We’re all guilty of making the big fitness mistakes listed in this post regardless of where you’re at in your fitness journey. Unfortunately, when we make such mistakes, they keep us from maximizing workouts and ultimately from our goals. Let’s be clear about one thing: the biggest thing we ask of all our members is that you show up and are ready to work (woo!). We do not expect perfection, but we do expect your best effort, whatever that may be. These tips are meant to bring light to areas that may need some improvement for those looking to maximize results and overall fitness with Vie Athletics.
Showing Up Late
We do ask all of our members to not show up later than 15 minutes past the start of class, but in all honesty, we’d like to ask that our members and class participants show up no later than 5 minutes past the start of class. The reason? You miss out. Coaches aim to start class on time, every time, and we try our very best to maximize the time that we have you with programming and movement. Each warm-up is designed to help prepare your body for the movements in the workout.
Jumping right into a physically strenuous workout without a proper warm-up is just a flat-out bad idea. Not only does it leave you unprepared, it sets you up for failure and even injury. Vie coaches aspire to set you up for success 100% of the time. All you have to do is show up… we’ll prepare you for the rest. Sometimes time gets away from us – we don’t leave early enough, or there is a mass of traffic on the interstate. Whatever the reason you’re running behind, as long as your striving to get to classes on time, arriving safely is always numero uno!
Mediocre Warm-Up
Piggybacking off of showing up on time, maximizing the warm-up before the actual workout is 25% of the class. This means you will be pumping blood, nutrients, and oxygen to your muscular and skeletal structure increasing your range of motion and ability. Going hard in the warm-up also takes the pressure off of your organs to function at a higher level. Ever try to sprint 100m without warming up? It’s hard! And more often than not, it just straight up hurts in your joints and muscles. The same thing goes for Vie workouts. Give yourself the best possible scenario to succeed and you may be surprised and how well you do!
Expecting Results Overnight
Remember the girl in Willy Wonka that screamed: “I want it now!”? Now think about your fitness goals… is that what you’re screaming to yourself? We’re all guilty of it. After all, we live in a day and age of instant gratification. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to our bodies. Our minds are impatient; our bodies are patient. Change takes time! Don’t think about what can happen in a month. Don’t think about what can happen in a year. Just focus on the workout ahead of you that day and do what you can to get closer to where you want to be.
“Don’t worry if you’re not where you want to be. Great things take time. Enjoy the process, enjoy your journey, enjoy becoming.”
Losing Your Focus
You aren’t at Vie to workout for someone else. Competition doesn’t exist at Vie. It’s about what you can do with what you bring. You get to decide how hard or challenging the workout is by deciding how much effort you will give. How big are your fitness goals and how hard are they to achieve? Are you willing to put in the work to attain them? Now here’s a question for you – why are you getting distracted during your workout? We’re all guilty of looking around the room during a workout and picking people (even ourselves) apart based on the quick judgment of others.
Stopping in the middle of a workout isn’t good for your body, either. It can cause unnecessary stress on your internal organs, including your heart. Your body is working extremely hard to keep nutrients flowing to the muscles while you’re exercising and when you suddenly stop to look around the room to simply check out how everyone else is doing, your body has to work extra-hard to get that blood pumping again.
You might find yourself saying, “wow, she’s a lot more fit than I am” or “I will never look like that” or “I will never be that strong” or “wow, what am I even doing here”. It could be any variation of those things… but regardless of what your inner voice says, the fact is this: you’re distracted. And when you’re distracted, it takes away from you, from your time, from your effort, from your workout. Who did you come to Vie for? YOU. Why are you putting in the effort day after day? You’re doing it for you. Focus on your fitness goals and don’t look in any direction but ahead.
You’re never going to look like “her” or even be “her”. Thank goodness! We would miss out on… you.
Not Monitoring Progress or Goals
Why haven’t you noticed results? Quite possibly, it’s because you didn’t set a baseline to grow from. Why aren’t you going up in weights? Because you don’t remember what weight you did last time. It’s important, regardless of your goal, to be attentive to progressions. They not only help you become better (stronger, healthier, faster, etc.) but they help you push yourself a little bit more each and every time. Pay attention to your workouts and movements – what did you learn about today that maybe you can improve upon next time?
Celebrate the tiny victories and not just the ones that have to do with increasing the weight you lifted. Tiny fitness victories come in all shapes and sizes. Maybe today, you learned how to keep your elbows up during a clean. Next time? Try to keep your knees from caving in during the squat portion of a clean. Maybe today you didn’t use weight during sumo squats and next time you can use a 5lb dumbbell or an 8lb kettlebell. Make mental notes and try not to go through workouts blindly. You’ll have better results this way.
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Going For Speed Instead of Form
You probably hear this one a lot in class – never compromise form for speed. Many of the movements during a workout are either under a time crunch or involve some sort of speed in the movement. While this is an important piece of the workout, the functionality of the movement always comes first. Take the time to do it right, not just sometimes, every time. You can still give it everything you’ve got and slow it down a bit. If you have questions? Holler for your coach! Sometimes it’s not evident to us that a movement doesn’t necessarily ‘feel right’ when you’re doing it. This is what we’re here for, take advantage of it! Additionally, keeping muscles under tension a bit longer will ensure better progress so take it down a notch a bit.
Lastly, don’t cut corners. Reducing reps and not doing appropriate weights doesn’t affect us, it only takes away from your workout and overall fitness. Why would you cheat yourself out of progress? We promise not to push you in ways that you don’t want to be pushed, but we’d rather see you maximize results, gain more self-confidence, and feel accomplished after class knowing that you gave it your best. Not the opposite.
“Do what is right, not what is easy. If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts.”
Lacking Consistency
This one might seem like a no-brainer, but it can be harder than it seems. Consistency with your fitness routine is probably the number one key to success and it can be applied to a lot more in life than just your workouts! You won’t achieve your goals and progress without consistently chipping away at a big goal or task. You can have the best facility, community, coaches, and equipment in the world at your fingertips, but if you don’t stick with it day in and day out, you’re stunting your growth and progress from the very beginning. Talk about frustrating!
We know life gets in the way and sometimes working out and going to fitness classes aren’t on the top of your priority list. With a little tweaking and a little effort, they can be! Assuming we’re going to be 100% dedicated is a little daunting and honestly just sets you up for failure. So, trust the programming, your Vie Coaches, and take it one day at a time. The longer you stick with it, the more routine your fitness will become. Not to mention, you pay for it, so if every other reason in the book isn’t worth it, then let the idea of you spending money on Vie Workouts and Vie Yoga be your motivation to start to begin with.
3 Tips from Vie Coaches on Becoming More Consistent:
1. “Get to know people in the class times that you usually show up for. Knowing that they will be there will help you stay accountable and give you a sense of community and pride in your fitness.” – Vie Coach
2. “Tell yourself that even though showing up is routine, don’t let it trick you into thinking that the workout will be boring. Vie Coaches take great pride in having ever-changing workouts and movements to keep you interested and excited as well as on your toes a bit!” –Vie Coach
3. “Music playlists are updated and changed every couple of weeks. Aren’t ready for a hard workout that day? No problem – when the workout gets hard to pay attention to the beat of the music and the next thing you know the workout will be over and you’ll have a smile from ear to ear. It’s just straight up fun with beats bumping in the background!” –Vie Coach
Not Taking Advantage of Yoga (It’s Included In Your Membership, Afterall)
Vie Yoga aims to help you maintain and build strength while increasing your range of motion. As a woman who regularly lifts weight in Vie Workouts, you don’t want to sacrifice performance and strength for immobility because you’re not very flexible. Working through weights and movements like deadlifts and back squats will only improve by taking advantage of Vie Yoga offerings. You don’t become more flexible necessarily, but instead, you are taught how to open your joints and strengthen your joints.
Not to mention, Vie Yoga does wonders for your mentality. Vie Workouts typically ask you to perform a lot of high rep movements in a fast amount of time asking you to focus for short bouts of time. Yoga does the exact opposite; it asks you to focus for long bouts of time while harnessing your breathing and mentality to remain calm all while your body is telling you to panic. You learn how to effectively manage stress and proper breathing technique to make the most of your exercises during both workouts and yoga. Improve your fitness in more ways than one with Vie Yoga.
Sisterhood & Strength – Vie Coach Aleigh
In Conclusion
Vie Coaches aspire to see you be the very best you can be. No matter your goals, we’ve got a plan for you and your fitness that we know generates positive results. We get so excited to see each one our members walk through our doors on a daily basis knowing that sometimes, even just showing up, is the hardest part of the workout. It’s important for us to stress that no matter what happens during the day, week, or year, that you as a member (and a guest!) are welcome at Vie with open arms. Leave your world at the door and step into a safe and exciting environment in which you are encouraged to thrive, succeed, sometimes fail, and be encouraged to try again.
While we do our very best to keep you motivated, inspired, and excited, it’s important for you to know some of the things we’re looking out for. If you paid attention to just a couple of these, you enable yourself to have a bigger influence on your fitness goals and aspirations. Together we can make great change, but without you, we can’t do it at all. We’re all in this as a team!
Let’s magnify your strengths and work on your weaknesses, together!
With Love,
Vie
Looking to improve your nutrition? Check out our tips for getting more vegetables into your diet by clicking HERE
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