I've been lifting weights consistently for three-and-a-half years or so. I've had some good progress but also some prior weaknesses to work round, and a couple of minor injuries. The following tips are simple (so is weightlifting I guess - pick heavy shit up and put it down again, repeat until desired outcome is obtained) but they seem to keep me on track. 1. and 17. are my favourites.
- Unless otherwise instructed
- pull your shoulder blades back, together and down
- keep your head in line with the rest of your spine
- squeeze your butt cheeks
- Start with the lowest weight and practice. Even if it feels like doing nothing. Use the same principle for warm ups.
- When you have less muscle, ligaments and tendons take up the strain. And they are a bitch to heal. Be really careful with bony bits - wrists (push ups, yoga), knees (squats, lunges) and elbows (heavy bicep curls, pull ups).
- Slow down. Especially returning the weight to its start position. If you can’t at the beginning of a set, get a lower weight (even, and this is the part I find oh so difficult, 5 people just saw you conspicuously pick up those bigger weights).
- Think very carefully before taking up a squat rack for anything other than barbell squats.
- Bodyweight moves (push ups, dips, pull ups) are in many programs, but were way too much for me at the start, even modified. Machines, dumbbells, cables - all safer ways to build muscle than putting your whole bodyweight on unprepared joints.
- Stretch. Doesn't matter when during the day. Don't make it complicated or long, just pick a few moves and do them consistently. (That’s the hard part, but ignoring mobility will bite you eventually Zoë.)
- Annoyingly, the most effective mobility moves for your body tend to be the ones you suck at.
- Mobility can take a frustratingly long time to improve. Very long term progress pics help motivation - I took pictures of my straddle a year apart and only now can I see the change.
- It’s ok to not have a clue what you’re doing in the gym (see 5. tho).
- No-one gives a flying fuck why you are doing that, we have seen much weirder shit before. In the name of glute development I have done things with a leg extension machine that would make you blush - but literally no-one noticed.
- No-one cares how much weight you're lifting. Be accountable to yourself, not to the imagined judgement of strangers.
- An overgeneralization perhaps, but has held true for me: the biggest, gruntiest people in the gym are often the most helpful and encouraging.
- Don’t stick slavishly to a program even when your body tells you that today is not the day for a particular move. Do something else. If nothing else feels better, go home.
- But do a program for a while. Which program matters less than you think.
- Tuning into the body is a work in progress. Failed rep or am I not pushing hard enough? Injury or DOMS? Need a recovery day or lazy af? What muscle is this meant to be working anyway? It’s taken me 3 years to feel lateral raises where I’m meant to.
- 8-12 good reps, 3-5 sets, 45s-2mins rest, more protein than before. Start there, then refine.