I made these 2 biggest fitness mistakes so you wouldn’t have to. These are, all things considered, the two biggest, most common fitness mistakes.
Name a common injury, any common injury. I’ve had it. Yes. All of them. Plantar fasciitis. Chondromalacia. Shin splints…All of them.
I’ve pushed myself too hard, run too far and worked out too often. I did it all so that when you, Dear Reader, are hurting, or wondering if you’re overdoing it, I could speak to you authentically. Tis my cross to bear.
Here are two big (authentic) pieces of fitness advice that’ll save you some trouble.
Stretch after your workout
Your muscles are like pasta. Brittle out of the box, but once you warm them up (boil) they become flexible and pliable. Try stretching a dry piece of pasta. That’s what it’s like stretching out first thing in the morning.
Wait there’s more: When stretching you’re decreasing neural recruitment of the muscles you’re stretching. That means you’re making yourself weaker. And less flexible.
Stretch post work out, foam roll, or after you warm up/have a sweat going.
Schedule in a down week
Training breaks your muscles down. You are weaker at the end of a strength training session than you were at the start. Then the magic happens. Your broken down body adapts and rebuilds to better handle the load you’ve placed it under. Rest and recuperation are extremely important to a strength building cycle.
You can work out daily, you just shouldn’t go HARD daily (you should “go hard” 20% of the time (MAX)).
To that end- you should schedule in a down week once a month. Work out hard for three weeks; then schedule in an easy week where you don’t work out quite as hard, or run quite as far or fast. Then watch how great you feel that next week.
It’s tough to let go of that more is better fitness attitude, but trust me when I say sometimes less is more. Or in the words of musician Jacob Collier: ‘Less is only more when you know what more is, and then you can make a conscious decision to step back from that.’
I know what more is (How do you think I got all those injuries?). Take it from me, the guy who made the mistakes so you don’t have to; stretch when you’re warm and schedule in an easy week.