So you’ve decided to make your first steps on the way to a healthier, fitter body. You’ve
geared up, bought yourself a gym membership, watched some YouTube tutorials on basic exercises,
and gone for it. But after a few weeks, there’s still so little progress! What’s up with
that? Check if you’re doing everything right — just a couple of little tweaks can make
all the difference!
Your warmup isn’t enough Warmup is a big deal: all this stretching
and running in place isn’t just for fun. It gets your muscles and tendons ready for
workout, making them more elastic and less prone to micro injuries. Also, your heart
rate goes a bit up, making your blood pump faster and boosting your further performance.
If you don’t pay attention to warming up, you’re likely to get sore the next day and
unable to continue training at all. But even if you do it correctly, chances are
that you’re not spending enough time on it. A minute of brisk walking with your arms
flailing isn’t gonna get you set up for an hour of exercise. Stretch all your limbs
in all possible directions, walk or run in place for a jiffy, and, yes, flail those arms
and legs. There’s no set time for that — you’ll know you’re good to go when you’ve broken
some sweat.
You’re doing either cardio or weights, not both
Suppose your goal is to shed some extra pounds. Who needs lugging weights for that, right?
A healthy scheduled diet and some cardio every day — that’s the way to go! Nah, forget
it. Jogging, cycling, or rowing are all good at burning calories, but they don’t build
muscle. And muscle is exactly the thing that helps you lose weight even when you’re resting!
Keeping your muscle tissue in shape requires lots of energy and nutrients, and your body
takes them eagerly when you train your strength. By the way, the older you are, the more strength
exercises you actually need to keep up. Same goes for muscle building. If you only
heft weights in the gym because you want that ripped look, sadly, you won’t get there
anytime soon. To get those carved and bulging muscles, you’ll need to get rid of excess
fat, and that’s cardio for you. Also, cardio helps to be more productive with weights by
training your endurance.
You hurry I get it, you want to get in a perfect shape
ASAP. But going for weights larger than you or exhausting yourself on treadmill from the
get-go isn’t going to help. On the contrary, since your body isn’t ready for such ordeals
yet, the only thing you’ll get is excruciating pain and fatigue the very next day. Take it
easy and go slow, let your body adjust to the new schedule. If you’ve never done any
serious exercise before, start with light weights and just several minutes of continuous
running or swimming. With weights, like dumbbells or barbells,
take whatever you feel comfortable with and do as many reps and sets as you can. As soon
as you feel like it’s too easy to do lots of reps without resting, add some weight and
go on. As for cardio, do it non-stop until you feel
tired and sweaty, and don’t forget to watch your heart rate — get it too high, and you
may even faint. It’s best to repeat your cardio in short dashes, switching it with
weightlifting. This way, you’ll notice you can run, swim, or row in gradually more prolonged
sessions easily.
You ignore the form So you’ve warmed up until light flecks of
sweat appeared on your forehead, done some cardio for about 5 minutes, and switched to
strength exercise. You take a barbell and… hey, your back is crooked, that’s cheating!
Okay, how about chin-ups? Come on, you look like a snake on that bar!
Proper form is crucial when it comes to strength and endurance training. If you do an exercise
incorrectly, not only you won’t get any good results, but you’ll also put your health
at risk. For example, arching your back during deadlifts puts too much strain on your lower
back, and one day you’ll simply bend to tie your shoelaces and won’t be able to
straighten up again. As for those chin-ups I mentioned, snaking your way up over the
bar engages all the wrong muscles. Your main targets here are shoulders and back, and you
need to stay perfectly still to train them specifically.
Cardio can be a bit tricky too: each exercise has its own do’s and don’ts, even running,
so better do some research on proper form before beginning. For instance, when you jog,
you need to stay away from overly hard surfaces, like asphalt, and put on really good running
shoes. Otherwise the shock from the constant impact might stress your back and knees too
much.
You don’t drink water Before you turn off the video, let me say
I’m not being Captain Obvious here. Of course you know staying hydrated is important, but
the keyword here is water. Many beginner gym-goers think that sport drinks will help them get
in shape faster, but that’s not true. These drinks contain lots of sugar and other additives
because they help professional athletes better recover after rigorous training sessions.
Since you’re not a professional (at least not yet), such ingredients will only drag
you down. Fruit juices, smoothies, and protein drinks
may seem a harmless choice, but they also contain sugars or additives. What’s more,
your body thinks of them as food, so when you think you drink a glass of orange juice,
you actually eat it. No, not the glass, the juice. Anyway, only clear water doesn’t
have anything extra in it, so all the much needed fluids go inside your body and hydrate
it perfectly. In short, water is your friend.
You shrug off professional advice Not the recommendations you found on the Internet
— the personal kind. If you’re new to serious exercise, you might get confused by
all the different tips on the web. And even if you think you’ve found the most credible
source of info, it might not be quite so for you. Paying for a set of individual trainings
might seem an excess, but you will be sure this routine is prepared for you personally
and it fits you like no other.