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Working out, for all its benefits, can also be incredibly frustrating. The thing is, when you first start getting in shape, your progress is tangible. You can feel your muscles changing, your heart getting stronger, and your body getting leaner. However, as you workout regularly, it’s all too easy to hit a plateau and never work past it. This plateau comes in many forms such as stalling weight loss or difficulty getting faster or stronger. The biggest problem with this plateau is that it decreases your motivation to keep on keeping on.
So what’s the best way to battle the fitness plateau? Address your bad habits. You might not even realize it, but you may have fallen into poor fitness practices either by accident or by laziness, and these habits are preventing you from reaching that next level. Although these habits are no cure-all, they are great starting points for fine-tuning your fitness routine.
You Use Poor Form
Poor form not only puts you at a greater risk for injury, but it also handicaps your ability to get better. Whether you’re lifting weights or holding a yoga pose, the movement is supposed to be challenging. Your muscles are supposed to burn. Allowing your body to compensate in odd ways to minimize this burn isn’t doing you any favors, and it’s stalling your progress. During your next workout, pay close attention to each exercise. Are you tweaking your body in a weird way? Does a movement feel too easy? Is your stability compromised? These are all ways you could be hurting your workout.
You Don’t Eat Before You Workout
You would think that skipping breakfast would help you burn fat right away, right? Wrong. Without energy to burn, your body starts burning through muscle first. This is bad. Not only does it leave you sore and stiff after, but it decreases your body’s muscle mass. For weight loss, the more muscle you have the better because muscle burns more energy than fat. You don’t have to eat much, but make sure you at least have some protein in you before you hit the gym.
You Skip Strength Training
This builds upon the previous reason. Cardio is great for you. It keeps your heart in good shape, the lungs going, and the blood pumping. Plus, it burns a lot of calories. Cardio should definitely be one part of your fitness rotation, but it shouldn’t the the only part. You need strength training too. By building muscle, you help burn extra fat, and you also promote good posture, develop strong joints, and prevent injuries. If you’re not interested in lifting weights, at least try some bodyweight only workouts. A little strength training is better than none at all.
You Aren’t Getting Enough Sleep
Sleep isn’t just important for recharging the mind; it’s also important for recharging the body. Sleep gives your muscles time to rest and recover, and it allows the muscle fibers time to repair any damage incurred from a strenuous workout. If you skip out on sleep, you skip your recovery period, and as a result you can’t push yourself as hard during your next workout. It might seem like you’re working at 100%, but in reality, you’re working below your potential.
You Aren’t Eating Enough Protein
Yes, protein helps build muscle, but it also helps maintain muscle. Protein helps repair damaged muscle after a difficult workout, ensuring that your workout isn’t causing you to actually lose muscle mass. Without adequate protein, your muscle mass can actually suffer from working out too hard. That’s the opposite of what you’d like to accomplish. Instead, make sure that your daily diet, especially immediately prior and immediately following a workout incorporate sufficient protein.
Your Workout Playlist is the Same as Your Chill Playlist
Let’s face it, working out is a whole lot more fun with music. However, besides fun, music can actually motivate you to work harder and faster than you would on your own. Most people naturally workout to the tempo of the music, which is why it is so important to have a fast-paced, energizing workout playlist. If you just listen to the same songs you play while cooking dinner or driving home from work, especially if these songs are slower, you won’t push yourself as hard. You’ll associate the music with less intense activities, and you may perform exercises at a much more relaxed pace.
You Don’t Unplug
Sure, having a phone on hand is great for playing music, but if it’s distracting you from your workout routine, it’s time to unplug. Don’t stop to respond to texts in the middle of a set, and don’t scroll through your email while doing abs. You aren’t getting anything productive done on your phone, and you’re taking away from valuable workout time. Have a lot on your plate? Shorten your workout and ramp up the intensity. Just don’t get sidetracked by your Instagram.
