Fitness Mistakes That Beginners Do And How To Avoid Them?

If you are a beginner in fitness training and are expecting to get some real wonderful benefits out of your workout then you first need to know about some of the fitness mistakes that beginners do and how to avoid them. This is the article you need to read to discover about it.

Fitness Mistakes are:

One of the most common fitness mistakes that beginners do is overtraining. This can result in various injuries. Yes! Trying too much of workouts in the beginning can cause real harm.

So, in order to avoid this common fitness mistake you need to know that there is nothing to hurry. It’s really okay to start slow and listen carefully to your body. So, you must not lift heavy weights and do not stretch too much if you are not able to do.

Procrastination is another fitness mistake that beginners do. Beginners usually put off the start of their workouts or the fitness activities by waiting for the appropriate moment to start their exercise. And this is the biggest mistake as the common phrase goes, “tomorrow never comes!”

So, to avoid this fitness mistake you need to keep in mind that to start your fitness activities, the best time is today, in fact right now! Do not keep your exercises to start in the next day or at a later part of the day and be dedicated enough to start exercise right now and have it on a daily basis.

Inexperience in any kind of activity can reduce the effectiveness of the work and it can even be dangerous. The same goes for the fitness too. Starting exercise without experience could be another fitness mistake that beginners do.

So, in order to avoid this, you first need to know on the workouts properly, consult a trainer or join a gym to properly know and do the fitness workouts. You can also watch out various videos on the exercises that you are going to perform. Be well aware and take help from the experienced persons before you begin the fitness activities.

One more fitness mistake that beginners do is not planning their workout well. It is like you joined a gym but do not know what and where to start.

In order to avoid this mistake you must be well aware of what you are going to do, much before you start your exercise routine or join a gym and also set strong fitness goals.

Boredom could be one of the most common mistakes that beginners usually do. It is like you purchase the treadmill for yourself, you start walking on it; but you start getting bore in the first few minutes and do not feel like going more than 10-15 minutes on it.

So, in order to avoid this fitness mistake you need to try finding out your ways to keep yourself entertained while exercising. For instance, if you are walking on the treadmill you can try watching television or read any book or listen to music and keep the workout quite interesting. You also must note that it is essential for you to keep changing your routine; like take on a new fitness class or go for outdoor workouts, or jump of different workout machines.

Usually beginners in fitness have lack of consistency and beginners feel like every workout should offer them an immediate effect; and if that does not happen they stop being consistent on working out.

You must know that in exercise it is very much essential to be consistent and only consistency gets you the results. You need to choose on fitness activities that can be done at least 5 days in a week for several months at a row to see the desired results.

One of the most common things we listen from beginners is their excuses. There are really a lot of excuses for the beginners.

However, you need stop giving excuses for not working out. You can write your excuses down and try not to give them while you are on your fitness mission.

We are well aware that proper nutrition is essential for a fit and fine body and health. However, beginners usually do the mistake of neglecting proper nutrition while exercising. They believe that only exercise will get them their desired result and it is not required to concentrate on the nutritional diet. Our food is very much essential for keeping a good health on a long term basis.

So, you need to start taking proper nutrition and invest on the quality unprocessed foods. You need to pack your regular nutritional diet with enough of protein, minerals, healthy unsaturated fats, and the right carbohydrates. You need to include lots of nuts, fruits and vegetables, berries, and beans to your diet.

Make sure that you simply do not rely on simple carbohydrates that are present in processed foods or sweets; rather focus on consuming complex carbohydrates present in vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains. ⁽¹⁾

Water is very much essential for us. However, one of the most common mistakes that beginners do is not taking enough of water. Our muscles require fluid to properly contract; so if you do not drink the required amount of water, you can suffer from muscle spasms and muscle aches.

You need to know that if you are thirsty then you are already 1% dehydrated. Drink water prior to your workout, during and after your workouts.

You must know that for every pound that you are losing in your sweat, you must be drinking 16-24 ounces of water. In addition, you need to drink cold water and it might keep the core temperature of your body lower and also allow you to exercise for a long period of time. ⁽²⁾

Doing outdated exercises could also be one of the common fitness mistakes that beginners do. Some of the old exercises can be really a waste of time and some others can also cause injury.

So, you need to join a gym or take an exercise class with a personal trainer for letting you know about the fresh workouts that could really help you in your fitness routine.

Some fitness beginners try to exercise only during weekends. However, you need to know that this is a great mistake as exercising only 2 days in a week is not going to help.

So, always try to exercise at least 5 days in a week to get the best out of your fitness activities.

Warm-up is very much essential before doing any workout. Without warm-up, it’s like you are asking your body to work out before the oxygen and the flow of blood reach your muscles. This increases the risk of injury, and when doing cardiovascular workouts, you increase your heart rate very fast.

It is a widely accepted that warming-up before exercise is important for attaining optimum exercise performance. ⁽³⁾

So, make sure that before you exercise, you spend at least 15 minutes in warming up.

One more fitness mistake that beginners do is not cooling down after fitness activities. Forgetting the cool down you increase your risk of getting muscle soreness, as you have not flushed the lactic acid out of the system.

So, never stop all of a sudden at the end of the exercise. Do at least 15 minutes of cool-down or exercise at a slower pace before stopping your workout and let the heart rate come down slowly.

Another fitness mistakes that beginners do is not wearing the right shoes. Wearing improper shoes or worn out shoes could cause injuries.

So, you must always wear the right pair of shoes and also replace your shoes with new ones from time to time. It is also essential for you to use comfortable shoes for your fit while exercising.

They are:

There are some fitness mistakes that beginners do while doing cardio workout. Holding on the cardio equipment very tightly lets you cheat and thus contributes to slouching. It even keeps you away from moving the arms, which can enhance the heart rate and also burn some extra calories.

So, you need to loosen your grip. Instead of gripping, simply rest your fingers on the bars and as you start getting more comfortable, simply drop one finger and eventually you might just have the index fingers for security.

Another fitness mistake that beginners do while cardio workout is that they do lots of reading on their elliptical machine; and doing this one is not getting a fair workout.
If you read, stop in every 3 minutes and do at least a 4-minute of focus interval and during this interval focus on picking up the pace, breathing, dropping your shoulders, and using the arms.

Another fitness mistake that beginners do while doing their cardio exercise is that they carry weights while walking. Though carrying hand weights while walking might seem to be a good way to add strength training to your cardio exercise, however; it compromises your stride. Holding weights when you lean forward with weights, it stresses the ankles, quads, and shins, and it can also result in stress fractures.

The best thing is to keep the cardio and the strength training absolutely separate.

Usually beginners think that doing only cardio is enough for them.

However, it must be noted that only cardiovascular exercise is not okay. You also need to add strength training to your fitness activities, as it builds muscles, which in turn increases the rate of metabolism and burns more of calories.

Strength Training Exercises are:

Beginners in fitness activities also do some fitness mistakes while doing the strength training exercises. One of the mistake is they rush their repetitions. For instance, they start doing weight-lifting repetitions quite fast and doing this fast increases their blood pressure and also increases the risk for joint injury. Moreover, it even compromises with your results.

The safest way to make use of dumbbells or the strength machines is: in lifting phase, breathe out for 2 counts and briefly hold at the top of the contraction, and then return as you breathe in for 4 counts. Make sure to exhale always during the hardest part of your workout.

Some people do abdominal machine exercises or crunches without every toning the abdomens. The problem here is that they make use of their upper torso, head, and neck to do the work.

One must always do mindful exercise. The contraction must be from your ribcage to your hip bone. Concentrate on the muscles that are working, and keep rest all muscles quiet.

Weight machines are made for various sizes and shapes of peoples; and you should adjust them to fit in to your body type and size while exercising on it so as to get best results and also to avoid injury. Using an improperly set machine can put stress on your joints and bones. However, beginners usually do use maladjusted machines and this is considered to be one of the biggest fitness mistakes, especially while doing strength training workouts.

You need to avoid this mistake by having an expert trainer to show you the proper settings as per your physique.

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One of the fitness mistakes that beginners do while doing stretching is stretching before doing their workout that puts them at a risk for torn or pulled muscles.

Make sure that you always stretch at the end of the workout.

Bouncing during a stretch is one of the fitness mistake done by the beginners. This can increase the risk of straining or pulling of the muscles.

You need to avoid this fitness mistake by holding a static stretch with no joint movements. Your body must feel lengthened, however, not to the point of pain.

So, from the above descriptions we are aware of some of the most common fitness mistakes that beginners do and how to avoid them. If you are someone who is willing to take on the fitness workouts for the first time then make sure that you keep a watch on your workouts, have a trainer for your fitness activities, and avoid the unnecessary fitness mistakes to get the optimum results from your workout.

Reference Links:

1. https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise-eating-healthy#carbohydrate
2. https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/is-it-better-to-drink-cold-water-while-exercising
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26400696