CrossFit Cleveland - Fitness and Workout Newsletter & Archives: Six Reasons Why Your Fitness Routine Sucks

6 Reasons why your fitness routine sucks, and how to fix it - Part 4

This is the fourth of six articles listing some common reasons why your fitness routine may not be producing the results you want, and how to fix it.

Reason #4: You only do what you like to do.

There's a saying at most CrossFit gyms, "work on your weaknesses". More bluntly put, "do what you suck at". That might not be good grammar, but it's damn good advice when it comes to getting in the best shape possible.

How often do you include exercises or routines that you hate into your workouts? My guess is not very often. This one factor can seriously limit your progress if your objective is to improve your overall fitness level.

Let's say the first three reasons I write about in this series don't apply to you. #1 You have a workout buddy or group of people you regularly workout with and #2 you constantly vary your workouts every day. #3 You've also learned proper form and technique on a wide variety of functional exercises and know what you are doing and why. However, you always choose the exercises you like to do and perform them in the rep ranges and time frames that you are comfortable with. You rarely, if ever, include the exercises that you hate and/or suck at. Do you think that might be hurting your efforts to get in the best shape possible?

Even if you attend instructor-led classes where someone else determines what you do, most of the time you know what you're in for. You usually choose a certain kind of class because you like the routine(s). Whether it's yoga, spinning, pilates, etc. it's a safe bet that your instructor is not going to surprise you and make you do 100 burpee pullups for time. We pull shit like that all the time. It's usually an optional part of the cool down and people like it more than you'd think.

Why not write down a few of your weaknesses and the exercises that reveal them. Commit to working on at least one this month. Pick one or two and work them into your warmups or cool downs. Don't go overboard, just ease some of those 'suckers' in and see what happens.

Here are a just a few of the exercises we've done in various combinations during the past month. Our members don't get to cherry pick. They do them all, modified to their fitness level of course. Pullups, handstand pushups, burpees, summo deadlift high pulls, 800 meter runs, 1000 meter rows, hanging knees to elbows, ring dips, mountain climbers, overhead squats, thrusters, double unders, max effort deadlifts, walking lunges, clean & jerks. I bet you see a few that make you cringe, those are the ones you can start with.

Last year we did a series of W.O.W. challenges. W.O.W. stands for "Work On (your) Weaknesses". Each month we picked a particular exercise and asked people to complete a certain number of reps during the month. They could be performed in warmups and cool downs, but reps done in our daily workouts did not count. Give it a try, you might be surprised at the result.

Next week - Reason #5: You don't set goals or measure your progress.

You can find parts one, two and three here if you missed them earlier.

6 Reasons why your fitness routine sucks - Part 1

6 Reasons why your fitness routine sucks - Part 2