7 Mistakes I Made So You Dont Have To

7 Mistakes I Made So You Don’t Have To 1
By Andy Bolton
Copyright © 2012 Andy Bolton Strength. All Rights Reserved | www.AndyBoltonStrength.org

By Andy Bolton
“7 Mistakes I Made So
You Don’t Have To”
Avoid These Mistakes And You’ll Make Faster
STRENGTH And Muscle Mass Gains…
By Andy Bolton

By Andy Bolton
Notice To Those Who Are Thinking Of Abusing This Book
(Or in other words… “Who wants to get sued or go to jail?”)
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distribute, or create derivative works from this book in whole or in part or to
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Now that we’re finished with this notice, let’s look at “7 Mistakes I Made So
You Don’t Have To”…

By Andy Bolton
Introduction
Hey, it’s Andy Bolton here.
Thanks for grabbing a copy of this special report –
“7 Mistakes I Made So You Don’t Have To”.
I guess the title kinda gives away what this is all about,
right? ;)
I’ll be honest with you – like most lifters, I’ve made a ton of mistakes
throughout my lifting career. And every time I made a mistake, no matter how
small, it always slowed down my progress.
In other words – it prevented me getting STRONGER as fast as I wanted to.
But…
Unlike most lifters, I have never let mistakes get me down (even those
mistakes that led to injuries). Instead, I choose to see each mistake as a
learning experience, something that helps me to become a better lifter.
Of course, in a perfect world it’d be great to never make a mistake and just get
stronger every single time you train. But the world isn’t perfect and you will
almost certainly make mistakes.
The goal of this report is to help you avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made.
After all, if you know what to look out for, you have a chance of preventing it
happening in the first place.
Remember – an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Take a second to think about that.
Then read on and I’ll share 7 mistakes with you – mistakes that I made so that
you don’t have to!

By Andy Bolton
Mistake #1: Not Focusing Enough On Technique

These days I focus on technique every time I train – on every rep of every set.
The reason why I do this is because great technique = less chance of injury and
more strength.
But when I first started out in the iron game I had no idea how important
technique was. So I just sorta ‘lifted the bar’. And don’t get me wrong – I made
some decent gains this way – both strength and muscular… but if I’d focused
on technique earlier on, I’d have definitely made faster, safer strength gains.
I see a lot of lifters who could be so much better if they just worked on their
technique. I also see a lot of lifters who are in PAIN because they have lousy
form.
With all that said…
Let me give you a few pointers on technique…
- Learn the RKC plank. This move teaches you how to get TIGHT. If you
want to get strong and lift safely – you have to be tight. In Deadlift
Dynamite you’ll find a full and detailed description of how to perform
the plank
- Treat every weight in the same way. If you see me benching the bar and
benching 350kg, you will notice that I treat both weights the same way
from a physical perspective. Sure, I’ll be in a very different place
emotionally when I’m lifting 350kg, but physically it’s the same things
going on.
Same set-up, same execution of the movement.
Yet the reality is that many lifters do their warm up sets and lighter sets
with sloppy form. But this is a mistake because it’s ‘bad practice’ and
leads to bad habits.
You don’t see Tiger Woods hitting sloppy shots on the driving range with
his pitching wedge and only concentrating when he pulls out the driver.
Instead, you see the same focus on every shot. You should approach

By Andy Bolton
your strength training the same way – maximum focus and attention to
detail on every rep of every set, no matter how light the weight is.
- Video yourself. How will you improve your technique if you can’t see
what you are doing?
On your ‘big lifts’ – squat, bench, deadlift, military press, Olympic lifts
etc I recommend getting your training partners to film a couple of your
sets during each session… not for egotistical reasons, but rather so that
you can see what you are doing.
Only then can you identify your weaknesses, work on them and monitor
your progress.
To re-cap:
- Learn to get TIGHT. The RKC Plank will teach you to do this
- Treat every weight - no matter how light - with total respect
- Get the video camera out and film some of your sets on a regular basis

By Andy Bolton
Mistake #2: Failing To Learn How To Write Effective Training

Programs
In my early days I didn’t have a clue how to write effective training programs.
This led to ‘hit and miss’ gains and more than a few aches and pains.
These days I’m pretty damn good at writing effective programs…
I squatted 1214lbs in competition, without ever going over a grand in the gym.
That’s efficient training.
I pulled 1008lbs in competition, without ever going over 800lbs in the gym.
That’s efficient training to.
And the truth is that it took me years to figure out how to train this way and it
required a lot of trial and error. The mistake wasn’t that it took years – after
all, you aint gonna become world class at anything without some practice.
The mistake was not focusing on training program design earlier in my career.
This definitely held me back and prevented me from getting stronger, faster
than I did. It also led to periods of over-training and as I previously said – a ton
of aches and pains.
So what’s my advice to you?
Simple…
- Learn from the best. If you’ve grabbed a copy of mine and Pavel’s book,
Deadlift Dynamite – that’s a great start. But never stop your education.
Always be a student of the iron game. Read a thousand books, go to
seminars and workshops and train with the best – do whatever you can
do to broaden your knowledge.
- Don’t Be A Program Hopper. Most lifters have been guilty of this at one
time or another – changing training programs every week or every few
weeks.
Listen up…

By Andy Bolton
If you really want to learn a particular training program and make it work
for you – you need to give it time. My style, Westside, Broz, Sheiko –
whatever. Only one thing is for sure – if you switch from one to another
every few weeks, you’ll end up mediocre.
Pick one and use it for 6 months minimum and then you’ll learn
something.

By Andy Bolton
Mistake #3: Eating Junk Food

I went to the Doctor a few years ago to get my blood pressure checked. After
the test the Doc looked a bit concerned and a rather horrible conversation
followed that went like this:
Doc: “Mr Bolton, your blood pressure is 165/95”
Me: “Er, is that good?” (I knew it wasn’t)
Doc: “Er, no, no it’s not. If you keep going like this, you’re heading for a stroke
or a heart attack”
BOOM.
Let me tell you – that’s a wakeup call.
I realized that for too long I’d relied on junk food to keep my weight up and it
had to stop – for the sake of my health.
This experience led me down a path of education. Of course, I educated myself

on nutrition.
My advice to you is NOT to make the same mistake. You don’t have to eat junk
food to add bodyweight – it can be done whilst eating healthy foods.
And when you eat ‘clean’, you feel so much better!
Here are a few tips:
- Drink at least 3 litres of water a day (add a little lemon or lime if you
like)
- Eat only high quality meats (grass-fed Beef, organic Chicken, Wild
Alaskan Salmon etc)
- Eat a ton of vegetables, preferably raw or steamed, and some fruit

(berries are an excellent choice)

By Andy Bolton
- Don’t be scared of fats, just make the right choices – Extra Virgin Olive
Oil, Coconut Oil, Udo’s Choice and pharmaceutical grade Fish Oil are
good places to start
- Choose your carbohydrates wisely – go for brown rice over bagels, high
quality bread over white bread. You get the idea
- If you eat dairy, buy it raw if possible and choose your source very
carefully. HINT: good quality dairy must come from HEALTHY animals
Here’s the bottom line…
Without your health, you really have nothing.
So educate yourself on optimal nutrition and treat your body with respect.
You’ll look, feel and perform better.
I don’t want you to have to have a chat with the Doc like I did. It sucks.

By Andy Bolton
Mistake #4: Overtraining

When you get to my level, progress is hard to come by. Seriously, I went from a
1003lbs deadlift to a 1008lbs deadlift and it tok 5 years! “YES”, really – 5
freakin’ years!
But that was good because at the time nobody else had pulled over a grand, so
progress is progress.
Anyway, I’m always looking for new ways to get STRONGER, so I started talking
to other elite powerlifters. One of them suggested I try pulling from high
blocks.
This would involve pulling a VERY heavy weight, using straps, with the bar
starting around mid-thigh… the idea being to get your body used to pulling
extremely heavy loads.
I ended up pulling 520kg like this. My max at the time was 457.5kg. You can
see the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlJwYcTmIqA&list=UUa0o8ITh6igJyVuaBREVaKQ&index=7&feat
ure=plcp
Now you may think that was pretty cool, but you know what?
The reality is that it was a complete and utter waste of time.
It took me about a month to recover and I went to my powerlifting meet and

felt burnt out. In short – the lift overtrained me.
And it’s a mistake I won’t make again.
Yet I see many lifters overtraining all the time.
Here are a few signs may be telling you that you’re overtraining:
- Your resting heart rate is elevated
- Your appetite is decreasing
- You are having trouble sleeping properly

By Andy Bolton
- Your gains have dried up
- Your desire to train is dwindling
And here are some ways to avoid overtraining:
- Vary your volume and intensity from session to session and week to
week. You can’t train balls to the wall all the time
- Have a de-load week when you feel like you need it. During the de-load
week you still train, but you reduce the intensity and volume and allow
your body and mind to recover
- Don’t’ be afraid to have a week off. You’ll come back with more
enthusiasm and you may even be stronger than before if you were a
little overtrained
- Avoid failure in training because pushing to the limit and worse still –
missing weights – fries your CNS

By Andy Bolton
Mistake #5: Not Listening To “Warning Signs”

Towards the end of Ed Coan’s powerlifting career he suffered a nasty injury to
one of his legs. I think it had to do with his knee, but I’m not 100% sure.
However, what I do know for sure is that Ed said that looking back after the
injury, he had had warning signs prior to it – little aches and pains and just that
feeling that “something’s not right”.
I made a similar mistake in 2012.
I tore my right hamstring and came back to soon, even though I knew the leg
didn’t feel 100% yet. The result? I overcompensated on my left side, threw my
body out of balance and ended up injuring my lower back.
This happened because I didn’t listen to my body and I got impatient.
Here’s my advice to you:
- If something hurts or you have persistent aches and pains that just don’t
feel right, do something about it…
Get a scan, get a massage, go to a physiotherapist. Whatever. Just get a

professional to look at it before a little ache, turns into a major injury
Better safe than sorry, right?
You know, I had a training partner called Neil Deighton – a phenomenal

powerlifter. All-time top 20 bench press at 90kg as a junior! He benched 305kg
at 90kg bodyweight when I was benching 320kg at 165kg bodyweight.
Good lifter.
Very good.
But the reason why Neil no longer trains with me, nor competes in powerlifting
is because he really HURT himself by continuously training through PAIN – to
the point where he did irreversible damage to his wrists and shoulders.
Please don’t make the same mistake. Of course that’s an extreme example, but
it’s worth keeping in mind.

By Andy Bolton
Mistake #6: Training In The Wrong Environment

These days I train at Rall’s Gym, in my home city of Leeds England.
It’s an ugly little place in one of the worst places in town.
But…
It just feels right.
It’s one of those old warehouses with a leaking roof and everyone who trains
there trains hard.
I’ve heard some people say that they feel like they get stronger the second
they step through the door into Rall’s gym.
However, several years back my training partners and I were struggling for a
place to train because we’d fallen out with our previous gym owner…
something to do with to much noise and chalk. Whatever.
Anyway, we found this gym called Altered Images. I use the name because I
want to name and shame it.
Altered Images was home to many bodybuilders – there were mirrors on the
walls, a lot of machines, posters of Arnie and some very pathetic training going
on, involving very little weight.
But, it was the only place we could find to train.
And it NEVER, EVER felt right.
The bodybuilders would give us dirty looks, the music was ‘soft’, the
atmosphere was just lame, the reception stunk of microwaved tuna and well –
you get the idea.
It was an awful place to train – definitely the WRONG environment for the
strongest powerlifters in England.
And I swear to God as soon as we moved to Rall’s we all gained 20 pounds on

our lifts. LOL.

By Andy Bolton
Don’t underestimate the power of a good environment to train in – it’s

priceless!

By Andy Bolton
Mistake #7: Burning The Candle At Both Ends

In my early powerlifting career I did a lot of partying...
I’d train hard during the week and PARTY HARD at the weekend.
And the truth is that I got away with it for a long time – still making some
pretty impressive strength gains. But I do sometimes wonder how much faster
I’d have progressed if I’d partied a little less.
I’m not saying you can’t have fun.
I’m not suggesting you never have a drink or two.
What I am saying is this…
Don’t push things as far as I did – to the point where my partying did start to
affect my strength gains.
REMEMBER – I’ve made the mistakes so you don’t have to!

By Andy Bolton
“What Else Have Ya Got For Me Andy?”

- Well, if you’re not already signed up for my email newsletter, I suggest
you do that now. Just go here: http://www.andyboltonstrength.org and
the rest is self-explanatory.
- And if you’re eager to expand your knowledge of the iron game and take
your strength to the next level, you can check out my full list of
programs by clicking here

By Andy Bolton
I’d like to thank my friend and business partner Elliot Newman for helping me to put
together this special report.

7 Mistakes I Made So You Dont Have To

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7 Mistakes I Made So You Don’t Have To 1

Copyright © 2012 Andy Bolton Strength. All Rights Reserved | www.AndyBoltonStrength.org

Copyright © 2012 Andy Bolton Strength. All Rights Reserved | www.AndyBoltonStrength.org

Notice To Those Who Are Thinking Of Abusing This Book

(Or in other words… “Who wants to get sued or go to jail?”)

Copyright © 2012 Andy Bolton Strength. All Rights Reserved | www.AndyBoltonStrength.org

Hey, it’s Andy Bolton here.

Thanks for grabbing a copy of this special report –