Why is that you want to lose a couple of pounds, tone your body, and be able to lift some weights?

You most likely answered that you are trying to reach your fitness goals. There are many of us that have fitness goals and things we want to achieve in the gym or with our bodies. But there are also many of us that continue to make the same common mistakes every time we go to workout!

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Common Mistakes When Reaching Fitness Goals

Making these same common mistakes over and over can negatively affect your workout and waste your time, preventing you from reaching your fitness goals. Not only can they be wasting your time, but they can also cause injuries and you will have a loss of motivation.

Even though we have these fitness goals and good intentions. There are still some of us unknowingly doing certain things that end up pushing us in the wrong direction because of these common mistakes.

I decided to gather some common mistakes that I have made or seen others make over the years. This post is aimed to help guide you in reaching your fitness goals and not waste any more time on making these common mistakes.

1. Not Warming Up And Stretching

This is one of the silliest things I have ever seen some people do. To go to the gym or prepare for a workout by just jumping right into their workout. They don’t take the time to warm up their bodies and stretch out their muscles before their exercise.

To warm up, you must do a 5-10 minute exercise to get your blood flowing, like a quick jog or bike ride.

This is meant to increase your blood, body, and muscle temperature. Helping you perform better and reducing injury, preparing you for a productive workout.

Also, you need to set aside some time to stretch after you finish your workout. This will ensure that your heart rate slows down at a good pace. If you leave the gym after your last set without stretching, you will definitely feel that post-workout soreness later on.

Also, I recommend getting a foam roller to use if they don’t offer one at your local gym. Foam Roller’s can help muscles recover after your workout by working out the knots. Start by using it to loosen up common areas of tightness, your back, shoulder blades, glutes, hip flexors, etc.

Shape.com offers multiple ways to use this inexpensive foam roller!

When making this common mistake of not taking the time to stretch. You are risking pulling muscles, losing flexibility, and getting injured.

So, don’t forget to stretch! Your body will thank you.

2. Weight Training & Cardio

Many women think that lifting weights will make them look bulky! So instead, they dedicate most of their workout time to cardio to lose weight and become thin.

In order to tone and sculpt your body, you must train with resistance/weights. As your muscle mass increases, your metabolism will increase, helping you burn more calories, even in your sleep!

But, that doesn’t mean that cardio should be cut off completely. It is a great way to burn off that extra layer of fat and then maybe you can eat that piece of cake later too!

And if you are like me and running isn’t really your “thing” then, take a look at these other 10+ ways you can get your cardio in!

Read Everything To Know About Cardio Vs. Weight Training

3. Your Routine

When reaching your fitness goals, you want to have consistency and balance between workouts.

For strength training, you should balance your upper and lower body moves and your pushing and pull movements. When it is time for cardio, you can try anything from swimming, biking, jump roping, or even an elliptical machine. The key is to keep your heart rate up and going.

The importance of a routine is that without it, you won’t see results.

By creating a workout plan, you will achieve greater consistency and you are more likely to stick to reaching your fitness goals.

Whether this is strength training 3 days a week and cardio 2 days a week. Or starting with 20 minutes of cardio and then moving on to lifting weights. If you make yourself a consistent routine that you can stick to, your fitness journey will improve overall. And this does not mean that you have to go to the gym or have any type of membership, there is a variety of at-home workouts that you can try!

Learn How To Workout With A Longboard

4. Too Much Impact

Just because you can workout at a high impact, does not mean that it is good for you or your body. High impact workouts tend to put more stress on your joints. These workouts require your body to pound on the ground more, like running and jumping.

Joint pains are one of the most common injuries (especially for women) and can negatively affect your workouts. To reduce these injuries, we can try to include some low impact workouts in our routine.

And no, low impact does not mean that it is easier or that we aren’t getting as much of a workout. It just means that the impact on the ground is not as high. It means that one foot stays in contact with the ground like walking, climbing, or biking.

Swimming is also a great way to get a high-intensity workout in, without much impact.

5. Not Pushing Hard Enough

“Comfortable” can feel good, it is certain, and we tend to know what to expect next. But being too comfortable when it comes to working out can prevent you from reaching your fitness goals. I am not saying that you should overtrain yourself. Instead, I am trying to say that you need to reach further and expand your goals. You can not stay in the same spot.

When trying to reach your fitness goal, you can not expect to keep lifting 15-pound weights for 6 months. At one point, you are going to need to push yourself and reach further by lifting the 20-pound weight. Progressively increasing weights over time is a big focus on getting stronger.

When it comes to nutrition, you might have cut out fast food for a week. But now, you can challenge yourself to cut it out for a whole month.

At Panera, instead of ordering a Mac n’ cheese and a sandwich. I replaced the sandwich carbs with a salad. This might not be a big deal, but for me, I wouldn’t usually care at all! So, I did consider this part of pushing myself in the right direction for my nutrition.

Reaching your fitness goals requires setting goals and doing them and then making even bigger goals! You must move forward, up, and on if you want to see progress.

Not too excited about leaving your comfort zone? That’s ok! Check out these 6 Simple Steps To Make Leaving Your Comfort Zone Easier

6.Too Much Exercise

What? There is such a thing?

Yes, there is.

It is possible that someone can overexercise! It turns out that too much can actually put your heart at risk and other multiple factors. According to Health Essentials, “some extreme athletes can push past healthy limits”, including heart risks.

You can be overworking yourself, creating pain, and losing energy. These are all preventing you from reaching your fitness goals.

To avoid this common mistake, balance your workout schedule throughout the week and give yourself time to rest.

I try to workout between 3-5 days a week, giving myself at least two days of rest.

I realized that “more is not always better”.

7. Setting Unrealistic Expectations

When reaching your fitness goals, you need to have some expectations of where you want to be at a certain time.

For example, you might say:

“I want to lose 5 pounds by my birthday next week.”

or

“I want to gain 10 pounds of muscle by the end of summer.”

But, instead of just setting one goal, you should set multiple.

For example, “I want to gain 5 pounds of muscle, lose 2 inches around my waist, and become more flexible.”

Now that I have made more goals for myself, I am more likely to reach them!

Having one fitness goal is one of the common mistakes that I see many people make. This then leads them to lose confidence and motivation because they didn’t achieve that one goal.

Also, many people tend to compare themselves to others and their individual journey. They think that since their friend lost almost 20 pounds in less than two months that they can do the same.

Don’t forget that you are reaching your fitness goals, nobody else’s. Comparing yourself to others will not bring you anywhere but down.

Your health journey is yours, work it!

Now Go For It

I am hoping that this post can guide you to avoid making these common mistakes and instead help you by reaching your fitness goals more quickly. Next time you workout, I challenge you to really focus on these mistakes that I listed and assure yourself that you are not making any of them.

It takes some time and patience to become truly healthy and fit.

But until then, just take it 1 Day At A Time.

Learn How Staying Healthy Can Reduce Stress

Learn How To Get Killer Abs Without Leaving The House

Read Everything To Know About Cardio Vs. Weight Training

Remember... no matter what challenges you face,
Take it 1 Day At A Time.