Why so many people fail at the gym

Today I came across an excellent blog post that discusses why so many people fail when it comes to working out in the gym. So many of the points I can totally relate to when I think about the way I used to train. Unfortunately for me it took more than a blog post for me to get serious about training...it took a gym related injury...but that wont stop me from improving in the future!

So I just wanted to add my thoughts on why people generally fail when they are working out in the gym...

No Specific Goals
Too many people just go to the gym for the sake of it. Or they go to the gym with the intention of improving their fitness/strength/weight loss, but they fail to have the specific goals in place to help reach their overall goal. This is a picture of me for the first year I was in the gym. I went to the gym because i wanted to improve my fitness and put on some definition. But I didnt have the goals in place to achieve the end result. Just like you cant bake a cake without having the steps in place to achieve the overall result. But how do you determine what goals you need to set to acheive you ultimate aim?

Failure to seek advice
If I asked a group of people "how to i improve my fitness"...majority of the people would no doubt say "go to the gym". But what do I do once I get inside the gym? I could run on the treadmill, do some classes, copy some of the exercises other people are doing...but ultimately I would be just wasting my time in the gym if I didnt know what I should actually be doing there. Thats where its so beneficial to start with a Personal Trainer. Thats not to say you need to use them forever...but at least start with the basics, allow them to put you on the road to your ultimate goal.

But it doesnt stop there...a trainer can only do so much with there 30-45 minutes they spend with you per week. I liken it to learning a musical instrument, I can have a class with the best possible teacher once a week, but if i dont go away and study and practice what I learned, then the class is useless and I will just be going over the same thing every week. Thats where you have to take the time to put in to practise what you learned and also do some independent reading on what you are learning...just as if you were studying at school. So spend time reading articles/books/blogs and apply it to what you are doing in the gym...I guarantee you wont just see more results, but you will also find training much more interesting as you will have a more in depth knowledge of what you are doing in the gym.

Also the right advice can ensure you arent doing exercises with poor form. Constantly doing exercises with poor form isnt just wasting your time and effort, but can also lead to injuries. A good PT can ensure you are doing things correctly.

Plus it can also expose if you are working out with a crap PT =P

Doing useless exercises
There arent really any useless exercises, but exercises that arent as effective or dont contribute to your end goal. Perfect example of this is the number of people you see doing countless sets of Bicep curls and ab cruch machines. These exercises have little functional value, plus there are loads of better exercises out there if you want to improve the appearance of your biceps and abs.

People like to over complicate things. You can get an awesome body from only doing the core compound exercises...things like squats, deadlifts, bench press, shoulder press, lunges, chinups and rows just to name a few. Again im not saying you should stick to these alone, but these exercises should form the core of your workout. When you determine what specific body parts you want to do some extra work on, then you can factor in some more isolated exercises.


This leads on from getting the correct advice. This can direct you to more efficient exercises and ultimately much better results!

Poor Diet
This is the biggest reason why people dont reach their goals in the gym. They work out hard five times per week, but they still dont see any results...because they are still filling up on cake/donuts/hamburgers/pizzas/soft drink....the list goes on and on!

At the end of the day you can only get out of your workouts what you put in. If you are content going to the gym week in week out just so you can feel satisfied that you are attending the gym, then thats perfectly fine. But this is more for people who are going to the gym regularly and complaining that they arent seeing the results that you really want to see