10 Foolish Gym Mistakes You Must Avoid
Working out at the gym is a craze nowadays as the focal point of life has shifted from ‘eating tasty’ to ‘staying healthy’ for most people in the twenty-first century. We join the gym to do exercises that we cannot do at home for lack of proper equipment. Apart from a wide range of equipment present at the gym, it is also the mood and vibe that gets us to work out better than we would have done at home. But are you doing all the right things while working out? Are you sure you are not committing any workout mistake, especially if you are a beginner?
In this article, we will be focusing on the most common gym mistakes for beginners. If you have been working out for a few months but are devoid of any results so far, the chances of you making more than one of the below-mentioned mistakes are pretty high. Keep reading to know where you might be going wrong.
1. Not Warming Up
Being a beginner, you might not understand the importance of warming up. It might look like an unnecessary prologue that can easily be skipped. Well, you couldn’t have been more wrong with your notion. You might incur serious injury while working out if you skip warming up. For a high-intensity workout, it is imperative that your body has better blood flow and its temperature is higher by 1.5 to 3-degree Fahrenheit than usual. Doing quick warming up is something you should never skip while you are at the gym as it raises the body temperature and prepares the muscles for exercise.
2. Focusing only on the Targeted Area
It is another one of the many bodybuilding mistakes beginners do. Each person has a body that has some or the other lacunae. It is necessary that you know which part of your body needs working out. But to solely focus on that part of the body is utter foolishness. If you head on like this for a few more months, you will discover that your targeted part is more pronounced and the other parts of the body are seeming out of proportion. Not quite the result you want, right? So, avoid making this mistake any further.
3. Waiting for an Equipment to be Free
It is good to plan ahead but being absolutely stuck to it isn’t wise. It is a given that there would be many people at the gym and equipment that you want might not be free at that moment. The worst thing you can do is to rest your body while waiting for that machine to be free. Although relaxing your muscles after doing a set is important, but an unscheduled relaxing will do more harm than good. It will cause your body to cool down, and your rate of calorie burning will obviously droop along with it.
In case a machine is not free, try moving to the next one on your list to avoid making one of the many workout mistakes.
4. Not Knowing Your Capacity
An ordinary gym mistake for beginners is that they try to exercise too much in too little time. If you are a newbie at the gym, you have got to let your muscles get accustomed to different types of exercises. You cannot expect to gain six-packs in the matter of a week. Be realistic and go slow. Remember-” slow and steady wins the race.”
5. Skipping Gym on Account of Muscle Soreness
It is one of the many reasons why beginners dropout from gyms. Workout leads to tiny muscle tears which leads to muscle pain. It is a very common thing, and you must not leave going to the gym on account of this. Continue working out. However, do not do high-intensity workout as it will lead to highly sore muscles. Go light on the exercise, but do not skip going to the gym altogether.
6. Not Hydrating the Body
Making several bodybuilding mistakes is common for beginners and getting the body dehydrated is one of them. You lose a lot of water from your body while working out at the gym in the form of sweat. Lack of water causes lesser blood flow in your body. So, it is imperative you keep sipping on your bottle of water while working out to make up for the water loss.
A thing to note here is, do not drink a lot of water at the same time as that will cool your body down. Take small sips every now and then instead.
7. Avoiding Weights
Cardio is one great way to pump up your heart rate and burn more calories. But lifting weights is what will give you a toned body. If you aim to look toned and not just ‘thin,’ do not skip lifting weights.
It is a common notion among women that they will look ‘masculine’ after lifting weights. Ladies, please note that you do not have the testosterone level that one needs to get that masculine look. So be calm and lift some weights for a super-sexy body.
8. Being Complacent
Another one on the list of gym mistakes for beginners is being complacent after they have been attending the gym for a couple of months. Beginners stop exploring their potentials and become satisfied with the number of reps they are doing.
Remember guys, to get better at anything you will have to keep pushing your boundaries and achieve what you thought your body is not capable of. Do not be complacent and achieve a new peak every day to become a better bodybuilder.
9. Using Incorrect Techniques
The root for doing anything right is via following the correct techniques. If you aren’t following the correct technique of doing an exercise, you are doing one of the worst workout mistakes. Your efforts and sweats will go in vain if you aren’t using the right posture. Get your posture right and know the correct way of doing an exercise from your gym instructor before shedding your sweat.
10. Not Planning Your Workout
Many newbies go to the gym by following a herd mentality. It is one of the bodybuilding mistakes you want to avoid. You have a different body that needs individual attention. And so, a general workout plan might not be the best-suited thing for it.
Discuss with your trainer and plan your workout sessions. Know the number of sets and reps of exercises that your body needs to look smoking hot.
Conclusion
While at the gym, understanding what not to do is perhaps the most important thing. Getting a subscription to the gym will cost you some bucks, but it needs a good amount of focus and thorough knowledge on the subject to achieve results.