There’s more to lifting weights than just hitting the gym and pumping iron a few times a week. To really see the best results from your workouts, you have to go far beyond your three sets of 10. Realistically, your workout begins before you get to the gym and continues thereafter. Eating right, hydrating well, and resting often are important factors in any successful workout program, yet they are often looked over. This may be why you aren’t seeing the results from your lifting routine as much or as quickly as you’d like. The following mistakes may be sabotaging your lifting sessions, and by fixing them, you can get more out of your workouts and improve your physical health overall.

1. You don’t eat a proper diet.

There’s a difference between dieting and eating a balanced diet. One means attempting to lose weight, and the other simply means to eat healthy and well. Regardless, just because you exercise doesn’t necessarily mean you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want. Well, at least not if you expect to see the results you want.

Food is fuel for the body and provides us with energy. If you aren’t properly nourished before your workout, your body won’t be able to perform to its highest capabilities. If you’re eating pizza, chips, and doughnuts before you exercise, you’re going to feel like crap during and after your workout. The same goes for those who don’t eat anything at all before hitting the gym. It is important to properly fuel up before getting any form of exercise, whether it be hiking, lifting, or playing a sport. The best foods you can eat before your workouts are fruit, yogurt, nuts, and healthy carbohydrates like whole grains and oats.

The food you put into your body after your workout is just as important as what put in before. It is important to eat well rounded snacks or meals high in carbs, fat, and especially protein after your workout to help muscles repair and re-nourish in preparation for future use. Additionally, for those of you trying to gain lean muscle mass, the snack or meal you eat after your workout may arguably be the most important meal of the day. Eggs, soybeans, sweet potatoes, lean beef or chicken, quinoa, salmon, dark leafy greens, and protein bars or shakes are some great food options to have after your workout.

Finally, one of the biggest diet mistakes you can make that will limit your results is not eating enough. This applies especially to those who lift weights. But, the amount that you eat goes beyond just calorie counting.

Getting the proper macronutrients (carbs, protein, and fat) is essential to seeing the results you want from your workouts. If you’re keeping a food log, you should really focus on how many grams of each you are consuming, more so than your overall calorie count. The amount of each macronutrient you need in your diet will depend on your age and stature, workout goals, and the amount of physical activity you get on average per week. IIFYM is a great resource to calculate your dietary requirements, including calorie intake and macronutrients. This online tool also allows you to change your diet preference in order to see how many carbs, protein, and fat you need under any given diet plan (Textbook, Atkins, Body Builder, etc.).

2. You do the same workouts too often.

When you work the same muscle group in the same way over and over, you stop seeing results. It is important to incorporate variety into your workouts.

For example, don’t just squat three sets of 10 during every leg day. Switch it up by doing eight sets of eight with a higher weight, or placing plates under your heels. You can also balance the bar in front of your shoulders instead of the behind. Or, don’t use a bar at all. Use a kettlebell instead.

Instead of doing five sets of five on bench press for every upper body day, switch it up by using dumbbells, doing four sets of 10, widening or narrowing your grip, pressing from a mat instead of the bench, or doing each repetition slower or faster than standard.

There are plenty of options for switching up your workout routine. By confusing your muscles, you are giving your body more variety with range of motion, volume, load, form, and many other factors. Your muscles will feel these small differences and you will see greater progress in your strength, endurance, and mass.

3. You don’t train opposing movements.

Have you ever seen those guys who focus so much on their pecks and so little on their back that their shoulders start to hunch forward? Not only do they not look right, but they’re more susceptible to back injury.

This is just one example of why it’s important to train opposing movements. You need to focus on the muscles you can’t see, as well as the ones you can see, to avoid muscle imbalances that can lead to overuse injuries.

To balance your upper body, you should perform two back (pulling) exercises for every one chest (pushing) exercise. For example, if you’re planning to bench or shoulder press, incorporate rows and lat pull-downs into your routine. To balance your lower body, you should perform two hamstring exercises for every one quadricep exercise. For example, if you plan to squat or lunge, incorporate some deadlifts, RDLs, or kettlebell swings.

4. You rest for too long (or not long enough) between sets.

Resting for too long between sets allows your nervous system to return back to homeostasis, meaning your nervous system won’t be ready to continue the heavy lifting throughout your session. You need to stay warm and energized for the entirety of your workout, resting for no more than a few minutes at most in between sets. Activities like texting or talking with friends in the middle of your workout can make your rests last longer than you want.

Generally, when you’re doing more repetitions with little to no weight, your rests should last between 30 seconds to a minute. However, for those doing fewer repetitions with moderate to heavier loads, you should allow your body more rest time (one to three minutes). By resting one to three minutes in between sets, you give your muscles time to relax and repair in preparation for your next set and the remainder of your workout.

5. You are doing exclusively aerobic cardio.

Especially for those trying to gain or maintain muscle mass, anaerobic cardio should be your priority over aerobic cardio. Here is a brief summary of the difference:

Aerobic cardio is when you keep your heart at an increased rate, working at a moderate, steady intensity for 30 to 60 minutes. Cross country running, hiking, street cycling or using most cardio machines are generally examples of aerobic cardio. Aerobic cardio benefits your heart and cardiovascular system while burning a lot of calories throughout the exercise itself. It is important to get aerobic cardio, but activities like trail running and hiking are far more beneficial aerobic options than running on a treadmill for 30 to 60 minutes. However, aerobic cardio may set you back in your workout goals because, while it burns fat, it burns your muscle mass as well.

Anaerobic cardio will be more beneficial for those trying to burn fat and maintain mass. Though, it is a little more complicated than that. Rather than keeping your heart rate steady, you go back and forth between working at a very high intensity for a short time, then taking rest intervals. You continue this pattern for 15 to 30 minutes. Examples of anaerobic cardio include rowing and sprints. For example, you can sprint at almost maximum effort for 30 seconds, then rest by walking or gently jogging for two to three minutes, and repeat. Other options include HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts or other metabolic workouts that incorporate weightlifting and anaerobic cardio. Kill two birds with one stone!

In short, by prioritizing anaerobic workouts over aerobic workouts, you are maintaining the muscle mass you’ve already gained from your lifting program, while burning fat and increasing your metabolism more than steady aerobic cardio would.

6. You aren’t logging your workouts.

Logging your workouts is logging your progress. It helps you keep track of how much weight you have been lifting for specific workouts, and if you should increase or decrease your weight for any given variation of that workout. It helps you record your maxes. It helps you incorporate variety into your routine so you don’t find yourself doing the same workouts over and over, or skipping the exercises you may need the most.

7. You aren’t staying hydrated enough.

The amount of fluids you drink before and after your workouts is just as important as the amount you drink during your workouts, if not more so. Seventy-five percent of your muscle tissue and 10 percent of your fat tissue is made up of water, so it’s important to replenish frequently.

However, hydration goes beyond just water. You will want to replenish your electrolytes, as well. Gatorade is definitely a no, as this sports drink is loaded with sugar. Drinks such as Smart Water and coconut water are healthier options.

Milk is the ultimate workout drink. Milk is absorbed much more gradually into the bloodstream, helping retain the fluid longer. It has many electrolytes, including sodium and potassium, that are lost through sweating when you workout. Milk is also high in protein and healthy fats that are essential macronutrients.

8. You aren’t allowing your body rest days.

While you can do cardio on a daily basis, you cannot and should not lift heavy every day, especially the same muscle group. To better understand why you need rest days, it helps to know what is actually happening to your muscles when you lift.

In order for a muscle to grow stronger, it has to undergo damage. During an intense lifting session, microscopic tears form within muscle fibers and connective tissue. These tears dramatically fatigue the muscle and it can take days for it to be sufficiently nourished and repaired to the point that it is strong enough to repeat.

By not allowing your muscles the time to recuperate, you are inhibiting its ability to repair damage and, in turn, become stronger. As the goal of weightlifting is essentially to increase strength, lifting every day is counterproductive.

Lifting three to five days a week is enough, especially for intensive heavy lifting or powerlifting. Avoid working the same muscle group two days in a row, or at least significantly decrease your weight the following day(s).

9. You’re too comfortable.

If your workouts aren’t hard, you won’t reach your goals. If you stick the workouts you are comfortable with, you won’t see the results you want as you won’t get enough variety. It’s probably the exercises you hate the most that you need the most.

10. You don’t maintain proper form.

If you can’t do a specific workout right, then you’re not only wasting your time, you’re also putting yourself at risk for injury. It is more important to work well than to work hard. If you can’t maintain proper form, then you’re lifting too heavy. It’s that simple. You should be able to perfect your form for every rep of every set before increasing your weight. It’s OK to struggle a little, but if you’re wrenching your back and swinging your arms in order to get a weight up, then it’s too heavy. In order to isolate the muscles you want, you need to keep your form. Otherwise, you won’t see the results you want. Or, worse yet, you’ll injure yourself and set yourself back with months of recovery.

Keeping your back straight and core engaged are two key factors in maintaining form for almost any exercise. But, for most exercises, it goes far beyond this general guideline. Watching YouTube tutorials, exercising in front of a mirror, and asking any trainer, coach, or experience lifter for help are great resources to help you do your exercises correctly and effectively.

11. You don’t have realistic goals... Or any goals at all.

The fulfillment of exercising comes from seeing the progress you are making. But, how can you progress if you don’t know what you’re working toward? Whether it be to train for the military, train for sports, or simply to look and feel fit and healthy, it is important to have goals for yourself. You have to have a “why.”

However, your goals need to be realistic. You can’t expect to lose 40 pounds of fat and gain 20 pounds of muscle in two weeks. It just doesn’t happen, at least not through healthy means. Reaching your goals takes time and patience. Fitness is a long-term commitment, if not a lifetime commitment.

Additionally, everybody has different a body type. Even professional lifters and athletes all look very different from one another. Your height, BMI, and metabolism all come into play for what your results will be, along with several other factors. Some people burn fat easier than others and in different places. Others gain muscle easier than others. The best person you can compare yourself to is you.

12. You don’t have the right attitude.

If you hope to continue your workout program consistently (and therefore effectively), you have to have the right mindset. Those who view workout out as a chore and nuisance are far less likely to continue regularly exercising than those who make it fun and get motivated. Find a workout program that is right for you and that you find enjoyably so that you want to go! Lifting with friends or a trainer can help you stay motivated and on top of your routine.

If you are new to exercising and struggle to get to the gym, you won’t always. Once you start to see the results you want, it is incredibly motivating. Take pictures of yourself throughout your process! Taking pictures is more effective documentation than recording weight or measurements, as your weight and size can change on a daily basis. As you notice your body changing, slimming, or bulking according to your goals, you’ll find yourself more motivated to continue exercising. So, stick with it!