not
sound like much but wouldn't your physique look awesome if you added
10% more muscle on top of your normal training gains? Seven to ten
pounds of extra muscle in a single year is nothing to sneeze at. Build
a healthy and powerful physique by following an effective training
program, using the right nutrients, and eating right, will encourage
rapid growth and recuperation.

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