The Mistake That is RUINING Your Lifts! | Never Do This Again
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Stop making this mistake when you're lifting. New lifters commit this error regularly, and to be fair, even experienced lifters make this mistake once in a while.
The Problem
What mistake are we talking about? The error of misloading the barbell. Let’s quickly address two things - first, how to notice the problem when it happens (and the sooner the better), and second, how to ideally prevent it from happening in the first place.
How to Notice a Misload: Version #1
Suppose you’re preparing for your squat work sets - they’re going to be challenging, and you really don’t want to end up squatting the wrong weight. If you’re training with a buddy, an ideal approach is to ask him to do a “bar math” check. Don’t tell your pal what the weight is supposed to be - simply ask him to do the math and tell you the answer. By not telling him what the weight is supposed to be, you haven’t biased his calculations, and if you both arrive at the same number, you’ve probably got the bar loaded correctly.
If, on the other hand, you arrive at different numbers, then you know you’ve got some double-checking to do before you start to squat.
How to Notice a Misload: Version #2
It’s ideal to catch the misload before it happens, but more commonly, you’ll notice a misload after you’ve already lifted it.
For example, you plan on squatting 155 lb, and you’ve already got 135 lb loaded up (i.e., the 45 lb bar and one 45 lb plate on each side). You think to yourself, “I need 20 lb more to get to 155, so I need two 10 lb plates,” and then you proceed to absentmindedly add two 10 lb plates to each side of the bar, resulting in a total weight of 175 lb instead of the desired 155 lb.
You might survive the set or you might fail, but the end result is that the set is much tougher than you had anticipated. On the flip side, you might unknowingly underload the bar, in which case you notice that the set was easier than expected.
Either way, it’s these thoughts - the realization that “Hmm, that was way tougher than it should have been” or “Man, that was a piece of cake!” - that should alert you to double check the weight on the bar.
Sometimes, of course, you’re just having a rough day, in which case suck it up Buttercup - that’s the weight on the bar, and you’re going to keep squatting it. On the other hand, you might be having a great day, in which case go ahead and celebrate the fact that things are moving so well.
However, quite often, these realizations occur because you’ve misloaded the bar, so always double check in these situations.
How to Prevent a Misload: What NOT To Do
Preventing a misload has everything to do with how you go about doing your bar math, i.e., how you mentally add the plates onto the bar.
Do NOT do the math “one-plate-at-a-time.” For example, you’ve got 135 lb loaded, and you’re adding a 25 lb plate to each side. Don’t mentally add 25 lb to 135 lb to get 160 lb as you load one side of the bar and then add another 25 lb to 160 lb to get 185 lb as you load the other side. You might get it right, but you very well might get it wrong as this method is quite likely to cause errors (for reasons the math teacher in me would love to dive into . . . but won’t for now).
How to Prevent a Misload: Smash-and-Add
Instead, perform the math as “smash-and-add.” That is, mentally combine the two 25 lb plates together first (mentally “smashing” them together) to get 50 lb - a very nice number which kindly ends in a zero. Then, simply add that 50 lb to your 135 lb to get 185 lb.
Likewise, if you’ve got 95 lb on the bar and you’re adding a 10 lb plate on each side, don’t add one 10 lb plate to get 105 lb and then add the other 10 lb plate to get 115 lb. Instead, it’s easier to mentally add the 10 lb plates together first to get 20 lb, and then add that 20 lb to your 95 lb to get 115 lb.
We’ve seen both of these methods in action thousands of times over years of coaching, and the smash-and-add method creates far fewer errors than the one-plate-at-a-time method.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
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Should I Train When I'm Sick?
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We get the following question every now and then at the gym or online: “Should I train when I’m sick?” Let’s break it down and keep it as simple as possible.
If you’ve got a cold, you train. If you’ve got the flu, you don’t.
For a short video covering this topic - including a short personal anecdote - check out the included video.
Yes, there may be more subtleties to your situation, but this is a good starting point. If you’re congested, you’ve got a runny nose, you’ve got a cough, go train. In fact, if you played sports in grade school, high school, or college, you already know this. You know that - in this type of situation - you’ll feel better when training than you do the rest of the day.
That hour to hour-and-a-half of training might be the only time that day that you actually feel pretty normal. Your nose stops running or doesn’t run as much, your cough improves, you can breathe better, etc. In this type of situation, you won’t feel worse during the training session, and you might actually feel better afterward as well.
“I’m coming down with a head cold” is not a valid reason not to train - it’s just a lousy excuse to avoid doing something challenging.
However, if you’re running a fever, you’ve got chills and body aches, and your insides want to be on your outsides - whether out your mouth or the other end of the plumbing - then don’t train. Things will not go well - it won’t be a productive training session, and you’re going to make things worse for the subsequent days.
It’s worth noting that the barbell never lies - it will tell you if you’re making the right decision. If you start warming up, and whatever initial discomfort you have either remains the same or improves as the weight on the bar goes up, then train on. However, if you start to feel worse as the load increases, call it a day.
This is a simple approach and a very useful one, and as always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
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"What I find horrifying, even more than death..."
/Don't want to be weak, frail, and dependent on others for basic needs when you get older? Sally nails it in this video, and Starting Strength Coach Phil Meggers explains further.
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What is the BEST Time of Day to Train? (it's not what you think)
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A question we get on occasion is “What time of day is the best for training?” This is worth discussing, and we’re going to keep it simple and to the point.
Training in the afternoon or the evening is a wonderful thing. You’re more awake, your work is probably done for the day, and you might even perform slightly better (emphasis on slightly). If you can train in the PM hours, go for it.
With that said, the bottom line is that the best time of day to train is the time of day that you can train most consistently, and for a lot of people, that means training needs to take place in the morning.
After all, consistency is the most important factor in your training - you can have the greatest technique and programming in the world, but if you’re missing workouts, your technique and programming don’t do you any good. If you need to train in the morning to make it happen, then the AM hours are officially your best time to train.
Some people object with, “I don’t want to train in the morning - I’m not a morning person.” Knock that off. Nobody who trains in the morning is a morning person. Nobody walks in our doors at 5:15 a.m. bounding with joy, sunshine, and bubbles.
Lifters who train early in the morning aren’t morning people any more than you are; instead, they are simply people who know they might not be able to train later in the day, and they are committed to not missing their training sessions.
Not surprisingly, waking up early to train can be rough at first - any new routine often is - but after you’re done it for a few weeks, you’ll have established the habit, and it’ll be far easier. On top of that, you’ll appreciate having consistently hit your training sessions, which means you’re keeping one of the most important kinds of promises - the kind you make to yourself.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)
If you found this helpful, you’ll love our weekly email. It’s got useful videos, articles, and training tips just like the one in this article. Sign up below, and of course, if you don’t love it, you can unsubscribe at any time.
At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Would you like to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach?
Your Most Important Piece of Training Gear - Part 2 (Lifting Gear Series)
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In Part 1 of this mini-series, we discussed why the training log is your most important piece of equipment. Today, let’s cover how to set one up and correctly use it.
Be sure to check out the included videos as they also cover some additional material not included in this article.
This is the seventh article in our “Lifting Gear” series. Click below to read the previous articles in the series:
Lifting Gear: What to Wear and What NOT to Wear!
Lifting Belts: The Complete Guide and What NOT to Get!
Knee Sleeves: The Complete Guide and the BEST Way to Put Them On
Wrist Wraps: The Complete Guide and How NOT to Put Them On!
Lifting Shoes: The Complete Guide to the Best and WORST Shoes!
Your Most Important Piece of Training Gear - Part 1
New Week? New Page
A few basic guidelines make keeping an effective log straightforward and simple, and my first recommendation is that every week gets its own page. Whether you train two, three, four, or even five days per week, you can fit all of your training data on one page if you’re committed to doing so.
If you don’t finish that week’s training - suppose you’re supposed to train Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but you missed Wednesday’s session - don’t use the unused space on that page to start a new week. If it’s a new week, then use a new page.
How to Setup the Page
At the start of the week, divide that week’s page into the appropriate number of sections. For example, if you train three days per week, you’ll draw two horizontal lines - one line a third of the way down the page and the other line two-thirds of the way down the page - to divide your page into three sections or “boxes.” This will force you to fit all of a given day’s training into a reasonable amount of space and will ensure you don’t run out of room at the end of the week.
Day and Date
In the upper left-hand corner of each section, write the day and the date of the workout - for example, “Mon, 08/19/24” if you’re training on Monday, August 19, 2024 will work just fine. The date is a must - you need the ability to look back and know exactly when a certain session took place.
Component #1: Prescription
Suppose today’s session consists of the squat, press, and deadlift. Set up three corresponding columns inside today’s box for those lifts. With the squat as the sample lift, you start by writing down the first component of the lift, which is the prescription for the day, i.e., the name of the lift and the planned sets and reps. For example:
Squat
3 x 5
This ensures that you’ve recorded the goal for the day, which is to squat 3 sets of 5 reps.
Component #2: Warm-up
Since you already know what you’re going to load on the barbell for your work weight (since you’re able to look back at your last session in your log), it’s time to write out the second component of each lift - the warm-up. If your work weight for the day is 235 lb, your warm-up might look like this:
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1
Separate your prescription from your warm-up with a short line, and with this done, your training log now looks like this:
Squat
3 x 5
—-------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1
Component #3: Work Sets
Now, it’s time to record the data for the work sets, which will be 235 lb x 5 reps x 3 sets. As a result, you have the following in your log:
Squat
3 x 5
—-------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1
—-------
235 x 5 x 3
Remember the golden rule of lifting notation, which is that the number of reps is always the second number written down - watch the included video if this is confusing.
Component #4: What You’re Going to Do Next
You squatted 235 lb today, and you successfully completed all of your work sets, so your next session will move to 240 lb, and thus, your training log looks like this now:
Squat
3 x 5
—-------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1
—-------
235 x 5 x 3
Next: 240
This would also be the time to note any upcoming programming changes. For example, perhaps you’re planning to squat 240 lb for a top set of 5 reps and then move on to 2 back-off sets of 5 reps - this “Next” section is the place to note it. Don’t walk out of the gym without writing this part down. Ever.
If you’re only performing one set at a given weight, the “1” at the end of the notation is optional. If you’d like to be a bit more concise, you can write it all out as shown below:
Squat
3 x 5
—-------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
185 x 2
215 x 1
—-------
235 x 5 x 3
Next: 240
What Else?
You’ve got your prescription, your warm-ups, your work sets, and what you’re going to do next, so what else is there to write?
For starters, write down any cues that you want to use for your next session. “Midfoot,” “knees out,” “stay in your lean,” are all examples of cues that you might want to write down so that you remember what you’re working on the next time you lift.
You can also record how the training session went that day. Something like “235 felt pretty heavy today” is very satisfying to look back at 6 months from now when 235 lb is just an easy warm-up.
Lastly, it’s a good idea to keep a PR sheet. Set aside one page in your log on which to record your PRs - 1-rep PRs, 5-rep PRs, what you’ve done in training vs what you’ve done at a meet, etc. This is an excellent way to look back and measure your progress.
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)