People do love going to the gym, some more than others of course, and if you are one of them and not seeing the expected results after some time, you have to crossover few things to find out what are you doing wrong:
- If you are a personal trainer you probably know why, and you can stop reading
- If you are trained by a personal trainer, he/she will tell you all that you are doing wrong
- If you are none of the above, there is a huge chance you are doing something wrong and not getting the results of your workout.
But don’t worry, a lot of people are doing something wrong while working out, and you must have noticed that there are no visible results after a while, and you probably did something about it, like reading this for example. Doing a workout routine for a very long time in the not proper way can harm your health, muscle pain, back pain, leg pain, etc.
Regardless of the reason why are you exercising, whether because you want to lose weight, or build muscle, or just keep your overall health in good shape, you have to do it properly if you want results. When it comes to losing weight, you want those numbers on the weighing scale to go down, and go down fast! When building muscle, you want the scale to go up, but in a muscle mass, losing fat really fast.
It can be difficult, and it takes time and effort, and if you are not doing it right, it can take a lot more time and a lot more effort. So, here is a list of top 8 things you are (probably) doing wrong while working out:
- Sleep – sleep deprivation affects the same hormones that control appetite, stimulating them, and making you do all those midnight snacks, usually high calorie and fat kind of food. Lack of sleep won’t help you lose weight, but it also won’t help you gain muscle, because sleep will facilitate muscle growth. Sleep also boosts your immune system and keeps you healthier, and a well-rested body is a body you want in the gym. The tired body gives lousy results in the gym, and even worst, tired body can cause bad injuries!
- You are not using weight as your ally – maybe you are not aiming for the muscular look and using too little weight, or maybe you are craving for huge muscles and using too much weight. Either way, stop it, you are doing it wrong. Weight lifting is what challenges your muscles, and gives them shape and helps them grow, and whatever your goal is, fat loosing or muscle building, choosing the right weight is critical. If you don’t do the exercises with proper weight, you are not getting close to your goal soon, so challenge yourself, don’t overdo it, and keep safety as a priority always. The number one cause of gym injury is overweighting!
- Improper warm up – cold muscles are easy to hurt, not being elastic and flexible enough. The proper warm-up prepares your whole body, muscles, heart, lungs, and keep you safe from injuries, increases your blood flow and warms you up. A proper warm-up increases your overall performance, speed, strength, and endurance.
- Change the routine workout, for a little bit – small changes in your routine might give big changes in your expected results. Running on the treadmill on different speed or different difficulty is a completely different workout, and the same applies to change weights or reps. Every change is welcomed, however, try and keep it one at a time, because too much change can also give you unwanted results, or again, injury! Change the routine every month or so, sometimes even the order of doing exercises can give you better results.
- Count your calories – it can be dull and annoying, but watching portion sizes does give results fast. It can be quite difficult to balance your workout with your diet, and intake just the number of calories you will most likely spend in the gym seems impossible (and most of the time it is), but trying to maintain the balance can be good enough for you. Never over-eat and never stay hungry for too long, look for healthy snacks that will get you out of the red zone (meaningless overeating)!
- Rest – not sleep, but give your body time to accumulate all the stress you are causing working out. A walk in the park, doing yoga, medium hiking, all ways to fast recover your body, keeps you in shape, and rests you at the same time.
- Not disciplined enough – make a plan, and stick to it. You can make minor adjustments, and sometimes minor changes (as recommended), but jumping through all the machines in the gym is pointless, and time exhausting. Having a plan and keeping a diary usually helps you maintain discipline, and stick to a well-prepared routine. Try and make a routine plan for a whole month, and review the diary afterward. You will notice the changes that have to be done! Keep logged all your sessions just like taking your antibiotic, four times or three times a week at the exact place and time.
- Having fun? This perhaps is the most important thing of all, having fun while doing it. If you are not having fun, and go one step ahead, two back, you have the change the whole routine, or the whole workout plan. Maybe running is not for you, or weight lifting is just too boring, whatever the reason, you have to change it. Doing it just because is not a reason enough, and doing it and not having fun while most certainly not give you any results. Find fun exercise you want to do, and do it, and in time results will come!
