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 comes part three of our list of pitfalls:
- – You spend too much time lifting weights at the expense of other stuff
- On the CrossFit pyramid you’ll clearly see that conditioning and moving your own bodyweight (and nutrition) underpin weightlifting, but often people are guilty of rushing past the less glamorous stuff like eating well, getting out of breath regularly and practicing basic gymnastics. If you find yourself with a bit of extra time on your hands and don’t know what to do but want to do something (and have the recovery capacity to do so) look lower down the pyramid for inspiration rather than going straight to weightlifting just because.
- – You cherry pick your workouts
- Some people only show up to workouts that they know they’ll do well at because they need an ego boost. Some people will regularly avoid workouts that have things in that they know they struggle with. Posting the fastest time or heaviest weight is not as important as providing your body with a new challenge. Turning up on days when you know you’ll struggle says a lot about you as a person (and also forces our coaching staff to develop ways to help you work through a workout or movement).
- – You fear running
- Getting out of the house or gym and clocking up a couple of miles every now and again won’t take away your gains. It may be tough at first, you may even have to intersperse your running with some walking, but over time you’ll get better and your times will get faster. Getting some fresh air is rarely a bad idea so lace up those trainers and get out there.