4 Reasons Why Your New Weightlifting Program Sucks

This one is for all our athletes who like to try new movements, sign up for new competitions, and whom are regularly changing up their weightlifting exercise routine!

While yes, changing the program is necessary for progression of exercise and progress, there are still some tell tale signs you are doing TOO MUCH with your weightlifting program.

Here's how you will know your new training protocol sucks:

1. You just had a new program a few weeks ago...

Impatience can get the best of us. If you really want to see progress when lifting, you need time to progressively overload.

Progressive overload is the process of continuously adding a small amount of weight as you train, either in the same session or sequential sessions.

You won't have an optimal setting to grow the muscle tissue or strength if your workouts this week are completely different than what you did the last week.

2. Your new workout program is a bunch of exercises that you put together yourself...

Unless you are a certified personal trainer, or a glutten for pain, you are most likely not adding in the exercises you hate doing.

cough cough bulgarian split squats

You are also going to be more likely to skip around through different exercises based upon your mood for the day.

You're better off paying someone else or having an app to plan your workouts. Accountability goes a long way! You will also be able to track the amount of weight or reps you did during sessions. Even if you're getting into running, ask for help from a running coach to get you in gear and loading properly.

3. You are working out 7 days a week with intense exercise activity...

Injuries do not happen just because of the form that we use while in the gym.

They are MORE likely to occur when you have not properly recovered from your last training session. This falls on your sleep routine, your nutritional habits, your REST days.

It's not just because you "suck at stretching before you lift".

Start implementing rest days and active recovery days, paying attention to the quality of sleep you have every night, and begin tracking your food or at least your protein!

4. You are doing exercises that make your pain worse...

Most of us have heard the terminology "don't pick at the scab", most likely from our mother as we were recovering from falling off our bikes.

The same thing is true with most musculoskeletal injuries.

You don't need to completely rest from lifting, but you also should not be trying to PR or do your deadlifts if your lower back is already sending shooting pain down your leg, or is unbearably tight the day after deadlifts.

If you have not seen a professional to help you lift more efficiently without injury, you can take advantage of our FREE discovery call here. We work with the weight lifting communities in Virginia Beach to restore movements that are "like picking a scab".

Ultimately, you modify lifting as necessary, until you have properly resolved the injury and can go back to reaching new goals in the gym.

And if your discomfort is coming from some complex combination movement you saw from an Instagram influencer...you should probably just hit unfollow and find a better resource.

We hope this article helps and allowed you to level up your training and recovery inside and outside of the gym. Remember that your weight lifting goals MATTER. Let's make sure you can actually achieve them!

Yours In Health,

Dr. Cait