An Introduction To Strength Training Part II

Common Mistakes Made By Beginners on the Main Compound Lifts

Squat:

• Not squatting below parallel
• Failing to keep the chest up
• Not gripping the bar tightly
• Not shoving the knees out
• Not warming up the hips sufficiently
• Not breathing properly (you need to breathe into your diaphragm; you must also take a big breath at the start of each rep and hold that breath during the rep)
• Not sufficiently engaging the hips
• Not squeezing the glutes when ascending

Bench:

• Lying flat on the bench (you should have an arch in your back to protect your shoulders and also decrease the range of motion of the bar)
• Not gripping the bar tightly
• Benching with bent wrists (in your hand the bar should towards your wrists, not close to your fingers)
• Benching with flared elbows; a great way to ruin your shoulders
• Feet not planted firmly on the ground (your feet should not be dancing around during the set)
• Not rowing (you need to balance out the stresses placed on your shoulders)
• Not tucking your shoulder blades
• Allowing the shoulder blades to become untucked during the set

Press:

• Not arching the upper back
• Not engaging the lats at the start of each rep
• Using too much layback
• Pressing with bent wrists (see the bench press section)
• Not locking out at the top
• Bringing the bar too far behind your head at the lockout position
• Not bracing the abs as hard as possible (you must do this to protect your lower back)

Deadlift:

• Pulling using your back (you must use your legs to initiate the start of the lift; think about pushing your feet into the ground)
• Pulling with bent arms leaves you at risk of pulling a bicep (make sure your arms are dead straight)
• Overarching the lower back at lockout position (just stand naturally)
• Not gripping the bar tight enough
  
• Pulling with an excessive rounded back (think 'chest up' to fix this)

I will leave it up to the reader to research the proper technique for the main compound lifts. I highly recommend Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe, definitely worth the money.

How to Ensure the Best Progress Possible on Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength

• Start off light and slowly build your way up. This will let your body adapt to the volume. Starting off light will also allow you to focus on working on your technique for the time being, without having to worry about heavy weights.
  
• Increase the weight by small increments. Increase the squat and deadlift by 2.5kg each time (e.g 100, 102.5, 105, 107.5, 110, etc) , and increase the bench press and press by 0.5kg each time; you will need to buy fractional plates (e.g 40, 41, 42.5, 43.5, 45, 46, 47.5, 48.5, 50), don't worry they're cheap. The smaller increases in the bench press and press is due to smaller muscle groups being involved in those lifts, so it is easier to stall. You can increase the weight by more at the start but this won't last for long. Don't get greedy, increasing the weight slowly will ensure better long term progress.
  
• Try not to miss a workout
• Don't add a million exercises to the routine. The main lifts will be plenty for your body as a beginner. After a while you can add in pull-ups/chin-ups, dips and some ab work but that's it. Your main priority is to get strong on the main movements, don't obsess too much about assistance work.
• When you stall at a weight for the third time, deload by 10% then work your way back up. Take advantage of the deloads to focus more on technique since the weight is lighter for now.
• Record your sets and analyse your technique. Try to pick up on any errors and deal with them accordingly.
• Don't let other people turn you off from what you are doing. Squatting is not going to ruin your back. Arching your back for the bench press is not going to hurt your back.
  
• Stick with the program. How do you know if it works or not if you keep changing to another program every 2 weeks?
  
• Don't listen to personal trainers. They don't really know what they are talking about, or what they're doing for that matter. I've seen many personal trainers teach people to squat with atrocious form, yet the personal trainers don't correct these errors.
• For those wanting to add muscle to their frame, eat more. Muscle cannot come from nowhere, you need to eat more to get bigger. Ever heard the saying 'you gotta eat big to get big'?
• You may or may not feel a pump in your muscles once you have finished all your sets. Don't worry about this. You are not training for a pump, you are training to get stronger so your priority is to make sure the weight on the bar keeps increasing. Strength training will give you a more dense look as a opposed to a pumped look that you get from bodybuilding. You are a beginner so focus on building a strong foundation for now. Do you think your chest will look better if you're benching 70kg or 120kg? What about 140kg? The sky's the limit. A lot of professional bodybuilders are quite strong also, just look at Franco Columbu (yes a lot of them juice but you get my point):