One of the biggest errors you can make in strength training is avoiding the exercises you hate.
The best example is the Squat. Many hate training legs. They don’t want to Squat three times a week as laid out in the Beginner Strength Training Program. So they do exercises they like: Bench Press, Biceps Curls, etc.
The truth is the exercises you hate, are the exercises you should do the most.
Pain. The first reason you don’t want to do an exercise is because it’s hard. Example above: squatting three times a week. Many don’t like it. “I hate that exercise” “My legs are sore” “I feel like fainting” “Not again”.
If the exercise is painful, it’s doing its job: forcing your body to adapt. This is key to getting stronger & building muscle. Force your body to adapt by giving it exercises that are hard. As the saying goes “No pain, no gain”.
Weakness. You’ll often hate an exercise because you’re weak on it. Best example: Bent-over Barbell Rows. It’s not easy to do them correctly. And they’re hard. I place them just below squats & Deadlifts in terms of pain.
Guess what. Get stronger on Bent-over Barbell Rows and you’ll see your other lifts increase. This is very common. Your Bench Press & Overhead Press will go up by increasing your strength on Rows.
Technique. Many times lack of technique is why you hate doing an exercise. Like Power Cleans. Ever done them? It’s very hard to learn Olympic lifts by yourself, without coach. But it’s not impossible.
It took me months to learn how to Power Clean. I did hundred reps a week with an empty barbell & light weights. Depressing. I hated that exercise. But I knew it was the only way to ever get good at it. Months later my max is 95kg.
The solution to lack of technique is never to give up. It’s to do the exercise more. The more you do it, the better you become. Your technique will reflect the time & effort you’ve put into it.
Discipline. “Follow the line of most resistance” by Napoleon Hill. Giving up is easy. Persistence is hard.
Nobody said strength training was easy. Nothing is easy in life. To get good at something you must work hard. Strength training is no different. Persist. Follow the line of most resistance. Out of resistance comes strength.
Last thing. Something I experienced several times. Once you start doing an exercise you hate a lot, you’ll start liking it. The exercises you hate the most, end up in those you like the most. Test it to believe it.
mmm i c myself in this article …
thats because currently the squat is the hardest exersice for me, and then i tell my self, fuck it im gonna do some hacksquats and legpresses instead.
I suppose hack squats/leg press machines pens? Well yeah that’s very common. The Squat is hard and that’s why it gives better results. Resist the temptation of doing something else. If you could only do one exercise, it would be the Squat. You must Squat Pens, especially as a beginner.
This reminds me of what I’ve told the 2 people who’ve asked me what my favorite exercise is. “Squats” I say. Invariably, the next question was, “What’s your least favorite exercise?” “Squats.”
Haha, that’s a good one Eric
This is why getting on a set program (preferably one designed by someone more knowledgeable than I) is important for me. If I’m in completely in charge of designing my own workouts, I find that I end up doing the exercises I like more often than those that I find difficult, even if I try to make it a point not to do that. If I have a written week-by-week or workout-by-workout plan that I stick to, I don’t have the rude surprise of looking back at my log and finding that I actually ended up doing 3 bench press sessions and only 1 squat session over the last week.
That which does not kill you makes you strong.
Lucas. Having a more experienced training partner will in the same way lead to better results. I remember when I started years ago. My training partner did a lot of back exercises. I hated training back & didn’t see the point of training it by that time.
Catfish: exactly!
Another important thing is not to take your ego to gym
héhé
Your reference to Napoleon Hill sorta touches on it, but to the admonition “Force your body to adapt by giving it exercises that are hard”, I think should be added: “Force your MIND to adapt by giving it exercises that are hard”. I think that particularly in the case of squats (and deads), what often holds us back is the little voice in our head whispering, “It’s too heavy; it’s too hard; you’ve already done enough; there’s no more juice in the tank.” Persist, though, as you note, and you’ll often find more than you ever even imagined was there. That happened to me today when I managed to squat 110kg for 20 after doing 70×12 and 80×12 (as warm-ups) and then finished with 120 for 6×2. I also managed to do 5×5 of presses @ 55 and 250 hanging leg lifts. Then I went to work! Now I’m about to sit down to chicken breasts wrapped with bacon and stuffed with bleu cheese, broccoli and tofu-kimchee. As Sergeant Major Plumley said to Sergeant Savage, “That’s a good day”.
Totally agree Sperwer. 20×110kg is solid weight. I just started a Smolov Routine for Squats yesterday. If you want to up your squat numbers even more, you should give it a try.
I agree 100%. This website was what finally pushed me over the edge to start squatting, although I usually only make it to the gym twice a week unless I feel very motivated on a Saturday or Sunday. When I started squatting (I do front not back) it was brutal, even though I started with just the bar and going up 5lbs/gym visit. I would get done squatting and all I could think about was falling over onto my couch for about an hour due to fatigue, even though I still had 4 more lifts in the routine, not to mention ab work. Now I’m still progressing and I get the muscle burn pain but the severe fatigue is gone. Squats are my favorite part of my routine now.
Of course, now my main adversary are the pull-ups/chins. I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy those. But, as you say, that’s precisely why I should (and will) stick with them. Great advice.
Great that you started doing squats Seth. As you experienced: the longer you do them, the easier it becomes. Pain is no fun, but it becomes quite addictive. Must be the mental challenge that’s linked to it: will you do those reps or not. Great post, thanks for sharing Seth.
I used to hate deadlifts. I was on the 5×5 and Wednesday would be my most dreaded day, though I never ever missed a single deadlift set. I just forced myself to just do it. My deadlift improved by 70lbs before I got my hip injury, and ever since then I missed deadlifts so much! Now I look forward to deadlift days, even though they’re done really light(lighter even than when I just started on the 5×5). I can’t wait till I can pull heavy again.
I did a 20 rep breathing deadlift last week
What kind of hip injury do you have galapogos?
Mehdi, how did it felt on 20 rep dead ??
previous month i did a 21-15-9 reps on deadlift and it kicked my ass even though weight was only 60kg… today I am thinking of doing tabata deadlifts….don’t know if I will be able to make through 4 mins
Here’s what happened. One week earlier I did 2 easy reps with 140kg, that was the first week after the holiday. So the next week I thought: I’m going for 5reps. Don’t know why but I couldn’t lift it more than once of the floor.
I put 130kg on the bar & lifted it 20 times out of frustration. Not normal that I did 20×130 but only 1×140kg…
Training log is coming back online tonight btw. Got a surprise in a few hours.
Good luck with the tabata Harsh
Well, the hip injury is just a symptom. Mostly centered around the hip rotators, piriformis, psoas, illiacus, QL, SI joint. The causes are just muscular imbalances all around - ranging from flat back to functional scoliosis to unstable shoulders. Yes I’m a train wreck
Been doing a lot of rehab stuff and it has helped tremendously but the road to full recovery will take a longer time.
Snapping hip syndrome Galapagos? I asked because I injured my left groin last year doing sumo squats. Snapping & cracking in the groin since then. Sometimes pain in the knee/lower back on the left side.
I diagnosed it myself as snapping hip syndrome. Lots of stretching for the piriformis, psoas, hip flexors.
Finally went to the doc 2 weeks ago, because it started to get on my nerves. He confirmed snapping hip syndrome. I’m getting an MRI this week to see where it comes from, could be the deep adductors.
I started stretching the left adductor 2 weeks ago on the doctor’s advice (sport doctor), which seem to improve.
I injured myself a lot, but nothing was as evel as that groin injury.
Nope, no snapping, just pain in various locations when I’m in various positions. Pain in the ass literally.
hehe pain in the ass