When it comes to getting fitter, it doesn’t have to be complicated. The theory of doing a bit more than you used to do seems solid enough and for a lot of people it can move them towards their health and fitness goals. But the longer you train for, the more you might find that just doing a bit more isn’t moving you towards your goals.
Over the next few articles, we’ll be highlighting and explaining various pitfalls that we see people fall into time and time again. As well as explaining the reason you may not be making progress, we’ll also be providing guidance for how you can go about fixing it. Some of the points are linked and may seem contradictory to each other, but that’s where the coaching staff at SC FIT come in – to help you work out what’s holding you back and how to address it.
Here’s the second part of this list:
- – You aren’t taking any rest days
- Lifting weights and getting sweaty is fun. It’s even more fun if you do it with friends in a supportive environment. But if you never have any time off then you won’t be able to decompress mentally or physically. If you take time off then the time you spend on will be much more productive. You want to bring some intensity right? Take at least one day off per week. And a day off doesn’t mean going to the gym to practice something, go out for a run just because or pick up a home workout from Instagram because you feel like you need to – take a day to do nothing taxing and reap the benefits.
- – You aren’t going heavy enough
- When we work on heavier lifts you need to give them the effort and respect they deserve. Without spending real effort on the strength stuff you won’t get stronger. If we are looking to go heavy on something then it is with a purpose so work with our expert staff to find your limits.
- – You haven’t mastered the basics
- The basics are called the basics because they underpin the more exciting stuff. If you spend time constantly grooving the basics, when it comes to adding load, speed or complexity you will probably be able to advance more quickly. For example, if your air squat is not super crisp then you’ll probably struggle to safely add much load to a barbell for front squats. How much better do you think your shoulders and abs would feel if you spent time working on building perfect press ups? Those shoulders and abs would also probably be able to handle more complex movements more easily like push presses or ring dips.