6 common gym mistakes

You’ve been going to the gym every week -- several times a week, in fact. You’ve taken classes, lifted weights, and sweated more than Muhammad Ali. But every time you climb on that scale, your weight stays the same.

Whats with that? Isn’t working out the sure-fire way to lose extra pounds? Not if you’re making the same exercise mistakes that many do in the gym.

The lifestyle that is involved with maintaining a healthy body weightinvolves more than what you put in your mouth, says James A. Peterson, PhD, FACSM, the author of more than 80 books on health, nutrition, and exercise. Many people think that if you go into the gym and bump up against a weight machine, you’re going to lose weight.

So what might you be doing wrong during your workout? Check out these frequent faux pas.

Exercise Mistake #1: Too much socializing, not enough exercising.

I see a lot of individuals talking with each other in the gym, says Scott Lucett, director of education for the National Academy of Sports Medicine and a certified personal trainer for more than 15 years. Next thing they know, an hour has passed and the amount of time they have actually spent exercising is relatively low. So focus on your workout -- and save the chit-chat for the juice bar.

Exercise Mistake #2: Lack of intensity.

Do you see your gym time as the perfect way to catch up on your reading? Are you leaning on the machines? Lots of people are just going through the motions, even though they may look like theyre working out. They think that as long as theyre moving, theyre going to lose weight, Lucett says. But if the intensity is not at the level that it needs to be at, its almost a waste of time.
In addition to increasing your intensity levels, Peterson also recommends working out for longer periods of time, increasing weights and distance, cross-training, working out on an incline, and maximizing your body weight while working out, by using a weighted vest or ankle weights, for example.

Exercise Mistake #3: Always training in the 'fat burning' heart rate zone.

Youve seen those charts on the cardiovascular machines that list zones. But in the so-called fat-burning zone, your training intensity isnt very high -- usually 65%-70% of your heart rate. Research, however, has shown that the higher the intensity, the more calories you burn -- not only while exercising, but after you leave the gym, when your body benefits from an after-burn mode.
Its as if you turn off your car engine, but the hood is still warm, Lucett says. The same thing happens with the body. You need to make sure that your intensity is higher than that chart. Unable to work out that hard? Work your way up.

Exercise Mistake #4: Overestimating caloric expenditure.

Dont let the number on the screen of your cardio machine fool you, either. Thats a very general number and there are a lot of variables that play into that, Lucett says. The machine may say that youve expended 500 calories, but you could only be burning 250.

This can be especially true when you do things to trick the machine, like leaning on the bars. Unbeknownst to that computer, which relies on speed and revolutions to calculate calories, youre offsetting your weight, which means you are significantly decreasing the amount of work youre doing.

Exercise Mistake #5: Not progressing/changing your program.

When you do the same workout over and over again, the body has no reason to change. Youll see an initial loss, but eventually youll get to a point of diminishing returns, Lucett says.
Another challenge, Peterson says, is getting away from the machines and routines that you feel most comfortable with.

You like the feeling of aerobic exercise, so you dont do what it takes to maintain your muscle mass, which is the body tissue that burns calories -- the furnace, he says. Or you do only strength training, which maintains muscle mass, but you dont lose weight." Those little string-bean guys who run marathons? They often dont do anything to ensure the success of the process by, say, engaging in strength training. You have to have a mix.

Exercise Mistake #6: Spot reduction training.

Those articles that guarantee you can lose fat from your abs or glutes? Forget em, say the experts. People need to understand that genetics is the primary factor in determining where that body fat comes from, Lucett says. Your body is going to take fat from anywhere it wants. The answer? Just focus on burning calories through a well-balanced training program. Youll eventually lose the weight from all areas of your body.

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