If you’ve recently started a new fitness journey or a new exercise routine, naturally, you want to see results as soon as possible. However, if you’re in a hurry to reach your goal weight, it can be easy to miss important steps or even injure yourself. However, if you avoid these common beginner mistakes, you’ll reach your fitness goals safely and without pulled muscles.
Skipping warm-ups and stretches
Remember the warm up and cool down in PE class? Well, your teacher knew exactly how important it was to do this before and after any type of exercise. Warm-ups prepare your body for activity by increasing its temperature (hence the term), improving blood flow, lubricating joints, and loosening any stiffness to prevent injury.
Depending on the type of training you’re doing, warm-ups can target your upper or lower body, or both. The purpose is to prepare you for the specific workout you’re about to do, so make sure you choose exercises that prepare the right muscles and joints.
Stretching and cooling down after a workout, on the other hand, helps your muscles and joints recover. It can improve flexibility, increase your range of motion, and speed up the breakdown of lactic acid buildup, which occurs when you strengthen and tone your muscles.
jumping these two very important parts of your training is never a good idea. However, this is even more true if you are just starting out. Not only will it make you more susceptible to injury and take longer to recover, but it will also make it harder to work into your routine later on.
Therefore, always set aside 5-10 minutes before and after your training session to focus on proper warm-up and cool-down.
Improper technique
Whether it’s running, swimming, boxing, yoga, or CrossFit, whenever you start a new exercise routine, it’s crucial that you know how to properly execute each movement or activity. While you may be most familiar with activities like running, swimming, or biking, that doesn’t mean your technique is on point.
While you may be able to get away with poor technique at first, you’ll soon begin to notice some aches and pains. Once you train your muscles the wrong way to do something, it can be hard to fix because your body is so adaptable.
When you perform an exercise or activity incorrectly, your body will compensate by overusing other muscles. This will put more stress on the wrong joints and create an overall structural imbalance.
That’s why before starting any new exercise routine, it’s so important to make sure you know exactly how to do each movement or exercise. If you’re not sure if you’re doing something right, ask a trainer at your local gym or the instructor at your spin class to evaluate it.
Avoid relying on YouTube videos and just copying the person on the screen. Even if they are explaining or demonstrating the correct way to perform an exercise, everyone is different. You may be doing yourself more harm if you struggle to get into a certain posture, make messy movements, or push yourself too hard before you’re ready.
Demanding too much too fast
While seeing others in your gym stacking 45-pound plates on the rack can be intimidating at first, it won’t be long before you think you should be lifting that much, too. However, if your body isn’t ready for it, it will only result in you struggling, straining, holding your breath, and/or using poor form.
One useful thing you can do before entering the gym is check your ego at the door. You are doing this for yourself, so it doesn’t matter what anyone else does. Also, the only way to get better or stronger is by listening to your body and always respecting the level it is at.
Most of the people you see in advanced classes or lifting the heaviest weights have been doing it for years. They’ve also been where you are before, so find the weight, accessory, or machine that challenges you, but still keeps your breathing and exercise technique on point.
Being a cardio bunny
One of the main reasons most people start a fitness journey is to lose weight. This usually means that you will spend a lot of time doing cardio. While there’s no denying that treadmills, ellipticals, rowers, and bikes are great ways to warm up, do some interval training, and maintain good cardiovascular health, overindulgence is much more common than you might think .
Muscle fatigue and lactic acid buildup can be constant and keep you from seeing any progress on the strength and toning front. Also, depending on your build and diet, there’s a good chance your body can break down your muscles and use them for fuel, if you haven’t fully settled into your routine yet.
Keep track of how much and how often you’re doing cardio. A couple of days a week, or a maximum of 20-30 minutes a day, is ideal when you’re just starting out.
Not taking enough rest days
In the beginning, recovery time is even more important than training because your body is learning how and when to use certain muscle groups. You also need time to balance yourself and figure out where to get fuel from, as well as where to build and where to drop.
Sometimes your body will remind you that it’s time to take a day off, but other times, it may not be so obvious. That’s why you need to make sure your exercise program includes rest days. Depending on the type of exercise you are doing, you may need 2-4 days off.
Talk to a professional trainer or your doctor to find out what’s best for you. It may sound counterintuitive, but rest days will actually help you get the most out of your workouts, so you can reach your fitness goals much sooner.
starting a new exercise routine it can be challenging, exciting, and intimidating all at the same time. However, avoiding these common fitness mistakes will not only speed up your progress, it can also prevent you from getting hurt.
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