You walk into the gym and you're likely going to see different people doing different workout using different methods. You ask yourself, what shall I do? shall I start by machines or free weights? What workout suits me the best?
All this doesn't matter compared to the errors that you should avoid. They might seem minor to you, but they actually affect your gains. There are many mistakes which people commit in gym whether they are beginners or not, i chose the commonest ten points for you so you make sure you're following the right tract.
1) Gym without a diet
Doing physical activity without a balanced diet won't give you good results. You should have a diet plan that suits the workouts that you do. It's not necessarily mean that you should cut all carbs/fats, it's just a matter of minimizing the portions of the three essential meals and increase the number of the healthy snacks.
2)Overwhelming
Beginners start by putting big goals like:
“I want to gain 20 pounds of muscles and start eating healthier”
“I want to lose 14 pounds of fat”
“I’ll cut all the carbs”
“I’ll only have salad for my lunch”
And they end up losing motivation because they think that it’s working well.
*The ideal thing to do is to break the long term goal into short term goals like:
“I’ll minimize my meals portions and increase number of healthy snacks/day”
"I'm going to switch from machines to free weights to build more muscles."
3)Not planning
Without a plan you will end up roaming in the gym, doing nothing but switching between workouts without a specific program. This will waste your time, energy and it will make you demotivated because you won't get good results at the end.
*Consult your trainer/physiotherapist and follow a certain plan to benefit from the workouts.
4)Not tracking
Without writing down what you have done on each day and document everything; improvement will be slow. You will be lost and you won't remember what was your biceps strength last month for example.
Tracking is very essential for beginners, you should record the type of workout you did, how many repetitions, sets and what weight you used. Also recording your body weight, body circumference and body fat periodically is very essential for a follow-up. People who are not tracking; don't upgrade correctly.
"What gets measured, gets managed."-Peter Drucker
5) Doing the same workouts everyday
The one metabolic cycle of the muscle is around 48-72 hours; which means that the process of building the muscle after a certain exercise will take from 48-72 hours. If you're training the same muscle everyday, you won't give enough time to the torn tissues -because of workout- to heal. Therefore, you will slow the progress of building up the muscles and it won't get any stronger. And not only that, it will be more prone to injury as it's exhausted.
*As a beginner, you may train your full body two to three times per week. Once you can do this without muscle soreness. You can specify one day for upper body only and the next day for lower body then the third day take a rest.
6)Over working out
Doing an exercise too much -either by increasing intensity or frequency- is considered wrong!
As you won't give enough time for your body to recover. Beginners can start by high intensity for three times per week for example but once their endurance and strength improves; they should decrease the frequency of the sessions to allow their body to recover and make the exercise more productive.
Jennifer Walters, a personal trainer at Planet fitness in Ohio; addressed the seven signs of over training in her featured article.
If you have these signs, it's a signal that you should cut back a bit and give your body time to recover:
1) Exercise leaved you exhausted instead of energized.
2)You get sick easily (Because exercises should improve your immunity and not vise versa)
3)You have heavy legs
4)You have short fuse
5)You're regularly sore for days at a time
6)You can't sleep or you feel that you're not getting enough sleep
7)You have the blues (Being sad or depressed most of the time)
"Always keep in mind that as intensity increases, frequency should be diminished." Dr. Mercalo
Reference
7)No warm up
Many body builders don't give great attention to the warm-ups, while it plays an essential role in making the workout productive. Faking some stretches and walking on the treadmill for few minutes are considered to be poor warm-ups. The intensity of your warm-ups depends on the intensity of the workout that you're going to do. If you're going to perform 225-pound pench press and you did a few stretches as a warm up, then your shoulders are ready to get injured.
"A great warm up readies your nervous system and body for a hard workout, eliminates your weak links, and improves your movement quality. The result? more muscles; less injuries."
The ultimate warm-up routine
*Before doing any workout; consult your personal trainer (and make sure he/she is an expert) or just google what are the best warm-ups for this specific workout.
8)Not drinking water
Keeping your body hydrated is essential to get the most of your workout. Water is a vital component of the chemical reactions, without it all these reactions will be slow; the tissue healing and muscle recovery. For an efficient workout and stronger muscles, make sure you're having the adequate amount of water before, during or after the work-out.
"Just losing 2% of body weight in fluid can decrease performance by up to 25%." says Carlson director of performance nutrition for Athletes' performance
9) Relying on supplements
From my experience, this is very common among beginners;
They relay on supplements more than exercises, while this is so wrong. You can use supplements but you have to have a solid diet; lean meat, veggies, milk, a lot of water and whole grains. Also, workout is what's going to give you strong muscles not the amino-acids supplements alone. If your nutritious and exercise base are not strong then don't go for supplements!
I won't go deep in this point as it's not my specialty but i advise each beginner to think 1000 times before going to supplements and consult the expert people not those who are attracting people to supplements only to gain more money!
The secret to supplementation
10) Not doing Cardio
Cardio activities are super important but unfortunately they are neglected by many people. Let's say you want to get a 6-pack; with body fat above 10% you can't simply get it. Lifting weights, stretches or even walking on treadmill won't burn this fat while cardio does.
There are many forms of cardio that you can follow:
1)jogging
2)swimming
3)speed walking
4)Cardio circuit training
The importance of cardio
References
The one metabolic cycle of the muscle is around 48-72 hours; which means that the process of building the muscle after a certain exercise will take from 48-72 hours. If you're training the same muscle everyday, you won't give enough time to the torn tissues -because of workout- to heal. Therefore, you will slow the progress of building up the muscles and it won't get any stronger. And not only that, it will be more prone to injury as it's exhausted.
*As a beginner, you may train your full body two to three times per week. Once you can do this without muscle soreness. You can specify one day for upper body only and the next day for lower body then the third day take a rest.
6)Over working out
Doing an exercise too much -either by increasing intensity or frequency- is considered wrong!
As you won't give enough time for your body to recover. Beginners can start by high intensity for three times per week for example but once their endurance and strength improves; they should decrease the frequency of the sessions to allow their body to recover and make the exercise more productive.
Jennifer Walters, a personal trainer at Planet fitness in Ohio; addressed the seven signs of over training in her featured article.
If you have these signs, it's a signal that you should cut back a bit and give your body time to recover:
1) Exercise leaved you exhausted instead of energized.
2)You get sick easily (Because exercises should improve your immunity and not vise versa)
3)You have heavy legs
4)You have short fuse
5)You're regularly sore for days at a time
6)You can't sleep or you feel that you're not getting enough sleep
7)You have the blues (Being sad or depressed most of the time)
"Always keep in mind that as intensity increases, frequency should be diminished." Dr. Mercalo
Reference
7)No warm up
Many body builders don't give great attention to the warm-ups, while it plays an essential role in making the workout productive. Faking some stretches and walking on the treadmill for few minutes are considered to be poor warm-ups. The intensity of your warm-ups depends on the intensity of the workout that you're going to do. If you're going to perform 225-pound pench press and you did a few stretches as a warm up, then your shoulders are ready to get injured.
"A great warm up readies your nervous system and body for a hard workout, eliminates your weak links, and improves your movement quality. The result? more muscles; less injuries."
The ultimate warm-up routine
*Before doing any workout; consult your personal trainer (and make sure he/she is an expert) or just google what are the best warm-ups for this specific workout.
8)Not drinking water
Keeping your body hydrated is essential to get the most of your workout. Water is a vital component of the chemical reactions, without it all these reactions will be slow; the tissue healing and muscle recovery. For an efficient workout and stronger muscles, make sure you're having the adequate amount of water before, during or after the work-out.
"Just losing 2% of body weight in fluid can decrease performance by up to 25%." says Carlson director of performance nutrition for Athletes' performance
9) Relying on supplements
From my experience, this is very common among beginners;
They relay on supplements more than exercises, while this is so wrong. You can use supplements but you have to have a solid diet; lean meat, veggies, milk, a lot of water and whole grains. Also, workout is what's going to give you strong muscles not the amino-acids supplements alone. If your nutritious and exercise base are not strong then don't go for supplements!
I won't go deep in this point as it's not my specialty but i advise each beginner to think 1000 times before going to supplements and consult the expert people not those who are attracting people to supplements only to gain more money!
The secret to supplementation
10) Not doing Cardio
Cardio activities are super important but unfortunately they are neglected by many people. Let's say you want to get a 6-pack; with body fat above 10% you can't simply get it. Lifting weights, stretches or even walking on treadmill won't burn this fat while cardio does.
There are many forms of cardio that you can follow:
1)jogging
2)swimming
3)speed walking
4)Cardio circuit training
The importance of cardio
References
