Are these common mistakes sabotaging your training?
We all make mistakes when it comes to our training. Sometimes, we don’t even know we’re making them. The good news is, each of these mistakes can be fixed once we recognise them.
1. Not tracking your workouts
Keeping a log of how your workouts are going is the only way you to see where you are and to use that as a benchmark to progress to where you want to be. Whether you use an app or a good old fashioned notebook, tracking if you are progressing to heavier weights, higher reps or longer distances is paramount.
Remember: progressive overload is the most important concept in training and it’s all based on knowing where you are, so you can know how to get to where you want to be.
2. Poor exercise selection
Whether out of laziness, ignorance or just wanting to try something new, many exercisers choose movements that are not helping them reach their fitness goals.
You should be first choosing the most effective, efficient exercises — usually the ones that give you the most bang for your buck — before going to the accessory movements. There’s a reason they’re called ‘accessory’ after all. Especially if you are time-poor, hitting the cables before the free weights might not be the best use of your workout.
3. Not having a workout plan
Related to point number one, if you’re just walking into the gym without any kind of plan, your workout isn’t likely to be very effective.
Admit it: we’ve all done it and it just never ends up being a good session. We end up pairing exercises that don’t make sense, we spend previous time just looking around to see what equipment is free and we lose our training momentum and drive.
Write down which exercises you want to get done and how many sets and reps you’re aiming for. That way, you can put all your energy into executing the workout, instead of looking around wondering what to do next.
4. Making every workout the same (not enough variety)
Your body needs variety to keep it growing. Doing the same thing day-in, day-out doesn’t give the body much stress to adapt to. That is, your body quickly becomes used to lifting the same weight, doing the same movements and stagnates.
Change up your exercises, your rep ranges, which days you work which body parts — everyone is different but we can all benefit from a bit of variety. Throw in some curveballs every so often and you’re apt to see new gains.
5. Changing up every workout (too much variety)
On the flipside, not giving your body enough time with a series of exercises can be just as bad.
Sometimes novice trainees think that once their body gets used to an exercise and they don’t feel sore after a workout, that those exercises have stopped working. This is untrue. Trying to constantly shock your muscles means you end up with a random mish-mash of exercises, often ineffective for your training goals.
For more workout tips, check out more of our training blogs.