Are you spending hours in the gym working out without getting any results? You may be dedicated to achieving fitness results, but something definitely wrong in your routine is hampering the results.
Here we have listed down a few bad habits that you need to drop from your routine.
1. Not Fixing Your Fitness Goal
If you are working out day and night without deciding on your ultimate fitness goal, you will only get bored of the session too soon. You have to set your goals using GymNation Fitness Calculators that will help calculate BMI, BMR, and other parameters that can be taken into account when formulating your fitness plan. Once you know what you have to achieve, you will be more motivated to reach closer and closer to that goal.
2. Excessive Cardio and too Little Strength Training
Many people are still under the misconception that the more you sweat and increase your heart rate, then you will burn more calories. Well, cardio helps you burn calories, but only a cardio workout is not enough. You have to focus on strength training for several reasons. For starters, working your muscles means increasing muscle mass, which helps boost metabolism. Fitness enthusiasts know the importance of a high metabolism, which easily burns more calories. This is not all, a strength training workout session helps burn calories not just during the session, but the process continues even after the session, which means you will get better results. Lastly, muscle building means you will actually get in shape, and your body will look much better if it has adequate muscle mass.
3. You Stretch Your Muscles Only for 10 Seconds After Workout
Well, most of us know the importance of stretching after a workout session, especially if you have been muscle training. But doing it just for 10 seconds is as good as not doing it. Strength training works on your muscles and builds up a lot of lactic acid in the muscles. This is why you feel muscle soreness a few hours after the session. This is more in people who have just started working out or resume workout after a long break. Stretching helps prevent muscle soreness, but if you only do it for 10 seconds, you will fail to extract the benefits of stretching. You need to stretch each muscle for at least 30 seconds to 1 minute to get more blood flowing through these areas and help muscles drain out the lactic acid. This will help in quicker muscle recovery, too.
4. Not Enjoying the Session
The workout should not seem like a chore. If it does, you will push yourself to do it for a few days but eventually, give up. It needs to be more like a routine in your life that you enjoy doing. You need to recognize how you can make it fun. If the same routine is boring, you can do rotations like lick boxing, Zumba, swimming, or aerobics. If working out alone gets boring, then ask a friend to do sessions with you. This way, both of you can keep yourself motivated, and hence you will be encouraged to be consistent.
5. Hydrating Using Sports Drink
The name will sound fancy and seem like it is best for your workout sessions, but in reality, they do more harm than good. You may feel like you need a burst of energy to work out so that you can burn off more calories, but these sports drinks are full of calories. So they are not really fueling you but only making your workout session useless. Hydrate yourself using water. If you need to fuel yourself, a fruit before the session or a black coffee might do the trick.
6. Setting Up a Long-Term Goal
You may want to lose 30 pounds, but that is going to take a long time. Waiting for so long to celebrate achieving a goal is tough, as you may get bored along the path. You have to celebrate small victories like losing 2 pounds. Gift yourself with a new dress when you lose those 2 pounds. These incentives will encourage you to achieve these smaller goals, which ultimately will lead you to your most significant weight loss goal.
7. Doing the Same Routine Every Day
Hitting a plateau in the weight loss journey can be frustrating as you are putting in the effort to see results. This mostly happens when you follow the same routine for a long time. It is important to keep switching the routine and actually increase the difficulty level so that the body does not get used to it and you do not hit a plateau.
The Bottom Line
If you are guilty of sharing any of these bad habits, you are not alone. A lot of people make these silly mistakes. It is wise to learn from the mistakes and ensure to stick to your workout routine consistently to get the best possible results.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
