Solutions To The Top 7 Workout Mistakes

There are numerous workout mistakes that hold people back from progressing in their weight loss and/or muscle building training programs. Some mistakes are quite scientific in nature, such as not getting enough proteins in your system after a workout, but most are as common sense as common sense gets. There's no reason for these mistakes to be committed, yet we're all guilty of making these mistakes from time to time, or even on a continual basis. In order to have a truly effective workout you need to understand the reasoning behind these mistakes and how you can correct them.

Workout mistake 1: Not eating immediately after a workout

Some people don't take the time to 'feed' their muscles after a workout with the necessary protein and carbohydrates. You need to be taking in food within about 30 minutes after your workout to have the full effect. This window of opportunity means that you need a quick meal, something that does not take long to prepare, making those protein and carb shakes the ideal post-workout meal. This will allow your body to recover quicker and help your muscles grow.

Workout mistake 2: Training without a plan

A lot of people train by going to a gym, lifting whatever weights are available, playing with whatever machine is available, and waiting for their favourite piece of equipment to become available. Doing this consistently is a complete waste of time. You need to develop goals as to why you want to workout, assess where you are now, and what plan of action will allow you to get to where you want to be. This will make your workouts more focused, and more effective.

Workout mistake 3: Repeating the same workouts

You don't want to be repeating your workouts from one session to the next. You need to move your attention from your areas of strength to your weaker points, which means doing workouts that really challenge you. Make sure that you are continually improving after each workout, either by doing just one more rep, or adding a little more weight to the exercise, or doing an extra minute of cardio. Whatever it is make sure you are improving on your previous workout.

Workout mistake 4: Training without intensity

Some people tend to just coast through a workout; using light weights in low reps, low intensity cardio, and overall low intensity workouts. In order to make significant gains you need to train with intensity and push yourself to improve in each workout. Rather than relying on a long, steady cardio workout, try training in high intensity intervals. And instead of doing higher rep ranges with lighter weights, do lower rep ranges with more weights. The harder you train, the quicker you will see results.

Workout mistake 5: Thinking you need to 'feel the burn'

Some people think that to have an effective workout you need to feel that burn in your muscles. That burn is a result of lactic acid building up during the workout and may actually slow down muscle growth, not speed it up. It has nothing to do with muscle growth, and nothing to do with how hard you're training. You can reduce lactic build-up by training in a rep range of 5-7 rather than higher rep ranges of 10 and above.

Workout mistake 6: Comparing yourself to others

Don't compare yourself to the professional body builders or the professional athletes who train for hours every day. Comparing yourself to others lowers your self-esteem and confidence, making you frustrated and unhappy. Focus on your own goals, and the results you want to see in yourself through each of your workouts. Compare yourself to yourself yesterday, or yourself during the previous workout, and make sure that you are improving on what and who you were before today.

Workout mistake 7: Making excuses for missing a workout

We all have excuses, and we've all used them, but excuses get us absolutely nowhere. We don't gain anything from using our excuses, and we certainly don't grow from them, physically and mentally. Drop the excuses. Some people don't see results immediately so they stop trying, others say it's too hot or too cold, and still most say they don't have enough time. You need to accept total and absolute responsibility for your life. If you're not seeing results find out why, maybe you need to train with more intensity, maybe you're not eating properly; find out why, and rectify the situation. If you feel you don't have enough time to workout, decide to manage your time so that only activities that are essential to you consume your time, and taking care of your body is as essential as it gets. If you want to workout in the morning get out of bed an hour earlier, which means you go to sleep an hour earlier. Take responsibility for all of your actions and create the masterpiece of your life.

The first step to rectifying any mistake in your training is identifying the mistake. Identify exactly what you've been doing incorrectly, learn from the mistake, and find out how you can correct the situation. The real mistake in training is knowing you're making mistakes but doing nothing about it, and just repeating those same errors over and over again. Make significant progress in your training and you will be able to make significant progress in other areas of your life.

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The Secret of the Properly Balanced Post-Workout Meal for Fat Loss & Muscle Building

I'm sure you've heard before that your post-workout meal is actually your most important meal of the day (aside from breakfast).

I'd have to agree with that for the most part because refueling your body with the right combination of nutrients are so vastly important to repairing your muscles from the breakdown of a workout, and keeping your metabolism sky high.

From the research about post-workout meals:

"A recent 12-week study says that those who failed to consume a post workout meal immediately after their workouts suffered a lower metabolism, loss of fat free mass, and had clear indications of muscle loss - while their counterparts (those who consumed a post workout recovery meal) significantly lost more fat, increased lean muscle, improved their metabolism, and increased dynamic strength."

I've noticed that many people are confused as to what actually makes a good post-workout meal. A couple common questions about post workout meals:

1. Aren't post-workout meals just important for building muscle? Do they matter at all if my goal is fat loss?

2. Is it best to use one of the fancy post-workout drinks or shakes that you see in the magazines or is a whole food meal better? What's the best combination of carbs to protein to fat in a good post workout meal?

3. How quickly after a workout is best to consume my post workout meal?

Answers:

1. Post-workout meals are important for BOTH muscle building and fat loss!

Always remember that one of the most important aspects of long term fat loss and maintaining a lean body for life is raising your overall metabolic rate by building and maintaining adequate lean muscle mass throughout your body.

By consuming a proper post workout meal after every workout, you assist your body in repairing and building lean muscle throughout your body. The more lean muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate... hence, you lose fat easier, and it is MUCH easier to stay lean long term.

2. Whole foods or supplement shakes? This can be done either way, but I'm going to show you some guidelines why some post-workout shakes are better than others and some whole foods are better than others. Either way, you can make it work.

First, keep in mind that your goal throughout the majority of each day is eating small whole food meals frequently that digest slowly with high fiber and a controlled glycemic response (blood sugar). These normal daily meals should also contain healthy fats and slowly digested proteins to keep a steady supply of amino acids.

Well, when it comes to post-workout meals, you can almost use the exact opposite strategy of your normal meals. With post-workout meals, you actually want a faster digesting carbohydrate source to elicit an insulin response, which surges nutrients and glycogen back into your muscles for repair.

So while I always preach high fiber for most of your meals, with post-workout, you actually want low fiber, high GI carbs, and quickly digesting proteins as well for muscle repair.

Another aspect to keep in mind... while I always preach healthy fats at most of your meals... with the post workout meal, you actually want almost all carbs and protein, and very little fat if any. Fat just slows the absorption and glycemic response which is not what you want with the post-workout meal.

What about ratios of carbs and protein?

I've reviewed dozens and dozens of studies on this subject and it always seems to come back to a ratio of approximately 2 to 1 carbs to protein. This seems to be the optimal combination to maximize muscle repair to boost that metabolism for long term fat loss.

I usually make my post-workout shakes using a frozen banana, whey protein, water, and some real maple syrup and aim for about a 2:1 ratio of carbs to protein.

If you want to make things simpler, one of the best post-workout shakes that I've found is Prograde's Varsity Post-Workout mix. Check it out at:

3. How quickly should you eat (or drink) your post-workout meal?

As soon as you can after your workout (the sooner the better)!

Studies show that the sooner you consume your post workout meal following your intense workout, the better your muscle recovery will be, and a higher percentage of the carbs ingested will be used for muscle glycogen replenishment instead of other uses.

The first thing I do when I get back from the gym is make my post workout shake, and this is about 10 min after finishing my workout.

Make sure to check out some of the other research about post-workout recovery meals at:

[http://www.allaboutsixpack.com/]

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The Top 10 Bonehead Workout Mistakes Part 1

"Common workout mistakes" has always been a very popular topic in fitness publications. But no matter how many times this subject is re-hashed, you almost always hear about the same half a dozen or so mistakes, including poor form, overtraining, going too heavy, not stretching, not warming up, yadda, yadda yadda. Ironically, you seldom hear about the biggest mistakes of all. I call these humongous bloopers "bonehead mistakes" because once you start to analyze and think about them, it's really just common sense and it all seems so obvious... except of course to the person doing it... who is often quite oblivious until someone else points it out to them... then the light goes on and it's like... "Doh!"

Before I begin the countdown, (in no particular order), there's one more gripe I have about the treatment this subject has been given in the past: Most of the attention has been put on the mistakes, but very little on the solutions. It's all too easy to point fingers and say, "Don't do that" and "Shame on you, dummy" but only 1% of your time should be spent on problems. 99% should be spent on solutions. So in that spirit, after I bring each mistake to your attention, I'll give you a solution-oriented training tip to help you avoid boneheadedness and join the elite group who "kick butt" in the gym at every workout...

Bonehead workout mistake #1: "Winging it"

"Winging it" means having no written goals or plans, no training journal and no way of "keeping score." It's when you just show up at the gym day after day and do whatever strikes your fancy, whatever machine happens to be available, or whatever you've become habitually accustomed to doing. Winging it is when you don't know where you are, where you're going or how you're going to get there - but you start your journey anyway - no compass, no roadmap. It's been said that "Action without planning is the biggest cause of failure," and I believe that statement is 100% accurate.

Kick butt workout tip #1: Develop a strategic plan

Successful people never "wing it," they always have a plan. Strategic planning is a never ending process and includes: Assessment (where am I now?), goal setting (where do I want to go?), creating a plan or strategy (How will I get where I want to go?), executing the plan (what action steps must I take daily to reach my goal?), and measuring results (how will I know if I'm moving towards my goal and how will I know when I've reached it?). Boneheads "wing it." Butt-kickers have a master plan and goals for every workout.

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Bonehead workout mistake #2: Repeating the same workouts... without progressive overload

In one respect, repeating the same workouts is important - it's called "continuity." Continuity means that to experience an adaptive response (more muscle, more strength, less fat and all that other good stuff), you must a repeat a certain modality or exercise consistently over a long enough period of time to allow the adaptive response to occur and to reap the full benefits (rather than changing exercises at every workout). That type of repetition is good. The bonehead mistake is when you do the same exercises, same reps, same weight, same everything, week after week, without ever challenging yourself to do more than you've done before. If your muscles could talk they would say, "Yawn.... Did that, done that, been there... we're just going to stay exactly the way we are... no need to get bigger or stronger today."

Kick butt workout tip #2: Strive to beat your previous workouts

Muscle growth and strength increases occur when you place demands on your body above and beyond what it has experienced in the past. Your body responds to this progressive overload by getting stronger in order to handle this type of demand in the future. Your objective at almost every workout is to set goals to beat what you did during the previous one. If you can't add more weight, it could be as simple as one more rep with the same weight or the same sets/reps/weight in less time. It could also mean one more minute of cardio, one level higher on a stairclimber, or half a percent steeper incline on the treadmill. Continuous and never-ending improvement is the name of the game.

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Bonehead workout mistake #3: Starving yourself

A calorie deficit is the only way to lose body fat. However, the caloric deficit must be kept small. When calories are cut too much, or held too low for too long, your body thinks you are starving and sets into motion a series of metabolic and hormonal events, which ultimately result in muscle loss, slow metabolism and plateaus. Your body is like a power plant or furnace and when you don't feed the fire, your metabolic flame dwindles to a flicker, producing less heat and less energy. That's why not eating enough is one of the biggest mistakes of all. As Charlie Remington likes to say, "Food is not your problem, food is your solution"

Kick butt workout tip #3: Eat more, burn more

Did it ever occur to you that if you exercise more you can eat more? And that this is a more effective fat loss strategy than eating less and exercising less? To lose body fat, you must create a calorie deficit. A deficit can be created by exercising more, eating less, or ideally, with a combination of both. The best combination of all is a small decrease in calories accompanied by a large increase in activity. Think about it: Decreasing calories slows your metabolism. Increasing calories increases your metabolism. Exercise increases your metabolism.

Therefore, eat more, exercise more = double increase in metabolism. Eat less, don't exercise = double decrease in metabolism. This is the entire premise of my Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle System and that's why the program is so powerful and has helped tens of thousands of people lose fat without depriving themselves. Yes, starving is for boneheads.

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Bonehead workout mistake #4: Skipping scheduled workouts

A great body doesn't happen overnight. Successful body transformation is the cumulative result of dozens or even hundreds of successful workouts. Each workout brings you one small step closer to your goal. Each workout missed takes you one small step backwards. Most people underestimate the cumulative effect of each small step. They figure that "It just doesn't matter... it's only one workout." If you don't think that one little workout matters, then think about the humble termite; they're such itty bitty little creatures and they take such itty bitty little bites, yet when enough little bites are taken, an entire building can come crumbling down.

Kick butt workout tip #4: Be disciplined and consistent

Not only do you slip backwards physically when you skip even one scheduled workout, perhaps more devastating is the effect on your mind and character. Every time you successfully complete a scheduled workout, you build your discipline and self esteem. When your self esteem increases, it makes you feel good and that stimulates a positive self-reinforcing cycle of even more discipline, confidence and action. Everything you do helps or hurts. Every workout counts. Treat your word as law. When you say you're going to work out... WORK OUT!

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Bonehead workout mistake #5: Focusing on strengths, favorite exercises and favorite body parts, neglecting weaknesses

Most people have a favorite body part or exercise. But playing favorites in your training can lead to big problems. An unbalanced, asymmetrical physique is one of them, but having a great upper body with toothpick legs is the least of your worries. Strengthening and stretching some muscle groups but not others is a great way to cause poor posture, muscular imbalance, dysfunction, strains, pulls, tears or ruptures.

Kick butt workout tip #5: Train for functional balance and aesthetic balance

Non-boneheads train every muscle group for symmetrical, visually pleasing development. However, "balance" is more than cosmetic. Everyone - athletes, bodybuilders, and recreational exercisers - must also train for functional balance to prevent injury and maintain optimal function and range of movement in every joint and muscle group. Every plane of movement and angle of movement must be trained. Flexors must be balanced with extensors. Front to back movements must be balanced with rotational and side to side movements. Prime movers, antagonists and stabilizers must all be strengthened. Always stretch, strengthen and build to the point of total body balance.

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Continued in part 2

Tom Venuto is a certified personal trainer, nutritionist, natural bodybuilder and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book in the world, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle. You can get information on Tom's Fat Burning e-book at: http://www.burnthefat.com To get Tom's free monthly e-zine, visit http://www.tomvenuto.com

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