Mistakes you’re making that could be hurting your progress
When it comes to your fitness journey, do you often find yourself wondering what ELSE you could possibly do to see quicker or greater progress? You’re always looking to do MORE, but have you ever thought that you might be doing too much?! Here are 8 mistakes you might be making that could actually be hurting your progress.
OVEREXERCISING
What?! There’s a such thing as too much exercise?! YES. Yes, there is, and it can actually work against you in your fitness journey. This explanation is incredibly oversimplified, but for the sake of making my point without losing your attention, here’s how exercise, weight lifting/resistance training in particular, works: when you workout, you are creating teeny tiny micro-tears in your muscle fibers. You are causing damage to your muscle tissue. The physical changes you see as a result of working out (muscle definition) are a result of your body’s response to those micro-tears. Your body is an adaptation machine; as your muscles are repaired, your body adapts to ensure they are repaired even better and stronger than they were before. If you continue exercising day after day, you are constantly breaking down your muscle fibers and depriving them of time to recover, repair, and GROW. If you never give your muscles a break from the mechanical stress put on them through working out, you are condemning yourself and your body to a never ending cycle of damage without repair and your body is not going to respond favorably.
NOT PRIORITIZING YOUR RECOVERY
This point goes hand in hand with overexercising. There is no growth without proper recovery. Successful, sustainable muscle gain AND weight loss are dependent on recovery. There are so many factors involved in optimizing your recovery, but here are a few key points to focus on:
Taking intentional rest days: going on a 5 mile run is NOT a rest day. Just because you’re not in the gym doesn’t mean you aren’t still putting stress on your joints and muscles. I’m not saying you have to be confined to the couch on a rest day, but there should be very little mechanical stressors placed on your body. If you want to get some sort of movement in on a rest day, think yoga, stretching, an easy walk, etc. In order to be able to push yourself and your body adequately during your workouts and also ensure that your body has plenty of time to recovery properly, I recommend at least 2 rest days per week. Every single one of my clients has at least 2 rest days, if not more.
Prioritizing quality sleep: don’t sleep on your sleep! Your sleeping hours are so important in terms of allowing your body to rest, recover, and recharge!! More on this below.
Eating enough and fueling your body: Your nutrition on recovery days should be THE SAME as your nutrition on workout days. It’s a common misconception to think you should eat less on your rest days because you’re not exercising. WRONG. Now that you understand some of the science behind muscle growth, you should know why! What does your body rely on for daily functions? Nutrients. What does it rely on for repair and recovery? Nutrients! Your rest days are the days when your body is utilizing those nutrients, specifically macronutrients (aka “macros”), to repair the damage done to your muscle tissue during your workout. If you are not giving your body what it needs, it will not perform and respond in the way you want it to.
NOT GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP
It is recommended that adults should be consistently getting 7-8 hours of sleep to ensure proper cognitive, behavioral, and physical functions. It’s important to get those 7-8 hours of sleep, but it’s also important to make sure those 7-8 hours are QUALITY hours. In order to enhance the quality of your sleep, there are several lifestyle changes you can make: try to establish a routine (go to bed and wake up around the same time every day), be conscious of your screen time and consider setting a “cut-off” time in the evening, after which you do things such as read, journal, etc., be aware of your caffeine intake and how late you’re consuming it. There are TONS of small changes you can make to improve your sleep quality and I would love to talk more in depth in a later blog post…maybe next month??
SWITCHING UP YOUR WORKOUTS TOO FREQUENTLY
Another common misconception I hear all to often is the belief that we must “confuse” our muscles to see progress. This is completely bogus and doesn’t make sense scientifically. Your muscles do not need to be “confused.” They need to be challenged, through progressive overload. By following a structured, strategic workout plan, you’re allowing for more successful progression and overall consistency. If you are constantly doing a different workout that you found on Instagram on Pinterest, how are you going to track your progress? How are you going to implement progressive overload? The answer is, you can’t. A general rule of thumb is that you should keep your workout programming the same for 6-8 weeks before varying your workouts. Having a trainer who knows how to strategically set up and take you through workout phases can be incredibly helpful for overall progress.
TRYING TO GET TOO FANCY
When writing and structuring your workouts, QUALITY is always better than QUANTITY OR FANCINESS. You don’t get style points when writing a workout. Stick to the basics: compound movements paired with functional accessory/isolation/unilateral movements. You’re going to see a LOT of different moves or exercises across various social media platforms; just know that sticking to the basic, foundational moves is going to give you more bang for your buck. Most of my clients are doing anywhere from 5-8 separate movements TOTAL. Instead of creating a crazy laundry list of exercises you find on social media, focus on a few select movements and push yourself in those. Always think about working smarter, not harder. Having a professional structure your individual workouts based on your goals is another incredible benefit to having a trainer or coach!
DIETING FOR TOO LONG
Your body is not meant to be in a caloric deficit long term. Read that again. Your body is NOT MEANT to be in a caloric deficit LONG TERM. Diets and calorie deficits definitely serve a purpose, but there is a time and place. Being in a caloric deficit puts a lot of stress on your body and the taxing nature of it can lead to more long term issues. Make sure you’re cycling through proper nutritional cycles (reverse diet, maintenance, optional bulk, and cut) to give your body breaks and allow it to continue responding and adapting in an optimal way.
NEGATIVE SELF TALK
This aspect of a fitness journey is commonly overlooked, but it’s just as important as the others listed. It is amazing how interconnected our brains and our bodies are. By telling yourself that you’re not good enough, that you’re a failure, that you’ll never see results, etc., you’re only creating the possibility that you’ll actually start to believe that and act on it. Talking negatively to yourself is a fantastic way to lose motivation and quickly forget why you started and what you’re working for. In order to make your health + fitness a lifelong commitment, you’ve got to respect yourself, believe in yourself, hold yourself accountable, and be patient with yourself. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to have a healthy relationship with yourself, your body, your health, your nutrition, your goals, etc.
BEING IMPATIENT
Long term, sustainable change doesn’t happen overnight. Wouldn’t it be nice if it did? If you’re 30lbs overweight, think about how long it took you to put on those 30lbs. It probably didn’t take a month or even six months, so how can you expect to lose 30lbs in a month or six months? It doesn’t make sense and it’s very important to be practical and realistic with your goals and the time you allow to see progress. Building muscle takes time. Fat loss and body composition take time. Learning, developing, and honing new skills, habits, and behaviors takes time. There’s a reason it’s called a fitness “journey” and not a fitness “destination"; this is an ever-evolving, ever-changing journey that should continue throughout your entire life. Appreciate it! Embrace the different phases. Celebrate the small wins and remember that, while it’s great to have physique goals, there should ultimately be greater, more holistic reasons for your commitment to health + fitness that will keep you centered and focused throughout your lifetime.
