Exercise Mistakes You Might Be Making
Whether you’re a newbie or veteran at exercising, you’ll need to watch out for exercise mistakes that impact your workout’s effectiveness. Health expert JJ Virgin shares the top five to look out for and what to do about it.
1. Overdoing Cardio and Neglecting Strength Training
Like acid-washed jeans and bleached hair, the cardio-obsessed 80s have faded away. Yet even today, I see folks trudging on the treadmill, usually thumbing through a magazine or catching up on Real Housewives on that little TV screen. I want to gently guide these folks into the weight room. Strength training does so many things, including boosting metabolism, increasing bone density, and steadying blood-sugar levels.
As you get older, muscle becomes critical: once you turn 30, muscle mass begins to decrease about 3-8% every decade. After 60, that loss becomes even higher. During prolonged periods of cardio, your body may start breaking down muscle tissue for energy. Some types, including running or cycling, can do more harm than good. They put stress on specific joints, tendons, and muscles. Over time, repetitive stress can lead to overuse injuries like shin splints, stress fractures, tendonitis, or muscle strains.
Excessive cardio can also stress your body, leading to an increase in cortisol. Chronically elevated levels of this stress hormone can interfere with muscle growth, impair recovery, and potentially contribute to weight gain and other hormonal imbalances.
The only kind of cardio that gets great results is high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which alternates short bursts of intense exercise with periods of active recovery or rest. HIIT workouts are usually shorter than steady-state cardio and include muscle-building exercises as well. The intensity and effectiveness of HIIT can improve heart health, build muscle, and help you get lean.
No free weights? No problem! While I love the gym for strength training, the convenience of the portable, lightweight TRX® Suspension Trainer makes it ideal for traveling and those days when I don't have a lot of time to work out.
2. Ignoring the Importance of Rest and Recovery
I’m all about going hard at the gym. But when it comes to fitness, too much of a good thing can become detrimental. Determined to reach their goals more quickly, some people don't allow enough time for adequate rest and recovery. Especially as you get older, recovery days are critical to prevent burnout and injuries. When you don’t build in rest days, you're exhausted, your immune system can crash fast, you feel awful, and your risk of injury increases. Insufficient rest can also impede progress and hinder muscle growth, undoing that hard work from your strength-training routine.
Make sure to allow each muscle group 48 hours of recovery before working them again. And refuel your body to make the most of that recovery, too. Your best post-exercise recovery is a protein-fueled smoothie. You’ll notice that unlike my other loaded smoothies, this one doesn’t include fat or fiber. That’s because they slow down protein digestion, and after a workout you want that protein (along with some healthy carbs like frozen fruit) to go to your muscles quickly.
Sleep is the ultimate type of repair and restoration. When you’re consistently getting 7-9 hours of quality, uninterrupted sleep every night, you support muscle repair and growth, optimize muscle-building growth hormone, balance other hormones, perform your best, and reduce your risk of injury.
Ideally, you’ll fit in your workout and get great sleep. What I never, ever want you to do is cut back your sleep to fit in exercise. Even during your most time-crunched days, you can fit in optimal sleep and get an intense, full-body workout in just minutes with high-intensity interval training (HIIT).
A well-rounded workout routine includes rest days, too. When I say rest, I’m not talking about vegging out on the couch or having cocktails with your girlfriends. Even during rest days, I want you to move. On my non-workout days, I’ll take a long after-dinner walk or a hot yoga class.
3. Doing the Same Exercise Routine Over and Over
One trend I’ve repeatedly witnessed in gyms: folks who do the same exercises for years on end. Because hey, if it works for a while, why mess with success?
I'll tell you why: Repeating the same exercises and routines can eventually create a plateau and leave you burned out. You always want to keep your body guessing. Sticking to a consistent routine may help when you first begin, but over time, your body adapts. Introducing variety and challenging your body in new ways can help you overcome plateaus, prevent boredom, and achieve better overall results.
While everyone’s different, I find that changing your exercise routine every 4-6 weeks allows enough time for your body to adapt to the previous routine and see progress, prevents stagnation, gives you an opportunity to challenge different muscle groups, and keeps things fresh.
Changing up your strength-training workout routine on a regular basis also prevents your muscles from adapting and optimizes muscle-mass gains. We call this muscle confusion, which challenges your muscles in new and unexpected ways. Keeping them guessing stimulates muscle growth, enhances strength gains, and prevents stagnation.
If you’re feeling in a rut, get out of your comfort zone by joining a new class, trying new routines, or hiring a personal trainer.
4. You’re Not Tracking Your Progress
What you measure, you can improve. I often talk about tracking your diet and body composition with tools like a continuous glucose monitor. Monitoring your progress at the gym is equally important. Tracking your workouts lets you see what you’re doing correctly and what needs adjusting. You can establish specific and measurable goals, such as increasing the amount of weight you lift or the number of reps you lift.
Tracking can also serve as a reminder of how far you've come, especially on days when you’re not super-psyched about working out. Plus, you can identify plateaus that hinder progress. When you record your workouts and see the data, you become more aware about what you should keep and what needs fixing.
Make tracking easy and you’ll be more likely to do it. Fitness apps and wearable fitness trackers are simple ways to monitor your progress. My go-to is the Cronometer, which conveniently tracks your food, movement, and more to give you direct feedback. You can also monitor your progress with measuring tape, as well as a body-composition scale. The scale is my favorite way to track how well your workouts impact your body, including how much fat and muscle you carry
5. You’re Not Getting Enough Protein & Other Nutrients
When you’re strength training, your muscles undergo stress and microtears. Optimal protein and regular strength training are your one-two combo to grow stronger and more resilient. Without sufficient protein intake, your body struggles to repair and rebuild muscle, leading to slower recovery times and limited gains. Protein helps you feel fuller for longer, too, and reduces cravings to help you keep a healthy weight.
The right nutrient support matters, too. Getting sufficient vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants support your metabolism, immune system, how well your cells function, and more. Deficiencies in even one vitamin or mineral can crash your energy levels, impair recovery, and increase susceptibility to illness or injury. One fitness-focused nutrient that everyone should use is creatine, a naturally occurring compound found in your muscles. Creatine increases the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), your primary source of energy for muscle contractions.
If you’re like me, you don’t have hours to work out. Exercise mistakes, which can jeopardize your progress and even create injury, are one of the most time-consuming obstacles to working out. Address these five common-but-fixable mistakes and you’ll have what it takes to optimize your workouts, maximize results, and stay on track towards your fitness goals. When you’re consistently strength training correctly and getting optimal protein, you build muscle, stay lean, support healthy blood sugar and hormone levels, and get the most out of your exercise.
