Fitness trainer Harley Pasternak has helped celebrities like Halle Berry, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Jessica Simpson get the silhouette they always wanted. Throughout his career, he saw a variety of fitness mistakes people make at the gym.
From mistakes that delay results and can even result in injury to gym etiquette rules that often end up being broken, here are some behaviors the famed celebrity trainer advises everyone to avoid:
Gym mistake No.1: Doing Too Much, Too Fast
While the desire to lose weight fast is understandable, opting for very challenging workouts right from the start is a strategy that can quickly backfire.
In fact, according to Harley Pasternak it’s possibly the biggest mistake people make when exercising: ”Looking for fast results, people try CrossFit, Insanity and get injured. Biggest Loser fans see participants doing crazy hard workouts, but they don’t always see the resulting hamstring pain.”
Gym mistake No.2: Overdoing These Exercises
In the quest to help people avoid common gym mistakes, the fitness trainer has spoken on numerous occasions about the importance of not overtraining visible muscles in order to avoid an unbalanced look, a tendency that is common for both women and men. In fact, the trainer advises doing these 5 exercises at the gym very rarely: bench presses, flys, crunches, leg raises and shoulder raises to the front.
Gym mistake No.3: Stretching Before or During Exercises
A dynamic warm-up is much more important than stretching before or during exercises. In fact, Pasternak advises avoiding stretching altogether before and during the workout stating that the recent studies showed that doing so might actually increase the chances of injury rather than decreasing them as it was previously thought.
Gym mistake No.4: Being Unfocused
Allowing distractions such as cell phones and magazines at the gym is a common fitness mistake that greatly diminishes the chances of actually getting the desired results since they can quickly become very distracting and decrease the intensity of a workout significantly.
Annoying Gym Mistake No.5: Gym Etiquette Blunders
There are many ways in which people can be inconsiderate to other gym goers without even realizing it. From monopolizing gym equipments, to bringing food in the gym room, to listening music without headphones or not wiping down equipments after using them, all these behaviors signal one thing: a poor gym etiquette.
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