7 Common Workout Mistakes You're Probably Making
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Tired of not only working hard but working hard consistently, and STILL not seeing the results you want? I know this can leave you feeling confused, frustrated, and hopeless. Am I right? I’ve been there before and I know it’s not a fun place to be. That’s why in this episode of Embrace Your Real, I share seven workout mistakes you might be making (I definitely was for many years!) that perhaps are the reason why you’re not seeing results. I also dive into what you can do instead to ensure you build the body you want.
Why one of the seven mistakes were you making? I’m so curious! Let me know by posting this episode up in your Instagram stories and giving me a tag, @juliealedbetter.
Join my Honor Your Body 4-week challenge beginning September 14th, 2020 by signing up here.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get in, let's go.
All right, sister. Who is tired of working out and not seeing the results that you want? I seriously feel you. For years, years, when I say years, I mean a decade plus of my life, I struggled so hard in reaching my health and fitness goals, which left me feeling so confused and so hopeless. And I remember that feeling so vividly and I never want you to feel the same. Or if you are in those shoes right now, I want to try and speed up the process for you because I know how hopeless and how confused it can feel just being in that moment. So today I am sharing seven workout mistakes that you are probably making and a suggestion for what you can do instead. When you fix these issues, I guarantee you will build the body that you want. And more importantly, you'll actually have fun and enjoy the process.
Before I dive into today's episode, I want to share the review of the day. Honestly, it makes me so happy. [Kay Baldo 00:01:31] says, "Real talk with actionable steps. Julie is a ray of sunshine in my ear buds. She offers practical, grace-filled insights and advice for people in every phase of their health and wellness journey. Highly recommended." Thank you so much for the review. I seriously would not be here without you guys. And the other day, I was just sitting in my bathtub at 11:00 p.m., reading through the reviews and just with tears in my eyes, so much gratitude in my heart because it was one of those things where for years and years I said, "I'm going to start a podcast. I'm going to start a podcast." And it was never the "right time". And then finally I decided this year, this is the year.
And this was before everything went down with 2020, right? This was in February. It was January, February of this year. And I just, I could have never imagined that we'd be over 100 countries strong, listeners in so many different places all over the world. And I'm just so grateful for you. So if you haven't already rated and reviewed the podcast, it really does help us out in the podcast land. We have a big audacious goal of reaching over a million women with this podcast this year. And I can't do that without you. So if you haven't already rated and review, all you got to do is press pause, scroll all the way down if you're listening on Apple podcasts. Rate and review takes less than 60 seconds. I've also been having tons of voice memo conversations in my DM box. So if you do leave a review, please screenshot it and send it to me in a DM and I will personally respond back.
All right, let's dive into the episode. Workout mistake number one, you think you have to do complicated workouts to see results. While there is nothing technically wrong with doing complicated movements and workout routines, it's not necessarily for seeing the results that you want, but over-complicating your workout typically causes you to lose your motivation. If you don't feel confident in what you're doing because the workout is too confusing to follow or the movements are hard to perform, the thought of trying to figure out a confusing workout can seem really exhausting. And I remember being in those shoes just a few years ago, feeling overwhelmed and frustrated because I was going way too advanced and I was thinking that the more fancy the workout it is the better the results I would get. And I just know that it's super easy to you get overwhelmed and then just get to a breaking point where you're just like, "This is so confusing. I'm just going to skip it." Does that sound right?
Consistency though, is the key to seeing results. So if your complicated workout routine is stopping you from being consistent, you need to rethink what you're doing and why you're doing it. Make it simple. There have been zero studies done to prove that the more complicated workout you do, the better the results are, plain and simple. Simple movements, simple workouts are just as effective if not more, because they're actually working the muscle groups and you will actually be doing it more regularly because you won't be as intimidated. Better results don't come from more complicated movements, they come from moving consistently. So just keep that in mind. I know it's super easy to scroll through Instagram and see all of these workouts from these "fitness gurus" where you're like, "I've never seen that booty workout."
Just remember that there are some crazy movements that people literally just make up because they want to show a better angle of their butt. So just be mindful of that and remember that, again, better results don't come from complicated movements. They come from moving consistently.
Work out mistake number two, you think you need to invest in a bunch of equipment or have a fancy gym membership or a gym membership at all. When people overcomplicate their workout routine, they often tend to think that they need a bunch of equipment, a gym membership, to see maximum results. Guess what? That could not be further from the truth. I'm not going to lie with you. I was guilty of making those mistakes. And for years, I thought that I had to be in a gym, in a physical gym, using the fancy machines, being in the gym environment to get a great workout. Otherwise, any other workout that I did, whether it was outside, it was an at home workout, I told myself, "Oh, that didn't count," because I didn't have access to the fancy equipment.
Or I would get in this place where I wouldn't have any sort of access to it. And I would just write off the workout. I would say, "I'm just not going to work at all because I can't get to the gym today." Eventually I literally got so burned out from the gym that it led me to stop going to the gym. I was so inconsistent with it. And then I felt just blah because I was not consistent with my movement. And then I made this decision. If you haven't tuned into episode seven, I talk about getting out of your fitness funk. And I actually talk directly about this specific circumstance. And I decided to eventually start working out at home.
Although when I initially made this decision, seriously, you guys, I was convinced that I needed to invest in a bunch of expensive equipment to get a high quality workout. And I started pricing stuff out and I was like, "Oh my gosh, a legitimate home gym can be anywhere from like $3,000 on the very, very low end to like people spend $15,000, $17,000, $20,000 on a home gym." And I was like, "I can't drop that money." So initially it was like, "I can't do this." And thankfully I realized that that was not the case. Like I said before, working out does not have to be complicated. You don't need all the fancy machines and all the other things that you may see to get a killer workout. I have gained so much more strength and confidence and just have enjoyed my workouts at home with some dumbbells, a resistance band and a bench. And that's it. And if you see my Instagram, you see where I work out. It's not fancy. I get it done. And it's my sanctuary. I love it. It's beautiful. And it was probably all under less than a few hundred dollars.
I got my dumbbells from my dad who, thank the Lord, that was so amazing. He was moving to California and he asked if I wanted the dumbbells. And so he gave us a few variations of dumbbells from 10 to 50. And so that was amazing. But there's so many amazing places that you can get fitness equipment. So Facebook Marketplace is a great place to look to see who's selling their gym equipment. And I know right now, everything going on with the pandemic, home fitness equipment has been on back order for months and months. So look into Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, and even just probing your community.
So on Facebook, putting out a status and asking people if they know of any place or any people that are selling it. That's a great place to start. But just know you don't need a lot of equipment or even a gym to get a workout in. I am so much more consistent and I can literally work out anywhere, anytime without a problem. And so I designed my weekly moves to use very basic home gym essentials. So a bench, a pair or two or a few variations of dumbbells and/or a resistance bandwidth handles. And that's pretty much it. Really, you don't need a bench. If you don't have one or you can't get to one, you can use a chair, you can use a Swissball. You can use a couch, a sturdy coffee table. And there's so many different ways that you can get creative at home and using the handled resistance bands instead of dumbbells for the majority of the movements, it can still allow you to get a really effective workout in. So again, don't tell yourself that you need to have this fancy equipment because that's just not the case.
Work out mistake number three, you think you have to spend hours working out to see the results that you want. I'm here to tell you, you do not need to spend hours working out to see the results. Believe it or not, your results are not dependent on the duration of your workout. They're dependent on the intensity. Your body changes when the demands you place on it change. When the demands change, your body is forced to adapt. And when your body is adapting, it transforms. This means you need to continue to challenge yourself with each workout. So making your workout longer isn't the only way to increase the challenge and place new demands on your body. Can you push yourself to do three extra reps? Can you challenge yourself to pick up heavier dumbbells? Can you force yourself to finish this circuit without taking a break? How can you increase your intensity?
And another thing is to actually slow down the movement. So thinking about that mind, muscle connection and it seems contradictory, because you're like, "Well, I want to speed up my intensity. I want to ramp up my intensity, why would I slow down the movement?" You would be amazed. And this is something I've really been focusing on inside my Movement With Julie Girls community is just really slowing down and giving yourself the time for that mind, muscle connection and allowing every single rep to be very, very intentional instead of just forcing your way or racing through the movement.
But let's be real. Long workouts are not maintainable longterm. If you want to see results that actually last, you need to establish a workout routine that is sustainable in your everyday life. And if you do make workouts a lifestyle, they may cause you to experience symptoms of over-training. You may constantly feel fatigued. You'll lack motivation. Your body will take longer to recover. You will constantly feel sore. Your appetite will be uncontrollable. Your hormones will be out of whack. You'll actually trigger yourself to store more body fat. So just remember that. Forget those long workouts if they're something there you don't enjoy and focus on the intensity over the duration. I rarely, rarely work out for longer than 45 to 55 minutes, four to five times times per week. Seriously, if you're working out longer than that and it's not by choice, it's not necessary to see results.
Work out mistake number four, you think cardio is the best way to train for weight loss. I know what you're thinking. You burn more calories while doing cardio than resistance training and that's why you always opt for a good cardio session. Am I right? If you're literally shaking your head, I was in your same shoes for years of my life. But if you really want defined muscles, if you want to completely transform your body, doing endless amounts of cardio is not the answer. Multiple studies have proven that resistance training is the key to maximizing fat loss and building the body that you want. While you're not wrong with thinking that cardio burns more calories during your workout, resistance training will have you burning more calories around the clock. How? Muscle burns three times more calories than fat. And the only way to build more muscle is through resistance training. Plus resistance training allows you to reshape your body composition by building lean, toned muscles.
I know so many of you women out there are scared of getting bulky from resistance training. But trust me when I say it's nearly impossible. Resistance training will actually make you appear much leaner since muscle is more dense than fat. And I am just speaking from experience. I literally remember, you guys, in college I was so so scared of weights. I would not even go near the weight room in the gym at my college because I was like, "I don't want to get bulky." But then I got super confused because the women that were in there, they were all super lean and toned and strong. And I was like, "Aren't they going to get bulky doing that?" And it was just a lack of knowledge and education. So please do not fear getting bulky with resistance training. Again, I've said it before and I'll say it again. It will actually make you appear much leaner since muscle is more dense than fat.
Mistake number five, you think you only burn calories while working out. Guess what? Your body is actually able to burn calories outside of your workouts. This is another reason you don't need to spend hours working out because, let's be honest, who wants to spend time we don't have by working out more? Not me. I am done wasting hours of my day and life working out. Seriously, you guys, I remember being in the gym for so many hours during college. I didn't have a life outside of school and the gym because I felt so trapped. I felt like I had to do longer workouts or I wasn't going to be able to reach my goals. That is not the case. If you build muscle, actually your body will naturally burn more calories outside of your workouts, but you can also burn more by just being intentional with movement.
Hence why I always encourage you honor that body with movement every single day, 30 minutes doesn't have to be a workout. It can be a walk, a jog, playing in the park, cleaning, dancing, so many different ways that you can be intentional with movement. And it actually helps to boost your calorie burn without having to spend additional hours working out. So take your dog for a longer walk, take the stairs, get up from the desk every hour, go play outside with your kids, practice yoga, clean your house, grocery shop, bike, jog, dance. There's so many ways. Move your body in any way, shape or form. And I don't want you to underestimate the power of small movement because moving around in simple ways throughout your day can actually make a major impact on your overall calorie burn without even breaking a sweat and having fun, right?
Also, movement is not the only way to burn more calories outside of your workout. So you can focus on doing things that boost your metabolism. Remember the faster your metabolism, the more calories your body burns at rest. So getting more sleep, staying properly hydrated, eating more protein, giving your body enough food and fueling your body with nutrient dense foods are all extremely effective ways to ramp up your metabolism and ultimately burn more calories without you even noticing.
Mistake number six, you think you have to work out every day. In my opinion, working out every single day is the biggest mistake that you can make. And that might seem super contradictory to what you see or what you hear, what you've thought. But it's so common for people to think that if they work out more, they'll see better results. They work out every day or even twice a day because they think it's during the workout that is actually changing their body. Let me be clear with something. Muscle growth and fat loss do not happen during your workout. The magic happens when you are at rest. Believe it or not, during your workouts, you are actually breaking and tearing your muscle down. With each sprint or with each rep, you are tearing your muscle fibers, which mean the more you do the more your muscle is breaking down. So if you work out every day and you're never giving your muscles rest or the opportunity to rebuild and grow, you can work as hard as you want, but without rest, you'll actually never see the results that you want.
Plus working out every single day can cause so many negative effects on your hormones, women especially. Working out is a type of stress. And when your body is stressed, it triggers one of your flight or fight stress hormones, cortisol, to skyrocket. So when your cortisol levels are actually chronically high, they can increase your appetite, your food cravings. They can slow your digestion, metabolism. There's so many different things that having that heightened cortisol level can do negatively on your body. I always prioritize at least one, if not two days per week to rest, no matter what. This helps me to come back to my workouts with more energy, enthusiasm intensity, which ultimately helps me see results longterm.
Do you catch what I'm throwing? It's so important that we prioritize this delicate balance. We find this delicate balance of, yes, working out consistently and moving your body, but not getting to the point where you become obsessive and extreme and overtrain your body.
Mistake number seven, you're going to the gym without a plan. What happens when you go to the gym without a plan? This was me for years in my life, you guys. I didn't have a plan. I didn't want a plan. I didn't value a plan. I didn't think that that's what I needed. I felt like I just needed to be there. I don't know why I was not thinking this through, but I was like, "If I just go to the gym, then it will kind of come to me." But the thing is, if you don't go to the gym or go into your workouts without a plan, you typically won't consistently work every muscle group, you'll only do exercises that you like, and you'll never push yourself outside of your comfort zone, AK for me, burpees, pushups, clanks, things like that, that I'm like, it's so easy for me to just be like, "Nope, I'll just skip over that."
But I have to follow a plan. And even if I'm the one making the plan, I know that there's hundreds if not thousands of women all over the world at the same time doing that movement in my app, it pushes me to do it. You waste time wandering through trying to figure out which exercise to do next. You don't push yourself to the max because your workout is kind of all over the place. It's really difficult to track your progress. You aren't consistent because you don't have a plan holding you accountable. So why not skip your workout today? You feel self-conscious at the gym or in your workout because you really don't know what you're doing. All of these things will ultimately stop you from seeing the results that you want. So just remember that having a plan when you go into a workout is literally going to save you so much time, so much stress and allow you to just get in and get out.
And this is something I talked about on my Instagram story. We're in the middle of a guest bedroom renovation and I had so many things going on, but I knew, and I scheduled in, which I've talked about this before on so many different podcasts, but I scheduled in my workout time. I think it was from 1:10 p.m. to 1:50 or 2:00 p.m. I had my workout scheduled in there. So I got ready, went downstairs. And I literally just opened up my app. The workout was there, video demonstration, sets, reps, all the things. I just followed the plan and within 48 minutes I was in and out. And it was like, this is why having a plan helps so incredibly much because I didn't even have to think about it. Literally I knew that this program was programmed to ensure that I'm hitting all the muscle groups, that it was effective, it was efficient and it was fun.
And so having all of those elements to a program is so important. Now that was seven workout mistakes that you may be making if you're not seeing results. If you related to one or three or all of these mistakes, girl, listen up. I have something so exciting for you. If you've been following along on my Instagram, you've probably already heard about it, but if not, I am actually making it so simple for you to overcome these mistakes with my four week Honor Your Body Challenge that launches on September 14th. So September 14th, we start this baby. So when you opt into the challenge, you get four weeks of workouts via my Movement With Julie app. You don't have to be a monthly subscriber. You can just buy the one time thing into the challenge. You get five brand new workouts weekly, which means that you will be able to avoid mistake number six, working out every single day.
And plus these workouts are resistance training-based with some high intensity interval training incorporated, which will actually help to rev your metabolism, build more muscle and increase your daily calorie burn, which means it helps you stop making mistake number four, only doing cardio for weight loss. These movements are all super simple. Seriously, absolutely nothing complicated about it. Trust me when I say that, which means that you'll stop making mistake number one, you can say goodbye to complicated workouts and workout plans that you can just realistically never stick to.
Lastly, I carefully program these workouts to optimize your results, which if you regularly make mistake number seven, not having a plan, this is the perfect solution for you. Plus when you sign up for the challenge, you will also get a customized macro calculation, a seven day meal plan with tons of food and recipe ideas. If you have been watching my Instagram story, you have probably seen some sneak peeks of the recipes. Oh my gosh, you guys, they're so delicious. And you also get access to an amazing community of women via our private Facebook group for the challenge for additional accountability and support.
You guys, this four week Honor Your Body Challenge is so fun. And it is exactly what it says. I am teaching you to honor your body in three different ways, your movement, your mindset, your macros. So I'm going to teach you tips and tricks on daily gratitude practices and things that you can implement to really help you increase your awareness and also increase your joy and your gratitude throughout the day that can help tremendously your mindset. Because I think so often we underestimate the power of our mindset, especially when it comes to a physical transformation, right? You can get the physical transformation, but if you are not being intentional with your mindset, I promise you, at a leaner body at a more shredded physique, you are going to just be left sitting there, staring at yourself in the mirror and not feeling confident. And I know what that feels like. So that's why I always try to incorporate mindset practices into everything that I do. Even if it's a "physical challenge", it's so much more than that.
I also teach you how to be more intentional with movement. So things that I talked about in this podcast earlier, just showing you ways on how you can honor your body through movement. And then lastly, helping you teach you how to nourish your body through macros. So teaching you the amount of protein that you need, the amount of carbs that you need, the amount of fat that you need and not restricting yourself from certain food groups, but allowing yourself everything in moderation so that you can enjoy what you're eating as you reach your goals.
So if this sounds like something that you're interested in, if you want to learn more, you can head to my website, www.juliealedbetter.com. In the search bar you can just type Honor Your Body Challenge. You will see the blog post pop up. It gives you all the frequently asked questions, all of the amazing benefits that you get inside my Movement With Julie weekly workouts, like the minimal equipment, the maximum results, the time efficiency, all of those things are elements in this Honor Your Body Challenge. So it's just a great way to kind of kickstart yourself as we head into the last four months of this year, because Lord knows we all need it. 2020 has just been a hashtag, I did not see that coming. Can I get an amen? So I'm really excited to join hundreds of women all across the world doing this challenge. If this sounds like something you're interested in, click the show notes, or just head to my website, Juliealedbetter.com, type in Honor Your Body Challenge in the search bar and it will pop up.
I am so excited to see what came from this podcast. Hopefully it helped you. Hopefully it provided you some value. If you have questions, feel free to shoot me over a DM. My DM is always open to answer any questions that you have. Share this with a friend. If you have somebody in your life that you're like, "I would love to do this challenge. And I want to challenge these two women in my life to do it alongside of me," girl, the more the merrier, it is so much fun to have people doing something alongside of you. That's honestly why I do the challenge because I love the challenge myself, but I love even more having women come alongside me and knowing that we're all doing something together towards a common goal of honoring our bodies and doing it in the three different ways, movement, mindset, and macros.
So again, click the show notes or head to my website, Juliealedbetter.com and type in Honor Your Body Challenge in the search bar and it will pop up for you. I love you so much. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll talk to you guys in the next episode.
All right, sister, that's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, JulieALedbetter... Yes, it's with an A in the middle, for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.