Training Traps: Surprising Training Mistakes That Derail Your Fitness Journey

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Most people focus on what they should do at the gym. While that is important for making progress and reaching milestones, you must also get familiar with things to avoid.

Working out is relatively straightforward, but numerous errors can keep you stagnating and frustrated. Even worse, some mistakes can open up the doors for injuries that would keep you away from training for weeks, even months.

To that end, we’ve compiled this post to outline some surprising training mistakes you should avoid.

Let’s dive in.

1. Not Giving Yourself Time to Recover

Prevailing wisdom suggests that training makes us stronger, faster, and more resilient. Unfortunately, while the notion has some truth, that’s not entirely accurate.

Training is a stressor that disrupts homeostasis––the equilibrium your body strives to maintain (1). For example, lifting weights, running, or doing another form of physical activity stresses your body and causes you to become weaker temporarily. Your body then responds to the stress and adapts to handle it better in the future (2).

For instance, lifting heavy weights leads to strength adaptations. As a result, the load gets more manageable over time, and you can lift even heavier weights. But your body needs time to recover from all this (3). Each stressor takes a toll on your body, and not recovering leads to the opposite effects: regression, muscle loss, and injuries.

The golden rule is to give each muscle group at least 48 hours of recovery before training it again. So, for instance, if you do squats on Monday, avoid training your quadriceps before Wednesday. The same goes for every other major muscle in the body because recovery leads to positive adaptations and fitness progress.

Good nutrition and sleep also play a crucial role in the equation. Get enough protein, consume enough calories, and sleep at least seven hours each night (4, 5).

2. Sacrificing Safety and Longevity

Sacrificing your safety and longevity is one of the biggest mistakes you could make with your training. What’s worse is that you could do so in many ways, often through a combination of bad habits.

Not warming up correctly, training with poor technique, and lifting too much weight are three things that could impact your longevity at the gym (6).

Prioritizing your safety will enable you to train consistently for many years, keep injuries at bay, and experience fewer setbacks. Aside from not having enough time to exercise, a common reason people give up and never return to training is injuries.

Some valuable tactics for staying safe include:

Warm up your body for at least five minutes before each workout. A combination of light cardio, dynamic stretching, and some warm-up sets will be more than enough to prepare your muscles, connective tissues, and joints for each session.
Pick the weights you train with carefully. You must be in complete control of the weight at all times and feel the correct muscle activating. Ego lifting is not good for anyone and only puts you at risk of injuries.
Give your muscles at least 48 hours of recovery time before training them again. Some people believe that more is better, but training too much can increase the risk of overtraining, working out with poor technique, and developing overuse injuries.
Breathe and brace correctly, regardless of the activity. Engaging your midsection musculature and breathing deeply are essential habits you must develop to train safely, perform better, and keep injuries at bay.

3. Rushing The Process

Embarking on your fitness journey can be an exciting time. You’re motivated to push yourself hard because you’re full of hope and eager to make significant progress. The problem is that your enthusiasm can drive you to do too much.

People often dedicate themselves to demanding training plans and overly-restrictive diets because they want quick results. But, unfortunately, while you might see some good results initially, such a pace won’t work in the long run because it is unsustainable. Eventually, you will get injured or give up due to excessive hunger or fatigue.

Instead of trying to fit a year’s worth of fitness inside three weeks, dedicate yourself to something you can sustain. Start with three weekly workouts but be consistent with them. Then, push yourself hard and go home to recover. The same goes for your nutrition: don’t start a diet you know you can’t follow for long. Instead, make gradual improvements to your way of eating and build habits:

Eat more slowly
Drink more water
Pick whole and nutritious options

4. Lacking The Proper Gear

The beauty of fitness is that you can work out and make fantastic progress with no equipment. Still, certain pieces of gear and apparel make a difference, and you should consider investing in them:

Good shoes – your footwear is your foundation. Investing in shoes designed for your exercise choice can go a long way in keeping you safe and performing optimally. Just as running requires special shoes, so does weight training.
Special items – gloves, an exercise mat, a weight belt, chalk, and other things- can make the entire training experience more pleasant. For instance, people interested in heavy-weight training should consider investing in a weight belt because it can improve intra-abdominal pressure, protect the spine, and allow trainees to lift slightly more weight.

Getting the right gear is essential if you train at home and seek ways to make your workouts more engaging and effective. Resistance bands, a home pull-up bar, and adjustable dumbbells are fantastic additions to a home setup.

5. Ignoring Your Core Musculature

As the name suggests, your core muscles make up the centre of your body. As such, they serve a crucial structural function, provide stability, allow you to transfer force, and keep you safe (7).

The abs and obliques are commonly referred to as ‘the core.’ While both muscle groups make up the core, numerous others exist transverse abdominis, diaphragm, multifidus, pelvic floor muscles, and erector spinae. Many even consider the gluteus group (buttocks) and latissimus dorsi (lats) part of the core musculature.

Ignoring the core musculature is a huge mistake that can impair your performance and put you at a high risk of injuries.

The great news is that most ‘core’ gym exercises strengthen parts of your core. Examples include the squat, deadlift, standing overhead press, barbell row, and pull-up. More specific muscles you can do for core strength include hip thrusts, glute-ham raises, planks, hanging knee raises, vacuums, and dead bugs.

Coach Michael

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