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What Am I Doing Wrong in my Exercise Routine? West Hartford Personal Trainer
We asked our West Hartford CT Personal Trainer for some suggestions. You may be surprised what he came up with.
You have started an exercise routine and are eating right. But you’re not seeing the results you want, or you are finding you are getting injured or tired.
What are you doing wrong?
You Don’t Warm Up—Our personal trainer in West Hartford Connecticut always has his clients do a warm up. Warming up gets your blood pumping, and loosens up your muscles and joints. Walking or an easy jog is a good way to warm up. Dynamic stretching is also helpful to prepare your body for your workout.
Your Goals are Too Big and Too Vague—It’s great to have a big goal. “I want to lose 100 pounds, and compete in a bodybuilding competition,” or “I want to run a marathon, even though I’ve never run before in my life.”
But, our West Hartford personal trainer suggests that you chunk the HUGE goal down into smaller, more attainable goals.
Wanting to lose 100 pounds, for example, can be chunked down into “I want to begin a nutrition program with proper macros, and I want to start working out twice per week with a personal trainer, to lose 2 pounds of body fat per week.”
It’s more specific of a goal and much more attainable than the big blanket statement.
You Don’t Track Anything—Not recording your meals, snacks and water, along with not tracking your exercise can be a recipe in futility. You should be recording everything—what exercises you did, how many reps you did, what weight you used. Track your progress by taking photos and tracking your body fat percentage.
Our personal trainer in West Hartford Connecticut will always start a training session by checking a client’s nutrition book, to see what he/she has consumed since the last session, and then will also track the number on the scale and the body fat percentage from the body fat analyzer. When the client begins their journey with us, we take a “before” profile picture as well.
“We measure progress in a number of different ways. Not just the scale,” says our personal trainer in West Hartford Connecticut.
You Don’t Lift Enough Weight—“As a personal trainer in West Hartford Connecticut, I see a lot of folks coming to me telling me they lift weights, only to find out they are doing 20 repetitions of bicep curls with 2 pound dumbbells. This will do nothing for almost everyone.”
He says you need to challenge your body to see it change. If it’s too easy to do 10 to 12 reps with and you feel like you can do more reps, then it’s too light of a weight.
This is also a good reason to track everything. You can see how you progress in the amount of weight and reps you do as time goes on, and you will see how much stronger you become.
In a nutshell, muscles respond to increased resistance. You need to ensure that you provide enough resistance to your muscles.
You Don’t Have a Plan at the Gym—Working out aimlessly without having a plan is like making a four-course meal without any food in the house, nor a recipe.
You need a plan so you have focus or essentially it will be a waste of time.
Our personal trainer of West Hartford Connecticut will devise your own individualized plan to ensure you reach your goals. When you come in, as our client, you will have a blueprint each time to keep you focused on your progress.
Don’t have a trainer? Go online and develop your own plan. There are tons of workouts on line!
You’re not Consistent—It’s ok to skip a workout once in a while, especially if you’re feeling ill, or exhausted. But this should be the exception, not the rule, says our West Hartford Connecticut personal trainer.
Ensure that if you plan to lift Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and you plan to do cardio on Tuesdays and Thursdays, that you honor that commitment like you would any other appointment.
Make sure that excuses are not getting in the way of your progress.
If that is too hard, then cut down one day.
Don’t feel like working out? Ask yourself, “Will I feel better after I do this workout?” In most cases, the answer will be a resounding “yes.”
Stay home if you are truly ill, with a fever, stomach issues or hacking cough.
You Don’t Switch Things Up—Your body needs to acclimate to new exercises, but if you continue to do only those exercises throughout your fitness routine, your body will stagnate its progress.
Once your body is acclimated to your routine, it is necessary to switch things up—different exercises, amounts of repetitions, varying weights, different speeds, etc.—or else you will never see your body change.
There are infinite ways to change things up –compound sets, supersets, pyramiding—in addition to the amount of weight and variation of exercises. If you only swim, or only run, your body will not see a change. To get faster, stronger and improve your overall fitness level, you need to mix things up.
Try something new!
Our West Hartford Connecticut personal trainer knows this little secret; that is why he changes his clients’ workouts every few weeks, to keep their bodies challenged.
Bad Form—If you have a habit of leaning back, or rocking back and forth when you’re doing bicep curls or bouncing barbells off your chest, then you may need to pick a lighter weight. Our West Hartford Connecticut personal trainer suggests that doing a lighter weight with proper form will do so much more for your physique than heavy weight and atrocious form.
Plus, it will reduce your risk of injury.
Our personal trainer in West Hartford Connecticut is certified and knows what proper form looks like. He ensures his clients are executing good form at all times.
Not Enough Water; Not Enough Sleep—
Let’s start with the water. No, we’re not about drinking coffee here. You need enough water throughout your workout and throughout the day to hydrate your muscles and other organs, and to keep your energy high and your body functioning properly. “Don’t’ skimp on it,” says our personal trainer in West Hartford Connecticut.
You should multiply your weight by 67% (2/3) but if your activity level is higher—which it will be If you are exercising—the amount should be adjusted. Add about 12 ounces of water for every 30 minutes you exercise. (So for a 45 minute workout, you should drink an additional 18 ounces).
As for sleep, the majority of adults between 18 and 60 years old require at least seven hours of sleep per night. This is important for a number of reasons.
First, studies have shown that lack of sleep raises your stress hormone, cortisol. Cortisol can interfere with your metabolism.
Second, you want to know you will have enough energy to complete your workouts with proper form. No one wants an injury due to working out. Getting enough sleep will help prevent injuries.
There are more other rookie mistakes that people new to fitness make. The most common referenced above can be easily overcome, if you want to see results. And who doesn’t want to see results from their personal trainer in West Hartford, even in the very cold weather?
