Are You Doing "Fitness" Wrong?
You have a goal, it’s either to lose or maintain your weight, or it could be to have killer abs and glutes.
You spend hours and hours everyday to do cardio or resistance workouts, but you still don’t see any progress.
Well, could it be that you might be making one or a few mistakes that are sabotaging your success?
Here are seven common mistakes you never notice doing, along with what you can do to fix them.
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Skipping Warm-up Exercises. Warm-up exercises are usually overlooked by people who workout. Warm-up activities, such as taking a few minutes walk or doing stretches, help your body prepare for the exercise you planned doing. With a few minutes of doing arm circles or stretches, you get the blood, heat, and oxygen to your muscles and make them amenable to change.
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Improper Hydration. It’s important to stay hydrated. Being properly hydrated helps cushion joints, and stabilize blood pressure and heart rate. Drink a few glasses before starting a session, and after doing a workout. Also, keep a bottle ready while you exercise. Staying hydrated speeds up recovery and improves performance.
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Poor Posture. Having a bad posture could lead your body to be injured when doing physical activities, particularly in your back, shoulders, and knees. Hold your back straight, and shoulders back. If needed, speak to a physical therapist or your trainer about improving your posture so that it doesn’t get worse when you do exercise.
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Lifting Too Much. In the fitness community, it’s a popular misconception that if you challenge yourself immediately with heavier weights, it will change things faster. Instead of lifting unmanageable weights and end up having an accident, start with safer weights. From there, you can increase it as long as your body can handle more.
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Repetitive Activities. Even though you become good at something you do repeatedly, your body adapts to it and loses the challenge the muscles need to be stronger. Repeating one routine for a long time to hit a goal might lead to having injuries. Try mixing up your workout routine or the length of your session so the different muscle groups in your body stay in good shape.
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Being Inconsistent. One intense workout won’t change your body or improve your health instantly. People normally accomplish a weekly goal of 3 hours of moderate exercise to get the inside of their body pumping, and strength exercise at least twice a week.
- Failing to Rest and Recover. Resting days are as important as your workouts. After an intense workout, give your body time to recover with proper nutrition, hydration, and sleep. Also, try alternating every now and then which muscle groups you work with.
The most frustrating part of one’s fitness journey is not seeing any results even after long sessions of sweating and lifting weights.
Be sure to make your workouts count by knowing what you are doing wrong and immediately fix these issues.