Weight training has a way of mimicking life, which is why the lessons learned in VIGOR Training are as practical outside the gym as they are inside it.



And just like life, the shortcuts or easy options rarely produce long-lasting results.



The following are the five most common mistakes people make with weight training. Maybe you don't make any of these mistakes. If that's true, pass this along because someone you know might be making them right now.





1. You Put Too Much Emphasis On Avoiding Pain Or Injury



Somewhere, sometime, somebody sold the idea that you can get fit and healthy without ever getting hurt.



I’ve even heard wannabe personal trainers say you should never be sore after training sessions. Sad, but true.



The reality is, reward rarely comes without risk when lifting weights or in real life.



To create deep, meaningful relationships, you have to accept that you’ll get hurt or heartbroken. To avoid ever being hurt, you’d have to avoid ever making a connection with someone else.



To lead and influence others, you’ll have to accept that the more people love what you do, the more you’ll have people who hate you too. To avoid the pain of small-minded critics, you’d have to remain small an insignificant.



To build a strong, healthy body, you first have to break it down so it can rebuild stronger than before.



You’ll often be sore, you’ll sometimes get hurt, and you’ll occasionally get injured.



When I design the VIGOR Training sessions, I do so with the goal of minimizing the risk of injury, but it isn’t possible to prevent it. The only way to avoid an injury is to do nothing. To sit on the couch day after day and get weak and fat. You might never get hurt, but you’ll also lose your health.



You can't avoid pain. You choose your pain. The pain of building strength, or the pain of being sick.



You can choose the short-term pain and discomfort of strength training so you can become stronger, healthier, and make more of your body and mind.



Or, you can choose the future pain of obesity, heart disease, dementia, cancer, and possibly premature death by opting for the short-term comfort of crappy food and a comfortable couch.



You’re reading this because you want more from life. Rather than fearing the chance that you’ll get hurt, expect that one day you will, and decide now that you’ll carry on no matter what happens.



Building strength and improving fitness requires you to consistently push yourself harder than you have before.



The truly fit often teeter between doing just enough and a little too much.



They experience muscle soreness. They sometimes feel pain. And every once in a while, they get hurt. But we have bodies that can bounce back. It’s better to deal with occasional pain and make progress than sit in comfort and get weak and fat.



Of course, there are smart ways to train and dumb ways to train. But even when you follow a sound program, you do risk getting hurt. That’s just the nature of using your body.



If you spend your life avoiding the chance of getting hurt, you totally limit the opportunity to get healthy and fit.



2. You Change Up Your Training Program As Often As The Country Changes Presidents



Pause for a moment and try to think of an area of your life where you’re thriving, yet you aren't growing and experiencing new challenges. You'll have to think for a long time before something comes to mind.



A business that doesn’t explore new challenges and take new risks eventually becomes irrelevant, like Kodak.



An athletes who wins every competition gets bored or complacent. Eventually, they look for new ways to feel the high he or she once felt from the competition because like anyone else, they need to feel and experience new challenges.



A married couple who does the same thing day after day…the same shows, the same restaurants, the same vacations, heck, even the same sex, gets stale and the relationship decays.