12 Years of Training in 15 Minutes: The Mistakes You Should Not Make

Watch the full video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN8yvHZzTJQ

I have been training and pushing my body to its limit for twelve years. In that time I tore my biceps tendon, I tore my hamstrings, and I tore my upper chest. I lost months, sometimes years, of progress. And almost every one of those setbacks came from the same few mistakes.

This is the written version of my video. I am going to walk you through the three biggest mistakes I made in my training, what they cost me, and what I do today instead. If you are a busy man who wants to build muscle, lose fat and stay in the game for decades, read this slowly. It is going to save you a lot of time, and it is going to get you to your goal faster.

Mistake number one: overtraining

The first mistake, and the biggest one, was overtraining. Many people go through this, and there is no easy remedy for it, because the ego is too strong. Sometimes all you want to do is train, train, train.

I spent two years being extremely consistent. I showed up to the gym five or six times every single week. I was so dedicated to taking my body to the next level that I trained every time I could. And after those two years I was terribly disappointed. I did look good. But I was not close to the body I wanted, and it was not satisfying. When I looked in the mirror I thought, "okay, that looks decent," but it was not what I had worked for.

What happened is simple. During that whole period I did not recover. Overtraining is a vicious circle, because you think you are ready, but you are not ready. That period forced me to build a better relationship with myself and with my body. I had to learn to calm my ego down, instead of going in constantly and pushing heavier weight.

I would call overtraining a disease. It is the reason many people end their careers in the gym. I am speaking from experience, because I went through it, and I had tremendous injuries because of it:

- I tore my biceps tendon completely. - I tore my hamstrings. - I tore my upper chest.

I had all of these injuries because I was ignorant. And that brings me to a point I want you to remember.

Information is gold

What separates you from the successful people is information. Information is gold, and that is the era we live in today.

I made these mistakes because when I was growing up I did not have access to the internet. All the information I got came from magazines and movies, from seeing how other people trained. Then I got access to the internet and it was even more overwhelming. There is so much information out there that it is very hard to pick one thing and stick to it. There are so many keto diets and so many workout plans, and I copied everybody. That did not work in my favor, because I was not consistent on anything at that stage. I had too much information and no direction.

So here is a rule that will save you a lot of time: always check the source. Who is this person talking? Are they qualified to say what they are saying? Ask yourself that before you copy anything.

Working hard is great, working smart is better

Back to overtraining. I kept showing up very consistently for a long time and I realized that I was not improving. Around then I came across a famous bodybuilder who said that working hard is great, but working smart is better. That was the moment I switched everything: my workout plan, my routine, every single thing I was doing. That is when I started to see tremendous changes.

So mistake number one is overtraining. Make sure you always recover.

I did not take a day off. If I did take one, I would still go in and do a light session, very light weights and lots of repetitions. It did not work. According to the science, the more heavy weight you lift, the more you break down your muscle tissue, and that tissue needs time to recover. Recovery includes:

- Sleep - Food - Stretching - Mobility

All of these little things are important for muscle recovery. If you are doing none of them, you will not get anywhere close to the goal you want.

Cycle training: how I fixed it

The fix was to introduce cycle training into my plan. It made things much better. Here is what it looks like:

1. Two months of training consistently, four to five days every week. 2. Sessions of 45 minutes. Not more than an hour. Do not tell me you spend two hours in the gym. It is not worth it. Forty-five minutes of pure consistency and intensity is enough. 3. Be strict with your rest time between sets. I measured everything, and everything looked perfect to me. 4. After those two months, take a deload week. 5. After the deload, take a week off completely.

A deload week is a week where you do not push heavy weight. You do more repetitions with lighter weight, and you calm down your nervous system. Not many people talk about this, but your nervous system is something you have to pay attention to. Otherwise it leads to injuries, and you feel flat the whole time.

Think about it. For two months you have been climbing and banging those weights. Your body needs time to recover from that. This is why I highly recommend you pay attention to how you feel, and get better at listening to your body.

Mistake number two: not understanding recovery

The second mistake came out of the first. I thought, "okay, I will take some days off, that is perfect." But what are you actually doing to recover?

For a very long time I did not have a good sleep schedule. I did no sauna, no cold plunge, no stretching, no massage. I did none of it. All I did was go lift and come back. I realized I had become compact, a big block of muscle with nothing circulating around it.

This is where I introduced a recovery protocol. Here are the pieces.

### Sauna and cold plunge

I started using the sauna twice every week. It is very good for recovery. Do not combine it with a cold plunge, though. The sauna increases the heat, and the heat is what pushes better muscle recovery. If you use cold plunges as part of your recovery protocol, it is not a smart idea to do them after the sauna, because cold water shocks the body, and it does not let your nervous system relax.

So use the cold plunge on different days, the days when you are working out, and use it before the workout, not after. When you plunge before the workout, the thermal shock pushes your body to heat itself up. That gives you a big spike of testosterone, so you feel the full benefit of it.

### Stretching and blood circulation

Next is stretching, stretching, stretching. This is crucial. I am saying this because of all the muscle tears I had for a very long time. I was not taking the time to stretch after the workout. I also was not doing a little dynamic stretching at the beginning.

Stretching improves the blood circulation in your whole body. If you do not do it, your blood does not circulate the right way, and your veins do not show. Good circulation pushes you to perform better, recover better and do everything better. You can even see it in the mirror. Look at your body and check whether you are vascular or not.

### Sleep

The other big piece is sleep. I was not sleeping at the same time every day. I had a messed up schedule. Sometimes I went to bed at midnight, sometimes at 1 a.m., sometimes at 8 or 9 p.m. It fluctuated so much that my body did not know when to switch into reset mode.

So I decided to wake up every day at the same time and go to sleep at the same time. And now I do not need an alarm anymore. That is the funny part. Your body is programmed. I wake up at 6 a.m. automatically, because I organized my brain to wake up at that time.

The conditions of your room matter too:

- I do not want a hot room, especially in winter. My windows are open all the time. If you keep all the windows closed to hold the heat in, the oxygen is not the quality you want to breathe every day. - Winter or not, even at minus 10 or minus 20, the windows stay open in my room. It is a cold room. - The curtains are closed. I want a dark room with no light coming in.

### Close the kitchen two hours before bed

Most importantly, I close the kitchen two hours before sleeping. Your digestive system uses so much energy that your body cannot recover while it is busy digesting. When you finish eating, go for a 10 minute walk around the block, come back, take a hot shower if you want, and then go to sleep.

If you eat one hour before bed, that is okay. But eating and then going straight to sleep is terrible. Stop doing that. It is what I used to do, and guess what happened. I woke up completely bloated. I had brain fog. I had energy crashes at 2 p.m. I was chugging coffee, which spiked my cortisol, and I had basically every symptom you can imagine.

Mistake number three: eating junk to get big fast

The third mistake came from the fitness industry itself. I wanted to get big and muscular very fast. So I told myself I needed to eat a lot of food. But I did not pay attention to the fact that I had to eat quality food, instead of junk.

That is what really messed me up. I ended up with kidney issues and a lot of gut issues. All I was doing was eating four or five thousand calories every single day from Burger King, McDonald's, KFC and the fried chicken shop. I wanted to gain mass as fast as possible, and that is when my health stopped working properly.

It was a complete mess:

- I had acne everywhere. - I had terrible sleep. - I was not breathing or sleeping well. - I was bloated and tired.

### I had to become my own detective

I went to see my doctor and said, "listen, I feel terrible." We did a blood test. The blood test said I looked normal, that everything was great. They did not see any reason why I was not feeling great.

That is when I understood that doctors are there to tell you whether you are sick or not sick. Nothing else. So I had to become my own doctor and investigate the whole situation, and I had to go through a process of elimination.

I remembered that when I went to school I had read a lot about gut health. At some point in my career it clicked: wait a minute, the gut plays a major role. The gut is connected to the brain through the vagus nerve. That explained why I had brain fog and bloating and could not sleep well. The nervous system, everything, comes from the gut.

That was the big switch in my life. For a very long time I had damaged my gut. I was completely bloated, and my stomach was sticking out every single time. That was the unhealthy part.

### The process of elimination

I started paying attention to exactly what I was eating, starting with where I was buying the food. No more supermarkets. I started getting my ingredients from the local market and the local butcher.

Believe me, this is where things got interesting. Most of my energy came back. Most of my brain fog went away. I was sleeping better, looking better, and, most importantly, performing better.

The 3 mistakes in 60 seconds

1. **Overtraining.** Train in cycles: two months of consistent 45 minute sessions, then a deload week, then a week off. 2. **Ignoring recovery.** Sauna twice a week, cold plunge on separate days and before the workout, stretching, and a fixed sleep and wake time in a cold, dark room. Close the kitchen two hours before bed. 3. **Eating junk to get big.** Quality food, bought from real sources, and a process of elimination if your gut and energy are off.

Frequently asked questions

### How many days a week should I train?

I trained four to five days a week for two months at a time, in 45 minute sessions. Going to six days a week for years without a break is what hurt me.

### What is a deload week?

A deload week is a week where you do not push heavy weight. You do more repetitions with lighter weight to calm your nervous system. I take one after every two months of consistent training, followed by a week off.

### Should I use a cold plunge after the sauna?

I do not. The sauna uses heat for recovery, and the cold shock stops your nervous system from relaxing. I use the cold plunge on separate days, before the workout.

### When should I stop eating before bed?

I close the kitchen two hours before sleeping. If I eat, I go for a 10 minute walk afterwards. Eating one hour before bed is okay, but eating and going straight to sleep is something to avoid.

### How can I fix bloating and brain fog?

In my case I did a process of elimination and paid close attention to the food I ate and where it came from. I started shopping at the local market and the local butcher. My energy came back and my brain fog went away.

Your next step

You do not have to fix everything at once. Pick one thing this week. Set a fixed wake up time. Stretch after your workout. Close the kitchen two hours before bed. Then add the next one.

I put everything I have learned into the 30-day recomp plan. It is free. Thirty days of it can reset your life. If you would rather talk through your own situation, book a call and we will look at it together.

Ready to take the next step?

Start with the free 30-day recomp plan, and if you want to talk about your own goals, book a free call with me.

Get your free 30-day recomp plan here: https://welcome.ens.azermahdi.com/free-plan?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=article&utm_content=12-years-of-training-mistakes-to-avoid

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Disclaimer

This article is for general information and education only. It is not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment from a qualified doctor or other licensed healthcare professional. I am sharing my own experience and what I have seen with my coaching clients. Reading this article does not create a doctor-patient or coach-client relationship.

Training, recovery, sleep, sauna and cold exposure, digestive symptoms, low energy, and unexplained changes in your body can have many causes, including medical conditions. Sauna and cold plunges are not safe for everyone. If you have any health condition, an injury, are pregnant, take medication, or have symptoms that are severe or do not go away, speak to your doctor before you change your training, recovery, sleep, diet or supplement routine. Never ignore or delay professional medical advice because of something you read here. If you think you have a medical emergency, contact your local emergency services right away.

The stories and results mentioned here are my own experience, not guarantees. Results vary from person to person and depend on many factors, including your health, effort, consistency, and circumstances.

You are fully responsible for your own health decisions and for how you use this information. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Azer Mahdi disclaims liability for any loss, injury, or damage resulting from the use of, or reliance on, this article.