Embarking on a workout routine is an exciting experience. All you can see ahead of you is the transformation you want to achieve – whether physically, mentally, or both. You will be taking advice from different fitness experts, friends, and colleagues who are already far up the road with their fitness journeys, and the amount of information at your disposal will be dizzying.
Therefore, you will likely find it difficult to know what to do and what not to do during your workouts. This is natural, and like any skill, improving your fitness requires a wealth of experience. You can only build this through trial and error.
However, no one wants to make simple mistakes if they can help it, especially if those mistakes can hinder their progress or even lead to injury.
This is what to avoid when you start to work out:
Solve any underlying bodily issues before causing further injury
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Jumping in off the deep end with your fitness routine is to be applauded. Enthusiasm goes a long way to increasing motivation, which in turn leads to the consistency you need to see results.
However, you should be careful not to start your fitness journey if you have any underlying physiological issues that you need to overcome.
Exercising may put a strain on these existing injuries, making them worse and perhaps preventing you from working out at all.
If, for example, you are suffering from a long-standing back injury, you could consider treatment options that will help you heal for good. An increasingly popular option is stem cell treatments, which can be used to treat a number of different problems.
Don’t rush into an overly intense workout routine
Similar to the previous point, you should avoid overloading your body with intense workout routines at first. While you might be impatient to see instant results, if your body isn’t ready to handle the intensity you are throwing at it, you will only cause fatigue or injury.
Instead, the key to long-term fitness gains is consistency. It doesn’t matter about where you start, only that you keep progressively getting stronger through successive workouts.
Neglecting ‘smaller’ muscles can lead to injury
There is a natural temptation with exercise to stick to the ‘big’ muscle groups. Working out your chest, arms, legs, and abs might improve your overall strength and make a visible change to your physique, but this doesn’t mean you should ignore more hidden muscles.
Make time during your workout to exercise your lower back, hips, wrists, and forearms, as well as any other muscle that you feel is relatively weak.
You will likely find that as you progressively lift heavier weights, you reach a plateau because these smaller muscles can’t cope with the strain. If you want to improve, make sure you don’t ignore the smaller details.
Focus on yourself
Overall, you should focus on improving on your previous personal best rather than trying to copy what everyone else is doing.
It is a cliche, but everyone glances around the gym from time to time, wondering why they aren’t as strong or as accomplished as another person. It is natural but unhelpful. Everyone is working towards different goals, and if you want to achieve yours, then it is imperative that you stay in your lane and ignore the progress of others.
