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FitFeud Corporate Wellness Blog
6 Biggest Mistakes a Person Can Make in a Fitness Competition
1. Believing that you will eat cabbage soup -- or any other low-cal, monotonous fare everyday for the rest of your life. It isn't realistic to think you will eat that way for the entire time it takes to lose all the weight. It certainly won't teach you much about how to live healthfully for the long-term.
2. You don't drink enough water during the day. Water is all that you need to drink, and you MUST drink at least 64 ounces of it a day!
3. You don't take cardio seriously by cruising through your workouts. By boosting your aerobic intensity, as in doing "intervals one day, elevating your heart rate as much as possible for several minutes at a time and interspersing those intervals with several minutes of lower-intensity recovery periods.On the second day, do a longer and less intense session," suggests Dixie Stanforth, M.S., professor in the department of kinesiology and health education at the University of Texas in Austin.
4. You feel you don't have time to stretch prior to working out. This can lead to injury which will prevent you from achieving your goal of accomplishing your scheduled workouts. You don't want to find yourself at week four of the competition going to see a Doctor because you didn't take care of your body in the first few weeks of the competition. Whether its jogging or simply walking stairs - be sure to properly stretch before each workout.
5. Not having a plan. Regardless if you are competing to lose weight, get in shape for the beach, or trying to fit into that old pair of jeans. Get a plan and stick with it, but make sure each step of your plan is realistic and change is gradual. By thinking you are genetically destined to be fat you're only hurting yourself. Only you can improve your focus on basic fitness will determine how it will effect your life!
6. Having a negative attitude towards the competition. Just because you are in a fitness competition does not mean you will fail if you do not win. The beauty of a fitness competition is that it will push each competitor to achieve their goal. If you think there is no way that you are going to succeed this time, lose the weight and keep it off, then you will be right!
Sources: "Your biggest fitness mistakes solved!" of Shape Feb 2006 by Alexa Joy Sherman and "25 Biggest Weight-Loss Mistakes" of Julia Havey, a eDiets Contributor.
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