Are your workouts helping or hurting? Whether you are a fitness novice or a regular enthusiast, you may be making easy to fix blunders when it comes to your routine that are undermining your potential and your progress.
Here are five common mistakes to recognize and avoid:
1. Overdoing it. If you can barely walk the next day, you won’t be able to exercise. A little soreness and stiffness is fine but if your workouts are sending you straight to the medicine cabinet or right back to bed you’ve pushed too hard for your current level of fitness.
2. Doing too little. If you’re not breaking a sweat, breathing a bit harder, and not getting your heart rate up, you’re not going to see the kinds of results that will inspire you to stay with your regimen.
3. Watching the clock. There is a lot of advice out there telling you to spend at least an hour a day working out to see results. If you work full time or have kids, an hour a day might be unrealistic. And if you can’t manage an hour, why bother? Right? Wrong. Don’t be afraid to start small. Ten minutes a day is better than zero minutes a day. The key is to establish a routine that is versatile, flexible, fun and fits your lifestyle.
4. Checking your weight everyday. Your weight can vary by several pounds, depending on water, hormone fluctuations and the type of workouts you’ve been doing. If you’re getting on the scale once a day or more you’re setting yourself up to be discouraged. The experts at Life Fitness recommend giving yourself other goals instead, like fitting into your old jeans or completing a 5K.
5. Expecting immediate results. We get impatient and disappointed when we can’t take weight off as fast as we can put it on. Remember, an extra pound means you’ve consumed 3,500 extra calories and you will have to burn an extra 3,500 calories to lose that pound. Many people tend to get discouraged if they don’t see quick, visible, dramatic results, but the bottom line is being fit is a lifestyle and a process, not a quick fix.
Fit Tips are provided by Life Fitness, the leader in designing and manufacturing high-quality exercise equipment for fitness facilities and homes worldwide.
