The 7 Deadly Fitness Sins that Most Beginners Commit

A science-based approach to avoiding common fitness mistakes I made as a newbie in the gym

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”

― Eleanor Roosevelt

I remember how intimidating my first day in the gym was. Solely relying on the help of the gym trainer who was trying to help many people at the same time. No knowledge of how the body works and how to exercise. All I knew was that I wanted to go from being skinny to buffed as quickly as possible. And with that haste, I made these 7 fitness mistakes that hampered my gains, caused me pain in my lower back, and made me feel dizzy and nauseous.

But soon enough I started educating myself and kept improving my strategies to finally achieve a body that I love to flaunt. You can read my complete transformation story here:

“Smart people learn from their mistakes. But the real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others.” ― Brandon Mull, Fablehaven

Sin 1: Lifting heavier weights than you can handle

I had this notion that the heavier I lift the bigger and quicker I will grow. So I went on to lift the heaviest weights I could lift. This impacted my form and technique making all the efforts futile. Every person that lifts has done this at some point. Every now and then I see a newbie struggling with a weight that’s too heavy for him.

If your aim is to build muscle, you only need to lift heavy enough to reach failure within 8 to 12 clean reps. If you do less than 8 reps then you are building strength and power whereas reps higher than 12 will improve muscle endurance. So if your goal is to build muscles, lift heavy enough to reach failure before 12 clean reps and light enough to complete 8 clean reps. You shouldn't be too comfortable but yet be able to perform the exercise with the correct technique.

Sin 2: Not following warm-up and cool-down routines

I was a college student and often had to skip warm-ups and cool-downs as I had to complete my workout and rush to college because I worked out in the morning. My campus gym was accessible to men only till noon and after noon the gym was reserved for girls. What could I do? Had to attend those lectures.

Skipping warm-ups can be very harmful and increase your chances of injury as muscles can be cold and not ready for heavy lifting. This can cause muscle strain and tears. A good warm-up routine will reduce the risk of injuries, improve flexibility and mobility, increase blood flow and oxygen to the muscles and lubricate your joints making your body ready for heavy exercises.

Cooldowns help you bring your heart rate and breathing back to normal gradually. They help with reducing muscle soreness and managing blood pressure. They help you avoid lightheadedness or dizziness post an intense workout. You can do stretches that target the muscles that you worked out which also helps increase range of motion in the joints. I prefer doing a yoga style stretching followed by deep breathing for a few minutes.

Sin 3: Not maintaining a journal

If you wanna build muscles, you need to overload them so they grow up stronger. But as you grow stronger you need to work harder to keep growing. This process is called progressive overload. It doesn't just apply to weight lifting but also to cardio and flexibility routines. You can do this by increasing weights, increasing volume (reps, sets, or both) and decreasing rest time between sets. For cardio, you can increase the time, intensity, or both. This is the ultimate way to progress and become fitter day by day.

However, to apply progressive overload to your fitness regime, you need to keep track of your performance in the past. A journal can help you do that. This journal can simply be a notebook or an app on your phone. Make sure you keep track of your weights, reps, sets, bodyweight, cardio time and intensity, and stretching time. Log your data immediately during your rest periods. This way you’ll know when its time to take your game up a notch.

Sin 4: Not doing enough cardio

I used to believe that cardio is for people who want to burn fat and lose weight. My aim was to put on weight as I was skinny, hence I never bothered adding cardio sessions to my fitness routine. But as I learned about the benefits of cardio, I slowly started incorporating it into my fitness regime. I started by doing 5 minutes as that is all I could do and gradually adding more minutes thereon.

Although cardio does burn calories, it also helps you to strengthen your heart and muscles, boost mood by releasing endorphins, improve your sleep, and much more. No matter what your goal is, aerobic exercises will help you build strength and endurance along with many other benefits. Don’t forget to warm up before and cool down after your session.

My preferred way of cardio is HIIT. HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) is the most time-efficient way to exercise producing twice the health benefits of moderate-intensity exercise. It involves pushing your limits for short bursts of time alternated by low-intensity or rest periods. It helps burn more calories in a short period of time, keeps metabolism higher for hours after, gain muscle, improve oxygen consumption, and much more.

Sin 5: Neglecting Flexibility

I used to have pain in my lower back on the day I did squats or deadlifts. I tried to find what I was doing wrong. I checked my form and reduced weights but nothing worked. A quick online search brought me to a page suggesting that tight posterior muscles can be the reason. So I started stretching those muscles to realize that my sedentary lifestyle has made my body very inflexible and my muscles very tight. I started practicing yoga on my rest days making me fall in love with yoga.

Some benefits of flexibility include but are not limited to reduced chances of injury, less pain, improved posture and balance, and increased strength and performance. Simply adding 10 minutes of stretching as a part of your cool-down routine can make a huge difference.

Sin 6: Following ill advice blindly

There is a lot of misinformation on the internet and especially on YouTube. All the contradictory advice caused me a lot of confusion as a newbie to fitness. Please consider researching everything related to your fitness regime by simply starting with a Google search. A lot of this misinformation can cause you serious harm and waste your time. Educate yourself about exercises, human anatomy, and food and nutrition before practicing anything, this way you’ll build a strong foundation to be able to dismiss any wrong information as soon as you see it. Be careful with who you trust.

Sin 7: Being impatient

It was very demotivating to not see expected changes for the first few weeks. I used to watch these crazy transformations on YouTube and feel bad about myself. It took me some time to realize that most of these transformations are fake and highly exaggerated. Everyone seems to want changes to happen fast and quickly.

Don’t be the person who works out for a few days and then looks for changes in the mirror. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Whether your goal is to build muscle or lose fat, remember good things take time. After 6 to 8 weeks you should be able to see noticeable changes. You should see changes on the weighing scale in 2 to 3 weeks. Keeping a track of your bodyweight and clicking pictures every week helps a lot in measuring your progress.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” ― Albert Einstein

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