7 COMMON HEALTH & FITNESS MISTAKES

Here are 7 mistakes that are commonly made and a few ways of how to fix them.

1. NUTRITION

This is usually the biggest challenge for a lot of people to overcome or get right. You can train hard for an hour a day 5 times per week, but what are you doing for the other 23 hours? Getting your nutrition in check will make or break your health and fitness goals. You can’t out train an unhealthy lifestyle.

What you eat not only determines how you look, but also how you feel and how healthy you are on the inside. There are many different methods of eating out there from paleo and keto to Mediterranean and fasting.

Which one is best? They all have their pros and cons. The key is to keep things simple. Eat healthy options each meal and find what best fits into your lifestyle.

If you include these 4 things at most meals then you will have cracked the code. They are:

A protein source (chicken, fish, turkey, eggs etc)

A starchy carb (oatmeal, sweet potato, wholemeal rice etc)

Fibrous carbs (vegetables or fruit)

Healthy fat (avocado, oily fish, nuts, healthy cooking oils etc)

To keep your blood sugar levels stable, try to eat a small meal or snack every 2 - 3 hours. Again this will depend on your lifestyle, work, family etc. However you do it, don’t call it a diet. A diet has a start and an end. What happens if you “complete” your diet? Most will go back to old habits and put weight back on. Instead see it as a healthier lifestyle, something you can stick with for life. Lastly make sure that the healthy foods you do eat you enjoy and like, or you are less likely to stick to it.

2. IMBALANCED TRAINING

There are over 650 muscles in the body. When you exercise, how many of them do you actually focus on? Probably just the ones you know about or the “mirror muscles” that make you look good. This approach not only causes imbalances in the body, but can lead to postural problems, injuries and niggling pain.

Not only do we need to train the big muscles, we need to focus on the smaller stabilizer muscles that help to hold everything together. A lot of these are in the posterior chain (the back of the body). The problem is that they get neglected and become chronically weak in the process.

A lot of the time we even neglect big muscles in the posterior chain like the glutes which is a big no no. Ironically focusing on the following will make you stronger, increase your ability to lift heavier weights and improve your posture:

Grip and forearms (farmers walks)

Upper back (face pulls)

Mid traps (cable reverse fly)

Lower traps (plate raises above the head)

Glutes (hip thrusts)

Transverse abdominals (plank with abs sucked into the spine)

Abductors (abductor machine)

Adductors (adductor machine)

For the reasons above, your training programs must include exercises to train these muscles.

3. NOT HAVING A CLEAR PATH TO YOUR GOAL

Every time you go to the gym, do you know exactly what you need to do for that particular session?

Do you know what you did this time last week? Exercises, sets, reps and what you either lifted or your time it took you to complete your 5k run?

If the answer is no to any of these questions, then you are not making the most of your training time. We all lead busy lifestyles and for some people they can only get to the gym twice a week.

The key is to maximise your time no matter how many times you train. You can do this by having a clear and progressive plan. One that sets small achievable goals, leading to the end result which could be to lose weight for example. After achieving the desired weight loss, you would then make this way of living part of a daily routine to stay healthy.

4. HYDRATION

Most of us do not drink enough water each day. We don’t realise the many benefits and roles that water plays in our bodies. Here are a few examples of what water does to our bodies:

It lubricates the joints

Helps you to feel fuller

Aids weight loss

Flushes out toxins

Boosts skin health

Improves performance

So how do you know if you are dehydrated? The simplest way is to look at the colour of your urine. As a general rule, the darker it is the more dehydrated you are. If it is clear then you are hydrated.

A simple solution to make sure you have enough water per day is to invest in a water bottle and carry it around with you or take it to work. Try to drink 2 - 4 litres per day. You can also add in a bit of flavour by putting half a lemon or lime in the water.

5. RECOVERY

Never underestimate the importance of sleep and recovery from your training. In an ideal world, we would all get the 8 hours uninterrupted sleep per night. In reality it is harder than ever to do that these days. Balancing work, studies, stress, family, health, a social life, kids and relationships can all lead to lack of sleep.

If you have health and fitness goals, then recovery is even more important. Body changes occur when we sleep and will determine how well we recover from those hard gym sessions.

One of the best tips I can give is to try and plan your training around your recovery. For example if you are looking at starting a fitness program, look at when your best chances of recovery are. So you would do your sessions on days where you know you can get a better night's sleep and recover the next day.

This is often a very overlooked aspect of success. Most people don’t consider how or when they can recover from sessions. If you can apply this tip it will help greatly with your goals.

6. SUPPLEMENTS

The supplement industry is booming. It is a multi million pound industry. It can also be very confusing, not to mention expensive! The big mistake that people make, especially beginners, is that they think supplements are the magic bullet to success. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The likes of creatine, BCAA’s, protein powders, pre workouts etc can indeed help. The clue is in the name - supplements. They are there to aid and help your goals, be it muscle building or weight loss etc. However if you don’t have all the other factors dialled in like nutrition, a progressive training plan, recovery, hydration and consistency then you are wasting money.

If you are a beginner then supplements usually aren’t necessary. Your body will adapt to exercise stimulus and you will see results if you have everything mentioned above in check. All I would recommend for a beginner is to take a good multivitamin each morning. Your focus should be on creating good consistent nutrition and training habits, not focussing on the latest powder or potion.

If you are a more experienced gym goer, then yes use supplements to help take you to the next level. Again provided those other factors are in place. The problem is that sometimes you have to spend a lot of money to truly see if that particular brand works for you. My tip for advanced trainers would be to start off with a good brand of creatine, which is naturally found in the body. It is the most studied supplement in the world and has been proven to help exercise performance. After that I would include BCAA’s. Pre workouts are subjective and don’t work for everyone.

7. CONSISTENCY

This is the key to putting everything together. Without consistency, your results and efforts will be sporadic at best. This applies to your nutrition, training, effort levels, recovery and hydration etc. Along with nutrition this is the hardest part for a lot of people. Going to the gym when you don’t feel like it or when life gets in the way can be a real challenge.

A good way to try and combat this is to have a plan B. If the challenge is time, then short effective home workouts can help. Having a bit of training kit at home “just in case” is always a good investment. It doesn’t have to be anything expensive or take up a lot of room. A couple of kettlebells, or dumbbells or a barbell would do the trick. You can get a very effective workout in as little as 5 - 10 minutes if you train hard enough. Something is always better than nothing!

If the issue is that you feel demotivated or tired, one good tip is to write down your goals or have a picture of your ideal body type readily available to look at. This will help with motivation.

A second way is to listen to a fitness podcast from someone in the industry you admire and look up to. You could listen to the podcast to motivate you to not miss that gym session.