Could You Be Sabotaging Your Own Workouts?

Let’s face it, working out isn’t the easiest thing to do, and it can be quite disheartening when all your effort and hard work fails to show the results you want to achieve. It can be tough to regularly take time out of our busy schedules and make time to hit the gym, and then not see the results you want to. If you aren’t making progress at the pace you’d like, it may be because you’re making some basic training mistakes that could be sabotaging your efforts.

These mistakes prevent you from benefitting from the full potential of the workout you’re doing, for instance, even the best chest exercises in the world will not give you the snatched pectorals you desire if your form is incorrect. You are probably aware of the more obvious mistakes and make a conscious decision to avoid them; however there are many less evident mistakes that you might be making during your workout routine. Here are a few of these less obvious mistakes that you need to avoid to get the most out of your workout every time.

Avoid Stagnancy in your workouts
Repeating the same reps and routine over and over allows your muscles to adapt to the movements. You should keep things fresh by switching up your routine, adding moves, changing angles, alternating between types of exercises, etc to apply more muscle fibres to the task and consequently develop better tone and strength. You should consider expanding your knowledge base about various exercises and change your routine completely every couple of months.
Don’t rush through your reps quickly
Rushing through your reps (or repeated sets) quickly allows the body to make use of the inertia and momentum rather than making muscular effort to see the move through. This means that your muscles will not be stimulated enough and you will not be able to build muscle or burn as many calories as you would do otherwise. Doing reps more quickly makes any worker more susceptible to training injuries like damaging your torn muscles. In facts, experts claim that slowing down is the single most significant change you can make to get better results from strength training.
Don’t lift weights that are too heavy or too light.
Lifting weights that are too light jeopardizes your progress as light weights fail to provide appropriate challenge to your body. Similarly, lifting weights that are too heavy makes your body compromise on the proper form. Not only does this increase the risk of injury, you will also risk losing all the academic progress you have made.
Don’t obsess over a specific body part
Overworking your “problem areas” can be problematic. This may result in other essential parts of your body to be neglected. For example, if you want to make your abdominal region took ripped, you can’t just do hundreds of crunches and call it a day. While working your abs is important, you should not forget about working your chest, shoulders, and back muscles adequately since these together contribute to a tined trim body. A balanced workout is always the way to go.

I hope you will be more mindful of these workout mistakes and work on error proofing your workout. With the great results you are bound to see, I hope you will not resent the time spent in the gym and continue to work on and achieving your body goals.