The Bottom Line:
- As someone who is passionate about weight training and building muscle, I’ve learned that avoiding certain habits before a workout can significantly improve the quality and effectiveness of my training sessions. The main theme of this article is to highlight 10 things you should avoid doing before your weight training workouts to maximize your results and muscle growth.
- First, I avoid doing any intense cardio immediately before my weight training, as it can create extra systemic fatigue and reduce my ability to train at full muscular capacity. Instead, I opt for a light warm-up or save the cardio for a separate session.
- Secondly, I steer clear of muscle activation exercises, as they can potentially pre-fatigue the targeted muscles and counteract the benefits of my heavier, muscle-building sets. I rely on proper exercise selection and technique to effectively activate the muscles I’m training.
- Thirdly, I avoid static stretching before my workouts, as it can negatively impact muscle force production and power output, leading to a weaker hypertrophy stimulus. I focus on dynamic stretches or mobility work tailored to my individual needs.
- Fourthly, I make sure to include a basic weight acclimation sequence as my warm-up, gradually increasing the weight and decreasing the reps to prepare my body for the heavier lifting to come, without fatiguing myself in the process.
- Lastly, I refrain from doing dedicated ab routines immediately before my weight training, as it can pre-fatigue the core muscles and compromise my performance on the main compound exercises.
Avoid Cardio Before Your Workout
Avoid Excessive Cardio Before Your Workout
Performing high-intensity cardio immediately before your weight training session can be detrimental to your muscle-building efforts. The additional systemic fatigue created by intense cardio can significantly reduce your ability to train at your full muscular capacity during the subsequent workout. This can lead to a suboptimal training stimulus and ultimately hinder your muscle growth potential.
Timing is Key for Cardio
If your primary goal is to optimize hypertrophy, it’s best to save your cardio sessions for a separate time, either after your weight training workout or on a different day altogether. A light, 5-10 minute warm-up is generally acceptable before your weight training, but anything more intense should be avoided in the immediate pre-workout period.
Prioritize Your Strength Training
While cardio can have its benefits, such as improved cardiovascular health and fat loss, it should not take precedence over your strength training if your primary objective is to build muscle. By separating your cardio and weight training sessions, you can ensure that you have the necessary energy, focus, and muscular capacity to maximize the hypertrophic stimulus during your weight training workouts.
Skip Muscle Activation Exercises
Avoid Excessive Muscle Activation Exercises
The second thing to avoid before your workout is excessive muscle activation exercises. Whether it’s specific isolation movements to “wake up” a muscle group or the popular banded glute activation work seen on social media, these pre-workout activities can be counterproductive.
At best, these exercises are a waste of time and effort. At worst, they can actually lead to pre-fatiguing the targeted muscle before your heavier, muscle-building sets. Activating a muscle during your workouts really comes down to selecting high-quality, mechanically sound exercises that train the muscle through its specific function. Executing these lifts with proper technique and taking the sets close to or all the way to failure is all that’s needed to effectively work the targeted muscle.
There’s no need to perform additional activation exercises before your workout. As long as you’re using the right exercises and training them properly, the muscle will be adequately activated and ready to take on the demands of your workout.
Avoid Excessive Static Stretching
The third thing to avoid before your workout is static stretching. If you’re doing dynamic stretches or mobility work based on your individual needs, that’s different. But traditional pre-workout static stretching of the muscles you’re about to train is not only unnecessary for warm-up or injury prevention, but it can also have direct negative effects on lifting performance.
Static stretching can reduce muscle force production and power output, leading to a weaker hypertrophy stimulus overall. The extent of the negative impact depends on the intensity and duration of the stretching, but there’s simply no upside to pre-workout static stretching if there’s a potential downside.
Additionally, the time saved by avoiding unnecessary static stretching can add up quickly over the course of your training. Those 10 minutes per session can translate to over 35 hours saved in a year, and over 5 years, that’s an entire week.
Avoid Excessive Ab Routines
The fifth thing to avoid before your workout is ab-specific routines. There’s no need for lengthy, high-rep bodyweight ab exercises that are often promoted on social media. The abs are a muscle group like any other and should be trained for hypertrophy using the same principles as other muscle groups – enough resistance to get close to failure, proper rest periods, and gradual progressive overload.
If you do choose to train your abs directly, it’s best to incorporate it into your actual weight training session. Performing dedicated ab routines immediately before your workout will only serve to pre-fatigue the core muscles, which can then limit your performance and the overall stimulus on your primary muscle groups during the main lifts.
Ditch Static Stretching
The Drawbacks of Static Stretching
Static stretching, the traditional pre-workout stretching routine, is not only unnecessary for warm-up or injury prevention, but it can also have direct negative effects on lifting performance. By reducing muscle force production and power output, static stretching can lead to a weaker hypertrophy stimulus overall.
The severity of the negative impact depends on the intensity and duration of the stretching. However, there are no benefits to pre-workout static stretching that could outweigh the potential downsides. It’s simply a waste of time and effort that can undermine your workout’s effectiveness.
Prioritize Dynamic Warm-ups Instead
Instead of static stretching, focus on dynamic warm-up exercises that prepare your body for the specific movements you’ll be performing during your workout. These dynamic stretches and mobility drills can help get your joints and muscles ready for action without the performance-reducing effects of static stretching.
Time-Saving Benefits
Ditching static stretching can also save you valuable time. If you typically train four days per week and spend 10 minutes stretching each session, that adds up to 35 hours over the course of a year. Over five years, that’s an entire week of time you’ll have reclaimed by skipping the static stretching routine. Use that time more effectively by focusing on the essential elements of your warm-up and workout.
Don’t Skip the Warm-up Process
The Importance of Proper Warm-up
Skipping the warm-up process before your weight training workouts can have a detrimental impact on your performance and muscle-building results. A proper warm-up is crucial for preparing your body both physically and mentally for the demands of your workout.
Gradually Acclimate Your Body
One of the key components of an effective warm-up is a weight acclimation sequence for the exercises you’ll be performing. This involves starting with a lighter weight and gradually increasing the load while decreasing the reps. This helps your joints, connective tissues, and nervous system get ready for the heavier lifts to come. Typically, you only need this full sequence for the first major compound exercise of a muscle group, and then lighter warm-up sets can suffice for the subsequent exercises.
Avoid Overexertion
It’s important to keep these warm-up sets light and non-fatiguing. The goal is to prepare your body, not to pre-exhaust the muscles you’ll be training. Avoid the temptation to turn these warm-up sets into a full-blown workout. Stick to the recommended 50-75-100% protocol, and save your energy for the heavy, muscle-building work ahead.
By taking the time to properly warm up, you’ll ensure your body is ready to perform at its best, reducing the risk of injury and maximizing the hypertrophic stimulus of your workout. Don’t skip this crucial step – it’s an investment that will pay dividends in your muscle-building progress.
Avoid Standalone Ab Routines
The Importance of Compound Exercises
When it comes to building muscle, the focus should be on compound exercises that engage multiple muscle groups simultaneously. Standalone ab routines, while they may seem like a good idea, can actually be counterproductive when performed before your weight training workout. These isolated ab exercises can lead to premature fatigue in the core muscles, reducing your ability to perform the compound lifts that are crucial for overall muscle growth.
Preserving Energy for Compound Lifts
The primary goal of your pre-workout routine should be to prepare your body for the main compound exercises that target the larger muscle groups. By avoiding standalone ab routines, you can preserve the energy and focus needed to execute these compound lifts with proper form and intensity. The compound movements, such as squats, deadlifts, and overhead presses, are the foundation of an effective muscle-building program, and they should not be compromised by pre-fatiguing the core muscles.
Integrating Ab Training Effectively
Instead of dedicating a separate ab routine before your workout, consider incorporating ab-specific exercises as part of your weight training session. This allows you to train the core muscles while still preserving the energy and focus needed for the compound lifts. By strategically placing ab exercises within your workout, you can ensure that the core is engaged and strengthened without compromising the overall training intensity and effectiveness.
Remember, the key to building muscle is to prioritize compound exercises that engage multiple muscle groups. By avoiding standalone ab routines before your workout, you can optimize your training sessions, preserve your energy, and ultimately achieve better muscle-building results.
