What is strength trainers biggest mistake?

Some trainers squat 300 or more and clean 300 while others seem to always be years behind, never to catch up. Instead of focusing on new and improved methods to excel in the weight room, what do many people do or not do that hinders real progress year to year.

  1. Overtrain
  2. Train in 8+ rep range
  3. Not keep a training diary or plan their sessions
  4. Use predominantly single articular exercises
  5. Perform too many exercises
  6. Read ‘muscle’ magazines / Follow exercise fads (core stability)
  7. Not squat or squat partially
  8. Worry too much about their biceps and chest…
  1. Not make an annual plan
  2. Perform everything at too high an intensity
  3. Not vary set/rep/weight schemes depending on phase.
  4. Train with injury or structural imbalance

dcw23: How do you recommend varying sets and reps through the 3(?) training phases.

what would the phases be with and without competition?

Lifting too heavy too soon…

I agree with David - the biggest mistake -

#1. Overtraining

Never challenging strength. Nothing below 10 reps or so. Too much focus on isolation lifts and very few if any multi-joint, compound exercises. No real periodization. Too much bodybuilding and not enough strength work for athletes-many people cannot see the difference nor the need to do it differently. If they do lift “heavy” many tend to stay there(in that zone) too long and as a result actually experience strength losses over time. I’ve been very guilty of this in years’ past. No maintenance phase. Way too many exercises per session. High reps olympic lifts-this combination is just not compatible(unless talking clean pulls, shrugs, etc.).

David,

Do you not agree with training for core stability, or are you reffering to bad choices of core stability exercises?

Richard: Squats and Olympic lifts are ‘core’ exercises. Leave the swiss balls for your mum…