Most of the time,
I like to focus on what we are doing right.
We all need encouragement and really, enough negative voices already
exist. But. Sometimes it is useful to have a list of the
common mistakes. Here are a few things
to avoid in our workouts:
• Choosing the
wrong weight. Sometimes we really want
to use that bigger dumbbell. The thing
is, when we pick one that is too heavy, we have to use bad form to lift it,
which can cause us to recruit other muscle groups, reducing the effect on the
targeted muscle groups, or, worse, get injured.
When we use weights that are too light through an unfounded fear of
bulking up or because we’re being lazy, we just waste our time.
• Always doing
the same thing. Our bodies get
bored. Yes, it is nice to go to the gym
and zone out and get it over with, but the point is to improve. Autopilot is not the road to excellence. If we’ve been doing the same workout for more
than six weeks, we need a change. Switch
from machines to free weights. Swap the
treadmill for the bike. Go hiking. Change is good.
• Using bad
form. I know it isn’t fun to be
picky. It’s even less fun to mess up
knees or tear a rotator cuff. Paying
attention to the joints and keeping them properly aligned saves a world of pain
and suffering. Yes, it may mean that we
have to use a smaller weight (see that first item, above) when we do the
exercise correctly, but we will get real gains, not fake ones.
• Skipping the
stretch. We have lots of reasons not to
stretch. It’s not like it takes a lot of
time, so we can always do it later. We’re
in a rush. It can’t possibly be that
useful because it feels good, and isn’t gym stuff all supposed to be
horrible? Here’s the thing: strength is pointless without range of
motion. We all get less flexible as we
get older, and we are all getting older.
Let’s not doom ourselves to having someone else tie our shoes for us.
