Are you frustrated with the results you’re seeing in the gym? Getting to the gym is only half the battle. What you do when you get there is critical, and a lot of people are misinformed about what it takes to get results. Find out the six biggest mistakes people make when it comes to training and working out. Avoid these and you’ll continue to progress each day!
There’s no shortage of information out there when it comes to getting in shape. But a lot of it doesn’t pertain to the majority of people. Even good information doesn’t help everybody get to where they want to go. Avoiding these six common mistakes will help you stay on the right path to achieving your goals, so do yourself a favor and ask yourself if you do these things. Because if you are, you’ve already strayed from the path to success.
1. Cardio For Weight Loss
Let me know if this sounds familiar:
You (or a guy you know) decide that it’s time to drop a few pounds. So you head down to the local gym, sign up, and begin your fitness journey. You’ve read in magazines that weights make you gain weight and cardio is good for losing weight.
You decide you’ll start slow and jump on the treadmill for 30 minutes three times per week. The first couple of weeks go great and you drop 5-6 pounds. Nice! But you want faster results so you jump up to 45 minutes three times a week. Two weeks later you’ve dropped another 5 pounds.
You’re a month in and already down 10 pounds. Now, it gets interesting. You increase your treadmill cardio to an hour three times per week but no additional weight is lost. So you up it to five times a week and walk/run for an hour but still don’t see any additional weight loss.
You realize that your progress will occasionally stall, so while a bit disappointed with the lack of results, you decide to push through this plateau. You check the scale a month later and you’ve actually gained back 5 pounds. Now the frustration begins to set in.
You see, your body adjusts to cardio very quickly. The critical mistake here was avoiding weight training. You’ll spend a lot less time in the gym and get a lot more results implementing the proper weight training routine. Cardio is a very repetitive exercise, meaning you’re working the same muscles over and over in the same way.
To increase your metabolism and burn fat consistently, you must gain muscle, but traditional cardio does very little to increase muscle mass. Whether you’re trying to lose weight or build muscle, weight training should be the foundational element to your workout routine.
2. Lack of Recovery/Sleep
This one is not a mistake made in the gym but is just as critical as any other to help you progress. Think of it this way: supply and demand.
You go into the gym and create the demand for your body to adapt and grow. You tear down your muscles so that they’ll grow back bigger and stronger. However, they will actually get smaller and weaker if you don’t supply them with the necessary nutrients and rest/recovery time.
You don’t grow inside the gym. You grow outside the gym with rest/recovery and nutrition. So it’s critical to make sure that your recovery is adequate. Make sure you get at least eight hours of solid, quality sleep every night.
3. Trying to Impress Others
Going into the gym and trying to be the baddest one there is for the birds. Nobody’s really looking at you or cares about how much weight you’re lifting. Everybody’s looking at himself or herself and focused on numero uno!
That may sound a bit narcissistic, but it’s actually a good mindset to have. You see, the only person you should be competing with is the person you were yesterday. Strive for daily improvement, for yourself. So check your ego at the door and better yourself on your terms!
4. Skipping Leg Day
I’m sure you’ve seen the memes online about those who skip leg day. It is true; you’re missing out on some great benefits when you skip out on leg day. Yes, leg day is tough but it’s necessary.
You don’t want to be the guy with the big upper body and chicken legs, do you? This rule mainly applies to the men, as women tend to abuse leg day in search of firm glutes and thighs.
Guys, don’t skip leg day. It’s too critical to your success. It doesn’t matter if you’re a marathon runner or bodybuilder, skipping this one is a no-no.
5. Spending All Day in the Gym
As we mentioned earlier, you don’t grow inside the gym. This happens out of the gym with rest/recovery and nutrition. The amount of time you spend in the gym should be just enough to create the demand you need for your desired outcome.
The gym is not the end. Rather, it is a means to an end. In other words, the gym is a tool that you use to construct the body you desire. Just because you spend a ton of time in the gym, doesn’t mean you’ll get the results you seek.
If the nail is completely in the structure, it doesn’t do any good to continue to hammer it. Same goes for the body. If you’ve done what you needed to do for that day, it does no good for you to continue to hammer it home.
6. Not Including Strength Training
Strength training is critical to developing a strong, resilient body. It’s wicked easy to implement and will provide a lot of ‘bang for your buck!’ Implement a strength training exercise, with adequate recovery time between sets, at the beginning of your workout.
You’ll be amazed at what this will do for your muscle building and fat loss efforts. Not to mention, improved bone-density and an overall sense of well-being. Strength training does so much more than just improve your weight lifting capacity. Strength training has a direct correlation to improving all aspects of your life!
There you have it! Avoid these six deadly sins of fitness training and give yourself the peace of mind that the time you’re spending in the gym isn’t being wasted!
