1. Training With too Much Weight

This should be all common sense, but you’d be surprised at how many people don’t have that, which makes me think people are either ignorant or stupid, or both.  My general rule of thumb is if you can only do three reps of whichever workout you’re doing, DON’T try to push even more weight.  By the way, three reps is the LEAST, usually if you can’t get more than six, don’t be an idiot and attempt more.

2. Doing An Exercise With Bad Form

You usually know you have bad form when you feel something snap, but there are many signs beforehand if you actually listen to your body.  Pain and discomfort are two big ones…this is, again, a no brainer.

3. Using Crappy Equipment

Don’t use anything rusted, reeling, or sparking.  Also, stay away from that fitness machine in the corner that looks like it could double as laboratory equipment to splice the human genome.  They’re usually bad news…the simpler it looks, the better.

4. Not Stretching

I don’t stretch a whole lot before a workout, but I do like to get my muscles a little loose.  If you’re not running the Boston Marathon, a half hour of stretching is a little much, but a little bit of stretching goes a long way.

5. Not Eating Correctly/Enough

It doesn’t matter how much you can lift, how far you can run, what kind of yoga positions you can pull off, that’s only about 30% of it.  Nutrition is the other 70%.  If you’re not eating correctly, you will not see results as fast.  If you’re not eating enough, forget the Boston Marathon in #4, you’re going nowhere.  Here’s a short guideline for the right nutrition for strength training.

6. Not Taking Resting Days

You ever notice the muscle soreness the day after a workout?  That’s because when you exercise, you’re tearing all your little muscle fibers!  If you don’t give yourself a couple days for them to heal, you’ll just keep tearing and tearing without any gains, and eventually, a major injury….

7. Mimicking Others In The Gym

This reason is just plain stupid.  You see the ripped Neanderthal on the other side of the gym benching 700 lbs.?  Yeah, you’re not him…Stick with what you can handle.  Remember, even said Neanderthal started out as a skinny punk like you at one time.  You’ll get there, be patient.

8. Neglecting Muscle Groups

Many people have trouble with this…Here’s a little practicality to get you motivated though:  How are you going to go up in weight on your leg exercises if your lower back is neglected?  How are you going to move up on bench if you’re not doing any shoulder exercises?  That’s right, you won’t!

9. Spacing Out

I’m not saying much on this, if you’re spacing out you need to focus, if you can’t focus, you need to do something else that keeps your focus, or buy some Ritalin from the guy down on the corner

That was bad advice….go see a doctor before you buy Ritalin from the guy down on the corner.

10. Not Caring for Old Injuries

If you pull a muscle, don’t work through the pain, it’ll only get worse.  Make sure you stop what you’re doing and get it checked out.  Buy some muscle cramp relief lotion for a quick fix to dull the pain, and follow your doctor’s advice: However long he says to rest the muscle, just do it.  The weights will still be there when you get back to your workouts.

And go get pain meds for a cheaper price from the guy on the corner.

There you have it, I can probably narrow this down to one rule: #1. Don’t be an idiot, but people don’t really adhere to that advice too well.  Remember though, before you go and pull, strain, sprain, tear, or pop something, look at what you did wrong before going all sue-happy and getting your PA personal injury lawyer on the owner of the club.