Here is the second part of our ‘worst fitness mistakes’ list. As you can see, we have a lot of bugbears! The frustrating thing is when you see enthusiastic people who are undermining their entire fitness regime because they are making simple mistakes that would be easy to eradicate.
Have a look and see how many of these you have done – or which you believed might have been a good thing to do.
You can read part one here.
Eating twice the amount after exercise because you have “burned it off”
This is excusable after a long endurance event, but not after a 20 minute HIIT session. Keep your portions sensible at all times and don’t eat too quickly.
Worse still, CARBO loading – just no!
‘Pasta parties’ have become a staple part of many big pre-race events. There’s one every year before the Great North Run, for example. But there is little evidence to suggest they work – and a lot more evidence to suggest it’ll leave you feeling stodgy and bloated.
Thinking that you can only train once a day
There is no harm in training twice a day – so long as they are different sessions. As always, variety is the key. Why not aim to exercise totally different muscle groups?
Doing loads of sit ups to try and get a 6 pack
Well-defined abs are made in the kitchen and trunk/core exercises should include all core muscles (including back) and not just abs. Sit-ups have their place in any routine, but don’t rely on them alone to achieve results.
Not breaking a sweat
This is simple: if you give up 40mins of time to exercise make sure you get the most out of it – you want to be out of breath and sweating lots for the majority of the time. Otherwise what’s the point?
Doing the same warm up for every session regardless what you are doing
The warm up should reflect the session you are doing and mimic the movements you will do in your session. NO static stretching in a warm up.
Over-training
Not recognizing when your body needs a rest – take a minimum of 1 day off a week, though two days off is probably a good idea for most people. Remember this can be active rest ie walking – it doesn’t mean sitting on a couch.
