You know all of those blog posts and articles that urge you to read them to show you how to become more effective and productive with your life? Yeah... this isn't one of those. They're all the same, anyway. You actually end up wasting time and being completely unproductive when you read them.

So here we go.

7. Knocking the bar away from the body

Just stop doing this. Yes, I know, the elite weightlifters make it sound like they're doing this because of the sheer power they possess. Some even brag about how hard they hit. Before you start trying to make the loudest noise with bar-body contact, look at slow-mo video of high-level weightlifters and watch how close they keep the bar. Hookgrip's Instagram has some great footage of this. They are making bar-body contact, but it is a vertical trajectory of the bar, not horizontal.

6. Neglecting Mobility Issues

Mobility is arguably most important during the set up and the catch. If you aren't able to get in a comfortable set-up position consistently, how are your pulls going to feel? Uncomfortable as well. Lack of mobility can set you up for a poor first pull. It snowballs from there. A poor starting position means you have to work even harder to get back in the correct position, increasing the likelihood of error during the lift.

During the catch, you must be able to drop your hips very low without sacrificing upper body positioning. This can only be accomplished with the requisite mobility. The lower you can drop your hips on the catch, the more kilos you can potentially add to your lifts.

5. Inconsistent approach

Here's a scenario that I see all too often:

The approach for a routine lift: The lifter chalks up and approaches the bar. She sets up her feet. Right hand grasps the bar, then the left. Grips and rips.

The approach for a PR attempt: The lifter chalks up and approaches the bar. Left hand on the bar first, then the right. She sets up their feet last and sits and thinks for 15 seconds before taking her attempt.

These are two very different approaches. It's hard to think that being inconsistent in your approach can lend itself to any consistency in the lift itself. It's fine to experiment with different approaches and dynamic starts, but find an approach style that works for you and stick with it. Don't change it all of a sudden just because you're going for a PR.

Approach every lift the same, down to the minor details.

4. Narrow Split Jerk

The distribution of weight on your front and back foot should be roughly 70 percent and 30 percent, respectively. Ideally, you would want to have the front shin vertical to the ground with the back leg bent slightly and on the ball of the foot. Splitting longer (from front to back foot) affords the lifter room to drop lower in the jerk if needed. If you find that your back heel is still on the ground or your front knee is driven past the toe, you may want to lengthen out your jerk position.

During the split jerk, the back foot should simply glide or shift back while the front foot placement is slightly more aggressive. Lift the front foot to allow a smooth transition under the bar. The front foot landing prematurely may force too much weight forward. In addition, lifting the front foot too much will also take more time than needed. Lift the front foot only as much as needed to achieve a proper balanced split jerk receiving position. A cue that has worked well for me is “drop the hips and slap the front toe down.” This helps accomplish lengthening the split as well as emphasizing proper balance in the feet.

3. Rushing the First Pull

During the pull, gears in a car can represent the speed of the bar. Each gear must precede the next to allow for a seamless transition to a faster speed. In weightlifting, there are varying grades of fast that should also be seamless.

Moving too fast--faster than one’s technical proficiency allows--during the first pull will inevitably set the athlete up for a poor second pull. Moving too fast relative to one’s level of proficiency will often lead to one of two outcomes: a clear deceleration of the bar during the second pull to achieve correct positions, or blowing past vital positions--namely the scoop or double knee bend and the power position--in the second pull.

In either case, missing crucial positions or slowing the bar down after breaking the weight from the floor…neither should happen. Performing segment snatches/cleans (snatches/cleans with a pause at the knee) in training aids in proper weight distribution and also sets the athlete in the appropriate position for the second pull.

2. Moving Too Slow

This may look like it's a contradiction to the point above. Allow me to explain. Generally, novice weightlifters move too fast on the way up and much too slow pulling under the bar. To improve success in the lifts, reverse the two. Control and speed on the way up and pull under faster. How can you expect to put up the big numbers if you rely solely on your pulling power on the way up? You need to be able to go from extension to flexion extremely quickly. Being active and deliberate the entire lift is essential to this.

In a recent interview I did with Lester Ho, a weightlifting coach out of Australia, he mentioned that you must be able to recognize when your pull is complete to effectively move under the bar. Lester goes on to say that getting under the bar is not an issue of being fast enough. This should be a reaction of realizing that the second pull is complete. The mistake often made is that the lifter focuses so much on pulling the bar up that it makes it difficult to get under the bar due to excessive tension and pulling with the arms.

Don't be an overpuller.

1. Missing too many lifts

This is the number one on my list. Weightlifters miss lifts for two reasons: either their technique was off or the weight was too heavy. Be more concerned missing because technique was off. Too heavy is easy to fix - get stronger. Don't ingrain bad habits due to poor technique.

How many is too many, you ask? Well, this is a tricky one. On one hand, if you're never missing lifts, that probably hints at the fact that you're not training hard enough and could lift more. On the other hand, if you miss more than you make, you need to reexamine your training plan. You should push your physical limits once in a while, but that does not give you carte blanche to miss as many lifts as you want all the time. If you're in PR territory, you can expect to miss once in a while. This is normal. However, you shouldn't be missing many in the 70-90% range. If you are, don't be stubborn. Drop the percentage down, hit your lifts, and learn from your misses.

There's no use in perfecting how to miss lifts.