Whether you’re an elite athlete or a newbie at fitness, effective training combined with hard work is needed to attain your health and fitness objectives. However, a lot of people tend to make sincere mistakes that slow down progression, lead to injuries, or waste time in the process. If you find yourself not making the expected progress, or struggling with pain and fatigue, it may be worth reflecting on how you’re training.
Let’s look at the top 10 reasons for not being able to train efficiently and learn how to avoid these barriers in order to achieve desired goals. Once you learn and correct these mistakes you will definitely be able to improve the effectiveness of your workout and the frequency of your training.
Why It’s Important
With proper technique and consistency, effective training can be achieved with not the maximum intensity. Sadly, most of the people only concentrate on training harder and longer, not paying attention on technique and recovery to get the results. What is the most concerning is the fact that poor exercise techniques can not only slow down one’s progress but can result in injuries, muscular imbalance and overtraining.
As reported by the American Council on Exercise (ACE), poor exercise technique ranks as one of the top few causes of gym injuries, especially among the inexperienced ones. Such injuries could set back your workouts for several weeks, if not months therefore avoiding the workout is even more of a battle. The overtrained need to heed the common errors that may be doing more harm than good to their training schedules.
10 Tips on Improving the Quality of Workouts
1. Failing to Perform a Warm-up or a Cool Down
Starting an intense workout or ending one without gradually easing through a break can result in muscle stiffness making them prone to injury. Warmups improve blood circulation directing it to the muscles which are about to be exercised while the cool down relieves the muscle from the strain by allowing it to cool down too.
Tip: Before starting weight training or high-intensity interval training (HIIT), warm up for five to ten minutes with dynamic stretching or light cardio (jogging, cycling, etc). After completing the workouts, static stretches should be done in order to enhance flexibility and minimize muscle soreness.
2. Failure to Adhere to Proper Stances and Technical Procedures
Through lacking the proper form while performing an exercise, the efficacy of the exercise becomes less effective and prone to injury. Upholding the correct muscle mechanics and angles whether lifting some weights or using only one’s body through resistance is important.
Tip: Concentrate on mastering your form before you try lifting more weight or increasing the intensity of the load. If you are not confident whether you are doing it correctly you can ask a trainer to guide you or correct yourself using mirrors. Also, watching videos and reading instructions will help to ensure that you perform the exercises correctly.
3. Training Too Much or Training Too Little
Many people think that if they train harder and more often, they will achieve their desired results more quickly. In reality, this leads to overtraining which can result in burnout, fatigue, and a higher chance of sustaining an injury. The resetting of the muscles happens at rest, where the muscles are able to build.
Tip: Scheduled rest days are important, especially when training with high intensity or heavy weights. At least 1 to 2 rest days in a week using the body as an indicator, such as fatigue, will aid in growth.
4. Fueling Your Body Inadequately
Sufficient food consumption is pivotal while exercising, or not adequate food intake would mean the body would lack energy. The human anatomy seeks carbohydrates, proteins, and fats while exercising, as each of these provides muscle energy, tissue repair, and healthy body fat, respectively.
Tip: A couple of hours prior to exercising, eat a proper meal consisting of complex carbohydrates (Whole grains), lean meat (Chicken, tofu) and healthy fats including avocado and nuts, also a protein and carb-rich snack after a workout session aids muscle retention.
5. Lacking Mobility and Flexibility Training
Stretching and mobility work may be some of the most undervalued techniques when in effect, they are key elements in rehabilitation, injury recuperation, and injury avoidance. Depending on how immobile a person is, one’s normal range of movement will be limited and as a consequence overused muscles will be created over a period of time due to compensations.
Tip: Hip openers or shoulder stretches or foam rolling are some mobility exercises that one can include on top of the usual warm-up and cool-down routines. Additionally, practices such as yoga and Pilates offer massive improvements on top of flexibility.
6. Doing Either Exclusive Cardio or Strength Training Bias
People always tend to forget that cardiovascular exercise and strength training are both critical for fitness. Most people, however, only do one and ignore the needs of the other. Even both types of exercises, with the correct priorities, make it possible to build endurance, muscle, and good health.
Tip: Try not only to do cardio exercises such as running, biking, or swimming, but combine it with strength training exercises such as lifting weights or body weight. A good target is to have a minimum of two strength workouts and two cardio workouts each week.
7. Being Too Aggressive and Putting On The Weight Way Too Soon
Everybody wants to make gains through aggressive weight lifting but skipping proper form could lead to injury in the long run. Hence, it’s better to do it gradually, put in more favor in sets and reps instead of weight. Committing to going heavy in the beginning, it’s okay but putting the focus exclusively on just this too early could be detrimental to the form.
Tip: Always aim to lift the weights while Correctly Executing 8-12 Reps then gradually increase the weight but start with an easier weight. Once you tack this with time you can easily increase the weight as you build more strength. Remember: always prioritize technique first before increasing weight!
8. Failing to Track Progress
It is evident that tracking enables you to see areas that require improvement and what is effective or not. Clarifying areas that require adjusting becomes less which in turn decreases the clarity of whether what you are doing is working.
Tip: You can jot down what you will do in your workout log by writing down the specific exercises that you do. You can even state the weight or the resistance used, and the amounts of set number and reps and how the workout felt like. In the current scenario also, you can track your workouts by making use of the mobile applications that are available.
9. Not Following Your Gameplan
Inconsistent training makes it difficult for you to achieve a long-lasting outcome. Motivation is lost easily and minimum progress is achieved in absence of a routine. Achievement of goals that take time to accomplish require dedication towards consistency towards the set processes.
Tip: Commit to a weekly workout plan along with the time you tend to work out and consider it an important commitment. In circumstances where you have problems with motivation, finding a workout partner or hiring a personal trainer can motivate you well.
10. Whipping up the perfect figurine
Being in good shape is a lot more than just maintaining a good figure as many people would argue, but then again in today’s world where staring at screens all day has become the norm, putting emphasis on looking good almost feels necessary, however at the same time such an obsession could undermine other more important elements such as overall fitness tailoring a balance between looking good and being functional is definitely the ideal situation to be in.
Tip: One must be strong-willed about not setting any fitness goals that are visual, rather aim for improving fitness levels, overall strength and flexibility. One can overcome their own limits by incorporating this into their routine.
Best Practices or Additional Tips
If you truly want to get the full effect of training, follow these best practices:
- Plan your workout regimes: Sticking to your planned workout routine alongside your daily schedule will help you become consistent and driven towards your goals.
- Measure recovery: Focus on your daily feelings or use fitness tools to keep a record of body soreness after workouts and elimination of soreness. It is a method that helps in regulating intensity and volume.
- Cross train: Strength, swimming, and Hula yoga exercises not only prevent muscle injury and increase variety in your workout plan but also prevent boredom.
- Time: Always be specific on how the parts of your body feel. Pain is one of those moments and time feels best used to adjust and tune the routine rather than ignoring it.
Final Thoughts
Steering clear of overused workout blunders is very critical because training effectiveness and success in the long run are at stake. If you make sure that you use good techniques, recover properly, nourish your body correctly and are consistent, you will be able to make gains and achieve your objectives in an effective manner. Incorporate them into your training and then tell other people about your experiences – your comments and impressions might be the ace in the hole for someone else!