Six Bad Habits That Can Set You Back

Don't let these six bad habits derail your fitness journey! Stay focused by learning how to steer clear of these common roadblocks.

Every move you make in the gym should be for a purpose, and every workout should build on your previous efforts. A few minutes spent chatting between sets or texting your friends might not seem like much, but these practices add up. Develop one bad habit, compound it over time, and you could see potential results slip through your fingers.

If you want to crush your goals and see positive results happen, you have to avoid the many bad habits people are starting to develop in the gym, no matter how small. Here are six no-no's to avoid during your workout.

Sloppy Form
I often see people lifting with terrible form, usually due to being new in the gym and not asking for advice from a trainer. Training with poor form early on can build habits that are hard to break later on. The more you use that poor form, the more you could unintentionally be targeting other muscles, and causing injuries.

Overdoing Cardio
Another big "don't" in the gym is doing too much cardio training. Cardio is great, but only to an extent. If you start overdoing it, you will experience muscle atrophy, strength decreases, and even fat-loss plateaus. If you start losing muscle mass, the body will start to develop that "soft" look, which most people do not want. Weight lifting tightens up the body and gives shape.

Keep your cardio short and sweet. A few 15-minute HIIT or conditioning sessions a week is all you need to keep your fat loss rolling and strength maintained. If you feel like you need more cardio to burn fat, chances are you simply need to fine-tune your diet. Diet is the foundation of any fat-loss plan.

Under Eating
Less is not always more when it comes to caloric intake. Just like excessive cardio can lead to negative effects, so can skimping on food.

If you consume too few calories over time, eventually your body will simply try to conserve energy by turning the dial down on your metabolism. The goal should be to eat as much as possible to fuel your performance while still reaching your goals. You should keep your calories as high as possible during weight loss to maintain muscle mass. If you are a female and you are eating 2,000 calories per day and still losing fat, calories should be kept the same until you reach a plateau. You can either adjust your diet slightly without doing anything harsh, or add a bit of HIIT here and there.

Eating the Wrong Food
Okay, so maybe you eat a lot of calories, but what about your food choices? One big mistake I often see people make is eating too much of the wrong things and not enough of the right things. Diet is so critical to results, and if you aren't following a well-balanced diet, you will have a hard time seeing those results.

Focus on eating foods in their whole, natural state, and avoid refined products. Choose oats over sugary, boxed breakfast cereal, and skip fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt for plain, non-fat Greek yogurt with fresh berries.

It's also important to eat a balanced mix of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats each day. The minute you start going to extremes and cutting out any major macronutrient is the minute you can easily detour onto the wrong path, which can cause major health issues in the future.

Trying To Out-Exercise a Poor Diet
If you use exercise as a way to "undo" the effects of eating something you shouldn't, you need to realize that extra exercise is not a remedy for poor meal choices. If you just stuffed yourself with so much sugar and fat, you aren't about to undo this bad choice with extra training. Plan to eat right, and stick to that plan, regardless of how much exercise you do. Falling into a cycle of exercise overcompensation could be extremely damaging, not only for your body, but for your mental state.

Taking Too Many Workout Selfies
This is my favorite bad habit, only because it is so funny how many people do it! Taking progress pictures can boost your motivation and your success. But before you start to snap your 100^th selfie in the locker room, ask yourself if you are taking things too far. People are starting to spend more time taking pictures than they are performing reps and sets in the gym.

While it's great to be proud of your results, save your between-set photos for a post-gym gun show.

Angelique Kronebusch Fitness