Most Common Mistakes Made in the Gym

Although many people go to the gym, a large majority of people that do go make errors that limit their gains. Check out the most common mistakes to see if you may be limiting your success in the gym too!

Top Weight Training Mistakes

No warm-up. Muscles don’t stretch or contract fully until warmed. Expecting them to do so without preparing them sets you up for tears and pulls. If you want to stay injury free, your body absolutely must warm up properly. Do something to gently increase the temperature of your muscles – walk a few minutes very easy on the treadmill or do a set of reps on the machines at a very low weight.

Training supporting muscles before target muscles. You do NOT want to train the smaller supporting (secondary muscles) before the target muscle. Supporting muscles help lift the weight use for the target muscle’s growth. If supporting muscles are fatigue you will not be able to lift as much weight needed to develop the larger target muscle. An example would working triceps before chest; or working out biceps before back.

Weekend Warrior Mentality. If you’ve skipped several workouts, don’t try to make up for lost time in one session. You’re only setting yourself up for soreness and possible injury.

Lack of training intensity. While you don’t want to push yourself too hard, especially if you’re just starting an exercise program, you need to work intensely enough to get results. It’s a fine balance – one that’s much easier to maintain with the guidance of a personal trainer.This can occur as a result of inexperience, socializing, laziness, etc. Whatever the cause; it does not matter. What matters is that you STOP!

Working out too long. It’s a common misbelief that in order for your exercise plan to keep being effective, you have to add more exercises or to do longer stretches of cardio. Many people have a hard time believing that my weight-training workouts normally last about 30-45 minutes and my cardio sessions are less than 30 minutes.Taking too long to complete your workout results in under training and sub par results. The trick is to work harder, not longer. That’s done by lifting heavier, resting less in between sets, and it also means employing circuit training, or interval training so you are working out harder and not longer. It’s simple, but it works – try it! .

Talking too much in the gym. If you’re at the gym to make progress, cut down on the talking and focus on your workout. If you are there to socialize try to chat before and after your workout and keep conversations to a minimum during your workout. Your workouts will be more intense, you will make better gains and you’ll spend less time at the gym.

Exercising too hard. If you’ve skipped several workouts, don’t try to make up for lost time in one session. You’re only setting yourself up for soreness and possible injury.

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About the Author, Jeff Behar

Jeff Behar, MS, MBA is a recognized health, fitness and nutrition expert, regularly writing about hot topics in the areas of health, fitness, disease prevention, weight loss, nutrition, anti aging and alternative medicine. Jeff Behar’s work also often appears in several of the major health and fitness newsletters, health and fitness magazines, and on major health, fitness and weight loss websites. Jeff Behar is also the CEO of MuscleMagFitness.com, and MyBestHealthPortal.com; two very popular health, fitness, disease prevention, weight loss, nutrition and anti aging information sites.