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| Avoid these mistakes for optimum workout results |
Making the time to exercise is one of the best things you can do for your physical and mental well-being. Anyone who is putting in the work for improving their health and fitness deserves a high five!
However, maybe you've been putting in the work in the gym, but you're not seeing the results you were hoping for. That can be very frustrating, especially when you're certain you're doing all the right things.
But there is a possibility that you may have some things to improve on to optimize your results from your workouts.
Here are some common workout mistakes you may be making and how to fix them.
1. You use exercise solely as a means to burn calories.
Yes, exercise does burn calories and can help you achieve a caloric deficit a little easier. But when you go into your workouts with the belief that your only purpose is to burn calories, you limit what you can actually accomplish in those workouts. I've had many clients tell me how many calories their FitBit told them they burned, but they don't remember how much weight they lifted or how they've been progressing during those workouts lately. When you go to the gym, your ultimate goals should be aiming to get stronger, improve your fitness, and looking after your physical health.
The Fix: Set goals for yourself that focus on improving your strength, getting faster, feeling better, moving better, and not just a number of calories to burn.
2. You're doing too much cardio.
When you think of doing a workout, you might be tempted to hit the treadmill before the squat rack. However, in doing so, you're doing yourself a disservice by only doing cardio for your workouts, or doing too much. Cardio is important yes, and excellent for improving your stamina and aerobic capacity, but your body also adapts very easily to cardiovascular activity. This means your body actually becomes more efficient at it and burns fewer calories while doing cardio.
The fix: Focusing your workouts on strength training instead of all cardio will help build and maintain muscle mass which in turn will help you burn more calories at rest which helps with weight loss.
3. Not lifting heavy enough/Lack of intensity
You started lifting weights, fantastic! But after a couple months, you're still not seeing the changes you were hoping for. This can happen if you're not lifting heavy enough or lacking intensity in your workouts. If you're not challenging your body and muscles enough, your muscles won't be forced to adapt and grow.
The Fix: When you're lifting weights doing a set of 10 reps, for example, you want to be lifting a weight heavy enough that the last few reps of your set get very difficult, but you can still do them with proper form. If you can do 10-12 reps and you're not very tired at the end of the set, you need to up the weights. The same goes for intensity, you can use what's referred to as an RPE scale or Rate of Perceived Exertion. RPE essentially means how hard you feel you're working on a scale of 1-10. 1 is comparable to a light walk, and 10 is going all out so hard you could not give any more effort. Most workouts should be between 7-8 on the RPE scale. Occasionally you can hit between 9-10 but avoid doing that all the time.
4. Improper form
Form is the number 1 importance when it comes to weight lifting. If you don't have proper form while you're doing an exercise, you could be using the wrong muscles or not activating the right ones properly. This lack of proper muscle activation will affect your muscle and strength gains. Many people will sacrifice proper form for the sake of lifting more weight, but that is a big risk for injury. Injuries that will set you back on your workouts and achieving your goals.
The Fix: Lower the weights and focus on proper form first. Also, consider hiring a certified trainer or someone you trust to check your form will help to ensure you are using proper form so you're doing the exercise safely and using the proper muscles.
5. You're doing too much.
If some exercise is good, a lot must be great right? Not always. You might think that upping your workouts from 3-4 times a week to 6-7 times per week would get you to your goals faster, but it can actually slow things down. There are multiple reasons why less is more when it comes to exercise.
First, the increased risk of injury. When you're getting to the point of doing 6-7 days per week, two-a-day workouts, or adding in excessive cardio, you increase your risk of stress injuries such as stress fractures, muscle pulls or joint issues and injuries.
Second, when you're doing too much exercise, your body isn't getting enough rest to recover properly. This not only increases your risk of injury but also slows your muscle gains because they cannot heal and grow properly when they are always under stress.
The Fix: Less is more! It's better to do 3-5 quality, good workouts per week and rest more than it is to do 6-7 workouts a week and stress your body out. Prioritize sleep and recovery.
These are just a few common mistakes that can hold people back on their workouts. If you've resonated with any of these, try out the fixes and see how that improves your workouts and your results!
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