When you hit the gym, do you feel confident you are doing everything you can to see the best results? Do you feel like you are in there with the knowledge and know-how to create a workout you feel great about? If you have any doubts, these tips are for you. It is essential you are aware of some of the most prominent mistakes people make so you can side-step these yourself.

Here are some of the main ones to consider…

1. Supporting Your Body On the Hand Rails. The first big mistake many people make is choosing to hang off cardio machines. They are often leaning so far on the railing they are not supporting any of their body weight.

Do this, and your arms may get a bit of a workout, but that is about all you are achieving. You want to stand upright during the cardio session. Will it be harder? It will, but standing upright is what ensures you will see results.

Go to a lower level if you cannot keep up. It makes no sense to put the machine on a high level and then cheat your way through your cardio workout.

2. Using Too Much Momentum. The next error is allowing momentum do the hard lifting for you. People will swing their weight up so hard you can be assured momentum is doing about 80% of the workout.

If you do this, not only are you shortchanging yourself of the results you could be seeing, but you are putting yourself at risk of a severe injury. This is how injuries often come to be.

Slow down. Pause. Stop at the top of the movement. Do everything you can to prevent momentum from carrying you through, and it will pay off in the end.

Again, it will be harder, but that is the point. Your workout should not be easy. You should not breeze through it if you want to see results. Always remember, your injury risk increases when you lift more weight because this is added stress on your joints.

If you can make the exercise harder while using less weight, so it feels like you are using more weight, that is going to be your best case scenario.

3. Not Using The Right Muscles. The third mistake people make is using the wrong muscle groups entirely during a movement pattern.

Take the lat pulldown for instance. For some people, all they use is their lower back and biceps. They drive the movement with these two muscle groups. This exercise is supposed to target your lats, which are primarily located in the upper back region. By doing the routine in this manner, they are not even working their target muscles. If you use your lower back and biceps, you will find you end up injured.

Lighten the weight, focus on the muscle squeeze, and feel it. Doing this will help you see better results.

Ask yourself, are you making these workout errors? If you are, clean up your program, and you will see better results.