Four Fitness Mistakes Newbies Make

Since it’s the New Year and the gyms are flooded with people trying to change their bodies, I see a lot of basic mistakes that are holding them back.  Here are four mistakes I’ve seen several times in the past week that I’d like you to take a look at.  If you’re making any of these four mistakes, then changing your behavior will go a long way towards your success.

Progress Killer Number 1:  Not warming up properly, or at all.  How often do you see this:  New fitness seeker walks into the gym, hits the floor, maybe does a few minutes of cardio, then loads up the weight and starts flailing away?

For your muscles this is kind of like you waking up from a sound night’s sleep to find an angry wolverine in your bed.  Sure, you’ll be able to move, but you’re definitely not thinking and moving as clearly as if you’d been up, alert, and watched the wolverine come walking down your street.  As opposed to going out the back door and escaping you’ll probably end up with some tooth marks.

Not properly warming up before strenuous exercise not only puts your muscles and joints at risk of injury but it also limits the effectiveness of the workout.  A good warm-up will warm your muscles, lubricate your joints, and fire up your nervous system, which will improve your strength and coordination.

I recommend that my clients perform a basic dynamic warm-up before exercising.  This includes a few minutes of low intensity cardio to begin the warm-up process followed by a series of bodyweight exercises such as lunges, squats, push-up walk-outs, and arm circles designed to progressively challenge the athlete.  These exercises stretch the joints through movement, improve muscular balance and coordination, and help get the athlete into an exercise mindset.  The warm-up usually takes 5-10 minutes and then we’re ready for the real workout.

Progress Killer Number 2: Using exercises that are too advanced.  I think that the bench press is a very good exercise for its purpose.  It’s not, however, the only exercise to do in the gym.  It’s also not the first pressing exercise that I’d have most new exercisers do.  What business does someone who can’t do a push-up have on the bench?  None.  The push-up utilizes the same muscles, but also allows for development of the stabilizing muscles, promotes more overall fitness, and is safer.  If you fail on a push-up you just don’t get up.  If you fail on a bench press then you need someone to come over and save you, which is never a fun experience.

Here are five basic exercises that should be mastered before moving on to the more common “gym” exercise.

Push-ups -> Bench Press
Inverted Row -> Lat Pull-down
Bodyweight Squat -> Weighted Squat
Step-up -> Weighted Lunges
Front Plank -> Hanging Leg Raise

Progress Killer Number 3:  Not planning a workout.  I see this all of the time.  New gym-goers just wander around the gym, trying out an exercise here and there.  They usually spend more time spinning their wheels and accomplishing little.  This wandering type of workout is extremely inefficient and usually never really does much of anything.

Speak to a fitness professional about getting a program if you have no idea where to start.  A good, basic program will be easy to follow, provide a good warm-up and cool-down, hit the major muscle groups, and address your muscular, cardiovascular, and flexibility needs.

Progress Killer Number 4:  Working out too much.  Everyone seems to think that since this is the year that they’re getting in shape that they need to punish themselves for all of the years that they didn’t.  I see newbies in the gym cranking out set after set and training for a couple of hours or more in an attempt to get in shape all at once.  That’s a recipe for disaster for a few reasons.

First off, it isn’t a whole lot of fun.  Spending too much time in the gym can be boring as heck after a while.  Between boredom and the time involvement you’ll soon start coming up with reasons as to why you can’t give up three hours of your busy day for the gym.

If you’re training for that long then your intensity is low.  I know, you think you’re working hard, and you are.  However, in order to sustain that amount of work time, that means that the intensity of your workouts is low.  Your weights are lower than they could be, you’re moving slower in your cardio, and you’re using the marathon approach rather than the sprint approach. 

Unfortunately the body responds best to acute bouts of intense exercise rather than long, slow duration exercise.  This is why there are so many fat people who walk or jog every day but still can’t seem to get lean.  Their exercise just isn’t intense enough to force the body to adapt after a certain point.

A good, focused workout that will truly change your body can easily be done in an hour including your warm-up.  When it comes to training in the gym, it’s best to get in, work hard, and get out.  Save your socialization for the shake bar after your session.

Those are just four of the basic mistakes I see newbies make in the gym.  Every year people join gyms in droves than then fail almost immediately afterwards.  If you’re new to the gym, then congratulations on choosing to make a change!  Now take a bit of time and learn how to do it right so that you find the success you crave.