5 key mistakes in weight loss workouts

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2016-01-10

In this article, I will discuss the 5 most critical training mistakes for weight loss that people often make. Even one of these five mistakes can significantly reduce the effectiveness of your workouts (by 20% - 40%). If you have three or more of these mistakes, you will definitely not lose weight. So, let’s get started.

1. Infrequent Workouts

Perhaps this is the most common and critical mistake. Quite often, I get requests for personalized plans from people who want to lose weight but train only 2 to 3 times a week. Remember, for weight loss, the more frequently you train, the better. Training just twice a week is virtually meaningless. Three times is better. Four times is decent. Ideally, you should be training 5 to 6 times a week.

Of course, it’s not so much a matter of laziness or ignorance as it is about how few people can find enough free time to train every other day. Unfortunately, no matter what the reasons are, the results will be the same. So, think about how to increase your number of workouts in your case.

From a physiological standpoint, the point here is that frequent workouts (just like frequent meals) speed up your metabolism. For example, let’s consider two scenarios: in the first scenario, a person works out 3 times a week for 2 hours. In the second scenario, a person trains 6 times a week for 1 hour. In both cases, the total time will add up to 6 hours a week. However, the second scenario will be approximately 30% - 40% more effective than the first.

2. Lack of Cardio (Aerobic Load)

This primarily concerns men, as women usually enjoy cardio and include it in their workouts. On the other hand, men often train almost the same whether for mass or for weight loss. That is, they simply lift weights in both cases.

I won’t be revealing anything new if I say that cardio plays a key role in weight loss. Strength exercises are necessary to preserve your muscles during weight loss. By cardio, I mean any aerobic activity where your average heart rate is at least 120 beats per minute. In terms of gym exercises, I primarily refer to cardio machines. They can be sorted by energy expenditure as follows (the most energy-intensive at the top):

• Rowing machine
• Treadmill
• Elliptical
• Stepper
• Stationary bike
• Recumbent bike

Naturally, when it comes to weight loss, it's better to use more energy-intensive machines. The question is how long you can sustain a workout on them. For example, if you need to do cardio for 20-25 minutes, I don't think you will be able to last that long on a rowing machine.

3. Low Workout Intensity

What is training intensity? It refers to the total amount of work done over a unit of time. For simplicity, the amount of work can be measured by the total number of repetitions. This is not entirely accurate, but for simplicity's sake, this method will suffice.

For example, in one hour you perform 6 exercises, with 4 sets of 10 repetitions for each. That gives you a total of 240 repetitions in an hour. This is the intensity of that workout. Now, if you switch to performing supersets, you can complete 8 exercises in one hour, also with 4 sets. Additionally, if you do all sets with 15 repetitions, that results in 480 repetitions in an hour. In this case, you did twice the amount of work in the same time period.

What is the point of all this? It's essential to aim to increase the intensity of your workouts. The higher the intensity, the greater the heart rate and the faster the metabolism. As you've guessed, you can increase workout intensity in the following ways:

• Increase the number of repetitions.
• Decrease the rest time between sets.
• Use various superset or circuit training techniques.

4. Excessive Isolation Exercises

Isolation exercises are those that primarily engage only one muscle group. A perceptive reader has probably realized the implication here. The fact is that the fewer muscles involved in an exercise, the less energy it expends. This is not what we want. For weight loss, we need exercises that require a lot of energy.

For example, if a man weighing 80 kg performs:

He will expend approximately 20 calories. If that same man performs:

He will expend about 5 calories. That’s 4 times less. In other words, if you compare two workouts with the same number of exercises and repetitions, but the first workout consists solely of basic exercises, while the second consists only of isolation exercises on machines, the energy expenditure in the first workout will be roughly 3 times higher. You can calculate this yourself using the calculation tool for energy expenditure.

In general, try to do more exercises with free weights instead of machines. Aim for more basic exercises rather than isolation ones. Also, do more standing exercises rather than seated or lying ones.

5. Using Too Light Weights

This issue mainly concerns women. Yes, for weight loss, the number of repetitions plays a much more significant role than the weight of the equipment. However, the last repetitions should be challenging. The heavier the weight, the more energy is expended and the better your muscles will be preserved when you lose weight.

So, while you should prioritize the number of repetitions, don’t forget to choose weights that genuinely challenge you to achieve the intended number of repetitions. For this purpose, there is a weight selection calculator for strength exercises available on the site.

That’s all I wanted to say. As you can see, I haven’t revealed any secrets because it’s all quite simple and obvious. However, many people often forget these simple things. If you can eradicate all these 5 mistakes, everything else (related to training) won’t matter as much, and your workouts will yield the desired results. And as for nutrition, that’s a whole different story.

Personally, how many of these five mistakes did you find in your training? Or do you know of any other serious and common mistakes? Share in the comments.