The most common mistake beginners make
​is listening to other beginners

The most common mistake a beginner at lifting weights in a gym is listening to other beginners.

Go in any big gym in the country and you'll see groups of people weight training together and giving each other advice. The majority of the time the person giving the advice is a novice at strength training.
There's nothing wrong with being a novice, we'll all start something new things at various point in our life. It could be learning a new language, a new sport, a new job or starting the gym. Everybody is a beginner at something at some point, but it's not helpful to give advice when you aren't experienced enough yourself.
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​The biggest mistake a beginner can make is seeking advice from people who are beginners themselves and don't have any knowledge or experience on the subject. People who are starting out often are bad at recognising who is a good source of information.

Unfortunately, this is very common when it comes to anything fitness related and most people have opinions on the subject.

• Go on any fitness forum and you'll see beginners giving awful advice to other beginners. The internet has been great in that we have access to information by the best coaches in the world, but it also gives voices to people who have very little knowledge. 
• Go to most gyms and you'll see friends training together and copying each others bad training. I've heard one guy telling his friend to drop the bar as fast as he could and bounce the bar off his chest when bench pressing. He then lost control of the bar and needed saving from his spotter. 
• Friends are often pass on myths to each other.  I've often heard clients say something that their friend has told them and believed them because they went to the gym. Keep in mind that your friend just going to the gym doesn't mean your friend knows what he is doing there and qualified to give advice. Go in any gym and 99% of them will be beginners even if they have been training years. 
• I've seen so many Instagram fitness accounts giving bad advice. Having a lot of followers doesn't mean you are knowledgeable on the subject or mean they know how to help you. ​

The internet is full of beginners giving other beginners advice on how to not be beginners.
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​The loudest voices are the least experienced, and the least experienced make up the majority of the population so do what the majority of people do will result in getting the results the majority achieve.​

It's no surprise that most people don't achieve their goals at the gym. ​It's easy to get confused as there is so much information out there. A lot of which isn't good information, or about stuff which is irelevent to them at their stage of their training. This just leaves the person confused and unsure what to do and the end up focusing on the wrong things. It's not a surprise that they then don't reach their goals
It's common for me to hear someone say they have tried everything. What this tends to mean is they have bounced from one thing to another, not stuck to it and haven't focused on the important things that would give them results.

I've never played the guitar before. You wouldn't take advice from me on how to play the guitar, so why would you listen to your mate that's still a beginner when it comes to lifting weights

You need to make sure you you only get you information from good sources and avoid taking advice from beginners. If their advice worked, they wouldn't be beginners themselves.​. Not many peoples opinions matter.
Be picky who you listen to, iIt will save you time and you'll make better progress

Seek out people who have achieved something in fitness and have experience training other people and ignore your friends and social media influencers.