1. You Go Every Day
People
often ask, how often should I go to the gym? But even if you’re someone who
can’t do anything by halves, working out every day is not sustainable – either
physically or mentally. “If you go every day you won’t be able to maintain a
useful intensity and you’ll get bored,” says Archer. “It becomes a chore and
you’ll start missing sessions, beating yourself up about it and losing
motivation.” Incorporate proper rest days into your schedule. “Take the dog for
a walk, or go to the gym but use the sauna and Jacuzzi to chill out,” he suggests.
2. You Always Stick to the Same Workout
We all tend to repeat the things we like doing, so it’s no
wonder that once we find a workout that suits us we stick to it. Archer advises
against this. “Change your programme after four to six weeks, otherwise you get
into a pattern and you stop producing results because your body has hit a
plateau,” he says. As well as changing your workout, you can mix it up by cross
training – try a circuit or kickboxing class once a week.
3. You Copy the Hardcore Gym Members
It’s easy to think that to get as ripped as the guy in your
gym who wows all the female instructors with one-armed press-ups, you have
simply to follow his lead. “People see someone lifting a heavier weight or using
a certain technique and rather than ask them what they’re up to they just copy
them,” says Archer. The problem is that without knowing what someone else’s
fitness aims are, copying them could land you with unexpected results or an
injury. “The best solution is to read magazines and do your homework before you
hit the gym. Be careful who you take advice from, because some fitness
instructors are not highly qualified and won’t necessarily know what is best
for you.”
4. You Use the Gym for Socialising
Go to your gym often enough and it starts to feel like a
second home. This is a dangerous moment. “For a lot of people who go every day
it becomes their social life,” says Archer. “They chat for half an hour and
their training suffers, then they go to the restaurant afterwards and suddenly
they’re at the gym every night – but how much work are they actually doing?” So
get your priorities right. The gym is there to burn calories, and get you fit
and looking good.
5. You Exercise Aimlessly
Exercise is enjoyable for its own sake. But once the high of
bashing out monster reps on the bench press wears off it can seem a bit
pointless. Keep short-term and long-term goals in mind to keep you motivated,
and chart your progress. “A short-term goal might be to improve your treadmill
speed by a notch. It’s a good way to keep yourself working towards your
long-term goal,” says Archer. “If you can’t think of a long-term goal, it’s the
gym staff’s job to help you find one.”
6. You Only Train on Your Own
Single-minded focus is commendable, but all top athletes use
training partners to keep them going and push them to the next level of
performance. “Ideally you want someone who’s got the same goals as you and
whose strength and fitness levels are just a bit better than yours,” says
Archer. “You’ll be pushed in every session and each will make sure the other
goes to the gym.”
7. You Never Take a Break
Slavishly following a workout plan for a whole year is
likely to lead to burnout. “If your training is getting stale and you’re not
getting anywhere, take a break – but do it properly and have a couple of weeks
off,” says Archer. “It gives you what you need for a total recovery of your
body and your mind, because boredom is the biggest killer. If you go on
holiday, you don’t have to pack running shoes. Treat it as a way to reward
yourself and help you reach your goals.”
8. You Beat Yourself Up When You Have a Bad Session
Even the most motivated and energetic gym-goer can have a
really crap training session. There’s often no real reason: your body just
isn’t up for it. Don’t imagine that you’re going backwards. “Sometimes you
don’t feel great, but just being there is enough,” says Archer. “People who are
hard on themselves and start to feel negative about it tend to eventually stop
going to the gym altogether.”
9. You Confuse a Tired Brain With a Tired Body
A tough day at the office leaves you shattered and in no
mood for the gym, so you go home and try to get an early night but end up with
a bout of insomnia. If that sounds familiar, you may need to separate mental
and physical fatigue. “People think they’re tired when all they’ve done is sit
at their computers. Their brain is knackered but their body is keyed-up and
ready for exercise,” says Archer. “By going to the gym, you’ll get your energy
levels surging and de-stress yourself in the process.”
10. You Work Through Colds
It’s often said that if you exercise when you have the
beginnings of a cold, you’ll work it out of your system. This is nonsense.
“When you train you weaken your immune system because you ask it to repair the
muscles you’ve damaged in order for them to get stronger,” says Archer. “If
you’ve got a cold already, lowering the immune system is going to bring that
cold on even more.” If you’re feeling ill, eat well and take two days off to
recover so you’re fully fit to begin training again.
11. You Stick to the Machines
You’ve reached a plateau and are struggling to move that pin
on to heavier weights on your favourite machine. But your body knows its limits
better than you do and has shut down growth in the muscle group you’re
targeting because its supporting stabilising muscles aren’t strong enough. The
best way to work stabilisers and make your other muscles work harder at the
same time is to replace the weight machine with dumbbells. “You can get a lot
more from dumbbells because their movement is not restricted and they work both
sides equally,” says Archer.
12. You Don’t Warm Up Specifically
Running on a treadmill for ten minutes won’t warm you up for
a set of chin-ups. “Try matching the warm-up to the muscle group – rowing is
good for the upper body. Then do two light sets of 12-15 reps before you do
your work sets,” says Archer. “The same applies to cardio workouts. Warm up at
30-60% of race pace.”
13. You Don’t Time Your Rests Between Sets
Between sets, you wander around or sit staring into space
until you sense that the guy waiting for your station is getting wound up and
you launch into the next set. This is likely to sabotage your workout. “Your
recovery time is important when looking at how much you are going to be able to
lift later on,” says Archer. “Too short a rest and your muscles won’t have
recovered; too long and you won’t get the benefit.” Wear a stopwatch and don’t
be intimidated into starting your next set too early.
14. You Only Ever Use Heavy Weights to Build Muscle
When you hit the weights room, you always lift the heaviest
weight possible. This may limit your growth because you’ll hit your muscles in
a very predictable way, and it’s hard to control large weights precisely. “Now
and then, go light and do extra reps with a greater range of motion. People
don’t always lock out on biceps curls, for instance, and you can end up with
short biceps. If you go heavy you have to make sure that your technique is
spot-on first,” says Archer.
15. You Do Too Many Workouts
You hammer
yourself into the ground with weights and cardio training until you end up
breaking down your body faster than it can repair itself. “When I train my
clients I go for three or four sessions in the gym a week with three days off
within that,” says Archer. ”When you rest is when you grow, and people don’t
realise how long they have to rest. Listen to your body and if a muscle
is aching don’t work it until it stops.”
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