How to Correct 7 Common Exercise or Training Errors

how to correct 7 common exercise or training errors

Training Mistakes to Avoid

Regardless of your fitness level and experience in different physical activities, mistakes are bound to happen. How can you overcome your training mistake and avoid them altogether? Find out below!

What are some common training mistakes?

When it comes to training mistakes, some people consider them as blessings as they give them the opportunity to improve their performance and generate more benefits from their training. If you’ve been wondering how to raise your fitness performance to the next level, starting by identifying and fixing mistakes you make is an excellent and practical idea.

Most people make similar training mistakes, and this article will highlight them for you.

1. You don’t warm-up

7 Common Training Mistakes and How to Fix ThemThe way you start the training determines the quality of your performance. To many, warm-ups are unnecessary, and they don’t see what all the fuss is about. Well, this short process prevents injuries, improves your range of motion, and allows you to perform your training adequately. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research published a study that found that participants who warmed up before training improved their performance by a staggering 79%.

What to do: Remember, a warm-up doesn’t require vigorous and grueling movements, it’s a way of relaxing your muscles and joints. Here are a few easy ways to do this and have fun at the same time:

  • March on the spot for 3 minutes
  • Heel digs for 60 seconds
  • Knee lifts for 30 seconds
  • Shoulder rolls for 2 sets of 10 reps
  • Knee bends for 10 reps

2. You’re doing too much cardio

To most people, the only training they do is a cardio workout. Yes, cardio is incredibly beneficial, it burns fat, improves heart health, helps you lose weight, and so on. However, when you do too much cardio, you get into a catabolic state and burns your hard-earned muscle. The loss of muscle affects your strength and slows down your metabolism. When this happens, it will be harder for you to lose fat.

You’ve probably noticed that you lost weight and burned fat quite quickly at the beginning, but now you don’t see any change whatsoever. Now you know why that happened. Cardio overload is indicated by symptoms such as fatigue, mood swings, aches, and pains.

What to do: Ideally, you should never spend an hour just on cardio exercises and make sure you introduce more variety into your fitness regimen. Consult your fitness trainer about strength or circuit workouts. Remember that more isn’t always better, and the best way to get the most out of your training is to train smart. For best results, alternate between cardio and strength training.

3. You do stretch-holds prior to workout

Okay, this is something that most people do, and we also see it regularly in TV shows and movies. People want to stretch before the workout, and all they do is hold their muscles in the elongated state for a few seconds. The study from the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy showed that for younger individuals dynamic stretching is more beneficial as it improves performance. It also contributes to a smooth transition from stretching to full training mode. Static stretching is recommended for people older than 65.

What to do: Get moving before the workout with at least 5 minutes of dynamic stretches.

4. You favor the number of reps over a range of movement

Most people start training in a bid to lose weight and gain muscle for the body of their dreams. That’s why the best weight loss program is the one that helps you burn fat quickly and focus on building muscle that prevents the saggy skin scenario, particularly in the abdominal area and biceps. When it comes to building muscles and increasing strength, it’s the range of movement (ROM) that counts, not the number of repetitions you do.

What to do: To achieve optimal muscle activation, you have to maximize both ROM and muscle time under tension. For instance, when doing squats, you should go as low as possible while maintaining a proper posture. When it comes to this, perfect technique and exercise execution are more important than doing as many as possible. You’ll get more benefits out of 5 perfect squats than 15 wrong ones.

5. You get stuck in your routine

You already know this scenario; when you started your current fitness program, it was difficult and challenging. You used to sweat a lot, and those extra pounds were coming off at a fast rate. It was amazing! But now, you easily complete your routine, there’re almost no sweat marks, and the weight remains the same, unchanged. Isn’t it frustrating? The reason why this happens is that you got stuck in a routine.

What to do: Stick to a particular program for six weeks and then make some changes. You adapt to exercises and ensure the efficacy of the workout you have to mix things up a little bit. You can do more reps, start doing a different program, find different exercises and make a schedule of performing them on different days. It’s useful to exercise at a different pace as well.

6. You socialize too much

7 Common Training Mistakes and How to Fix ThemHumans are social beings, and it’s natural for us to socialize, even in the gym, at the park, and in other places as well. To some extent, socializing can help you get motivated, compare exercises, get more ideas to do yourself, and so on. However, there’s a fine line between a short chit-chat and a long conversation.

Why is this wrong? It’s because socializing too much diverts focus away from your training, you lose track of the item, and your performance suffers. Some people take longer breaks between sets in the gym because they’re busy chatting, which is a big mistake because every second of your training matters.

What to do: Small talk and chats are fine if they don’t interrupt you from finishing your workout. Keep conversations in the gym to the minimum, or simply catch up after you’re done with training.

7. You do too much, too soon

This is one of the most common training mistakes. Trying to do too much, too soon sets you up for failure, but don’t despair, everyone’s made this mistake at some point. This happens because you believe the more you exercise, the sooner you’ll see results. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. What you can get from this behavior is an injury. Most people expect significant results instantly which is why they overtrain, and when they realize the change see isn’t going to happen instantly, they lose interest.

What to do: Understand that losing weight or getting muscles doesn’t happen overnight. These changes take time and just because nothing’s visible on the outside, it doesn’t mean the changes are absent, they’re deep down. Every training session you do has an effect. What you can do is set up a goal for yourself and divide it into small, easy-to-achieve targets. This way you’ll feel accomplished and avoid overtraining, injuries, or the worst-case scenario – giving up. For example, you can aim for three workouts a week and a few pounds of muscle gain or weight loss.

Wrap-Up

Everybody makes mistakes, but the best thing about them is that they are lessons we can use to improve and become better.

Fitness training mistakes from this article will allow you to improve your performance and achieve goals easily.

Vivian Michaels is a fitness instructor from Philadelphia, USA. He has a sincere desire to help people achieve their individual fitness goals, regardless of experience level or current level of fitness. He also loves to blog about Fitness and Technology industry. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, Pinterest, Stumbleupon
Vivian Michaels
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How to Correct 7 Common Exercise or Training Errors