People in Western societies continue to grow and become more overweight. Researchers believe this is due to the fact that modern people lead a less active lifestyle and eat more. Fitness experts are now encouraging people to exercise at least 30 minutes every day to keep their weight down. With such a forceful message, it’s no wonder that gym memberships are really on the rise and more and more people are starting to exercise regularly.
However, beginners tend to make mistakes when they first enter a gym. Here are some tips to prevent them from happening to you.
1. Don’t exercise. Believe it or not, many gym beginners are actually lazy with their workouts. Whether it’s leaning on weight machines for long periods of time between sets or doing a light jog on the treadmill when they could actually run, they’re just not getting what they could be from their time at the gym.
2. Read or watch television on the cardio machine. The fact is, if you can read a magazine or watch TV while exercising, you’re probably not trying hard enough.
3. Do only cardio. Research has shown that people who do cardio and weights lose more fat than those who only do cardio. Strength training adds lean muscle to your body that burns more fat than.
4. Do your reps quickly. When lifting weights, if you do it too fast, you will break the form and will not exercise the muscle properly. Lifting weights slowly and gently reduces the chances of injury and, in fact, fatigue your muscles more than going fast.
5. Adding too much weight, too fast. People think that it is the size or weight of the actual weights that makes the muscle gain. The reality is that it is how you fatigue your muscle that stimulates growth. If the weight is too heavy, your form will break and you are more likely to be injured. Focus on fatigued your muscles in good shape and you will remain injury free and will likely build more muscle than if you were lifting weights that were too heavy for you.
