Are You Making These Workout Mistakes?

By Donna Stark

You exercise for the health benefits. You exercise for the stress relief. You may even exercise for the transformation of your body. But you certainly don't exercise to waste your time, which unfortunately, might be exactly what you are doing if you have bad workout habits. Bad habits at the gym are all it takes to eradicate every single benefit you are working for. And if that's not bad enough, they can also lead to significant damage if you don't make the necessary corrections as soon as you can. Here are some common mistakes that are ruining your workouts.

Forgetting to Track Your Progress

If you are at all serious about reaching your health and fitness goals, you need to keep track of what you are doing. Keeping a record of how much weight you lift, how many miles you run, and how many pounds you lose is important because it lets you know whether or not you are heading in the right direction. It also helps you determine what is working and what is not.

Practicing Poor Form

Yes, there is a right and a wrong way to do things when you exercise and if you are practicing poor form, you are doing it the wrong way. Whether you are strength-training or jogging on the treadmill, if you are not careful with your movements, you can easily become injured. So, listen to your trainers when they tell you to keep your knees bent and don't be shy to watch yourself in the mirror. Your joints and muscles depend on your focus and attention!

Missing Important Steps

We are all so busy and time is so precious, but that doesn't mean you should short-change your workouts. A workout should contain four distinct stages ... warm-up, workout, cool down, and stretching. And as tempting as it may be to skip some of those stages, you may want to reconsider doing so. Every stage is necessary for a healthy, safe, and efficient workout.

Training One Area

Make sure your fitness routine consists of exercises that train the entire body. By training one part of your body more than the rest, you are potentially setting yourself up for muscle imbalance and when that happens, the risk of injury to the other muscles and joints increases.

No More Mistakes

Don't lose everything you have worked so hard for. If you want to reach all of your health and fitness goals, you need to practice good habits, so be mindful of how you work out! And if you notice yourself making some of the mistakes above, be sure to correct them as quickly as possible!

To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Prosper, Tex.