7 Unfavorable Exercise Habits That Need To Be Broken

If you’re not reaching your goals, experts say these situations could be the reason.

Wondering why you can’t quite hit that race goal you’ve been after (for a long time now) or sick of not seeing the results you’d like from that new strength training regime you started? It may not have anything to do with your weekly workout content or how many reps you're cranking out, but rather some unfavorable habits you might not even realize you’re guilty of doing.
Curious what behaviors you should change up? Here are some of sticky points that could be standing in the way of your results.

1). You Have Improper Exercise Form: Whether from a lack mindfulness (your mind isn’t on the movements you’re doing while you’re doing them), a lack of proper guidance, not asking for advice, or being new to the gym, many people don't realize the importance of good form when exercising. Its super important to master, especially with moves like squats and lunges. Exercising with poor form can be dangerous to your joints and muscles and can even scuttle the effect of your workout. Make sure you learn the right form from a certified instructor or expert from the get-go. Bad exercise habits can be more difficult to get rid of later in the game.

2). You Exercise On An Empty Stomach: While there’s some debate about whether or not you should work out without eating beforehand, it’s usually a good idea to fuel your body before you start exercising.  Fasted cardio—doing cardio on an empty stomach in the morning, is not the most sustainable thing, explains Jay Cardiello, a fitness expert and ISSA, and NSCA-certified strength and conditioning specialist.

He suggests getting in your carbs and protein, even if in a lighter form, before starting your workout. In addition to making you feel like do-do, when your blood sugar is too low, your body extracts glycogen from the muscle tissues once blood levels run out. What does that mean? You’ll start losing muscle instead of building it. Yikes. Low blood sugar can also cause dizziness and weakness during training which compromises your ability to stay in the game. Best to eat something nutritionally balanced before working out to skip all of those negative side effects.

3). You Live By Cardio: Yes, cardio can burn calories, but overdoing it can undermine your strength, cause muscle atrophy, sap your energy, impair your immunity, and even lead to fat-loss plateaus. Combine a strict diet plan with an overdose of cardio and it will take even more of a toll on your muscles. To maintain strength, Karina Baymiller, a USA powerlifting club coach and founder of Knox Strength & Performance suggests regular weekly strength training along with a 15-minute HIIT or other conditioning session week in addition to your cardio work.

4). You’re Either Always Starving, and/or Eating The Wrong Foods: Getting the proper number of calories and quantity of foods along with the proper qualityof foods in your nutritional mix can be tricky, but it’s essential. You need sufficient calories (and a mix of calories; your protein, carbs, and fat) to have the energy to drive your daily activities, your workouts, and your recovery. You need the right quality of foods to feel good, promote and preserve your health, and produce the fitness results you’re working so hard for. If you’re always starving, you’re likely not getting enough calories to keep you in good stead. It could also be the case that you’re eating the wrong types of foods (junk or empty-calorie foods) which lead to the same result. Either way, no bueno—eat healthy, eat smart, eat enough.

5). You’re Not Getting Enough Protein: Protein is essential to help your body recover from training and helps repair worked, sore muscles. A protein-rich diet helps to increase the fat metabolism in your body since you burn more calories while digesting protein as it takes longer to break down. Science backs it up: The body burns up to 30 percent of the calories consumed from protein during the digestion process, according to research reviewed by Precision Nutrition, so stock up in every meal—especially breakfast.

6). You Don’t Get Sufficient Sleep: Adequate sleep allows your muscles to recover. Without it, you can't exercise at full intensity and muscles feel sore from previous gym efforts because they couldn't repair themselves. Some experts believe that sleep is the most important thing for a better health and fitness. Not to mention, sleep helps mitigate stress. Proper stress management reduces cortisol levels which have an impact on other hormones such as testosterone and human growth hormone (HGH). You should aim to get 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night.

7). You Play The Blame Game: It’s easy to allow normal life events, such as work, traffic, a funky mood, the weather, a phone call interruption, or any number of other small-ish things to keep you away from your workouts. The blame game, ala “I couldn’t work out because abc, xyz” is ultimately a no-win strategy. If you consistently allow small bumps in the road to become major hurdles to your workouts, you’ll never take the right actions, thus never make ANY progress.

Here’s something interesting to know: Children who have active parents tend to be more active themselves, says Bernard Fuemmeler, Ph.D., associate director of cancer prevention and control at Virginia Commonwealth University. That’s good news if parents are good fitness examples, don’t make those excuses, and work out regularly. If parents don’t consider fitness to be important, make excuses, and don't put in an effort, children are prone to model that behavior. It’s on you to find a way to make fitness a regular part of your life (read: no excuses!) for both your health and the health of your loved ones.