11 Jun There’s No Cheating In Workouts!
Yep, over and over again, I’ve seen it. And I can honestly say, it isn’t pretty.
The gym is a place where people frequently cheat themselves out of a good workout. In order to make your workouts more productive and efficient you’ll want to avoid these following common exercise ‘cheats.’ Cutting corners in your workout cheats you out of money, time and results. What’s the point? It is not worth it!
Many cheat without even realizing it. On cardio machines, cheating might look like locking your elbows while leaning on the handrails. In the weight area, it could be the use of momentum or a slight change in the angle to make your lift easier, and therefore, less effective. Then there’s that dreaded comfort zone, which is so nice and… well, comfortable.
Here are some ways to identify some of those cheating ways. Let’s banish them forever!
The “Hold me Up”
When you start to feel fatigued on the treadmill, elliptical, or stairmaster, it seems easy to reach for those handrails or the console – and lean. That’s because it is making it easier! We’ve all seen people practically tip toeing on top of a very fast treadmill while holding the sides because they couldn’t run that fast. Or hugging the top of the stairmaster or elliptical all hunched over.
‘Running’ this way while propping themselves up on locked arms!?! Hilarious, thanks for the laugh, but please stop. Locking your arms, hunching over, and shrugging puts stress on your back, shoulders and neck and creates an unnatural posture that in time can cause muscular imbalances. Not to mention how you’d feel if you lost your footing and fell. Hmmmm…
The Fix:
Try for fewer distractions like reading, or watching television during your workout. Maintain good posture, get into the groove, looking straight ahead with your shoulders back. Touch the handrails lightly to maintain balance if need be, otherwise, hands off. If you find yourself holding on for dear life, slow down until you regain some breath back, then resume your slower tempo. Focusing on your posture will also help strengthen your back, abs, and shoulders and help you actually utilize your lungs… those things you are trying to strengthen and build endurance with.
Dude “Those Weights Are Too Heavy”
Some people think that lifting heavier weight means you’ll see results faster. When you swing your free weights around instead of using a slower, more controlled movement, you take the focus off the muscles you are working. Practice flexing the muscle with your mind to add resistance and you’ll work the muscle harder and not the ligaments, tendons and joints. Say no to momentum during a rep. Lifting too heavy of weights incorrectly can cause injury. Ouch! Tendonitis is never fun.
The Fix:
Keep your spine erect, body firmly planted and move only the muscles you are targeting while keeping the occupied joint in a fixed position. For example, while doing a bicep curl, don’t shrug your shoulders forward. Keep elbows to your sides locked into the hip and move from elbow, not shoulder. Also, you shouldn’t be bending at the knees to use momentum for a bicep curl to hurl that weight up to your shoulder. The only movement occurs at the elbow, and that remains stable at your side.
The “Comfort Zone” (yawn…)
Day in and day out of the same exercise for the same body part. Lifting the same loads and never challenging your body, can become tedious at best. Your body will only improve by gradually increasing your weight loads. At some point you’ll reach you max, but women tend to stay with smaller weights and never bump up. To see strength and definition, the good, sleek kind, not bulky body building arms, you can go a bit heavier. But progress safely through those stages. Go ahead and challenge your muscles with more stress for noticeable strength gains, along with mixing up the exercises for the same muscle groups. If you don’t test your limits, you won’t see or feel improvements.
The Fix:
Challenge your body a couple of times a week to go beyond your comfort zone. Push it! Try a new machine, slightly heavier weights or higher resistance to increase your level of exertion.
The bottom line is we’re all busy. Wasting time and not seeing results or worse, causing injuries, is just downright silly.
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When you want to learn something new you hire someone to teach you that thing, right? Want to learn piano or guitar? You hire a teacher. Want to learn a language? Pay for a class. Want to golf better? You get that pro at the range to teach you. Heck, people hire coaches for their kids to get better at sports! Little kids!
Why not you in this important area of weight loss and wellness?
This area of your life is not a luxury… it is extremely important to learn how to take care of your body as you age. I am also talking from about 27 years old and beyond! It only gets harder as you age… learn to do it well.
Too many people put themselves up on a shelf thinking they have a longer expiration date than they do. You can age really fantastically, or really painfully. You get to choose this outcome.
If you don’t know how to lift weights and have been struggling with weight loss, food, and exercise and not seeing the results you want – you hire an expert. Do a little research on a few. Meet with them, talk with them.
You’ll want to be honest with yourself and ask how long it will realistically take to lose 20, 35, 50 or more pounds and go from there. Check out their google reviews, see their website for real success stories and pictures, do they have a business facebook page? Check it out. Do they offer a high value of learning, skills and results that are included in a weight loss course?
Those are the things you look for. Don’t just settle. This is your life, body and health we are talking about.
I’ve had the pleasure of helping so many women and men over the past 17 years get awesome results! By listening, learning, and implementing the skills, mindset, and tools that are taught is how they find their success.
Take some time and check out my website here: (Full-Body Fitness). I have been a top rated weight loss coach and personal trainer for Carmel, Noblesville, and Fishers people for a long time and I’m not going anywhere until everyone I work with understands how their body works, showing them it CAN be done, help them get their results, and walk around on cloud 9 from there on out!
Everything is doable, attainable, sustainable. I make it simple and common sense. No fads, gimmicks, gadgets, or products – except my pretty metal playground! ha!
Ask yourself — how badly do you actually want those results? Then give me a call.
Blue skies and big hugs,
Cindy
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