There are plenty of things that even experienced fitness addicts are guilty of making mistakes when exercising, regardless of whether they perform the same routine over and over again (and experience the dreaded plateau), forget to stretch properly or use the wrong shape during certain movements and expose their bodies to injury.
But according to many trainers and training experts, there is a training error that ranks high among the worst: you simply linger too much and do basically nothing between sets, resulting in too much rest. As Timothy Church, Ph.D., a professor of preventive medicine at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, once observed, even experienced gym rats who log several hours at the gym do not actually exercise as much. “Most people do really hard work in just 15 to 20 minutes anyway,” he says explained to Men’s Journal.
That’s also why Alex McBrairty, CPT, CES, a leading coach and owner of A-Team Fitness, told us that it’s the secret trick to maximize each workout to go through your routine faster, especially if you’re looking for more burns. “The best way to burn more fat during exercise is to shorten rest periods,” he says. “In my experience as a trainer, this is the single biggest mistake that gym visitors make that limits how much fat they can burn during training. If you want to burn more fat, get rid of the distractions so you can give it your all in the gym.”
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McBrairty advises you to “leave your phone in your car or at least in flight mode if you use it for music.” After all, he asks, “how many times do you waste – two, three, even five or more minutes between exercises – flipping through social media or texting your friends?”
He is not the only trainer who advises you to go faster through your routine to maximize the effects of it. “Use every minute wisely,” says Lisa Herrington, an ACSM-certified personal trainer and founder of FIT House Davisin Davis, California. “If you’re in the gym, take as few breaks as possible. Between changing equipment, recovery kits, socializing or water breaks, you can easily eat up your gym time. Show a workout plan that focuses on the majority of your time moving (cardio) and / or or lift (strength). “
This advice is consistent with the latest exercise science that suggests that if you really want to burn fat while exercising, participate in interval training, which means short bursts of rapid fire exercises followed by just seconds of rest. “If people want to improve performance in the most time-efficient way, and if they want to improve health in the most effective way, then I think integrating interval training is a very good strategy,” says Martin Gibala, Ph.D., Professor of Kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
After all, regular interval training will lead to over 29% more fat loss than moderate-intensity training, according to a meta-analysis of nearly 800 training studies published in British Journal of Sports Medicine. So remember: The next time you hit the gym, quickly go through your routine and cut down unnecessary downtime between your exercises. If you are lifting weights, consider adding some cardio between your sets. In the end, you get a lot more out of your workout. And for better exercise advice, make sure you are aware of the single most effective way to exercise every day, say psychologists.
