Top 10 Fitness Mistakes To Avoid
How safe is your training regime? If you’re not paying attention to form and specifics, you could be doing more damage to your body than good. These ten fitness mistakes are ones to be avoided to ensure that you’re training healthily and safely.
1. Not Changing Your Fitness Regime Regularly
Getting stuck in a training rut is probably the most common training error of all. Yes, 20 minutes on the treadmill and three sets of 10 reps with 5kg weights is probably fine to start with. But if you fail to increase either the length or intensity of the run, and the weight or number of repetitions that you do, the improvements will plateau out. In fact, one study found that in beginners, aerobic fitness began to plateau in as little as three weeks when the training load was not increased. So, to continue making progress in fitness, you have to keep raising the bar, every six weeks at least, but ideally more often.
2. Using Weights That Are Too Light
If you want to increase the size of your muscles, adopting a ‘low weights, high reps’ strategy will be a waste of time. Surprised? Well, it’s all down to muscle physiology. Muscles consist of long, thin fibres that come in two principal varieties: ‘
- Type 1 Fibres: these are highly resistant to fatigue and recruited mainly at low level effort
- Type 2 Fibres: these are thicker and more powerful and only kick in when the going gets tough
The fibres within a muscle are always recruited in the same order – type 1 first, then type 2. So, if you only ever lift a bottle of water (no matter how many times), you will never work the muscle in its entirety, nor engage the type 2 fibres. What will happen, however, is that as the fibres within the muscle grow bigger, they will fill some of the empty space within the muscle sheath (an untrained muscle contains lots of space between fibres). The result? The muscle will become firmer and denser, but not bigger.
3. Overdoing The Refueling After Exercise
Exercise burns lots of calories, and if you intend to get up and do it all again the next day, then you will need to ensure your glycogen stores are replenished post-workout. But given that many of us take up exercise to shed excess fat and don’t work out daily, there isn’t a pressing need to scoff down two energy bars and a gallon of energy drink after your gym session! In fact, many people consume more calories in the half hour following their workout than they burned during it – and then they go home and have dinner, too! So, be sparing with your refueling.
4. Exercising On An Empty Stomach
A few years back, the idea of ‘running on empty’ (exercising on an empty stomach) was all the rage in weight loss training. But although the science stands up, this strategy will ultimately backfire. “If you perform cardiovascular exercise first thing in the morning before you’ve eaten, insulin levels are at their lowest, while another hormone, glucagon, is at its peak,” explains sports nutritionist Anita Bean. “This encourages your body to draw on its fat reserves for fuel.” But since fat metabolism is dependent on the availability of carbohydrate, when carb stores are low, fat metabolism is compromised. “This makes exercise feel much harder, so you may tire sooner, or slack off and end up burning fewer calories – and less body fat – overall,” explains Bean. “Worse still, you could end up losing hard-earned muscle as you start burning protein – as well as fat – for fuel.” So always make sure you’ve eaten something before you exercise.
5. Working In The ‘Fat-Burning Zone’
The idea that you only burn fat when you are exercising in a particular ‘zone’ of intensity – usually between 60 and 70% of your maximum rate – is actually wrong. The fact is, we burn fat 24 hours a day – it’s just that the percentage of overall energy that comes from fat changes at different levels of intensity. A greater proportion of fat is burned during low-intensity exercise, which is where the idea came from that we should exercise more gently – but here’s the thing: while the percentage of fat contributing to energy expenditure may be lower during more vigorous activity, it is the overall number of calories burned that really counts when it comes to fat loss.
That means working as hard as you can, for as long as you can, as often as you can. We’re not suggesting you won’t gain any benefit from working in the so-called ‘fat-burning zone’, just that you will benefit more by increasing the intensity.
6. Not Bothering To Warm Up Before Exercise
You may think you are saving time, but by skipping a warm-up you are actually making things harder for yourself. Research has demonstrated quite clearly that warming up reduces the risk of injury – and improves performance.
A study from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, for example, found that performing a warm-up reduced the accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles, while research at Manhattan College in New York found that just five minutes of warming up enabled runners to exercise for longer than those who launched straight into their workout. You only need spend 5 to 10 minutes mobilising your joints gently, getting your heart rate up and gearing up to your activity.
7. Neglecting Stretching Before Exercise
While the ‘should we, shouldn’t we?’ debate about stretching before exercise rages on, many people continue to neglect stretching at any time at all. This is a big mistake. Natural flexibility begins to decline from when you’re as young as 25, so even if you don’t care much about extending your range of motion and suppleness, you need to hold on to what you’ve already got! Stretching isn’t about lengthening muscles – it’s about restoring them to their natural length after all the shortening involved in exercise.
Stretching is also about putting joints through their full range of motion, which is important for keeping cartilage nourished and healthy, reducing stiffness, and maintaining correct alignment between the muscles and the skeleton. Stretch muscles when they are warm, holding for 30 seconds, and do it after every workout.
8. Failing To Keep Tabs On Your Fitness Progress
Every elite athlete keeps a training log, which enables them to keep track of what each session entailed and how they felt after a particular workout, as well as to monitor whether they are getting stronger, faster or better. You should be keeping tabs on your fitness regime, otherwise there’s no way of knowing whether something is working or not, or whether you are getting fitter. Keeping a training log is also a great way of staying motivated.
9. Pushing Through Pain And Ignoring Discomfort
Pain is your body’s way of saying that something is wrong, and it shouldn’t be ignored. Injuries won’t necessarily disappear on their own, and they can get much worse. If you exercise through them If you have an ache, keep an eye on it, and if necessary take a day or two off. You could even have a sports massage to improve the condition. In the long run, respecting your body will enable you to get and stay fitter and healthier.
10. Doing Sit-Ups To Improve Core Stability
Even gym trainers are guilty of talking about building core stability and then giving clients exercises to do such as curls, crunches and sit-ups, which do nothing more than work the superficial layer of the abs, the rectus abdominis (your six-pack). Unfortunately, even a rock-hard six-pack won’t do anything to improve your core strength and stability. For that, you need to dig deeper – targeting the transversus abdominis muscle.
Strengthening it will not only create a strong, flat stomach, but it will also give support and stability to the lower back. Pilates is one of the best exercise techniques for honing the deep abdominals – or you can get a personal trainer to show you some core exercises, such as the plank, the side bridge and a seated balance on a fit ball.
Source: Health24