Letterkenny gym owner Emmet Rushe shares the eight most common mistakes we make in fitness - and how to fix them.

Here are 8 poor fitness habits that will keep you from seeing results.

It is very easy to be in a bit of a rut right now with the current situation, but with September coming and everyone heading back into a more structured routine again, it’s time to look at the things that may be holding us back.

We keep all our members accountable in our gym in Letterkenny and in our online coaching as it helps everyone to get better results and they also get to train in a positive and motivating environment.

If you’d like to get signed up for September now and beat the rush, you can do so through the links below.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR LETTERKENNY GYM
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR ONLINE TRAINING

These are 8 things that we can do to break poor fitness habits and keep us focused on our goals.

1. Being Sedentary

If you currently sit all day at work, only to come home and sit at the computer or on the couch watching Netflix, you are doing yourself a disservice.
By being sedentary for the majority of the day, you are stopping your body from burning calories.
Your body actually burns more calories through daily movement than it does through exercise.
So by being sedentary, you are reducing your chances of being fitter and leaner by a huge amount.
So, get up and get moving.

2. Skipping Exercise sessions.

Yes, it is very easy to decide to skip your gym or exercise session.
But, by doing this and being sedentary like point one above, you are just moving yourself deeper into a rut that is very hard to get out of and is extremely harmful to your health.
Your body needs exercise and daily activity to function properly and to be healthy.
Most people exercise 2-3 times per week.
That’s 2-3 hours out of a 168 hour week. When you see that, we all have time to exercise.
So, skip the excuses and start getting to the gym.

3. Not warming up before exercise.

Want to have more injuries, more aches and strains and less results?
Then skipping your warm up is definitely the thing to do.
However.
If you want to have less injuries, less aches and strains and more results as you can put more work into your exercise sessions without the chances of injury, then it’s time to start to warm up before your exercise sessions.
We do a thorough warm up before each Lean20 session in our Rushe Fitness gym and also in our live online sessions as it is as important as your workouts.

4. Not cooling down or stretching after your exercise sessions.

Want to have more injuries, more aches and strains, less results and be as stiff as a board?
Then you should definitely not cool down or stretch after your workouts.
Like the warm up, your cool down and stretch after you train helps keep your mobile, flexible and injury free.
so, keep time aside to do this after each session.

5. Not doing any strength work.

Not doing any strength work or resistance training while trying to get in shape is like trying to get drunk while drinking water.
Yes you are exercising, but you are skipping an important component of it that will skyrocket your results.
This goes for all you runner and cyclists out there who think that strength training will slow you down.
It won’t.
there is a reason all the world’s top athletes strength train.
It helps them get better results.

6. Resting too long between sets.

If your rest times involve spending 5 mins on Instagram, you are doing it wrong.
For most, your rest time between sets should be 1-2 minutes as that will be maximal for recovery to allow you to exercise again.
Obviously there are exceptions to this, but for most gym goers, 1-2 mins rest is plenty for you to get going again.
So, leave the phone down and pick up your stopwatch and get to work.

7. Not Taking rest days.

Your body needs rest.
It doesn’t matter what type of exercise you are doing.
You should be taking at least one full day off each week for rest and recovery.
Our training is the stimulus that kick starts our results. But our rest and recovery is what makes them happen.
By skipping your rest days, you are increasing your chances of fatigue setting in, so your training sessions will be poorer and your results will slow down.
Take your rest days.
You’ve earned them.

8. Not varying your exercise.

Have you been doing the same thing every session in the same way since you started exercising?
That is exactly why you aren’t seeing any progress or any results.
Your body needs new stimulus in order to change.
By never adding a new stimulus, you aren’t giving your body any reason to change and therefore your performance and results will actually slow and start to go backwards.
Try adding more time, more distance, more weight to your lifts, more sets, shorter rest times, more intensity.
There are loads of ways to add a new stimulus in order to wake your boy up and get it to respond to your training.
doing the same things every training session isn’t it.

There you have it. 8 poor fitness habits that can wreak havoc on your results.

Try changing one or more of them and you are guaranteed to see results happening again.

If you would like help with moving forward with your goals, we are here to help.

We have a positive and welcoming fitness community in our gym in Letterkenny and in our online coaching in Rushe Fitness Live.

We are accepting new members for both from the start of September.
You can get signed up now through the link below for August 31st.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR LETTERKENNY GYM
CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR ONLINE TRAINING