To build muscle and get ripped, you have to lift heavy weights…right?
Of course you do.
So how can “lifting too much weight” be a mistake?
Keep reading to find out…
Preface
There’s no shortcut to building muscle. It happens gradually over time.
And yet many guys try to shortcut the process by lifting heavier weights than they can really handle.
(We’ve all seen a guy struggling to perform a few half-reps with poor form, and we’ve all probably been that guy at one point or another.)
There are three big problems with trying to lift too much weight:
Problem #1
Lifting too much weight compromises your form…which causes you to cheat. And when you cheat, you end up calling in outside muscle groups to help lift the weight.
The problem here is that you’re taking the tension OFF of the muscles you’re trying to exercise…and putting that load onto other muscles instead.
You’re trying to speed up the muscle-building process…but by dispersing the load to unrelated exercises, you’re actually slowing it down.
Problem #2
You’re putting yourself at risk for injury. If you’ve never been been injured before, then this might not sound like a big deal.
But trust me: injury is the absolute WORST thing that can happen to you in the gym.
All it takes is one strained muscle to stop your progress in its tracks and keep you out of the gym for weeks.
You’ll start to lose your hard-earned strength and muscle, while feeling guilty and lazy because you can’t work out (even though you want to).
Problem #3
It makes it impossible to build strength and muscle consistently over time through the process of progressive overload.
Progressive overload is where you add a small amount of weight to the bar on a consistent basis:
If you bench press 225 pounds this week, next week you bench press 230 pounds. The week after that, you bench 235 pounds. And so on.
Progressive overload is essential. I would go so far as to say you can NEVER build a ripped body without using progressive overload.
But you can’t using progressive overload when you’re trying to lift too much weight.
If you can barely manage to lift 225 pounds in the bench press, then you won’t be able to lift 230 pounds next week. Instead, you’ll continue to struggle with 225 pounds week after week.
What Should You Do If You Plateau At A Certain Weight?
If this happens to you (in other words, if you ever find yourself plateauing at a certain weight…unable to add more weight to the bar), it’s a sign that you have to stop what you’re doing and take a smarter approach to your training.
If you want to get more specific instructions about how to correct this workout mistake…
Plus discover 9 more workout mistakes that could be KILLING your gains in the gym…
I’ve put together a free report called:
==> “Shredded to the Bone: 10 Workout Tips to Get You Ripped.” (click to download)