Clicky here.

Mistakes:
1. Focused on How Many Calories are Burned Working Out
2. More is Better When it Comes to Working Out
3. Carb/Sport Drinks are OK Before, During and After a Workout
4. Not Lifting Heavy Enough
5. Having No Real Set Plan (aka “Winging It”)
6. Using the Whole Maze of Gym Machines (Just because it is there)
7. Mentality that You Need a Gym to Get in a Good Workout
8. Spot Reduction and Isolation Movements are the Focus

Solutions:
1. keep it simple and focused and consistent…..results will follow!
2. Eat Real Whole Foods to Burn Fat and Exercise will just Accelerate it
3. Keep Your Main Workouts Short and Intense
4. Have an Active Lifestyle, Go Play!
5. Keep Your Workouts Simple and Effective. Focus on Movements that Count
6. Stop Listening to Advertisements and Magazines
7. Do Your Workouts Anywhere and Just do Something Daily
8. (Re)Read these Posts

(points listed for easy reference )

Me likey.

Also, a simple solution to a common mistake most people make about going to the gym: find something you LIKE about doing it, whether it's the process, the results or even just a specific exercise... find something you look forward to doing otherwise you'll dread it and eventually you'll run away from it.

Good stuff. Boredom, I think is another big one (goes along with Clifford's note on liking what you are doing). Gotta always change it up a bit.

If I dont hit 500 calories during my cardio routine everyday I feel like I'm just waisting time. I do like 200 - 400 abs everyday, and then one body part like legs, arms, or back. Everyone tells me I'm overdoing it but if I do anything less it feels like I'm not doing enough...

Focusing too much on calories is a distraction from what's important: working your muscles (whether it's your heart in cardio or whatever). Do yourself a favor and don't pay attention to what the machines say about how much you're burning and focus more on how you feel. I honestly have no clue how many calories are burned during my runs, which cap at 30 minutes; all I know is that I'm sweaty as hell and exhausted (but not to the point where I might pass out).

Doing abs every day isn't doing as much for you as you think; abs are like any other muscle group and if you can do that much EVERY DAY, then you aren't pushing the muscles hard enough for them to grow, and doing MORE reps can actually be detrimental to muscle growth*. If your workout takes longer than 30-45 minutes then it's most likely not doing as much for you as it could.

These are mistakes #1 and 2! MORE is not necessarily better. In fact, most of the time it's worse. You're more likely to be wasting your time with what you're doing than you would be if you dialed back the time/reps and upped the intensity. It's certainly a mental thing though, you've conditioned yourself to think that you HAVE to do that and feel that lactic acid burn to think you're getting a good workout but the truth is that your muscles don't NEED that, there's a difference between muscle fatigue and muscle overload and fatigue is actually bad. Overload is what leads to strength and muscle gains (toning up or bulking up are BOTH muscle gains).

That being said, if it works for you then stay with it, but my personal experience has taught me that what you're doing wouldn't do much for me.

* There are plenty of reasons WHY, such as lactic acid flooding into the muscles and so on. As far as muscle GROWTH, that doesn't mean you'll get huge and buff unless you up your caloric intake significantly.

When i was 'young' and 'in better shape' I ran track and did pole vaulting. Anything less then 250 crunches/situps/other painful ab excersize a day was considered a bad day. I had a rock hard 8pack that after about 3 months of hard core ab workouts never 'felt' hard anymore unless i hit the 400-500 range.

Our muscles adapt. Try lowering your quantity and add some weight, you'll be surprised at how much it affects it. Also try different ab movements.

That's what I was getting at, but Shawn was more direct!

And here all the girls in High School always thought I took the wrong aproach of being direct... oh well

One of the things that I love about weight lifting is how much variety is out there. Mix stuff up after a month or so.. your body will see much better results.

If you run 30 minutes 5 days a week on a treadmill @ 6mph an hour for a month, by the end of the month its not as 'hard' nor is it as much of a cardio workout. You will have adapted. Move on to a faster tempo, longer runs, HIIT, biking, something to change it up.

Lance Armstrong proved how different things are. Though he's one of the best in the Tour de France, he was sucking wind at his first Marathon. Though he could ride a bike for 6 hours a day, running 27 miles about killed him... his body had adapated to one style, but had ALOT harder of a time doing the other.

The goal of EVERY workout should be to do "more" than the last. If it means pushing more weight, more reps or doing something in less time, then that's what you should do. Personally, when I lift weights, I go heavy enough that I can only do 6-8 reps. When I can hit 8 on my last set, I increase weight the next time. About every 3rd run on a treadmill I increase my speed by .1 MPH. When I run outside, I want to shave off at least 5 seconds per run for the same path. Sure, I miss those goals now and then, but the point is that I'm pushing myself, both mentally and physically.

Plateaus and blocks are 100% mental. No one will ever convince me otherwise - through sheer force of will you can achieve anything and overcome any boundaries and if you believe or even THINK anything less, you're only setting yourself up for failuire.

Five Additional Mistakes:

1. Over-emphasizing amount of weight/resistance to the detriment of form. In other words, ego lifting. While cheating up a heavy weight now and then can help with progress, overall poor form hampers full development, progress and can cause injury. If hitting your form requires going a bit lighter, do it.

2. Not keeping and a training and exercise log. You can't improve what you don't measure. Most people try to keep track of it in their heads and actually don't challenge themselves each workout. This is one of the biggest reasons people don't make progress in their goals. You need to write it all down WHILE you are working out -- that means exercises, weight, reps, sets and any other notes. You can buy a workout log, or you can use something like this: Free Printable Workout & Exercise Log.

3. Not understanding that there is no such thing as "toning." This is a huge issue with women. Being "toned" means you have MUSCLE and low-body fat. You cannot look "toned" if you don't add muscle. It's as simple as that. Everyone -- women included -- should train for muscle. Most "toning routines" do not go heavy enough and over-emphasize high reps. And because of this, you never add any muscle. Read: Why Workout Routines for Toning Fail.

4. Thinking that adding muscle will make you look "bulky" -- this is also most common among women. Women don't have the hormones for tons of muscle, yet they train as if they believe lifting heavier weights will bulk them up. As a result, they rarely make the progress they are looking for.

5. Not understanding that scale weight is poor indicator of body composition. This causes people to focus on weight loss, versus fat loss -- which should always be your goal. Improving your body fat percentage is what you should focus on, not losing pounds.

Great topic!

Quoted for truth (also postcount++)

But really, I have been saying this consistently in other threads (and in person).

Thanks CC ... love the support.

It just amazes me how often the same people ask me the same questions about "toning" because they "don't want to get big". It's not even a matter of hormones, although that's a big contributor. If you want to get big, you have to eat a LOT; so if you don't want to get big, don't take in 4000 calories a day. Your Lego house can't get bigger if you're not adding blocks...

I'm a big believer in lifting heavy with low reps, regardless of your goals (unless you're training for endurance... ie. marathons). Remember, by itself, your body is stupid. Whether you're lifting light weights or heavy weights, you're doing the same thing to your muscles: creating microscopic tears that, when repaired, lead to strength and muscle gains (muscle gains != size, without the proper building blocks). Doing high reps can actually inhibit that growth because you'll hit muscle fatigue (and get that lactic acid invasion, which can actually restrict muscle growth) before you hit overload (which I define as the maximum amount of muscle tearing you can do in a workout).

So... uh... yeah, everything they said in that article you linked

I believe we have a computer programmer among us!

Just be careful you don't become "that guy" who only likes to bench press and neglects his chicken legs

My style is to incorporate exercises that I DON'T like because I suck at them. Over time I build up that muscle and eventually I love that exercise. I remember when I hated squats so much.. dreaded leg day. Now I love them and look forward to doing them.



There may be more than one

Haha, fair enough. I hate my leg days until they're done with, then I get 6 days where I don't even have to think about them again

Actually, come to think of it... I dread every workout on my way to the gym and love them all when they're over... but I'm all about making sure I work as many major muscle groups as possible every week... like you said, the ones we suck at are the most rewarding to master.

Great Post!

Loving your style Rachael!

How are those tri-athlons coming along? Still smashing it?

then you are not doing the right exercises. if you do a good ab routine you should only be able to do 15-20 reps per exercise NOT 200-400. definitly a waist of time.

I have been a trainer for 6 years, you are not doing the right workout routine

Hmmm, while I tend to agree...I'll bite the bait and ask...

What is the right workout routine then? Let's say for a 180lb male, 5'11", looking to get strong?

I can tell ya blour but first i'll need your social, pin # and mothers maden name...

I've gone to less 'crunches' per say and more to core exercises that I really feel. Pallof press, log chopping, Cable backhands, Ball thrusters, bridges (prone and side), weighted pushups or inverted rows with weight on the core, those kinds of things where keeping your core tight through the whole time is key.

I did the 200-400 crunches/leg raises a day in HS for polevaulting and i'd like my 10-30minutes back please for each day...

It's winter here! We don't do tris in the winter. I mean unless you want to catch pneumonia. I'm in a great weight lifting program right now and plan on getting back to the tri routine in probably Feb. Thanks for asking!