More Gym Mistakes – 4 Things Holding You Back in the Gym
We all like to exercise and work out for different reasons. Some of us are looking to burn fat and get leaner, while others want to bulk up and build muscle mass. Whether you train for aesthetics, health, athletic reasons, or anything else for that matter, in order to reap the rewards you must ensure you’re getting the most from your training. That’s why we’re looking at gym mistakes for today’s article. You see, if you’re busting your butt in the gym but find yourself struggling to make any real progress and not seeing the results you wanted, it could be your actions in the gym that are holding you back. That’s the last thing that we want to see happen to you, which is why we’re looking at 4 potential gym mistakes which could be holding you back.
You aren’t focussed – Have you heard the expression ‘the body is willing but the mind is not’?Basically, this is making reference to the fact that, no matter how hard you train, or how much energy you have, if you aren’t in the right mental frame of mind, you aren’t going to make any real progress whatsoever. If you’re in the gym checking your phone, thinking about what to do when you get home, and what to do at the weekend, you aren’t focussed on your workouts and you won’t find yourself making any real progress. If your mind isn’t in the game, establishing a strong mind-muscle connection simply is not possible.
No structure – In gyms all over the globe, you will constantly see people walking in there, grabbing a set of weights, doing a random exercise, heading over to a machine, doing something else, and repeating the same process over and over with no structure. This is one of the most common gym mistakes that people make, and it will do you no good at all. Before you train, make sure you have a plan in mind and make sure that you know what it is that you’re planning on doing when you train. If you train randomly, you’ll likely neglect weaker body parts and favour those that you enjoy training.
Performing single working sets – Another common gym mistake that people tend to make is to perform single working sets when working out. They’ll jump onto a machine, perform say, 15 reps, then move on to another machine, work an entirely different muscle group, do another single set, and so on. To really maximize muscle hypertrophy, you need to work each specific muscle group intensely and doing just one working set will not allow you to achieve that. Aim for 3–5 working sets per exercise.
Not warming up – Before you begin a workout, it doesn’t matter how fit and nimble you maybe, you should always, always set aside a few minutes to stretch and warm up. Warming up and stretching will increase your core body temperature, it will improve your circulation, it will improve muscle elasticity, and it will help reduce your risk of injury. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen people walking into the gym, making a beeline straight for the weights without stretching, and suffering a pulled or torn muscle shortly afterward