Ten gym mistakes: why not lose weight?

From getting impatient with the results to laughing at the weights. Avoid these habits to get rid of the extra kilos.

Although we decided to start the course with good habits, we did not sign up for the gym and, once again, we spent time on it. Not only we have not lost the kilos that we thought, but we have gained some more. There is no time to lose, today it does not happen: I put on my fitness tights and go to the engine room. Tape, bicycle, abdominals for a flat stomach, obliques to recover the waist and some aerobic class to lose weight fast: Zumba? spinning? ... And why not both? Yes, that's how most of us think when we see that we did not get into the clothes of last season and we resisted the increase in size. And this is the first mistake: take for granted that we are able, from one day to the next, to practice sports for hours as if that were the case. But he's not the only one. Here we tell you the ten most common gym faults, those that slow down your physical evolution.


1. Pay in advance at the sports center. Cristian García, technical director of BodyOn electro-fitness and physiotherapy center, warns us of the danger of "padlock contracts" in gyms, which require the disbursement to go or not, even if medical reports are presented. "Before deciding whether to whether or not you are in the gym you have chosen, you have to know about the training plan that will be proposed, if it will be attended periodically by a coach and the dates on which you can evaluate it. work or residence, if we do not want to abandon the first change, "he says.

2. To think that in a few weeks we will see surprising results. Effectively, this is a mistake that slows down, because it generates frustration. As Ángel Merchán, director of the personal training company Home wellness, points out, there are two implicit problems: "The first is that the body needs time to adapt the stimuli we give him with training so that improvements can be made, and the second is that Going with that mentality we are going to demotivate quickly, by not seeing the expected results, and we will want to leave, the effects are observed per quarter (they will be significant) and depend on the level of physical condition that we had before ".

3. Train less than two days a week. Or not to be constant. What it is about is to be regular in our way of exercising. Beatriz Solís, fitness trainer and manager of one of the female gyms of the Curves chain, confirms that perseverance and good habits are the keys. "At our centers, we recommend 30 minutes 3 times a week, it takes 10 to 12 weeks to create a habit and, from there, maintain it: that's the key to success." Cristian García points out: "You have to schedule days and hours to go train, and try to make this activity a sacred routine." And Ángel Merchán corroborates: "Every person depends, the American Council of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends a minimum of 3 days a week of vigorous cardiovascular exercise and 2 days of strength. From here, each person must adopt the amount of exercise and the intensity of it to their level and their personal circumstances. In my experience, with 2 days a week, you can get results, but the idea is to get to 4 or 5 ".

4. Limit to the abdominals to achieve a flat stomach. You will not get a flat stomach by doing 100 sit-ups daily. "Exercising a certain area does not help to lose fat from that particular area, as numerous studies have shown. It manages to improve the overall tone and its strength. To tune the abdomen depends fundamentally on the loss of fat, and for this, we must perform a training focused on caloric expenditure and combine it with an adequate diet that generates a certain caloric deficit, that is, spending more calories than we eat, "he says. Ángel Merchán.

5. Eat what your personal trainer dictates. "We must always maintain a balanced, varied diet and make five meals a day, we all know what are the foods that do not suit us (sugars, bad fats, alcohol ...)," warns Beatriz Solís. , we will go to an expert, but we will never let a coach give us a diet. "Generally (though not all), sports instructors have nutritional notions, but we are not professionals of something as delicate as this. It could be counterproductive, "says Cristian Garcia, who continues:" I advise caution with the products offered by gyms to burn fat, eliminate liquids or increase muscle mass, could compromise internal organs [consult with your doctor]. a shake for long periods of time.

6. Mock the weights: "That's muscled!" Ángel Merchán ensures that in weight loss processes, in addition to cardiovascular training to burn calories and adequate nutrition, Strength training is required. This is because the improvement in our muscle mass will increase the metabolism, which on the other hand is slowing down with the loss of weight and the caloric deficit. In this way, we will achieve that the thinning is sustainable. "Doing only aerobic exercise [tape, running, walking ...] does not help us to raise our metabolism, which is the motor that burns body fat. Complete training of strength and aerobic is what will allow us a harmonious figure, "says Beatriz Solís.

7. Overvalue your strength. "The weight that we move must be adapted to our strength so that we can execute the exercise in a technically correct manner. Twisting in the machine or with the weights only increases the risk of injury without achieving a better result, "warns Ángel Merchán." A muscle group has the strength it has, when we change the position to move more it is because the muscle in question cannot, and what it does is to seek the help of others to complete the movement. To lift the buttocks, exercises such as squats, deadlifts and hip thrust (raising them lying on the ground) are perfect, "he adds.

8. Maintain the same intensity on the bicycle for 40 minutes. Ribbons and exercise bikes can be perfect tools for training. The significant thing is what we do with them. For example, as Ángel Merchán narrates, continuous training (40 minutes on a static bike at the same level) is less effective than if changes in rhythm or sprints are made in relation to fat loss. "If we want to 'mold', we will do strength exercises after warm-up and before cardio, with a collective class such as Zumba or spinning," he adds. Although here we must take into account what is said by Cristian García, from the body: "We will choose a collective class according to our performance. Many people join spinning without being prepared, physically, for it ".

9. Do not stretch after training. If we knew the long-term injuries that are caused by lack of stretching after exercise, we would not hesitate a second to make this gesture. It is recommended to stretch while maintaining the tension position for 20 seconds without bouncing. Activities such as yoga and pilates integrate the work of flexibility in their routines and can be interesting as a complement to cardiovascular and strength training, "says Ángel Merchán." Stretching helps relieve muscle tension, improves long-term mobility and allows the musculature regenerates more quickly, we will increase the benefits of training by 19% ", confirms Beatriz,

10. Always practice the same routine, and do not rest. A very common mistake is to keep the same training routine for too long. In Angel's opinion, the body adapts and stops making improvements. "We have to vary the training every four or six weeks at the most, Another frequent mistake in people who are quite fit and trained is not to respect the rest, the body needs to stop to assimilate the training, if we do not rest once or twice in week, we run the risk of over-training, and get the opposite of what we seek: worsen our physical condition, "he concludes.