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Misconceptions, mistakes and myths about exercise can cause a lot of people to avoid exercise. The following are some tips to clear up any confusion and improve your work out routine. Don't let these misconceptions prevent you from getting the exercise you want and need.

Mistake: Failure to make goals. Many exercise without a goal of where they want to be. How can you track your progress if you don't have a goal? For example, if your goal is weight loss then by tracking your progress you will be more motivated to continue exercising.

Misconception: No Pain equals No Gain. This is not true. While exercise will result in soreness, pain is your body telling you that something is not right. Listen to your body. Start slow and work your way up to more advanced and intense exercise. Exercise correctly and enjoy the benefits for the rest of your life.

Pain and soreness is normal following exercise. If you are sore give your body time to heal before you exercise again. If you work out while you are in pain you could cause permanent damage to your muscle, tendons, and ligaments. Secondly, if you are constantly in pain you will most likely not want to exercise and your new work out program will be finished.

Mistake: Sacrificing Quality for Quantity: Over exhaustion can lead to poor form and performing an exercise incorrectly can inhibit results and lead to injury. In order to increase intensity and push yourself further safely try increasing the number of sets you do instead of increasing the number of repetitions per set. If needed decrease the number of repetitions per set in order to do more sets. This type of exercise can help develop your fast twitch muscle fibers.

Myth: Lifting Weights make Woman Bulky: Woman can use weight training to strengthen and tone up, burn fat and increase their metabolism without getting huge muscles. Woman do not have the hormones to grow large muscles like men do. The results of weight training also depend a lot on how weights are used. For example, using progressively heavier weight while decreasing repetitions is conducive to muscle growth while lower weight for more reps tones and burns fat.

Mistake: Doing Only what you are Good At: Work on your weaker areas initially while maintaining your strong points. If you have a strong upper body then focus on your lower body until you are more balanced.

Exercise is great for health and for life but do it wisely so you can continue to exercise for a long time.