I have been in the fitness industry for a long time now and I have learnt a lot over the years. I really want to try and help as many women as I can understand that the things they are currently doing could actually be setting them back rather then help them achieve their goals.

These days there are so many experts and people out there preaching what to do and what not to do so I can totally understand why so many women are so confused and just end up going around in circles or worst, yoyo dieting!

I am here to keep things as simple as possible and to help you understand things so hopefully something clicks and you ‘get it’ and you can finally start to move forward with your health and fitness goals!

1. Doing too much cardio

Cardiovascular exercise is great. I’m not trying to discourage you from going to the gym or throwing on your running shoes and heading out the door. But before you start getting your heart rate up, try to erase everything you learned about the “fat burning zone” you heard about in spinning class, or the more-is-more attitude you had when it came to the amount of time you spent on a piece of cardio equipment.

Recent research has shown:

• long, slow cardio sessions actually burn muscle, not fat
• decrease human growth hormone
• suppress hormones needed for burning fat
• increase cortisol

What Can You Do?

Keep working out and getting plenty of exercise, just make it about quality. You can get a great workout in less than an hour if you’re focusing on intensity. Higher intensity workouts, whether they’re strength or cardio-based, will increase your body’s human growth hormone, level off cortisol, develop existing muscle tissue and unleash T3, a crucial hormone for fat burning.

If cardio is what you want, then keep at it, but not for 60 minutes of slow and steady. Spice it up by starting with a good warm up for 5 to 10 minutes. After that increase the intensity for two minutes, to the point where your breathing heavy, then back down to an easy pace for one minute. Repeat this 2-minutes hard: 1-minute easy for 30 to 40 minutes and you’ll get a much greater bang for your buck than if you went slow and steady the entire time.

2. Repeating the same training program/exercises over and over

Common mistake this, women do the same training routine every week, day in, day out, it is like living on repeat!

Once your body recognises “routine,” it plateaus in terms of progress. Your body simply learns what you teach it. If you continually ask it to learn something new, it has to continually “adapt” and learn it. These benefits go even a step further in keeping you mentally upbeat for a new variation of your “routine” when you hit the gym. Change it up and get double the benefits and enhance your results.”

You can of course do the same program for a while as long as you are changing up the intensity i.e.. lifting heavier or running faster! I would always change the actual program every 8-12 weeks though, that way your body will not have enough time to plateau and you won’t get bored!

3. Being too scared to lift heavy as they don’t want to get bulky

Undoubtedly, you’ve heard the horror stories: lifting heavy weights makes women bulky, it’s dangerous, it’s bad for your joints, and once you have muscle, you can’t stop lifting or it will all turn to fat. It’s all laughable, and it feeds into stereotypes that are keeping too many women from experiencing the profound benefits of resistance training.

It’s time to put that fear and uncertainty aside. The fact is lifting weights does none of those awful things. What it does is help you to live in a healthier, stronger body.

Here are 7 reasons you should prioritise strength training in your fitness regimen:

• More effective fat loss
• More muscle, more calorie expenditure
• Quality sleep
• Increased energy
• Heart health
• Bone health
• Stress relief

Moral of the story ladies - LIFT WEIGHTS

All of us want to feel strong, determined, and confident in everything we do: from fitting into jeans, to moving heavy furniture, to playing with kids, to dealing with a stressful career.

Resistance training can benefit in all aspects of your life. Put it in your fitness plan and feel stronger, healthier, and more confident!

4. Under eating or cutting out food groups

It is so important to get into the habit of eating whole foods, your body knows what to do with real food! These days eating has become the biggest head f*#k, it really isn’t meant to be this complicated! Under eating when you train is very dangerous for many reasons, the most important one being that you will mess up your metabolism and you will end off a lot worse off than when you started! I like to live by the 80/20 rule, after a few years of trial and error I found that this works well for me! I like to eat well through the week and then on the weekends I splash out a bit and treat myself and I do this guilt free! I believe that this helps me bring balance into my life and it also keeps me sane.

I never feel deprived or feel the need to binge! Under eating can be dangerous on so many levels, it leaves you feeling very miserable and you could end up with an eating disorder or body dysmorphic disorder! Please be careful and do your research before you take nutrition advice from anyone and more than anything listen to your body and give it what it needs when it needs it!

5. STRESS

Stress and weight gain (or lack of weight loss) go hand in hand. Though you may not be aware of it, being under constant stress can increase production of the hormone cortisol which can cause an increase in appetite as well as extra fat storage around the abdominal region–a big no-no since abdominal fat is linked to diabetes, high cholesterol and other health problems.

Dealing with stress can be as simple as taking a few minutes a day to relax, scheduling a massage as often as you can or cutting down on work hours and increasing play time.

It is important that you take time out for you and try to de-stress yourself!

Over training can also cause stress and so can beating yourself up so be kind to yourself and listen to your body!

Full Article: http://fithealthymums.com/top-5-mistakes-training-nutrition/

Switalla, J. (n.d.). 5 common mistakes that women make when it comes to their training & nutrition! Retrieved from http://fithealthymums.com/top-5-mistakes-training-nutrition/