The 3 Workout Mistakes That Are Sabotaging Your Weight Loss

There is more than one way to skin a cat and trying to lose weight is no different in that respect. Many things will work, not everyone will want or indeed be able to the same thing but one thing is for sure, if you are not making progress then you are either not following the plan correctly or it isn’t working.  How do you know if you are making progress? Does your programme tick any of the following boxes: more weight, more reps, less time - any combination of those three outcomes? Start tracking your workouts. You don’t have to have the world's most advanced programme, a simple table with some key exercises on it in one column and a variety of repetitions ranges along the top row is all you need. The exercises could be anything you want, personally, I go for squats, deadlifts, pull ups, hip thrusts, 2 km runs, 1000m rows and side planks and I record my best lifts for 15, 10, 5, 1 repetitions and my fastest times for the aerobic stuff. Chasing the numbers in the gym and not eating like a 5-year-old will give you lasting results and more importantly it gives a chance to enjoy the process rather than the outcome.

Lifting weights is my ballet. Allow me to explain. When you see people dance well it looks effortless and graceful, the same should be true in the gym. If you look like Quasimodo ringing the bells of Notre Dame when you are doing your lat pull downs or like a tortoise stuck on its back in that body pump class you like so much then please stop.  At best you are not training what you think you are training and at worst you could do yourself an injury. Take time to master movements and become a gym ballerina. Learning to move well gives you a lot more bang for your buck and have a huge impact on you weight loss goals. If such mastery is daunting then ask for help. If you have a problem with your car you don’t think twice about going to a mechanic, do you? It should be no different with your health and well-being.

Resistance training seems to be enjoying a renaissance in recent times, however, there are still people among us who are uninformed or willfully ignorant. The latter of those people often fall into the trap of assuming because thin people do cardio training like running, then running must make you thin. This is the same as assuming basketball makes people tall and nobody thinks that… right? To be clear I am not saying you can’t lose weight by doing only cardiovascular work. I am saying it might not be the most optimal way of achieving your weight loss goals. I promote resistance training for weight loss clients for many reasons but the main one is because muscle is expensive. What do I mean by that? Muscle is metabolically active tissue and therefore requires energy in order to function. If you have more muscle you need more fuel. If you are in an energy deficit, your food intake will not satisfy the muscles requirements, meaning you will start burning fat to meet the muscles’ needs. Basically, weights are the one!