21 Things You Do That Make You Look Like a Newbie

As a personal trainer, I see all sorts of things going on at the gym. When you’re there for hours at a time, you start to get a knack for knowing right away which members at the gym know what they’re doing and those who don’t.

And don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to say that in a degrading way because it’s just a simple fact that over 90% of people who go to commercial gyms are complete beginners (if you’re one of them, start here).

This list I have compiled below is targeted mostly to those that have already been lifting for quite a while, not necessarily those who are new to the weight lifting game. You might be surprised at how some people who have been working out for quite some time still look like newbies when you see them at the gym.

If you find yourself doing any of these, I’m not saying you should change your ways. Do what you want to do. I’m just listing out some things that some people think are ridiculous when they see other people doing them.

You Look Like a Newbie When…

1. You press/curl dumbbells while squatting on a bosu ball.
2. You go to the gym only to work out your chest and biceps.
3. You don’t clean up after yourself.
4. You drink your protein shake while working out.
5. You think you’re strong half-squatting (or quarter-squatting) a heavy weight.
   
6. You do bicep curls in the squat rack.
7. You work out in jeans. Better yet, you work out in your clubbing clothes.
8. You do countless ab exercises for a full hour.
9. You don’t train your legs.
10. Your workouts last 2 or more hours.
11. You do some shadow-boxing in-between sets. lol
12. You don’t know the concept of lowering the weight when it’s too heavy for you.
    
13. You’re not doing the eccentric part of the exercise properly (in fact the eccentric part is non-existant).
14. And speaking of eccentrics, it’s also non-existant in all the other exercises that you do.
15. When spotting someone on an exercise, you don’t pay any attention to them and check yourself out in the mirror instead.
16. You take up a considerable amount of time on one machine.
17. You spend more time socializing than you do lifting.
18. You spend more time checking out your puny muscles in the mirror than you do lifting.
19. Your rest periods last 5 minutes.
20. You rush to take your post-workout protein drink within 10 seconds of finishing your workout. And when you don’t get the chance to drink it within the 10 seconds, you cry about it and call your workout “a waste”.
21. You do made-up exercises to try and “confuse” the muscles (ex. doing over-under hand grip bicep curls)