4 training mistakes to avoid in 2022
Ah yes, some more end-of-year clickbait…except this one will actually follow through with some short n’ sweet value!
Mistake #1: Expecting linear progress
To expect life to be linear is to dramatically underestimate how cool it is. LINEAR? Come on…I’ll take spirals, zig-zags, and fractals any day.
And yet we ALL do this. Yup, me too. But here’s a simple proof I like to use as a reminder: if I could add my pounds to my squat every week, then I’d be breaking world records by now (spoiler: I’m not).
Mistake #2: Adopting someone else’s goals
Do you really want to run that marathon in 2022? Probably not :)
Mistake #3: Overemphasizing the “what”
There is no “best exercise for knee pain”
There is no “best exercise for six pack abs”
There is no best exercise for everyone. We all bring our different proportions, experiences, and intentions into them. An exercise should be useful for you. Is it? Great.
Mistake #4: Not enough load
We often measure the success of exercise as fatigue, sweat, and breathlessness. “You gotta try this class, it totally crushed me!”
This would be like determining the success of downloading files by whether your battery dies. What happens if we choose to focus on what we’ve been able to download?
Lying on the floor in your own sweat is a sign of fatigue, not productivity. Here’s a simple rule of thumb for finding enough intensity to build strength: if you could have done 5 more reps of the exercise, then it wasn’t intense enough. Either do a few more reps or make the movement harder, and you’ll likely find more bang for your buck.
Of course, this list is by no means exhaustive. These are mistakes I’ve seen other people make, and they’re all mistakes I’ve made. Have one to add? Comment below or send me a message!
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