Mistake-proof your workout
- In the beginning
- Weight-training
Your expectations need to be realistic. You expect instant weight/inch loss, increased cardiovascular fitness and muscle tone. But you will not see a transformation in your body shape or lifestyle immediately. Exercise takes time and work.
Over-training
It's important to gradually build up your exercise programme instead of committing to a workout three times a week or more and not being able to handle it. Over-training can lead to irritability, depression, anxiety, muscle loss and constant fatigue.
Many people avoid weight-training because there is a perception that it makes you bigger. Instead, they tend to concentrate on the cardiovascular side of exercise believing that this will speed up weight loss.
However, lifting weights increases your lean muscle mass and metabolic rate, and this helps you burn more calories. It also strengthens your ligaments and tendons, helping the body function on a day-to-day basis.
When you are weight-training, make sure your workout flows in a specific order. The larger muscles should be worked first as they demand more oxygen. Once you start moving these large muscles, the smaller muscles in the body are then incorporated in the movement. For example, when you perform exercises that involve the back, the arms act as levers and the biceps are also being worked.
As your fitness and strength improves, you sometimes stop seeing and feeling the benefits of your training because you are doing the same routine over and over again. Our bodies easily adapt to exercise, so it is important that you progress on a weekly basis by increasing the intensity of your workout.
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