Five Common Fitness Mistakes

Hello everyone!

I'm back again with another post and trying to make the most out of writing fitness blog posts rather than university essays, as the new semester will begin in a matter of weeks!

It's a new year and I am so happy to see that my posts have actually inspired so many of my friends to work hard and strive to achieve their fitness and lifestyle goals! This is something I never expected and I am really humbled by it. 

I thought I would write something a little different this time round. I know the title makes the post seem really negative but I want to address some really common mistakes that people make when they begin to kick off a healthy lifestyle. It is in no way a nagging or degrading post, as I want to help people and I am purely speaking from experience. These five mistakes are what I have made myself and what I have seen people make which eventually lead them to give up everything they have achieved and could have achieved. I want you all to meet your goals this year and continue to have a positive and healthy lifestyle whilst avoiding these five common mistakes so you can flaunt and be proud of everything you have achieved without facing major setbacks that lead you to give it all up. 

So without waffling on further, here are the five most common fitness mistakes!

1. Becoming 'overly motivated' 

A lot of people will tell you 'you can never take it too far'. They are wrong. It's like I've said in most of my previous blog posts, you can take your lifestyle to the point where it is unattainable and you are no longer motivated to maintain it for very long. it's no good going in all guns blazing telling yourself you are going to go to the gym for two hours every day at 6am and eating nothing but salad. By the time you come to week two you will be bored, knackered and bored, and you will find yourself back in KFC. It's a step-by-step procedure. 
Even athletes and the most frequent gym-goers aren't constantly shouting 'woohoo, let's get physical!' at the top of their lungs every day. We all have sessions in the gym that we aren't really feeling, make us want to give up and whatever. It's normal to not be motivated and feel like working out from time to time! Push yourself, but don't make it unmanageable. It's good to have a positive mindset, but it is possible to take it too far and slowly turn it into a negative mindset. 

2. Excessive rewards

I've known people go to the gym, put in a decent hour and then 'reward' themselves with a glass of wine or pizza because they feel they have earned it or have been told that your body continues to burn fat for 24 hours after their workout. Now this is true with most HIIT classes, but it doesn't mean you can indulge. The whole point of toning and attempting to lose weight is having a calorie deficit. So you need to be eating less and exercising more. If i have a takeaway I can try to redeem myself by doing all the running I want, but in no way is it aiding weight loss. It's just prolonging it and creating more work for myself because I've got to try harder to burn the extra fat and calories. Have one cheat meal a week, but maintain your discipline before and after workouts. 

3. Staring at the scales

When I'm in the gym, I see a lot of people weighing themselves before their workout and after. You will not lose 7 lbs instantly after running on the treadmill for twenty minutes and lifting a few weights. It takes grafting and it can test your patience at the best of times. If you weigh yourself with unrealistic expectations you will start to demotivate yourself. Also, your weight fluctuates so much on a daily basis so you're not going to get a consistent reading. You ideally need to be weighing yourself about once a week or once every two weeks on a set day at a set time. So for example, I weigh myself once every two weeks on a Friday at 7am before I've eaten and had a drink in light clothes or underwear so I get a more realistic reading. 

DO NOT weigh yourself...after you've eaten, after you've indulged/had a cheat meal (you'll start to feel crap and comfort eat to console yourself), during the evening, four days before and during your period (your weight fluctuates during your period), or on an uneven surface in heavy clothing. 

DO weigh yourself on a flat, hard surface, wearing light clothes or just underwear, at first thing in the morning once a week/fortnight, with an empty bladder and an empty stomach. 

4. Taking long breaks 

It should be a lifestyle and results don't maintain themselves. You can maintain your goal weight whilst on a break and by enjoying yourself, but don't constantly go overboard. It won't last forever and you will start to pile the pounds back on. If you want to take a break for a fortnight when aiming towards a certain goal, enjoy yourself and indulge but maintain your weight by carrying on with your usual workout. This is what I did over Christmas. I knew that in the New Year I'd have to work my way down to 59kg for boxing, but still wanted to enjoy Christmas. So I enjoyed myself but did not go completely overboard by having eight roast potatoes and a whole tub of Celebrations to myself. If you maintain your weight and fitness, you are making it easier for yourself to get back to the grind, rather than indulging completely and allowing the thought of exercise and a healthy diet to become unbearable. 

5. Taking the easy road

It's great to watch people go into the gym and put in a good hour to their workout, pushing themselves hard and getting the results they want. But too often, people get comfortable and just do the same workouts constantly because they are too scared to be adventurous, lift heavier weights, target different muscle groups or experiment with their cardio. Like I've said many times, you will get bored. But also if you keep your workout the same you're just going to be maintaining a weight and physique you may not even want. By pushing yourself further and listening to your body, you will find that you will progress a lot more efficiently. 

A few examples.... Rather than just running for twenty minutes, try high intensity interval training, or run until failure! Lift more weights by picking the next heaviest set of weights, either on a machine or with barbells/dumbells and doing your reps until failure to work out whether you need longer on the lower weights or if your body can hack doing exercises with the heavier weights.  Add weighted pieces of equipment to your core workout. Create a board on Pinterest for some different gym workout ideas. I will be filming my own workouts shortly to give you guys some inspiration!

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Thank you so much for reading this post! I hope you stick around for more and get some motivation out of this blog. Make sure to follow now so you don't miss a thing and I will be writing the next post as you read this, so keep your eyes peeled!