5 Rookie Mistakes: Don't do what I did!

Welcome to my holy grail cheat sheet! Today's blog is all about the mistakes I have personally made in my fitness journey and how being transparent can hopefully help you throughout yours. Fitness isn't easy because consistency is key. Consistency can look differently for everyone, so find what works best 80% of the time and don't beat yourself up about those few times you may slip up.

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Imagine starting your fitness journey and knowing absolutely nothing. I think all of us have been there at one point or another. I cringe at the thought of how I used to perform a deadlift. Literally, cringe. It's painful to see old videos and I am shocked at the weight I was able to pull with such POOR form. I remember maxing out nearing 225lbs and walking away with the most sore back each and every time.

As a beginner, the gym can be very overwhelming. It is a short-term goal of mine to get a "ROOKIE STRENGTH" program going for all my friends, family and followers. I do not want you to start off the same way I did. I want you to make progress, visible gains, and stay safe while doing it.

You should know that you can workout without getting injured. Your goal should be so slowly strengthen certain muscle imbalances and weaknesses before getting heavier on certain lifts. I will get into this more below.

Without further ado, here are my top 5 rookie gym mistakes (and how to fix them ASAP):

1) Always have a plan.

Never go in blind. In my opinion, you may as well not go. You know the saying "something is better than nothing"? Well, scratch that. Don't be lazy and spend the 5 minutes it takes to properly plan your workout. Get used to recording your sets/reps/weights. If you know you have 45 minutes to workout, plan a 45 minute workout. Maybe you only have 20 mins today, still write out what you are going to do! This will get easier, practice definitely makes perfect when timing and properly executing a workout. DO NOT go to the gym and do random exercises - there is no benefit unless you repeat your exercises over a long period of time!

- A proper workout should consist of:

- A 5-15 minute dynamic warm up, which includes cardio, mobility and strength.

- Compound movements first: ie on leg day, do your squats, hip thrust, deadlifts or walking lunges first.

- Add in single joint exercises: bulgarian split squats, static reverse lunge, box step ups.

- If you're somehow not tired enough, add in your accessory movements: fire hydrants, glute pulses, back extensions.

2) Rest your body.

For a beginner to intermediate athlete, do not workout 7 times a week. Do not do 2-a-days. Resting your muscles is actually repairing your muscles. Training your muscles means you are literally tearing them. Give them a chance to regenerate and you will be much stronger, and less sore, because of it.

Your rest days may change as you become more familiar to harder workouts. For instance, I used to train 3 days a week. I would legitimately need 4 days rest because I was so sore and exhausted from how hard I went at the gym. Now, I am more used the weights I am working with, the movements and my body is better at recovering. Now I do 4 strength workouts a week and 3 45-minute cardio sessions. My dedicated rest days are only Wednesday and Sunday. I feel like I can do more but I need to rest to see best results.

3) Eat well.

I still am somewhat a believer that you CAN out-train a bad diet (this is bad advice but I am just being real). There's about 10% of me that trains the way I do so that I can eat chocolate bars lol. I have a really tough time with nutrition since I have such a sweet tooth, but there are certain rules I have implemented for myself that make the gains a lot easier:

- Take creatine everyday. This can be taken any time of the day and with or without food. It takes about 30 days to really start working. It will help you be stronger and build leaner muscle mass. Feel free to do your own research, but trust me, just take it lol. Some of you may know about the water retention or upset stomach side effects. Water retention may be 3-5lbs over a 30 day span and in turn make you look way more lean - you can weigh the pros/cons on your own but I can tell you that the healthy decision is to let your body gain some weight to look better. Personally, I had abdominal discomfort for 24hrs. Also worth it IMO!

- Have a daily protein shake. Get a bomb ass flavour (the vegan options from Canadianprotein.com are SO good. Make a good recipe. Don't just shake it with water. Treat yourself WELL about this. Make it a ritual. The way I think about it: I can still eat whatever I want as long as I get my protein in. The trick to this is if you're consistently eating a ton of protein, your cravings for shitty and sugary food dissipate. You'll feel full much longer.

- Pick 1 meal a day to be super nutritious. Once again make it amazing. Make it tasty. Add cheese. Add hot sauce. Whatever you need to do to make that 1 meal your GO-TO, do it.

- Last one, I highly recommend tracking your macros + cals through an app like LoseIT or myfitnesspal in the chance you have no clue what kind of calories you're putting into your body. I am by no means a believer the average Joe needs to count their daily calories. I am simply suggesting you to input certain meals to get a feel of what your macros look like. Do this, trust me, you will surprise yourself!

4) Be ready for a crazy amount of R.E.P.E.T.I.T.I.O.N.

There are only so many exercises that really work. If you are like me, and always on a time crunch when hitting the gym, you are going to learn that all you really need to do are compound movements mixed with progressive overload. Don't waste your time and don't worry about the person next to you doing some #whackassworkout. Once you know how to do these main movements, you will get stronger, and results will really show.

When I started I would honestly go into the gym every time, without fail, WITHOUT a plan. I'd walk over to the squat rack, not knowing what I was doing, and just start a workout. I barely moved up in weight, my knees and hips hurt, and I wouldn't recover properly. It took me years to realize that my injuries were based on my poor knowledge of the lifts I was performing. I still have a long ways to go in terms of perfecting my form, however I am 10000x better than I used to be.

5. Do it for you and no one else.

I am ending this blog post with the most important piece of advice I could ever share. A lot of us think others are watching us or even judging us in the gym. This is so far from the truth, I could prove it to you each and every time I go.

Your goal should be to become the best, strongest, most educated version of you. If you don't know how to squat, learn. Take it slow. As long as you are trying, I can guarantee you are already doing better than 90% of people there. Once you get your form right, I can 1000% guarantee you are going to be one of the best in the gym. Everyone has to start somewhere and your reasoning for learning and moving properly should only be for yourself.

Approach fitness as a life long adventure. With consistency you'll learn a more fulfilled and healthy life. You'll recover from sickenss and disease better. You'll sleep better. You'll be a better version of YOU.

Believe in you. Work hard. Train smart. Stay safe.

Much Love,

Coach Dee