Whenever a fresh beginner finally musters up the courage to get in shape, they often
go in with a great deal of motivation but very little knowledge.
Unfortunately, this often leads to mistakes that all beginners, and sometimes even more
experienced people, tend to make.
For the sake of some of you newbies, here are five beginner mistakes that you should
try to avoid.
Number 1: Going Too Heavy Too Quickly.
I’m a huge supporter of heavy lifting for building muscle and strength, but often for
beginners, the idea of going heavy precedes a much more important factor: doing it right.
Immediately lifting heavy makes it difficult to practice technique and you end up doing
an exercise wrong over and over again.
Eventually, it leads to some unfortunate boo boos.
Best practice: go moderately heavy until you get the movement right.
And since heavy eccentric lifting also tends to lead to a higher degree of delayed onset
muscle soreness, going lighter first can cut down on recovery time so you can spend more
time lifting and less time crying when you try to walk.
Number 2: Too Much Cardio Just like lifting heavy, cardio can be great,
especially for your heart.
But it doesn’t mean that you should ONLY do cardio.
One common wish I hear from beginners is that they wanna get “toned” and not be bulky.
Thing is, there’s no such thing as being ‘toned.’
It’s actually a matter of building muscle and losing the fat covering it.
If all you’re doing is cardio, especially steady-state cardio, you’re only focusing
on half of that equation: the fat.
Not only will you not build any significant muscle with steady-state cardio alone, it
also takes a long time to burn any meaningful calories.
It’s much easier to skip that frosty donut each day than run 3 miles each day.
If you want that so-called ‘toned’ look, then the goal should be a mixture of cardio
AND resistance training.
That goes for you too ladies.
Plus, you can still burn fat while lifting weights or with calisthenics.
Check out my video on burning fat with weights if you want to learn more.
Number 3: Not Getting Enough Protein It’s true that you can’t outwork a bad
diet, but you also can’t outgrow a lack of protein.
Protein is crucial in all physiological facets with the most pertinent being its importance
to muscle growth.
Exercise alone won’t build muscle.
It’s just a stimulus.
It’s the nutrients, especially protein, that feeds the stimulated muscle.
General guideline is to get roughly 0.8 grams per kilogram of your bodyweight, but there
is research suggesting that more might be optimal.
If you want to learn what might be best for you, come check out my video on this topic
as well.
Number 4: Not Getting Enough Sleep Without a shadow of a doubt, you’re holding
yourself back from getting the best results you possibly can if you don’t get enough
quality sleep.
Simply going to the gym tired and sleepy will cause your performance to suffer, you’ll
feel slower, and probably make more mistakes.w Your testosterone levels drop and cortisol
levels rise, which slows down muscle building and recovery.
To make matters worse, lack of sleep can lead to an erratic appetite due to imbalances between
the appetite controlling hormones leptin and ghrelin.
That means eating more and getting worse results.
Simply put, don’t mess with your sleep.
Get your 7 to 9 hours, and reap all of your gains.
And finally, Number 5: Getting All Your Information from One Source
Yep, that’s right.
As much as I would love to help EVERYONE, I know that not everyone will know exactly
what to do after watching my content.
Fitness can be an overwhelming topic and you wanna remove all of the confusion by sticking
to one person or triangle figure, but that one person isn’t guaranteed to be a perfect
fit.
For example, as much as I like to promote eating in moderation instead of going low
carb, it doesn’t mean that low carb doesn’t work at all.
In fact, low carb IS the best option for some to actually practice moderation.
But you’ll probably find a better source than myself that can teach you how to do it.
And, if you look around long enough, you’ll notice that all “experts” have varying
opinions on virtually everything!
From the best method of burning fat, building muscle, best diet, and heck, even the best
lists of mistakes beginners make!
And, of course, you have the occasional guru selling you fat coffee and pee injections.
As the saying goes, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
Certainly, don’t put your entire health and fitness into one voice.
Look around, listen to different folks, challenge those folks when you disagree with them, myself
included, and never, ever stop learning.
Got more fitness mistakes you’ve learned the hard way and want to let others know?
Feel free to share it in the comments.
End of the day, we all make mistakes, and from learning from our mistakes we can only
get stronger, figuratively and literally.
As always, thank you for watching