We’re pretty sure you’ve all learned how to get ready for a heavy workout by now, but how much do you know about the preparation steps that could hinder the quality of your training? You see, there are plenty of things you could do wrong before you even hit the gym and almost all of them involve overdoing your favourite pre-workout routines. So just cut down on the zealousness and read the 5 things that you should avoid doing at all costs if you want to make the best of your gym session.
#1. Too Much Stress
It’s kind of dumb to tell you to avoid stressful life situations in order to make bigger gains — nobody enjoys being stressed, but stress is an inevitable part of life that we have to accept. However, chronic stress is something we should all strive to prevent or overcome as painlessly as possible, since it causes your levels of cortisol to be in a constantly elevated state, which among other things is responsible for destroying muscle tissue and stimulating body fat storage.
Here’s the problem with arriving at the gym already stressed: training itself raises cortisol. That’s normal and expected — it’s part of the acute stress response that drives adaptation. But if your cortisol is already elevated when you walk through the door, you’re compounding the effect. High cortisol directly antagonizes testosterone — the two hormones compete, and when cortisol is dominant, testosterone’s anabolic effects are blunted. You’ll train hard and recover poorly.
Cortisol also breaks down amino acids for glucose — meaning it cannibalizes the muscle protein you’ve been working to build. None of this is within your complete control, but you could at the very least try to keep things cool in the hours before hitting the gym. Leave work at work. If that’s not possible, try 5 minutes of deep breathing in the car before you walk in. It sounds trivial, but controlled breathing measurably reduces cortisol. The gym works best when you enter it with a clear head. Related: Scientifically Proven Ways to Increase Your Testosterone Levels
#2. Too Much Food or Supplements
Having an adequate pre-workout meal that will provide you with the crucial nutrients for optimal muscle growth is not the same as stuffing yourself with food to the point of blowing up. Even if you’re extremely hungry, make reasonable limits to your portion. Overeating before training diverts blood to your digestive system – exactly where you don’t want it during exercise. The result: reduced performance, stomach discomfort, nausea, and a general sluggishness that will follow you through every set.
The ideal pre-workout meal is moderate protein, moderate fast-digesting carbohydrates, and low in fat and fiber. Fat and fiber slow gastric emptying – they sit in your stomach and make you feel heavy. You want fuel available, not digestion still in progress. Eat 60-90 minutes before training, not immediately before. If you’re training first thing in the morning, something small and fast – a banana and a protein shake – is enough to top up glycogen without weighing you down.
On the other hand, make sure you don’t overdose on stimulant supplements as well. Taking too much of them can lead to an uncomfortably rapid heartbeat, nausea and acute anxiety attacks instead of a useful energy boost. Pre-workout supplements are dose-sensitive – more is not better, and stacking multiple stimulants (caffeine + pre-workout + energy drink) is a fast way to wreck your session before it starts. Related: What to Eat Before, During and After a Workout
#3. Too Much Sleep
We get that you’re often too tired to even walk after a hard day at work, so you decide to hit the sack for a power nap before your afternoon training. That’s fine – as long as you don’t overdo it. Sleeping more than 30 minutes is not a power nap anymore because it can produce the exact opposite effect: you’ll wake up feeling even more drained than before.
The reason is sleep inertia – the groggy, disoriented state that follows waking from deep sleep. After about 20–30 minutes, your brain transitions into deeper sleep stages. If you wake up mid-cycle, your cognitive function, reaction time and physical readiness can be impaired for up to 30–60 minutes afterward. That’s your entire warm-up and opening sets gone.
The sweet spot is 10–20 minutes. Set an alarm, don’t second-guess it. If you want to be clever about it, try the caffeine nap: drink a coffee or espresso immediately before lying down, then sleep for 20 minutes. Caffeine takes around 20 minutes to enter the bloodstream, so you wake up just as it kicks in – alert, not groggy, ready to train. It works better than it sounds. Related: What Does Caffeine Before a Workout Do To Your Body?
#4. Too Much Stretching
Have you ever been told to stretch before lifting? Forget about that crappy piece of popular advice. Performing static stretches instead of warming up is always a bad idea, leaving you with cold muscles and a resting heart rate that’s far from ready for the challenging workout that lies ahead of you. Even worse, it may actually increase your risk of injury instead of reducing it.
The research on this is clear. Static stretching before training reduces force production – studies show a reduction of 5–8% in muscle strength immediately following static stretching. For a sport or activity where maximum force is the goal, that’s a meaningful disadvantage. Overstretching also causes the muscles to tighten as a protective response rather than relax, which further hinders your range of motion and makes you more vulnerable to pulls and strains under load.
What you should do instead: a dynamic warm-up. Leg swings, hip circles, arm circles, bodyweight squats, lunges, and light sets of your first exercise with an empty bar. Dynamic movements increase core temperature, activate the nervous system, and prime the specific movement patterns you’re about to load. Save static stretching for after training, when your muscles are warm and pliable and you want to improve flexibility – that’s when it actually does what people think it does before a workout. Related: 5 Types of Stretches to Improve Your Performance
#5. Too Much Cardio
Never perform HIIT cardio before lifting weights, period. Your weight training is all about building muscle, so where’s the logic in using up all of your precious glycogen on cardio? By the time you hit the rack, your fatigue will prevent you from performing decent lifts. And if you continue with this routine, your muscle growth is guaranteed to hit a plateau.
The mechanism is straightforward. Glycogen – stored carbohydrate in your muscles – is the primary fuel source for heavy resistance training. A hard cardio session before lifting depletes those stores. Without adequate glycogen, you won’t be able to generate the force needed to stimulate muscle growth, weights that should feel manageable will feel heavy, and you’ll hit failure earlier on every set. You’re also adding central nervous system fatigue on top of physical fatigue – your CNS doesn’t distinguish between a sprinting session and a deadlift session, it just knows it’s been taxed.
If you want to use the fat-loss benefits of cardio and need to do it on the same day as lifting, do your weights first, then follow with 20–30 minutes of low-intensity steady-state cardio. At that point your glycogen has been used productively for lifting, and the cardio goes straight to fat as a fuel source. It’s the correct order for both performance and body composition – not cardio first. Related: Does Cardio Burn Muscle? The Complete Guide
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