Since lives are becoming increasingly sedentary through the use of motorized transport and the increased usr of household machines. People are spending more and more time doing nothing, just sitting or lying down with very little or no exercise. But in recent years awareness regarding fitness has increased with more people focusing on their health and fitness. People are doing workouts to loose weight, reduce body fat, lower blood pressure and various other reasons. After working in the fitness industry for two decades, I have noticed that, though people are very watchful, but still they are doing few mistakes which they don’t even notice. In this article we will be discussing 10 big mistakes people are doing in the gym.

• 1) Overtraining – Keep your training moderate.

Overtraining is no.1 mistake people are doing in the  gym. Growth is your goal.  Training for longer period, training too frequently, doing too many sets, reps or exercises can all lead to Overtraining. I have seen many people in the gym working out for 2 to 3 hrs. everyday. This I stupidity. This is crazy. They do 12 to 15 variations with 3 to 4 sets for each exercises for every muscle which is crazy. You have to be honest with yourself to know the fine line between pushing yourself maximum. There is a thin line between training and Overtraining. You should know where to stop. There any hundreds of variations for every muscle group. You don’t have to do all those variations everyday. You have to do 5 to 6 variations with 3 sets each for bigger muscles and 3 variations with 3 sets each for smaller muscles. If you fail to reach your target reps with in any set, don’t try to make up for that by adding more set. Just forget your last set and concentrate on your next set. You should keep your body in anabolism in entire session.

Don’t let your body go into catabolism state where muscle tissue starts to dead. Approch each set with focus & intensity.

• 2) Sacrificing form- Use perfect form.

2nd mistake people often do in the gym is Sacrificing form to complete their target reps.

People often get so Focused on completing their target reps, that they end up with Sacrificing form. If you are doing this, you are creating an injury & you are pushing past the bounds of ideal growth. By using perfect form you achieve two goals- 1) it helps you to prevent an injury, & 2) it provides guideline for understanding when you have reached failure.  If you can not complete a target rep with a perfect form, then you should stop because you have already given body maximum load it can handle.

• 3) Intension- Focused while training.

Many people treat their workout as biggest social event of the day. Many of them come to the gym to meet friends, to make friends, to bully others, to watch girls. Many of them  try to train girls. It’s obvious that you should avoid them. Its up to you to set boundaries. Do not feel inclined to indulge those who would sabotage your workout. Perform your exercise with more focus even if they are bullying you. You should never be thinking about your last rep, except when you are performing it. Concentrate on contracting during positive phase and feel your muscle Stretching during negative phase.

• 4) Using headphones- Don’t use headphones

Now a days most of the people use headphones, neckband, earbuds etc. while working out. It is completely wrong. Lots of professional body builder usr these devises for workout, so that they can focus on their workout. No one can interrupt them during workout. It is ok for them because they know what they are doing. They know their Form & technique. But for beginners & intermediate, they shouldn’t, because if they are doing any exercise in wrong way, it’s not possible for trainer to correct it. This will lead to an injury. This is your learning phase, so you have to keep your eyes and ears open all the time. If you get injured, you can not blame anybody else except yourself.

• 5) Ego Training- Train properly for your goal.

People often feel that they can’t grow if they can’t get pump. That’s not true. First you should understand the growth mechanism of muscle. When you workout  you put load on your muscles, which causes microtears in the muscle fibers, your body repairs the damaged muscle, which increases the size and mass of the muscle. This is how your muscle grow, not with the pump you get. Growth comes from stressing muscle fibers & encouraging them to repair themselves. Not from engorging muscle tissue with blood. People get confused because pumping your muscle make you feel & look as though you are maximizing them.

• 6) Endurance Training- workout like strength Training.

Even today many people in the gym think that weight training involves endurance component which is completely wrong. Weight training has nothing to do with endurance. It is not aerobic activity. It is completely anaerobic activity. Many people still think that their purpose is to go in the gym to see how many sets they can do, or to see how long they can workout. Weight training is not endurance contest. Your purpose is not to go to the gym and see how much work you can perform or how long you can workout, how tough you are. Your actual goal is to go in the gym & break down the muscle, so that your body responses to trigger the growth mechanism of muscle. Then go home, eat, rest and grow. Focus on breaking down the muscle tissue maximum, so that growth with be maximum.

• 7) Lack of nutrition habits- Be vigorous with your nutrition.

Nutrition plays very important role in your day to day life. There are three sources of fuel of i  your body. Carbohydrates, Protein and Fat. All of them have their role to play in your body. Carbohydrates provides energy in day to day life. You get energy from Carbohydrates whatever you do. Protein is for growth of the muscle. And Fat generates heat in your body & protects organs. As a lifter you have to devote only an hour or so a day on your training day. The rest of the time you should focus on your diet. Many people get sloppy with their diet, skipping a meal or two here and there. Some times missing out as many as  ten meals a week. That’s a lot. If you want result, schedule your meal & eat whether you are hungry or not. Waiting until you are hungry means, you are not providing your body with proper nutrients. It’s very important that you should follow your nutrition protocol.

• 8) In attention to recovery- Be mindful to recovery.

After a hard day working and training, nothing is more relaxing than a good sleep, rather than to hang out with friends & have a few beers. The average person needs eight hours of sleep at night & you are more than average. You may be feel functional or feel good on less, but take a few weeks to get more sleep and see if you didn’t notice Your physique gains coming more easily & surely. Muscle needs rest to recover. As i said earlier, if you want growth, you have to trigger the growth mechanism of muscle; and sleep is one of the key trigger point. So after a hard workout you need to sleep for at least eight hours.

• 9) Excessive Cardio- Focus on Fat loss rather than weight loss.

Many people think that doing cardio activity is sufficient. They do lot of cardio training such as walking, running, cycling, eleptical etc. to loose weight. But loosing weight is not the real solution. You loose weight when you get ill but its not healthy, right? It’s not right. You should focus on fat loss rather than weight loss.

First you should know what is the difference between weight loss and Fat loss. When you do Fat loss, whatever weight you loose, it will be Fat only. But when you do weight loss whatever weight you loose, 70% of it is water and muscle & only 30% is fat and once you stop the activity you gain all the weight back again by adding 70% more fat. It weakens your internal organs. It also decreases your BMR, your metabolism. So always focus on resistance exercises such as weight training. It helps you to improve your strength.

• 10) Use of Steroids – Stay away from Steroids.

Now a days many youngsters inject Steroids to gain huge muscles or to get results quickly. It is true that Bodybuilding is impossible without Steroids. But if fitness is your goal and you are not competing for Bodybuilding then you should stay away from Steroids. Besides muscle gain Steroids can damage your inside badly. You may not notice until it’s too late. These side effects can be varying from the irritating to life threatening. They may or may not be reversible even after stopping it. These side effects includes reduced sperm count with long term use, they could develop impotence, infertility, development of breast, shrinking of testicle, baldness, acne, bad breath, bloated appearance, aching joints. 

• FINAL WORDS

Consistency is the key of any sports performance and nowhere is that true than is fitness. Consistency encompasses all aspects – Training, Nutrition, Relaxation , Supplementation & Recovery.

Train on training day & rest on rest day.

• STAY AWAY FROM STEROIDS. 
• SAY NO TO DRUGS.