Do you feel like you spend hours in the gym yet make no progress with your body? It could be that you are not using your time wisely and waste precious minutes by attending to less important factors that might make you lose focus on your training.

Training too light, using too many reps?

Many women think that pushing heavy in gym will result in bulky muscles. If you are interested in building your strength and adding good tone to your physique, drop the light weights and endless reps and add a little more weight for fewer reps. This will allow you to build better toned muscles. Try not exceed the 15 rep range and aim for muscle fatigue at the end of your set. To make this happen – push the weight up!

Not having a game plan

A lot of trainers waste time by going to gym and not having a game plan. They lack knowledge of what they are there to train, and end up aimlessly walking around equipment and never getting a good workout. Make sure you have a good workout consisting of at least six exercises, and that you know which body parts you are training on specific days. You can't reach your goals if you don't have a clue what you are doing in the gym...

Poor form

If you are training incorrectly with poor form you are only sabotaging your hard work. You might think that you train correctly and intensely, but without proper form you will not see good results. If you're unsure of a certain movement, ask a personal trainer for assistance.

Focussing too much on muscle isolation

If you spend the entire training session on just isolating one muscle, you might find yourself running out of time most days and skipping on exercises or body-parts.

While it is great to focus on isolated movements, reality is that some times “life just happens” and you don't get to spend enough time in gym. Try performing some compound movements so that more muscle groups can benefit from the training session. Metcon and Tabata workouts are great options for effective full body sessions.

Resting too much

You don't need to rest for longer than 30 to 60 seconds between sets. If you are waiting for a machine to free up, try incorporating other exercises in a super-set fashion that require dumbbells or move along to another exercise for that body part.

Afternoon sessions

If you take your training time seriously, then try incorporate morning workout sessions. Reality is that work or social occasions normally come up in the afternoons or evenings, which means that the only time you have to cut into would be your training time. If you move your training to the mornings, then nobody can interfere with your time, and then your afternoons and evenings are guilt-free and 100% your own time.