Before you start a new workout program, you should know of the most common beginner mistakes that can keep you from building muscle and getting in shape. It’s important that you learn to identify these mistakes because they can cost you months of hard work and no results. I know because I have made some of them myself back when I started working out.

 

In fact, I don’t blame anyone for making a mistake, after all it only human. But I do believe that you should always educate yourself and try to get better at what you are doing. So let’s go over my list of the 6 most common muscle building mistakes.

 

 

 

The number 1 beginner mistake is not following a structured workout program. I can guarantee you that doing some random exercises without any strategy will bring you little to no results.

 

Unfortunately, you see a lot of people at the gym doing exactly that. They pick up a set of dumbbells and do hundreds of bicep curls. In their workouts they usually place way too much emphasis on their arms and chest and not enough on their legs.

 

What they don’t know is that training the same muscle group each workout leaves them with not enough time to recover and costs them potential gains.

 

Now, on the other hand, a structured workout plan like the one in this course takes recovery time into consideration and will make life a lot easier for you.

 

 

 

The second big mistake you see many beginners doing is training like a professional bodybuilder. Oftentimes they found a Ronnie Coleman or Arnold Schwarzenegger workout online and think it’s best to imitate them.

 

The problem with this approach is that these workouts are designed for people with decades of lifting experience. They usually include way too much overall workout volume and would wear out a normal person within a few days.

 

You also have to keep in mind that most professional bodybuilders take steroids, which completely changes how their bodies function and what kind of workload they can stand.

 

 

 

Another common mistake when wanting to build muscle is to do the wrong exercises. Keep in mind that there are two main categories of exercises: Isolation exercises and compound exercises.

 

Isolation exercises work only one muscle when doing the movement, whereas compound exercises work several muscles at the same time.

 

Unfortunately, many beginners focus on isolation exercises such as bicep curls when they should be doing heavy compound lifts like the squat or the bench press instead.

 

Try to also avoid machines as their guided movements tend to neglect the small stabilizing muscles that are used when training with free weights.

 

 

 

Lifting form is just as important if not more important than any other part of your workout routine. Jerking or bouncing the weight is not only less effective it also increases your risk of injury. Check out this post if you want to quickly improve your lifting form.

 

Most of the time the reason why people use bad form is that they didn’t choose the right weight, which brings me to mistake number 5.

 

 

 

Because beginners want to get stronger fast, many of them use more weight than they actually handle. This can cause serious joint problems and will hurt you in the long run. the other extreme is using too little weight.

 

When working out you have to make sure to place enough tension on your muscle, to break down muscle tissue. If the weight you are using is too light, the muscle has no incentive to grow because it can easily do the workout you are putting it through.

 

The last common mistake on the list is not applying progressive overload. Not only should your weight not be too light, it also needs to increase over time to constantly force your muscle to adapt to the increased tension.

 

People that always train with the same weight, and this include most beginners will pretty quickly see no more muscle gains. They oftentimes think that they need to switch to a different exercise when all they had to do was increase the weight by a tiny fraction.