3. You don’t prepare yourself.
That means doing things like stretching and hydrating. Better flexibility will improve your performance and decrease your risk of injuries, by ensuring your joints maintain their full range of motion, enabling your muscles to work more effectively. Stretching also increases blood flow to major muscle groups.
Meanwhile, hydrating regulates your body temperature and lubricates your joints. In other words, during exercise, your muscles generate heat, which increases body temperature. As this occurs, the body reacts by sweating. The sweat then evaporates and the body cools.
4. You’re not allowing your body to get the rest and recovery it needs.
Though participation in regular exercise has been shown to help us better manage stress, reduce anxiety, depression, and elevate mood. In the event you’re not giving your body sufficient time to rest and recover, it cannot repair. According to the Mayo Clinic, recovery is both chemical and physical and involves hydration, nutrition, stretching, self-myofascial release, stress management, and compression.
According to many fitness experts, you need 1-2 days following vigorous activity each week for optimal physical and mental recovery. Simply schedule rest days into your fitness program. Or, you can alternate activities based on intensity. For example, 30-45 minutes of circuit training one day and 30 minutes cardio (running, hiking, walking, swimming, biking) the next. This should reduce the likelihood you’re overtraining.