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Avoiding mistakes isn’t hard – here’s my top eight to watch out for.

1. Not warming up. If it’s been a while since you exercised or you’re planning on an increased level of activity, then why not give your body every chance at not being sore the next day? Start by warming-up rather than jumping straight into high intensity activity. There’s no need to go all techo with warm-up routines, just a bit of walking, a few star jumps and some stretches to get the muscles warmed-up and ready to go will reduce your risk of injury and pain the following day.

2. Going like a bat outta hell, like you’re 16 again. Often when the decision is made to embark on a higher intensity exercise regime there’s a lot of vigour involved … gotta get it done …. gotta do it now. Day one – made it! But the subsequent days can be a challenge as the zest for your new program wanes and you find the motivation (and sometimes even the energy) hard to muster. Over-exercising is just as bad as not doing any at all. So start slowly, and gradually build on each day. Maintaining balanced workouts for the long haul is your key to success.

3. Not choosing the right exercise activity. Does running make you thin? Or do thin people run? If you hate running but think this is the only cardio exercise you can do to get results, then think again. Choosing a cardio exercise that continues to motivate you, or holds you accountable (like a team sport or a buddy system) is going to get you much better results in the long run. In fact doing something that you find un-fun will quickly lead to boredom or loathing and you’ll ending up hating every minute of your work out.

4. Focusing on cardio or resistance training. If you want real results, real fast, you need to combine cardio fitness with weight training – the two work synergistically to get you much faster results than either would alone. Cardio can be done in as little as a 20-minute workout three times a week – even if this workout is three times that 7-minute work-out at a full on pace. A well-designed resistance training (RT) program can be effective with just two 30-minute sessions in a week – your muscles need rest in-between RT workouts to recover and grow. That’s five days a week, leaving you the weekend off.

5. Choosing load-bearing rather than non-load-bearing. Performing load bearing exercise when overweight or obese can cause injury and joint issues later in life, especially to your hips and knees, putting you in the queue for a walking stick and replacement surgery. Instead, select non-impact activities like yoga, Pilates, swimming, orbital trainer, stationary or recliner bike or water aerobics to get your cardio in, and, as you reduce your weight, gradually add more load bearing activities if you like.

6. Not properly stretching afterwards. Failing to adequately stretch after working out is the biggest cause of injury and body pain. Spend some time developing a good comprehensive stretching routine (should take about 10-15 minutes) that covers every muscle group and ensure you hold each stretch for a minimum of 40-seconds.

7. Not drinking enough water. Or worse still, drinking sports drinks. In the normal course of existence we lose about 45mls per kilogram of body weight a day – more if we’re exercising. So work out you base level of pure H2O that you need, then add more if you’re exercising or sweating excessively. And those sports drinks? They’re made for elite athletes who push their bodies to the limit every day. I don’t care how hard you think you’re working, you’re not in that category, and you don’t need the added nasties, colours, salt, and sugar which are going to undo all your hard work. Tap or filtered water – no additives – is all you need. And if you hate the taste of water, add fresh lemon.

8. Not mixing things up. Research has shown that after performing the exact same routine for three weeks your body switches off and the effects of doing the same program start to diminish. So if you’re doing the same cardio exercise at the same intensity for the same period of time, and/or performing the same number of reps and sets for the exact same resistance training program then those results you get over the first three weeks won’t continue indefinitely.

Instead change your program every 3-weeks by selecting a different cardio exercise (rowing instead of bike), changing the work out time (15 or 25-minutes instead of 20) or the intensity (use interval programs and change out the interval duration). When it comes to resistance training simply change out your sets and reps – instead of 3 sets x 10 reps, do 2 sets by 15 reps. The possibilities are endless, and so are your results!

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