6 Horrible Mistakes You Make During Your Workout

All of us commit mistakes every day. But some of them can cost you a lot if you don’t avoid them. Today, I will talk about the 6 horrible mistakes you make during your workout.

Copying an athlete’s training

Nowadays, we have access to almost everything we want. A lot of athletes are sharing their routines, workouts, etc. So, it is super easy to know what their training is.

So you decide to follow the athlete’s training, and someday, you realize your body is suffering and not improving. The reason is that the training was not built for your reality but for the athlete’s reality. You can train like an athlete, but each individual has particularities to influence performance.

That’s why copying an athlete’s training is not recommended for anyone. Find a qualified professional to help you to develop the best workout routine that fits your reality.

Testing your PR every week

A PR is an excellent measure to check your improvement. However, to see real improvements, your training must be correct periodized. The PR day is a very intense day for your body, something that must be planned to let your body be ready.

Strength isn’t something that you improve in one or two weeks. Strength takes weeks to improve properly, letting your body adapt to that load. So, if you are testing your PR every week, I recommend you stop and re-plan your training periodization because the only things you’ll get will be injuries and zero improvement.

Beat your PR requires weeks of training, weeks of self-care, weeks of dedication to accessory muscles, and better movement quality.

Said that, please, stop trying to beat your PR every training session. Let your body develop, and don’t skip important steps.

Rest too much between sets

Rest is very important, but resting too much is not good. Between sets, it is essential to let your body recover the energy for the next set. This is part of the development process.

You will understand the importance of the correct rest time when you have a good periodization. If you rest less than what was programmed, it is more likely that you’ll lose performance on the next set. On the other hand, if you rest too much, you will lose the meaning of that workout. This happens because your body will suffer adaptations during the session, and different adaptations require different approaches. One simple example is that one way to increase the intensity is by reducing the rest period. So, if the idea is to have more intensity, you can reduce the rest time.

This is one of the reasons that res too much between sets can be dangerous for you to beat your goals.

Not warming up properly

Warm-up is one of the most important parts of your session. But unfortunately, I see a lot of people simply avoiding this session or sometimes doing a short stretch and done. Those actions are very dangerous because if you don’t warm up properly, your body won’t be ready for the session, and the risk of injury is high.

But how do you warm up properly?

Let’s suppose your session will be focused on an upper-body push.

1- Upper Body Dynamic Stretch

2- Upper Body Mobility

3- Core Activation

4- Stability Shoulders Exercises

Those four steps represent an introductory warm-up session. It will take 5 to 10 minutes to complete a good warm-up. Try 2 exercises for each step.

The benefits of a warm-up are:

• Joints lubrification

• Heat up your body temperature.

• Accessory muscles activation

• Movement pattern improvement

During your entire session, the most important part is the warm-up. But should you reduce the warm-up if you have a short time to work out? NO. Keep the warm-up and reduce part of the session. I know you feel that you will lose improvements, but in reality, you’ll win all the warm-up benefits. Warm up every day, and you’ll become stronger because your accessory muscle will be more developed, and your movement patterns will be much better and cleaner.

For those reasons, not warming up properly is something that we’re trying to change with our clients every single day.

Not having a General plan

If you don’t have a plan, you’ll lose yourself during your journey. Without a plan, you lose the meaning of your training sessions.

When you have a plan, you have a goal, and it will be easier to develop a good strategy. With a real plan, you’ll be able to forecast how your next day, week, and month will be and develop a good approach to handle it.

Not having a general plan will destroy your periodization plan and all your goals; for this reason, we at Athleon encourage all of you to set up your big plan before everything.

Not having a periodization plan

Training Periodization is everything. In a good periodization, you will have an opportunity to develop the best of your performance. This will happen because you’ll have the correct body stimulus at the right time, the perfect recovery, and the best time for your body to develop specific muscle qualities.

With a periodization plan, you’ll know everything in advance, such as what period will be harder, which will be easier, etc.

So, not having a periodization plan, combined with not having a general plan, will lead you to bad improvements and fewer results.

Conclusion

Those 6 horrible mistakes you make during your workout will lead you to fail. You must have all of them very defined to be successful. Sometimes, we think something is unimportant, but here at Athleon, we are very detail-oriented and cover all aspects to help you with your development. I believe that small things together create big things. So, putting together a bunch of small actions will generate a huge impact on your life.