7 Ways You May be Sabotaging Your Own Workout

7 WAYS YOU MAY BE SABOTAGING YOUR OWN WORKOUT

1.     Not Drinking Enough Water

Being dehydrated by just 3% can reduce your strength by as much as 10%.

If your feel thirsty it’s too late. You’re already dehydrated. Ideally, you should be drinking about 1 oz. of liquid per day for each pound of body weight in hot or dry conditions.

A 10% reduction in strength during your workout makes a huge difference in your progress.

2.     Not Allowing for Enough Recovery

Different muscles require different amounts of recovery time. Some muscles can be worked every day while some muscles require 24 to 48 hours between workouts. Recovery doesn’t mean lying on the sofa eating pizza on your rest days. It means active recovery. Walk, swim, ride a bike or play with the kids.

3.     Not Getting Proper Post Workout Nutrition

Your body needs carbs and protein after your workout to start the recovery and rebuilding process. The so called “metabolic window” where the use of nutrients is optimal is not as short as once believed but if you don’t resupply your body within 4 hours you’re missing a big opportunity.

4.     You’re Not Warming up Properly

We’re not talking about static stretching or spending half an hour in a warm up. We’re talking about a little active stretching and a few minutes of active movement to warm up the muscles and raise your core temperature.

And don’t forget to do a few warm up sets of whatever muscle you’re you’ll be using first. Don’t save all your energy for working sets. It sounds counter intuitive, but you’ll be able to lift more in your working sets if you do a few light warm up sets first.

5.     You’re Not Maximizing Your Gym Time

Stop wasting time. Be as efficient as possible while still getting the necessary rest between sets. For everything except heavy sets on compound movements the period between sets should seldom exceed one minute.

When possible try to superset opposing muscles. (Biceps and triceps, for example) Doing so forces the opposing muscle to relax completely and it will recover faster.

6.     Doing the same routines and Same Exercises

Everything works-until it doesn’t. Simple linear weight progression is not enough. Your body will adapt to the point of actually anticipating linear progression. Depending on the muscle and the exercise, that adaptation can occur in as little as 4 workouts. Change the weight, the tempo, the grip, the exercise order or add drop sets or rest-pause sets.

7.     Not Getting Enough Sleep

You need 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night. Simple. Not much else to say.