Common Mistakes made while exercising...

So sometimes we push ourselves to do cardio after cardio and crunch after crunch when the whole time we could be making a little mistake that prevents us from getting the full potential! Lets talk about those common little mistakes we may make....

1. Women tend to use their neck muscles more than their abdominal muscles when doing crunches...
• Believe it or not we always tend to strain our necks more than men when we do crunches and there is a little helpful tip for this: Press your tongue flush against the roof of your mouth before starting your reps. It helps keep the strain off of your neck so your stomach is forced to do the work.
2. Some people try to stretch before a workout....
• The best way to warm up your muscles and prevent injury before going on a run or jumping on the Elliptical is to mimic the exercise at a low level. So get on the machine you're about to use, set it at the easiest level, and exercise for about five minutes. Then start to increase the level until you're at the desired speed or difficulty. This is way better than stretching, since it gets your heart rate 
3. Lifting the same weights every time...
• Many women are under the impression that using heavy weights equals bulking up, so they stick with 10 or 15-pounders and don't increase. But if you're using free weights or weight machines once or more a week, you should be slowly upping the poundage. Since your muscles build up resistance over time, aim to increase the weight by about five pounds every two or three weeks. As long as you can do 15 without feeling anything more than fatigue (as in, you're not shaking, panting, or about to pass out), you don't have to worry about ending up with arms that could be bulky. 
4. You do "real girl" push-ups
• Modified push-ups, lets get real, are usually made fun of but in this case its better for girls to do the modified than the hardcore version. When we tend to try to do them the real way we sometimes have bad form just because we are not like all guys and cant always be as "perfect" as them hah...So go on, do the modified style and ignore the smug look from the girl next to you who has her knees up. (She's probably doing them wrong anyway!) Plant your arms directly below your shoulders and keep everything from your knees to your neck in a straight line as you slowly lower yourself to the ground.
5. You eat a pre-workout snack
• Downing an energy bar before the gym can actually zap your energy. How come? Many of those bars are high in fiber, which is normally a good thing, but it takes forever to digest. And that digestion requires energy — energy that would be better spent on your muscles. You end up feeling sluggish and having trouble pushing yourself. If you're ravenous beforehand, opt for a banana, which is digested super quickly and won't inhibit your gym time.
6.  You stuff your face afterwards
• There is nothing wrong with an after-workout snack— in fact, it's recommended you get some protein and carbs in your system within an hour of working out. What you don't want is to totally undo all the hard work you just put in, which is extremely common. A recent study found that people tend to overestimate the number of calories burned and underestimate the number of calories consumed. To keep yourself from eating so much your workout becomes pointless, make sure you check the label of whatever you're eating and aim for something in the 150 calories or under range. 
7. You don't weigh yourself
• You might have been told not to worry about the number on the scale or heard that weighing yourself regularly is obsessive. But the scale is actually a key tool for ditching — and keeping off — fat. Experts have found that people who weigh themselves regularly lose more weight than those who don't. It could be because we can actually see the pounds come off (motivation to keep exercising) and we also get a concrete reminder that eating unhealthily for a week straight has consequences.

Hope these tips help :) 

 xoxo 

Jenna Lyne