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10 Things to Avoid Doing During Your Workout - Part II

  This is a continuation of a 3 Part series related to common gym training mistakes. Please see the previous post for Part I.4. Going straight into my first set. When I was younger and it was bench day a warm-up involved doing 10 or so reps with just the bar. That's it. And then as I started to add load to the bar for my working sets I might do a doorway chest stretch in between sets. Not anymore. Now before I even get under a bar for I'll do a general warm-up, some foam rolling, a dynamic warm-up, some mobility and stability work and then some full depth squats or hip hinges. And even once I step under the bar I'll do many more light sets before getting up to working load. And guess what? My lifts are as good as they ever been, I recover more quickly and I have no joint issues to speak of. Couldn't say the same of my body in my younger days. 5. Don't ignore the little guys. I'm talking about the 2.5 lbs and 5 lbs plates. When was the last time you added 2.5 lbs to the bar? Be honest? But how many guys with a strong bench will do 135 lbs, 225 lbs and 315 lbs for their last set? I'm not sure why it is but we seem to ignore the value of small increments in our loads. If you are calculating your loads properly then 2.5 lbs per side  may be adequate for some people to increase from one workout to the next. To keep your gains coming and to minimize injury look to the little guys. 6. Shrugs. Every young at some time has wanted big traps. It goes without saying that when we're young guys we want to work on every muscle from the...

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