1. Breathing
THE AVERAGE PERSON will take 20,000 breaths per day, so if you are an apical breather (breath through your chest) rather than a diaphragmatic breather (belly breather) than you are 20,000 times more likely to have poor posture, reduced mobility, flexibility and performance.
2. You sit down too much
Sitting in a flexed (hunched) position at a desk or in a car can cause a host of movement dysfunctions and pain specifically at the hips and lower back. If you work in an office then we advise you to get a standing desk so you can switch between standing and sitting throughout the day.
3. You don’t “warm-up” before exercise
Your time is precious we know that, but if you rush to get to the gym and dive straight into squats, deadlifts or any other exercise than you are at a much higher risk of injury than if you followed a structured “warm-up”.
If you don’t have time to sufficiently prepare your body than you don’t have time to train.
4. Unbalanced training
You hit your chest and arms on a Monday for International Bench Press day! Maybe a bit of legs and shoulders on a Wednesday, then on Friday you’re out on the pull with the lads so you hit chest, abs and arms to fill the t-shirt!
Ok, so this might not be everyone but we do see a lot of people training only what they can see in the mirror. This leaves their program totally skewed. We would encourage people to do more horizontal/vertical upper body pulling exercises such as pull ups and rows as well as posterior chain exercises like deadlifts, rack pulls, pull throughs and leg curls.
5. Crappy aerobic system
The aerobic system is responsible for long term energy production and drives recovery after anaerobic efforts. Therefore, it is wise to ensure it’s developed adequately. If you fatigue prematurely while lifting weights, running or playing your sport then your technique will suffer and put you at risk of injury.
6. You never Recover
Recovery is required in the weekly training cycle if you want to make continued progress. It is also imperative from an injury reduction point of view. To avoid overuse injuries read our recover like a pro article on sleep, active recovery article and our fundamentals of recovery (nutrition).
In association with Elite Physical Prep. Check out their website, Twitter or Facebook for more information.
