1. Focusing on your phone
The thought of going to the gym doesn’t exactly thrill most people so it only makes sense to get your workout done in as little time possible.
That means eliminating ALL distractions. So resist the urge to check your inbox every 30 seconds or look at your Facebook page during your workout.
If you’re emailing or reading you’re not working out hard enough to lose weight.
2. No goal and no plan
Far too often people walk into the gym without a training plan or routine and try to wing it. This leads to confusion and the person doesn’t get the most out of the session.
You should have a very specific goal and a progressive programme that helps you achieve that goal.
3. Endless cardio
If you are training to lose body fat then you should not be using the treadmill, cross trainer, or bike for long periods of time.
People still believe that the calorie burn on cardio machines is the best way to lose body fat. This is a mistake.
The best way to lose body fat is to use HIIT (high-intensity interval training). Choose a machine or exercise and work as hard as you can for 30 to 60 seconds and take that same amount of time to recover.
Repeat this for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on your fitness level, and you will shred the pounds.
4. Skipping a workout
Even when you don’t think you have time – you do.
Even 10 minutes of exercise has an impact on the body and you can sneak that much into your day anywhere.
If you start skipping workouts you won’t see the results and this will have a negative effect on your motivation levels.
It makes more sense to give it 100% effort, make every workout, and reap the rewards as a result.
5. Improper exercise technique
When you don’t know how to use a machine or perform an exercise properly you can easily confuse mechanical inefficiency with calorie burn.
Doing an exercise wrong can also lead to injury. If you get injured you can’t work out – and if you can’t work out you won’t be burning calories in the gym.
You can get an experienced gym instructor to do the rounds with you or consider hiring a personal trainer to get things done properly.