The 3 Training Mistakes I Wish I Didn’t Make in My 20s

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ByDave Paczkowski

I made some training mistakes in my 20s that I’m still paying for.

My body would look radically different today if I hadn’t made some of these critical training mistakes a decade ago.

I want to share those mistakes with you today — because you might have made them before too without realizing how they’re still impacting your ability to lose fat, build muscle, and transform your body.

Or you might still be making them right now.

These were mistakes I made in my 20s and early 30s, but this applies whether you’re in your 40s or 50s too — it’s never too late to make changes and turn it around.

It just gets harder the longer you wait.

I’m thankful that I eventually realized the path I was on wasn’t the right one. At age 24, I had just graduated with my Doctorate in Physical Therapy, and I thought I knew it all.

Looking back, I had a lot of knowledge on rehabilitation of injuries — but it caused me to become fearful and avoid focusing on the things that actually work.

You don’t need to have a doctorate level degree to make these mistakes — these same fears and misinformation are all over social media, podcasts, and wherever else you’re getting your fitness advice.

I wish I didn’t have to learn these lessons the hard way — but I’m sure glad I learned them now and not many years later.

These mistakes negatively impacted my:

  • Body composition
  • Metabolism
  • Hormones
  • Overall health

It had an impact on these things in my 20s that carried all the way until the past year or two of my mid 30s.

And they might be impacting you too…without even realizing it.

Small training mistakes, big consequences

The scariest part is that these aren’t glaring mistakes.

  • I’m not talking about maxing out your deadlift while lifting with a fully rounded lower back
  • I’m not talking about overtraining yourself into the ground through two-a-day CrossFit workouts
  • I’m not even talking about this (the 0:13 second mark can’t be serious)

These are subtle training mistakes.

They seem harmless…and they actually seem right in many people’s eyes.

Especially when you look at the viral nutrition and exercise recommendations that can go around social media.

Before I jump in — these training mistakes aren’t for the person who hasn’t followed a diet or been to the gym in years.

If you’re not currently doing anything when it comes to your exercise or your diet — acknowledge that there is a cost to inaction, and realize the most important thing you can do is just get started somewhere (here is exactly what I would do if I started over tomorrow with my health and fitness).

These mistakes below are most important if you’re the type of person who is trying to improve their health, you’re following some type of exercise or diet plan, but you can’t quite seem to achieve the results you really want.

If you’re not where you want to be when it comes to your health or physique, but you’ve been working out and focusing on your diet, then you’ve probably fell into one (or more) of these training mistakes like I did:

Training Mistake 1. I focused way too much on losing fat (instead of gaining muscle)

The hyperfocus on fat loss is one of the most harmful myths in the health and fitness space. Everyone and everything is selling you a path to weight loss, less belly fat, 6 pack abs, and getting ripped. This leaves people discouraged whenever they’re carrying around a little extra body fat. 

In reality, to maximize your results (and your sanity) there should be focused (and defined) periods of both fat loss and muscle gain.

If you think following a strength program is enough to focus on gaining muscle, you might be misled.

Lifting weights is unlikely to build much muscle if you’re always dieting and focused on weight loss.

I is possible to focus on gaining muscle while losing fat. But this is typically only a reality if you’re very overweight, if you’re a new lifter (or if you have been away from lifting for a long time).

For everyone else: if you’re focusing on losing fat, your ability to gain muscle is greatly suffering.

What most don’t realize, is that muscle gain almost always comes with fat gain, and fat loss almost always comes with muscle loss. There are ways to minimize this, but it is inevitable for most people not taking steroids. 

I became so fixated on getting lean and losing weight in the short-term, that I neglected gaining muscle (and being okay with a little fat gain) that could have led to significant more transformation in the long-term. 

How much fat you’re willing to gain when building muscle is up to you. Don’t let the fear of gaining some fat in the short-term get in the way of what’s best for your metabolism, your physique, and your health in the long-term.

My focus now: 75% (or more) of my year spent maintaining or building muscle, 25% (or less) focused on fat loss. This is a long-term investment in my overall health, hormones, and physique that will pay off for years down the road — while still allowing me to look and feel great right now.

When done correctly:

Muscle builds slow. Fat loss is quick.

Spend more time building.

Training Mistake 2. I focused on ‘functional strength’ (instead of lifting heavy)

I became fearful of lifting heavy. This one goes hand in hand with training mistake #1. Not only did I think it was unnecessary to lift heavy — I actually believed it was harmful to continue to lift heavy.

I know many people think lifting heavy isn’t safe, I hear things all the time like:

  • You’ll hurt your back/knees/shoulders lifting all that weight
  • What’s the point?
  • I’m too old (or my favorite, ‘just wait until you’re older’)

In reality, weightlifting is extremely safe compared to other sports and activities.

This falsely believed fear was largely due to an exaggeration of my PT ‘knowledge’, and what really contributes to injury (which is not weightlifting, especially when properly performed, as you can see with injury rates above). 

And because I didn’t know any better…

  • I traded 300 and 400 lb barbell lifts for 30 and 40 lb kettlebells.
  • I swapped heavy full depth back squats for partial range of motion goblet squats.
  • I removed overhead pressing and deadlifts, thinking it was bad for your shoulders or your back.

Which led to less muscle mass, worsened body composition, lower metabolism, and less strength.

Here’s the worst part: the more I got away from heavier lifting, the worse my body actually felt.

I had more joint pain and felt worse jumping in a pickup basketball game.

My focus now: I rarely perform any 1 rep max testing, but I do load weights as heavy as I can perform — always with good form and sometimes taken to failure. I train in a wide rep range throughout each session: lower reps when pushing strength and higher reps when pushing muscle growth.

Which leads me to my final training mistake.

Training Mistake 3. I focused too much on mobility and avoiding injury (instead of building resiliency)

I was wrong about longevity and injury prevention…despite years of schooling.

If I grasped how difficult it is to build muscle, and how impactful muscle mass is as we age, I would not have modified my workouts away from heavier lifts like I did.

I thought mobility, foam rolling, stretching, functional movement patterns, and kettlebell work was the key to longevity and resiliency.

I’m not saying these things don’t serve a purpose, but if they make up more than 10% of your workout program then you’re probably leaving a ton of progress on the table like I was.

Your body adapts to the stress you put on it.

If you treat your body like it’s soft, fragile, and injury prone — you’ll start seeing that become your reality.

If you slowly load up the weight over time — you’ll be amazed at the real resiliency you’ll begin to build.

My focus now: I perform as much mobility work as I need to perform my main lifts with good form, but not much more. I try and keep my overall activity up throughout the day (through walking, playing with kids, etc) instead of dedicated mobility work. This keeps my body feeling great and in the gym training hard.

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There was a time where I regretted all the years I wasted focusing on the wrong things. But as I’ve seen in my own life, as well as with many clients, it’s never too late to turn it around. The key is focusing on the right things.

For a step by step playbook of the most important things for [re]Building Your Body — sign up for my popular (free) email course.

If you’re progress in the gym is stalling, or you feel like you should be further along — it’s not too late.

Fill out a coaching form to learn more about working directly with me to shortcut your physical transformation.