Why your exercise routine isn’t working

Are you working hard and wondering why you are not seeing results?

There could be a range of different reasons as to why your workout isn’t working, but don’t fear, here is a list of why this could be the case.

You haven’t changed your diet

One of the most vital factors for seeing results is healthy eating and following the correct diet in reference to what you want to achieve.

For example, if weight loss is your goal, then you will need to be in a calorie deficit, if you are not, you will struggle to see any results from working out alone.

If you are eating too little it is possible that you could also be damaging your results, eating too little will slow down your metabolism, making it harder to see much development from working out. This is why it is important to eat the correct amount of calories, especially if you are trying to put on muscle mass.

Not only this, but for all goals you will need to eat healthy foods, it can be helpful to cut out as much processed food as possible as they are high in added sugar, sodium, and bad fats.

It can be difficult to know what works for you, so you need to practice trial and error to figure out what works for you.

You are doing too much cardio

Doing long cardio sessions alone can be putting a strain on your results. On its own, cardio is not as effective as you might think, you need to be implementing some sort of resistance/strength training into your workout routine to encourage more effective results.

Often those starting their journey to lose weight may believe that cardio is the way forward, this myth is not correct, although it is necessary too much of it can increase the risk of muscle burn as the body will struggle to keep up with the amount of energy you are needing to use. This can weaken your metabolism, slowing down the process of your journey.

You’re not varying your workouts

If you are sticking to the same workout routine day in and day out, it could be affecting your results.

Repeating the same workout will lead to boredom and less motivation, you need to stimulate the body effectively to see progressive results, progressive training/overload is a good example of this (gradually increasing your weight, frequency or repetitions in your workouts.

You should also include cardio or HIIT if your goals include building muscle, this will give the muscles what it needs to progress.

You don’t get enough rest

It is important that you are including rest days into your workout plan, research suggests it is vital for progression.

The purpose of taking a rest day is to give your muscles time to recover from any damage sustained during workouts and to help them grow, regardless of your fitness level rest days are important.

Some personal trainers will suggest 3 days of training each week for beginners and 5 days for those that are more advanced.

You’re not getting enough sleep

As well as rest, sleep is also vital for results.

The recommended amount of sleep each night is between 7 and 9 hours, this will help you feel your best when you wake and throughout the following day.

A lack of sleep can trigger the production of the hunger hormone, ghrelin. This will make you feel hungrier throughout the day, whether you have eaten enough or not.

Lack of sleep may also increase cortisol, the stress hormone that is often related to fat gain.

Sleep will also help your body recover from a hard workout and help your body increase its energy levels for when you next hit the gym.

You are not completing your exercises in the correct form

It is important that when you are performing any sort of strength training, whether that's with body weight or with heavy weight, that you are completing the exercise correctly.

Often, some believe that completing an exercise fast will encourage your body to burn fat, but this is not the case with strength training, it can lead to injury and if you are not targeting the muscle group correctly then it will diminish your results.

Perfecting your form will improve your performance and conserve energy, while also reducing risk to injuries.

Ensure you are lifting the correct amount and not too heavy as this can also reduce energy levels and increase strain and sprain risks, if you feel as though you can perform a couple more reps, then you are lifting too lightly.

It is also important to do the correct amount of reps for the result you are wanting to see:

• 4-6 reps for significant strength strength

• 8-12 for moderate strength training