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Lean Lifts: 3 Mistakes You're Making in The Gym

Here's to the first of many, weekly installments.

1: Varying Your Exercises Too Often

When listening to most of my clients who've been training consistently before coaching with myself, they've always done random workouts with varied exercises. Studies show that when you vary your exercises, you don't actually get any stronger, in fact, you could quite possibly get weaker.

I've definitely found after coaching around 1500+ people (and taking over 20,000 sessions) that grinding away on 2-3 optimized exercises per movement is the most effective way to build muscle. Why?

1. It maximises your recovery
2. You can implement progressive overload
3. You can easily measure long term progress

As I've mentioned above, I take 2-3 exercises per move. For instance, TRX feet elevated rows, Chest Supported Rows and Gorilla Rows are the best exercises I've found to build strength in your back.

2: Doing too many sets per workout

I train this lady whose husband is training with an online coach. Anyone actively getting in shape is amazing and I love it when people become consistent with their strength training. But, with each workout there's around 25+ sets. That means there's around 7 exersises, with 4 sets of each exercise. That's a lot of volume. And a lot of time.

Overtime that's going to wreck your joints and leave you feeling beat up. It's no wonder he's feeling his shoulder and hip joints more than usual.

Keep your workout under an hour, 45 minutes tops and aim for 3-7 exercises per workout with 1-3 sets per exercise. You're busy with life, so don't overdo it.

You'll feel a lot fresher when you wake up, and you'll be able to go again physically and mentally the next time you're in the gym. 10-15 is the sweet spot for most untrained individuals.

Here's a typical workout that's similar to the workouts I do with my clients

A1: Y T A Raise 2 x 5/5/5
​A2: Cossack Squats 2 x 10 (5 per side)

B1: TRX feet elevated pull ups 2 x 6
​B2: Landmine Squats 2 x 8

C1: Alternating Incline DB Press 3 x 10/arm
​C2: Romanian Deadlifts 3 x 12
​C3: Copenhagen Side Plank 3 x 25s per side

3: You do bodypart splits instead of full body routines

I much prefer full body routines because it's less intense overall. As I mentioned with point #2, 25+ sets on your chest is just too much work and over the workout you'll become fatigued and unable to keep your strength during the latter parts of the workouts. By the end your body is just giving up and you become sloppy in the movements. That leads to poor form, and overtime you'll likely get weaker.

This study proves that full body routines are just as effective in getting stronger. Not only that, but by doing less sets overall per move your body recovers faster. And if you're like my clients, you're extremely busy and random things pop in your week which means you might have to miss your workouts on the odd occasion. If you do 'bro splits' and train chest one day, legs the next and you miss one of those you have to wait two weeks to train that muscle again. With full body workouts you'll likely train them again in a couple of days time so it's no biggy.

See below, if you miss Wednesdays 'legs' workout, it'll be two weeks until you train them the following Wednesday.

I've also found that bodypart splits don't carry over that well to everyday strength, but full body routines do. My clients have always found carry overs to everyday things like carrying their kids, or shopping bags easily for long distances, or picking things up and moving them around the house much much easier when they train their full body compared to isolated body part splits.

Let me know how you found it. Helpful, or not?

If there's anything you'd like covered for next week, drop a question below and I'll add it to the list of questions coming up.

Here's what I'm going to cover over the next few weeks:

• 5 diet mistakes you're making
• Plant protein vs animal protein
• Best way to do cardio to live longer
• How often you should be training to maximise your results
• Tips for managing alcohol and social events
• And a lot more...

That's all for now, until next week.

~ Sam

When you're ready, here are a few ways I can help: 🏋🏼 Coaching: If you're interested in working with me 1-on-1, you can learn more about the SBF online coaching program here. 📲 Starting Strength: Grab my 8-week Online Starting Strength Program to follow proven workouts that get you stronger, leaner and fitter here. 🤔 Questions: Have a question you want me to answer in a future email? Drop your questions here. Your email preferences 📧 Your email address is: Reader Need to update your email address? Do that here. Don't want to hear from me again? Well, that hurts but you can unsubscribe here. Sam Beagle Fitness, R/O 32 High Street, Northwood, HA6 1BN

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