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It’s not uncommon to make mistakes in exercises if you're a beginner. Anyone who begins their fitness journey will more often than not run into roadblocks that can hamper their progress.
In such a case, it’s important to know about some common mistakes that can be avoided so that your progress is not impacted.
Common Beginner Exercise Mistakes
Here are five beginner exercise mistakes you must avoid before moving to advanced variations:
1) Too Much Warm-up
Too much of nothing is good, and warm-ups are no exception. The idea behind warming up is to get the blood flowing and ensure that the muscles are ready for what’s coming. However, you shouldn’t do warm-up with 100% intensity. Doing so will drain your energy and take away from what you can do during the workout session.
Your focus should be on doing the movements that will get the blood flowing, but not on exercises that use your energy. Ideally, you can do some warm-ups and stretches, and from there move on to your first exercise. The first set or two can be using light weights to pump the muscles, and from there, you can move to heavy sets.
2) Focusing More on Weight Than Form
It’s natural to want to move to heavier weights, but you should do so at your own pace. When the time comes, you will know, but before that, take the time to master the form, otherwise your progress will be hampered.
It’s best to take your time to understand which muscles engage during which exercise, differences between compound and isolation exercises, importance of progressive overload, volume, and intensity.
This foundational knowledge will help you to become better at all exercises and help you progress in your fitness journey.
3) Not Perfecting Basics
The basics of every exercise are important. If you skip the basics and move to advanced variations, you will be doing more harm than good. This is one of the beginner exercise mistakes that often goes unnoticed.
Moreover, you should focus on bodyweight exercises first. Your bodyweight is the first resistance you must master before you move on to weight plates and dumbbells.
4) Ignoring Proper Diet
Whether your goal is to become muscular or to lose weight, dieting is key. If you ignore a proper diet that comprises all three macronutrients, you will not be able to see the results you desire.
It’s important to understand that everyone has their own type of diet, and someone else’s daily calories or diet will not be suitable for you. It’s best to consult a dietician or use guides to understand how to build a diet chart for yourself that aligns with your goals.
5) Avoiding Recovery Days
Avoiding recovery days can be one of the major beginner exercise mistakes. It’s absolutely mandatory to give your body the recovery period it needs to rebuild muscle fibers for further growth.
If you continue to work on the same muscles every day, you won’t be able to see much growth. Ideally, you must give each muscle group at least 48 hours of rest before working on that group again.
Bottom Line
Beginner exercise mistakes should never be ignored. As a beginner, you may not realize you’re making these mistakes. What you can do is ask the gym floor trainer to help you or watch your form, or you can learn from certified fitness coaches.
However, it’s important to not let the mistakes take over your overall routine. As you progress, you will learn about cheat reps (improper form) and cheat days (straying away from diet), which will benefit you.
