Common Mistakes People Make With Their Exercise Program

Author: Puravida Fitness | | Categories: Fitness Center , Nutrition Coaching , Personal Fitness Trainer

Blog by Puravida Fitness

Committing to an exercise program is one of the best things you can do to support your health. Not only will you experience more energy and an enhanced ability to participate in daily activities, but you’ll also reduce your risk of developing chronic diseases ranging from heart ailments to diabetes.

When taking up a new exercise regime, the key is to understand your goals, what you want to achieve, and then devise a plan to achieve them. While any movement is better than none, it’s important to ensure your workout is worthwhile. After all, if you’re not exercising correctly, you may not reap the benefits of movement, or worse, you could put yourself at risk of injury.

To help you avoid some basic errors that could prove to be costly, Puravida Fitness has put together a list of the most common mistakes people make with their exercise program.

1. Not having a well-structured plan
Most people don’t have the time, energy, or knowledge on how to put together a solid plan of action that keeps them motivated and seeing results. The best way to overcome this is to invest in a program that has proven results.

2. Doing the same thing over and over again
Most people do not know what they need to do to change up their program, and it is easy to do the same old routine every day. The problem is that they never give their body new stimulus, and they plateau, wasting hours in the gym. Every four to six weeks, the program should be changed or adjusted to keep seeing results.

3. Not having a built-in progression
Just like changing up programs, there need to be specific steps taken to improve week to week on a given workout. This might mean adding more weight, sets, or reps. In any case, not doing this also causes plateaus and wasted time in the gym. The best way to remedy this is to create a system of progressive overload to ensure there is steady improvement week after week.

4. Staying “married” to certain exercises
People get attached to certain exercises like bench presses, curls, and squats. These exercises are like “security blankets,” and doing them over and over can cause overuse patterns in the joint. Much like rotating the tires on your car, you need to rotate exercises and try new ones to create different movement patterns. Trust us, your joints will thank you for this.

5. Trying to outwork a bad diet
People get stuck on calories in and calories out, thinking if they do extra cardio, they can eat more junk. The reality is it doesn’t work like that. Nutrition contributes to 70% to 80% of your results when it comes to how you look and perform. If you are trying to change the way your body looks, you have to pay attention to nutrition. This means shopping, prepping, planning, and tracking your food. What is tracked usually improves.

6. Not prioritizing a good warm-up routine
Most people just do five minutes on a cardio machine and a few stretches, but that doesn’t cut it. A poor warm-up will lead to decreased performance and possible injury in the gym or while exercising at home. The fact that most people sit during the day makes them susceptible to muscle and postural imbalances. This is a ripe environment for injuries. An easy way to correct this is to execute a dynamic warm-up that targets the feet, ankles, hips, spine, and shoulders. These areas have a significant impact on how your body functions overall. Having specific drills to get these areas moving correctly will make a massive difference in the effectiveness and safety of your workout.

To avoid these and other mistakes, reach out to the experts at Puravida Fitness. We have trainers on staff whose schedules, specialties, and personalities can match up with yours. Whether you are recovering from a serious injury or are brand new to exercise, we work with all levels of fitness. Our personal trainers focus on delivering results as well as pampering our clients. We believe our job is to manage your fitness and nutrition plan so you can focus on the other things going on in your life. We offer services like 1:1 personal fitness training, group fitness training, nutrition coaching, and online fitness training. We serve people across Lakeville, Burnsville, Apple Valley, Prior Lake, Savage, Farmington, Elko New Market, Eagan, and the surrounding areas. For a complete list of our services, please click here. If you have any questions about fitness training, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us here.



READ MORE BLOG ARTICLES

Top