Womens Fitness
and the Most Common
Mistakes We Make

In regards to womens fitness, it's great to see more and more getting involved in taking an active role in their health and fitness goals by making an effort to get to the gym regularly and start making some changes to their diet. In doing so however, there are still some very key mistakes that I see a number of women making that are severely hindering their progress.

This is unfortunate because often they have the best of intensions so it's not motivation that's holding them back, but rather how they are going about their workouts in the gym and what they are eating.

If you really want to see the results you're going for, it's vital that you get these mistakes cleared up.

When you do, you'll likely be in shock at just how easy reaching your goals can be. Let's take a brief look at some of the biggest womens fitness mistakes I see being made and what you must do to correct these.

• Womens Fitness Mistake #1: Cardio First, Weights Second

The first issue is the heavy reliance on cardio training. Some women are starting to catch on that weight lifting is a better way, but even when they do, they'll still put cardio as the priority and do it first in the workout session.

If you want to see results, it must go weights first and then cardio second. This stands for both the order in which you perform your workout as well as the importance of the two different types of exercise varieties. Female bodybuilding will give you far superior results, so be sure to prioritize them over your cardio sessions.

• Womens Fitness Mistake #2: Ultra Low Cal Diets

Another huge mistake I see that is so common it's actually quite upsetting is women using extremely low calorie diets in attempt to hurry up the fat loss progress.

Remember, when your calories dip down too low the body will start to conserve fuel. You may think this is an age old myth but trust me, it's not. I've seen so many women actually start making better progress after they increase their food intake. Seems weird, but it works.

There's a fine line between taking in too many calories and taking in too few that you have to figure out how to stay in balance on that line – it's almost like walking a tightrope.

• Womens Fitness Mistake #3: Too Much Isolation Work

Another issue that sometimes comes into play with many women is that they are slightly fearful of doing 'larger' exercises and instead stick with doing smaller, isolated lifts along with using weight machines that only target a single muscle group.

Always remember that you'll see far superior results if you work a number of muscle fibers at once, which is why those compound lifts are a must. You may be shying away from them however as they're more often the lifts that the men will be performing (thus taking up that 'space' in the gym) and are also the ones that require you to lift more weight.

Again this comes back to the intimidation factor of lifting heavy that so many women hold but need to get past.

The compound exercises that you should start doing more often include heavy bench presses, barbell full squats (don't cheat yourself and only go halfway down), deadlifts, shoulder presses, lunges, bent over barbell rows, and pull-ups.

Compare these exercises to ones such as bicep curls, tricep extensions, lateral raises, leg extensions, and hamstring curls and you should almost instantly be able to spot the differences.

The compound lifts will produce faster results, burn more calories, and help shorten the time you spend in the gym. Start doing them today if you want to look better tomorrow.

• Womens Fitness Mistake #4: Protein Devoid Diets

Along with the issue of taking in too few overall calories, the second biggest problem I see women making with their diets is failing to get in enough protein. In fact, some women don't even know what foods are most concentrated in protein!

This is a huge problem that needs to get solved. Failing to eat enough protein is the worst diet mistake you could make because it will significant impact your ability to maintain lean muscle mass and recover from the gym.

Protein supplies the body with the building blocks of muscle tissue so if you put in a hard workout, tear your muscles down, and then don't supply protein, you might as well say good bye to building those muscles back to how they were before.

Your workouts will only be effective if you consume enough protein.
To clarify protein rich foods for you once and for all, the list includes: poultry, lean red meat, seafood and fish, low-fat dairy products, soy, whey protein powder, and eggs. Other sources (such as nuts for instance) may contain some protein, but it will not be the primary nutrient found in the food.

Try and get one of the above listed foods in each meal or snack you eat for best results.

• Womens Fitness Mistake #5: Failing To Schedule And Track

Finally, the last mistake I see women making that will most definitely hinder their progress is that they fail to schedule their workout and diet and they also aren't doing much in terms of tracking either of these things either.

If you don't book your workouts in during the day, chances are they aren't going to get done. You know just as well as I do how busy life can get and if that workout just keeps getting pushed to later and later on in the day, by the time it actually does come time to hit the gym, you're going to be exhausted. That's assuming of course, the time does actually come (on many occasions it won't).

Set a time to do it and don't let anything crowd it out. Generally the earlier in the day you can make it the better because there's less of a chance of other events running past when they were scheduled. Morning workouts are ideal and while it may take some getting used to, are well worth the effort.

Moving over to the diet side of things, plan, plan, plan your meals. That must be your motto. If you leave your snacks to chance – whatever restaurant, convenience store, vending machine, etc, etc, happens to be around when hunger hits, you're going to fail on your diet.

Plan your diet according to your calorie and macronutrient needs. If there is one thing that will predict success, this is it. I can pretty much guarantee it.

Once you've started to do both of these things then the next step is to ensure that you're tracking them as well. Write down what you eat and what you're doing in the gym. How will you assess progress and make appropriate changes if you can't remember what you had to eat last week or how many calories you totalled that day?

You can't. The same thing goes with the gym. Certain techniques will work better for you than others, but if you never track what you're doing, you will not be able to look back and determine this.

Never underestimate the power of a workout routine and diet journal. So there you have some of the most critical errors in womens fitness today. How many are you guilty of?

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