Working out frequently is healthy for your body, mind, and hormone levels. However, people often find they’re not quite reaching the fitness goals they want, even if they’re feeling a little healthier. Oftentimes, the goals aren’t met because of little mistakes made during or in the process of a fitness routine. So, take a look at your routine and see how you can adjust it to better meet your goals.

Not Taking a Rest Day

The first mistake you might be making in your fitness routine is that you fail to take a rest day during the week. Muscles are malleable. They shrink, grow, and tear. The Conversation recommends that in order to help your muscles gain the most strength, you need to take a rest day during the week. By taking a rest day, you give your muscles time to heal. And as they heal, they grow. You might be worried you’ll lose your progress if you take a day off from exercising, or that you’ll lose your motivation. However, studies show that such a break won’t ruin your progress—rather, it’ll help your progress. So, plan a rest day in your exercise schedule.

Poor Diet

Another issue many individuals run into is that, though they start to exercise regularly, they don’t change their eating habits. Having a poor diet will harm the effectiveness of your exercise. Your muscles need good nutrition, including protein, in order to grow. Some think that protein bars are the best option for getting the protein your muscles need to grow, but such is actually not the case. Protein bars and other sugar snacks actually have a lot of added sugars. These sugars negatively affect your nutrition, and therefore negatively affect your workouts. This doesn’t mean you need to eliminate sugar entirely. But eat one dessert, even a big dessert, instead of frequently eating sugary snacks and protein bars. As Maccaro Orthodontics points out, eating sugary snacks all day is worse for you than eating one big dessert.

Little Sleep

Lastly, after you start taking a rest day and improving your diet, you can’t forget to make sure your body is getting enough sleep. Sleep is crucial. When you sleep, your body is saving energy and your muscles are self-repairing and rebuilding. Without adequate sleep, your body won’t be able to recover and grow into the healthy body you’re trying to create through exercise.

Fitness is important. It helps your physical, mental, and emotional health in many ways. But to make sure your fitness routine is effective, you need to be fixing the little mistakes occurring in your routine. So, give yourself a rest day from your rigorous workouts, eliminate sugary snacks and other unhealthy choices from your diet, and get plenty of sleep.

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