If you’re like most people who are new to fitness and want a slim waist, you’re probably doing or thinking of doing these mistakes. Actually it’s not just people new to exercise either, these mistakes seem to be common among the majority of people. Well you’re in luck! I’m going to share these mistakes with you so you don’t waste your time with them. Let’s get started.
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Long bouts of cardio
Jogging for long amounts of time can lead aching joints and it doesn’t really do anything for you besides burn some calories (Not even very effective at that). Save your hips, knees, ankles, and walk instead. Walking will save the impact on your joints and if you’re looking to burn a bit more calories walk at a fast pace. If you want to save time do some HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), you can get a solid workout in only 20 minutes. HIIT will challenge your cardio and fatigue muscles burning more calories and increasing your metabolism much more than a steady jog.
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Dropping too many calories
Oh this is one I hear about often. I’ll be talking with someone about weight loss and they tell me about how now they are only eating 1,000 calories. Please don’t do this, doing so only SLOWS your metabolism down. At first you will lose weight but then it gets much more difficult because the metabolism is so low.
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Avoiding Weights
If you’re aiming for that slim waist, keeping your metabolism high is your primary goal. Higher metabolism = more fat loss, and there’s nothing better at increasing metabolism over time than lifting weights. Not jogging, walking, sprinting, HIIT, nothing. That’s why gymnast and weight lifters have to eat so many more calories than the average person.
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Too much rest
While we are on the topic of lifting weights, time after time I see people at the gym resting for way too long, mostly distracted by their phone or talking to a friend. When lifting weights, the goal is too fatigue the muscles so keeping rest times between 1 – 2 minutes between exercises is a great place to start.
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Using “light” weights
This is most common among women who make the statement “I don’t want to get bulky like guy”. For starters, this is a myth, you can lift at moderate and heavy weight and not look like a dude. The fact is if you pick up some weights and do an exercise cranking out over 15 reps, most likely the weight is too light to promote muscle growth (metabolism).
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Emphasizing Ab exercises
There’s nothing wrong with doing ab exercises but there is an error in thinking that doing crunches is going to target your belly fat. So you can cut out the whole routine with just ab exercises and replace them with something like squats that work more muscles and can still strengthen your abs.
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No advancement
Overtime as you’re going through your exercise program, your body gets effective at going through the routine you do. That means that progress begins to plateau. No longer do your muscles have to put in as much energy as it did to do the exercises. Advancing the routines by increasing weight, reps, or switching exercises keeps your muscles challenged keeping the progress moving forward. By the way this is why “muscle confusion” was such a big term used a while back, it was just a catchy way to say you need to keep challenging your muscles. The same thing applies to HIIT and other cardio workouts too.
There you have it! Stay away from doing these and you will be more likely to have a smooth sail towards your goals. If you like the information you learned here, click the Facebook “like” button on the banner below for more fitness solutions. If you’re really serious about achieving that slim waist, ask about my free trial which includes: a goal setting session, personal training session, and 2 weeks of online coaching.
Stay determined!
Shawn A