Top Workout Mistakes: Is Your Exercise Actually Hurting You?

Time’s tight, your schedule is busy, that’s what has prompted thousands of workout videos that will get you moving and sweating in 5, 10, or 15 minutes. A mini workout seems like a fantastic way to get your heart rate up and burn some extra calories, but is your workout hurting you more than it’s helping you? Read on for some of the most common workout mistakes people often make!

Common Workout Mistakes

Don’t Rush.

The importance of proper form as you workout cannot be stressed enough. Poor form can lead to serious pain and injury, and you probably won’t feel this pain until after your workout is over. For instance, doing a double leg lift or other ab move laying on your back, you need to be sure to keep your core engaged so your lower back stays flat against the mat. Without doing this, your lower back is open to serious injury.

Proper form should always beat getting in more reps. You’re better off doing 15 perfect reps in a minute than rushing through 16 half-done reps. Doing it right will not only keep you safe, it will make sure the moves you’re doing are the most effective they can be. When it comes to resistance, going slow is usually more efficient anyway!

Get Off The Machines.

Machines are a wonderful part of your workout routine, but if you only ever use workout machines, you’re missing out on a huge part of being fit. After all, workout machines lock you into a pre-determined position and only work one plane of movement. That means they focus on the largest muscle sections in your body. The best workouts will use a mix of full-body body resistance training, workout machines, and cardio, which brings up another point.

Plan Accordingly.

Waiting until the evening to workout is better than skipping your workout all together, but studies have proven that workouts will be more effective if you time them at specific intervals depending on your workout goals. For example, walking later in the day is proven to promote weight loss, but if you’re trying to beat the brain fog you experience during your work day, pick a time between noon and 6 o’clock in the evening. Evening workouts can also help you build muscle more quickly.

Morning exercise is essential for relieving stress and helping keep your blood pressure helpful. Morning resistance training is actually proven to help drop blood pressure by up to 20% on average. Additionally, people who worked out in the morning spent up to 75% more time at night in a deeper state of sleep.

You’re not recovering properly.

This is one of the biggest issues most people have in their regular routines. If your cool-down time is a two-minute stretch and a shower, you’re not treating your body right. After a workout, you need some quality recovery time. Your recovery session is just as important as the workout itself. You should take a good 10 to 15 minutes (at minimum) doing a proper cool down to bring down your heart rate, stretch out your muscles, and even reflect on your workout to think about what you can do better the next day. After you’re done cooling down on the mat, take a shower and finish your routine.

You’re not warming up properly.

Perhaps even more important than recovering the right way is warming up the right way. Improper recovery will hinder your progress, but improper warm-ups can lead to serious injury and elevated health risks. Warming up properly means taking the time to stretch out, and then slowly easing into some low-impact cardio warm-ups to get your blood pumping right. If you skip the warm-up, or only spend a minute or two doing it, you will easily shock your body by going straight into your lifts or running. This will lead to muscle pulls and a variety of other problems.

A warm-up may not seem like an important part of your workout right now, but as soon as you suffer an injury that puts you on the couch for weeks just because you didn’t warm your muscles up right, you’ll get why it’s so crucial that you spend the 10 or 15 minutes warming yourself up. It will make you more limber and more effective throughout your workout. In fact, dancers warm-up for an hour or more before they even begin their routine. To attest to the effectiveness of such a warm-up, no matter where you’re at with your flexibility right now, by the end of an official one hour dance warm-up, you’d probably be able to touch your toes—or at least reach significantly further than you can when you’re body is “cold”.

While you don’t have to warm-up for an hour, spend a minimum of 10 minutes to warm-up. Begin with stretches, stretching out your legs, arms, neck, and back, and then go into a light cardio warm-up, like windmills or cross-kicks to get your body moving and your blood pumping.

Your Joints Are Paying For It.

Whether you’re a regular runner or even a pickup basketball player, your joints are likely suffering from hard impact. Without proper workout shoes that can help absorb the shock of pavement, outdoor exercises can seriously harm your knee and hip joints. Invest the money and time into buying proper workout shoes to help you avoid aches, pains, and injury. Your joints will certainly thank you for it in the long-run, and you’ll be more effective during your workout sessions because you’ll be able to go further and longer without worrying about harming your joints.

Pure Health Clinic Can Help

Chiropractic care is proven to help athletes and weekend warriors alike. It helps decrease recovery time, improve mobility, boost energy, and more. Contact Pure Health Clinic today to get started!