One mistake I made early on in my fitness journey was believing that more was always better. I used to push myself to the limit every session, rarely taking rest days and thinking that if I wasn't exhausted by the end of a workout, I wasn't training hard enough. Eventually, this led to burnout, nagging injuries, and a frustrating lack of progress. What I learnt was that recovery is just as important as training. I started prioritising rest days, listening to my body, and incorporating mobility work and active recovery sessions. As a result, I became stronger, performed better, and felt more energised overall. My advice to others is to train smart, not just hard. Quality over quantity always tends to win in the long run. You need to make sure you're giving your body time to recover, fuel yourself properly, and remember for long-term results that consistency beats intensity .
In the beginning, I was under the false impression that intensity took precedence over consistency. I put myself through the wringer with long, exhaustive workouts, mistakenly thinking that the harder I worked, the quicker the results would come. Instead, I found myself burned out, sore, and lacking the motivation to continue. It took me some time to understand that sustainable fitness is about habits rather than an all-out effort for a few weeks. One turns to consistency by planning shorter workouts that can be sustained in the long term. It was also a matter of listening to my body, taking rest days, focusing on recovery. My advice to anyone else would be to start at a pace they could maintain and then build on it. Progress comes from consistency more than mere intensity, so one should find a routine that fits into their lifestyle and will keep them engaged.
A detrimental mistake I made in my fitness journey was not having a clear goal in what I wanted out of my journey. I would lift heavy when I wanted to, train agility and plyometrics whenever I felt like it, did cardio inconsistently, and everything else at a whim. It gave my journey no clear direction. It also made me mentally exhausted having to think of workouts on the fly. Now, I have a clearer goal and plan to achieve that goal. I train the same way each time I go into the gym which decreases the mental load of planning workouts. Sticking a regimen also allows for a progressive overload for my particular muscle groups and overall improvements in endurance.