Top nutrition and fitness mistakes you don't want to make...

Training too much

For most people there is no such thing as overtraining, there is just inadequate recovery. Get your sleep, gut, supplements and food sorted and you will recover in plenty of time. The reason that most people choose not to do this is that they are not prepared to invest the time and effort required. This means that if they train 5-6 times per week they will burn out. Their body composition will stay the same and their weights will not increase.

 

 

 

Training like a bodybuilder when you want to be an athlete

So you've decided to join the gym to get better at your chosen sport, and you look up a weightlifting programme. The chances are that what you get is a bodybuilding programme designed to make you put on mass. 'Chest day', 'leg day' etc. Most programmes structured like this are a must for those wanting to get bigger, but are suicidal for anyone wanting to more physically capable. They focus on swelling the muscles, increasing weight and slowing you down.

 

Not keeping track of your training

If you are the kind of person that turns up at the gym, and just does a work out based on what is available, guessing on the weight from last time. How could you possibly expect to make any progression? What gets measured will progress. At very least write down what you do each time so you can retrospectively assess if your time has been well spent or if you're just filling space.

 

Eating low carb all the time 

You read a book and heard that if you cut out carbs then you will lose weight. This is true, but there is a catch. The first few days' weight loss is all water. As your glycogen drops your stored water will too. The next is that less wheat products will reduce inflammation and get rid of more water too. There is genuine merit to low diets for improving insulin sensitivity and fat loss but you must include carbs periodically so your body does not lose the ability to process them.

The final note is that if you would like to recover as quickly as possible you will require carbs.

 

Eating carbs at breakfast

"You should eat carbs at breakfast because your insulin sensitivity is at it's highest..." True, but not relevant. The best plan of action is to eat your carbs after you train, assuming you trained hard enough to deserve them.

Carbs in the morning set your brain chemistry to 'carb seeking' for the rest of the day. Porridge isn't so clever now is it?  

 

Ignoring vitamins and minerals

In the UK from September to May there is not enough sunlight to produce adequate amounts of vitamin D.

Omega 3 fatty acids are supposed to come from the meat that we eat, however most of us only eat meat which has been fed on grains. Meaning they don't get a natural diet and so neither do we.

If you train often then you will deplete your magnesium levels. Unless you eat a huge amount of greens, fish and wild meat then you will benefit from supplementation.

The list goes on, you cannot get an optimal diet from food alone.

 

Eating foods that cause inflammation

Eating grains, processed fats and foods which you are intolerant to will contribute to chronic inflammation throughout your body. Inflammation increases the incidence of obesity, cancer, diabetes and all chronic diseases.  

 

Lifting weights to hit the numbers rather than contracting your muscles against resistance to fatigue

Even though you have a programme and you're following it to the letter, don't think that just because you've turned up to the gym and completed your workout you're guaranteed to have done enough to progress. Did you train to failure?

The whole point of your programme is to give you a set of exercises which will fatigue your muscles to the point of failure. If you don't hit failure then keep going. If you hit failure before the prescribed reps then that's fine too. Use them as a guideline not as an ultimatum. 

 

Performing exercises of which you aren't capable

Don't walk before you can run... You'll hear that squats are the best exercise to get a great bum. (This is a debatable matter, but the advice is sound) But if like most people you don't have the mobility to do a squat, the likely result is you performing something close to a squat which creates an injury, stops you from training and gives you a worse bum!