6 Common Exercise Mistakes That Are Ruining Your Workout

Very few people workout purely because they enjoy it. It is true that many experienced gym rats truly do like the actual act of building up a sweat, but there is normally another benefit that they are pursuing as well. They may be exercising largely for the health benefits. They may find exercise a wonderful form of stress relief. They may enjoy how exercise helps them get a better and more restful night’s sleep. People who all but live at the gym may also take fitness classes for the social element. They might enjoy making new friends at the classes. Gym gurus are also sometimes in it for the challenge and find it satisfying to push their body to do as much as it can. Still other people workout for the aesthetic benefits it brings. All of these are perfectly good reasons to hit the gym. Unfortunately, when you go, you might well be shooting yourself in the foot. Just like with everything else, having bad workout habits can be enough to drain much of the benefit from your workout. Here are six common exercise mistakes that are ruining your workout.

Not Tracking Your Workouts

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There is a saying that what gets measured gets done, and this is just as true when it comes to fitness goals as anything else. If you are serious about your workouts, you need to keep track of what you are doing. Write down how much weight you are lifting. Make a note of how many miles you ran and how long it took you to run them. If you are working out to lose weight, make sure you keep a journal of how your weight is changing.

Keeping track of your workouts will help you see that you are progressing toward your goal. It will also help you see what is working and what is not. If you are trying to lose weight, for example, but cannot seem to shed the pounds no matter how much you run, you either need to change up your exercise routine or take a closer look at your diet.

Mediocre or Failing Form

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There is a right and a wrong way to do things when you exercise. It may seem petty to some people that a trainer or coach would continually tell a weightlifter to keep their knees bent while doing arm exercises or for a runner to be jogging on a treadmill and watching their stride in the mirror, but exercise can actually hurt you if you are not careful. If you run and circle your feet out sideways instead of straight forward, you may cause knee injuries. If you lock your joints when lifting weights, you risk damaging those joints or ligaments.

Form is especially important for people who are lifting weights. Even if you are only moving five pound dumbbells, you need to make sure that you have correct form. If your form is wrong, at the very least, you are not getting the full benefit of the exercise. At worst, you are hurting yourself.

If you lift weights, paying attention to form is more important than ever at the end of a set. As your muscles get tired, your form may start to slip. If you cannot hold your form through the entire set, you need to use lighter weights. Even if you lift to failure, you should still be using good form.

Starting or Stopping Wrong

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A workout should technically have four stages: warm up, workout, cool down and stretching. For most people, their workouts have one and a half stages. Sometimes they just have one stage.

It can be tempting to skip warming up or cooling down especially if you are pressed for time. Resist the temptation. A good warm up and a steady cool down are essential for a healthy, efficient workout. Warming up gets your blood moving and your muscles warm so that they are ready to work. If you skip the warm up, you are at a greater risk for muscle tears and are likely to be unable to get the most out of your workout. Cooling down helps leech the lactic acid you create while working out from your muscles. This aids in their recovery in order to make sure they get stronger and to keep you from feeling too sore the next day.

Eating and Drinking Incorrectly

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When you work out, you are using up nutrients and liquids that your body relies on to function. As such, it is important to make sure you replenish what you lost both after and during your workout. First and foremost, this means drinking plenty of water. Water, not sports drinks. Sports drinks are the most useful in situations where you are going to be working out for a very long time and are going to be losing large amounts of electrolytes without having a chance to replenish them. If you are training for a marathon, Gatorade is a good choice. If you are going for a 30 minute jog, stick with water. If you truly cannot stand the taste of plain water, try drinking coconut water. It has fewer additives, less sugar and is far healthier than sports drinks while still helping replenish your electrolytes and energy levels.

When you are finished with your workout, you need to eat something. If you are trying to lose weight, this may seem counterintuitive, but working out puts a lot of stress on your muscles. In order for them to repair themselves, they need fuel. It is best to eat something light but high in protein within 20 minutes of finishing your workout. A handful of nuts or a small Greek yogurt works perfectly for this. Then, have a meal or larger snack within the hour. After that, you have missed the main window for making sure the nutrients you eat make it to your muscles

Training One Area

One of the most pervasive exercise myths is the idea that a person can spot-burn fat. This is why people who want to lose belly fat will do a million crunches while someone who wants to shrink their thighs will do squats. This is not how your body works. You cannot simply burn fat in one area of your body. By training one part of your body more than the rest, you are doing nothing more than setting up a potentially dangerous muscle imbalance.

People who are looking to lose weight are not the only ones guilty of this. Many men and women focus on “vanity muscles” and ignore those muscles’ counterparts. For example, men tend to be proud of having large biceps and pectoral muscles, but they may not train their triceps or back muscles well enough to counter the other muscles. Being unbalanced can lead to torn muscles, poor posture and stressed joints. Make sure when you work out that you train contrasting muscle groups. If you work your quads, make sure you hit your hamstrings, too. If you are doing abs, be sure to train your back as well.

Bad Workout Buddy

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Most people enjoy working out with another person and having a workout buddy is normally a very good thing. They push you to go to the gym even when your motivation is low and can help you keep your eyes on your goals. They make long workouts more enjoyable and give you someone to chat with about your progress. At least, that is what a good workout buddy does. A poor workout buddy, on the other hand, can wreck your entire plan.

If you find yourself doing more standing around chatting than actually working out, you might need to find a new workout buddy. By all means, stay friends with your workout buddy, but find someone else to join you at the gym. A workout buddy should be there to push you, encourage you and keep you accountable. When you are at the gym, you should both be focused mainly on your workouts. Chatting between exercises or while stretching is fine, but be careful that your workout session does not become more of a chatting session.