Many of my personal training clients come to me with years of exercise experience, but, unfortunately, many of these clients have also gotten poor results or had chronic injuries that have set them back. Most of these are related to very common errors I see in the execution and planning of their exercise programs. 10 of the most common and detrimental exercise errors are:
- Not including any functional strength exercises. Many fitness participants ONLY use selectorize strength training machines to build strength. We now know, without a doubt, that we need to include more bodyweight and free weight exercises to train the body to meet the demands of daily function- not just push a weight around while sitting at a machine.
- Executing exercise with poor posture and form. A major cause of injury- and lack of good result! Education, attention and practice are the key to knowing whether your posture and form are appropriate. Mirrors are a must! Most people need visual feedback to insure proper posture and form.
- Exercising without watching nutrition. If your goal is weight loss or increased muscle mass, proper nutrition must be adhered to. Poor nutrition will hold you back from getting good results.
- Dieting without exercise. See above. It is IMPOSSIBLE to achieve permanent weight loss and good health without exercise. PERIOD.
- Men try and lift too much weight and often injure themselves or show poor form. Women lift too lightly- and never build the muscle necessary for improved strength or weight loss.
- Ignoring chronic injuries and pain. If you have joint pain from exercise- dont ignore it. See your Doctor and get it checked out. It might be minor- but too many people ignore minor pains which then become major. It takes twice as long to heal an injury as the length of time that you have had the injury.
- Trying to spot reduce. Women especially think they can work one specific body part to reduce fat over that bodypart. It doesn’t work that way! You can’t spot reduce!
- Not progressing program as it becomes easy. This is more of a problem for women than men- as men tend to want to lift greater and greater weight. When something is EZ- you must change it to make it harder!
- Not performing a balanced exercise program which includes stretching, cardio and weight training. If one is missing from your regimen- injury or lack of progress will result.
- Not understanding the physiology and reasoning behind proper exercise techniques. This comes from a lack of education- something a certified personal trainer can easily teach you. Lack of understanding leads to doing some things that will never work, avoiding others which always work, and losing patience because you aren’t getting good results!
Hiring a personal trainer, even for one or two sessions, will eliminate almost all of these common mistakes. Aren’t you worth the investment?