We all have our personal reasons for exercising and most of us do it because we want to look and feel great. This is because, as you've all heard, exercise is one of the best ways to improve your overall health. Unfortunately, there are many things we can do that sabotage our efforts to get in shape and here are the top four I run across all the time.

1. Working out too much
Over-exercising will do more harm than good, especially when it becomes a compulsion. If your exercise routine lasts longer than two hours more than five days a week, you are over-exercising. While exercise is good for your body, too much has the reverse effect. Muscles do not grow while you are working out; they grow while you are resting. Muscular training stresses and damages the muscles slightly, and then your body reacts by building up the muscles in order to handle the extra work and stress. A period of 48 hours is recommended to obtain adequate rest and fuel to repair the muscles. For cardiovascular exercise, a rest period of a minimum of 24 hours is recommended to obtain adequate rest and fuel to prepare for the next workout. And every week, your body requires one to two days of complete and total rest, less than that is sabotage!

2. Not working out hard enough
Let me first start out by saying that exercise, no matter how little, is always better than not exercising at all. However, if you are not working out hard enough you will not achieve results. Try doing at least two to three different exercises for each muscle group. And remember that each workout CAN be different. (tricep extensions today, dips tomorrow). If you don't feel that your cardio workout is hard to very hard then you need to ramp up the intensity. Likewise with strength training: If you can easily perform your 10-12 reps of your exercises, then you need to increase your resistance. (it should be difficult to perform one or two more).

3. Lack of goals and lack of plan
It is one thing to plan and make time for the gym, it is another to know what you want to accomplish. (And being realistic enough to know that you will not get a six-pack if you do crunches for an hour). Setting foot inside your gym should be like setting foot into your business day: you know what needs to be done. Your workout should include a cardio portion, which challenges how long, how hard and how fast you can perform; strength training, which challenges how much you can lift/push, how long you can sustain your strength, and how many repetitions you can complete; and flexibility work, which will improve the range of motion of your joints. By including each of the three components in your fitness program you will improve your fitness level and improve your body composition by increasing the amount of lean muscle in your body and reducing the amount of fats. How much time you spend on each fitness component will depend on your goals. Make your goals SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. For more information on how to build your perfect fitness plan, check out my post on How to design the perfect workout.

4. Diet
This is one of the easiest and most obvious ways to un-do your hard work. What you eat before and after your workout will affect your body's recovery. Working out on an empty stomach is like trying to start your car without gasoline. And indulging in a 'reward meal' after your workout makes your time at the gym seem like an exercise in futility. The 500 calories you burned will be forgotten by 750 fettuccini alfredo calories or a 450-calorie bowl of Haagen Dazs. High-calorie foods such as white pasta and rich dairy are more likely to end up in your body's storage bin ie. your fat cells. Make sure you feed your body the right ingredients!
Your muscles need to be hydrated (by drinking water), fueled (by eating carbohydrates like vegetables, whole grains and fruit) and repaired (by eating protein - like fish and poultry), and your metabolism needs to be ignited with omega 3's (the good fat like fish and flax).


Sarah Brown is a very healthy woman. She is not only a fitness instructor at Goodlife where she teaches Body Pump, Body Flow and yoga but she is also a registered holistic nutritionist. If you have a question for Sarah, leave a comment below and she will try and help, but note that not all questions will be answered.