Don’t do this: 7 harmful tips that will make you fall out of love with fitness

It may seem surprising to some, but fitness should be fun. If you drag yourself to the gym like a hard labor, work off what you’ve eaten during the day and step over yourself every time before training, you should seriously think about it. Perhaps you, like many people, are following harmful advice without realizing it.

Beautiful but dysfunctional form

Beautiful but uncomfortable gym clothes and shoes are one of the main reasons why you may not be doing well in your workouts. Of course, even in the gym, you want to look attractive and not turn away from your own reflection in the mirror. But this is the case when comfort should come first.

You don’t have to give up beautiful things, but you should give preference to a form that does not interfere with your workout. Good now it is possible to find compromise options – sets that not only please the eye, but also do not cause discomfort.

Indiscriminate strength training

Despite popular belief, strength training is not always necessary, not for everyone, and certainly not seven days a week. If you’ve just started strength training on weight machines or with extra weight, don’t hesitate to ask your trainer for advice. He or she can tell you what type of exercise is right for your fitness level and your goals, and how to incorporate strength training exercises into your exercise plan in the most organic way.

Otherwise, you run the risk of inadvertently rocking something unnecessary, and in addition, incorrectly selecting the load, and also instill an aversion to training.

Training as punishment

For some people, going to the gym becomes atonement for “sins”. If you have eaten a forbidden bun, drank an extra cup of coffee or exceeded the daily calorie limit, you go straight to the gym, and even to the most killer workout to feel the seriousness of the mistake.

This approach is unlikely to help you refrain from breaking your regimen. And training will soon be associated with punishment and violence against yourself. What positive motivation can we talk about?
If you decide to take up sports, you need to realize that you do it for yourself, not for others – to become healthier, tighten your figure and feel better and more confident.

From the get-go

Another popular mistake among beginners is to take on the most difficult and literally impossible thing in the first workout. Watching how regulars with impressive muscles and slim figures train, of course, you want to follow them.

However, all is well in due time: on the first day of training, the body is simply not capable of such feats. Not everyone realizes this simple truth, immediately get frustrated and give up: if it did not work at once, it will never work. Then why train at all? This approach is fundamentally wrong. Start small and move towards your goal gradually, rather than rushing from the start.

Maximum loads

For many people, working out so that your muscles burn and you can’t get out of bed the next day is the standard of training. If cardio, then immediately marathon on the treadmill, strength training – only with maximum weight, and the main motto – all or nothing. Perhaps, some time you will hold on to the frenzied enthusiasm, but the body is still not iron and with constant extreme loads sooner or later will fail. And to return to the gym after overwork or breakdown will not be so easy.

In fitness, as in other activities, balance is important: training and rest, days with high intensity and recovery exercises. Distribute the load evenly and do not test yourself, then trips to the gym will not be associated with negative consequences from overwork.

Trends First

Pilates, circuit and HIIT workouts – fitness trends change almost every day. Keeping up with them is physically impossible, yet many people keep trying. This reduces the effectiveness of the workouts and doesn’t produce the desired results. Yesterday you did yoga, today you started a program of high-intensity cardio, and tomorrow you planned strength training – with this approach you start from the starting point every time and do not move forward, respectively, do not notice the development, get disappointed in the sport as such and do not want to waste time.

To come to the goal – whether it is weight loss, embossed abs or good stretching, you need to decide on a training plan and follow it, without being distracted by fleeting trends in fitness fashion. Only in this way, step by step, you will be able to achieve what you want.

The main thing is numbers

To eat no more than 1500 kcal a day, to weigh no more than 55 kg or to squeeze from the chest a hundred and not a gram less – such goals are not only doubtful and do not guarantee visible results, but also can become a psychological barrier on the way to the goal. Clinging to specific numbers is not always a useful practice. For some people, especially beginners, it can only hinder them.

When you’re just starting out on the road to a healthier and slimmer body, it’s not easy to objectively assess your capabilities and set realistic goals. And blindly following stereotypes – for example, that a girl’s weight should not exceed “x” kilograms – only makes things worse. Figures in this situation – extremely relative, and one person weighing 60 kg will look too thin, and another – too full. Appearance depends not only on what the scales show, and therefore you should not fixate on them.