Fitness Mistakes!

Are You Making Fitness Mistakes?

We all need fitness in our lives.  The human body is meant to move and without regular movement dis-ease will set in.  You probably know this and you might have the best intentions, but check out these common fitness mistakes to be sure that your fitness routine is benefitting you and not causing harm or frustration.

Overdoing it.  I see this a lot with new people and even more with people who used to be fit and are just getting back into a fitness routine.  They’re in such a hurry to see results they end up doing too many workouts at too high of an intensity.  If you find yourself constantly feeling sore and exhausted you may be making this mistake.

It’s important to work hard and challenge your body but not every single day.  Your fitness routine should be a mix of cardio and strength training with a couple of intense days, a couple of moderate days and a day or two of active recovery.  If you go too hard too often what happens is you end up breaking your body down and not letting it recover properly.  Without proper recovery your body won’t be able to perform as well and achieve greater strength gains.

Underdoing it.  On the other end of the scale is underdoing it.  You need to expose your body to enough stress to make a change.  If you get through all your workouts without feeling fatigue and without ever hitting failure chances are you’re not pushing yourself hard enough.  I see this in some brand new people who are worried about injuring themselves.  It’s true that if you go too hard you could injure yourself but you need to push yourself into discomfort.  Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.  You need to know the difference between good pain and bad pain.  Good pain is that nice burning feeling in your muscles, whereas bad pain is anything you feel in your joints or if you start to feel nauseous or dizzy.  If you’re new to fitness talk to an experienced trainer first!

Getting distracted.  When you’re working out you need to work out, not watch the clock or think about what you have to do later.  You need to be focused on what you’re doing so you get the benefits of the exercise and also stay safe.  If you’re busy thinking about other things chances are your form is off which will almost always lead to injury and you’re probably not working as hard as you could.  Make your workout your time to focus on you and nothing else – it’s your little mini-vacation from the day.  You’ll be safer and you’ll see much better results.

Working out solely to lose weight.  If your weight is affecting your health then losing the excess should be a priority when you start but you need other reasons for why you’re working out.  If it’s just for weight loss what’s going to motivate you when you lose the weight?  If there’s nothing else to motivate you chances are you’ll go back to your old habits that lead to your weight gain in the first place.  Personally I think just focusing on weight loss makes exercise torturous and you lose out on the fulfillment that exercise can provide.  Think about how great you feel when your body is moving and how great it feels when you notice your strength increasing.  Think about how much easier it is to go up stairs or carry heavy groceries.  Take the time to really notice all the pleasure that working out brings to you.  You should look at your workouts as your break – kind of like recess when you were a kid.  Remember how excited you used to get when you heard that recess bell go and you could go out and play?  Why not make your gym time feel that way?

Correct Your Fitness Mistakes!

If any of the above ring true for you, you can easily correct them.  If you need help talk to a trainer or leave me a comment and I’ll connect with you.  

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