"Abs are made in the kitchen and not at the gym," is a popular saying. This is especially for those who think that exercise alone can get you flat washboard abs. Not only that. Sometimes, adopting the wrong training methods and exercises can ruin our fitness goals. If you are curious to know whether you are training wrong, scroll below. Here are some worst exercises and exercise mistakes that will hamper your fitness goals.  Ten Benefits of Strength Training: Overview of Muscle Development Techniques.

Worst Exercises

You will be surprised to know that exercises like crunches, sit-ups and side bends only does harm to your body. Our abdominal muscles are not designed to crunch or bend; these abs exercises contours the body in unnatural ways.

Whenever you perform conventional abs exercise, your belly feels the burn and soreness, which fools you into thinking that you are working on your abdominal muscles. Our abs muscles are a stabilising force designed to resist movement to protect your spine.

Injuries like cervical spondylosis and erector spinae injury are the result of performing sit-ups and crunches. Our core muscles are just not meant to bend or twist unevenly.

Many complain about seeing no result in belly fat loss in spite of doing crunches in high numbers over a while. Performing abs exercises like crunches and sit-ups do no good to your body it only harms your lower back and to the worst case if performed in the wrong form then it might even lead to spondylosis.

The key to getting six pack abs is by incorporating more intense training like compound exercises-deadlifts, squats, bench, overhead press and HIIT training like Tabata in your program. The combination of compound exercises and HIIT will be the perfect amalgamation of strength and endurance which will help you in burning that extra flab. Number of Push-Ups You Can Perform Could Indicate Your Heart Attack Risk! Step-by-Step Method to Perform the Exercise Correctly

5 Workout Mistakes

Too Much Cardio 

Overdoing of cardio exercises like jogging on a treadmill or working out on the elliptical machine can stress out and tire your body, making you feel that you have burnt a lot of calories. The worst scenario is that these regular cardio exercises can even lead to the release of stress hormone like cortisol, which is harmful for your body.

Doing Isolated Exercises

Performing isolated exercise like bicep curls and tricep extensions only works on single specific muscle and pumps up your flesh for a short period. These exercises do not tone up your body or aid in fat loss. You can achieve these things by only performing activities which increases our heart rate, that can only be increased by involving multiple muscles in action. Performing compound movement exercises will just enable activation of various muscles.

Using Gym Machines

Those shiny gym machines may make your gym look sophisticated, but the truth is that they are only worth sitting down on to catch your breathe or tie your shoelaces. These machines do not allow you to complete the full range of motions while exercising and they also imbalance your body. Most of the machines are improperly designed, causing more strain on your joints, leading to injuries down the line.

Following the same workout routine

The human body tends to adapt to all situation easily after a certain period. If you train by sticking to the same method then you might not get any result. It is vital to keep switching your training program so that your body doesn't get used to it.

Doing Long Workouts

We mostly see people spending hours in the gym just to get exhausted and not achieve any result in terms of muscular development and fat loss. It is essential to do smart training and know what will have a positive effect on your body.

Hope you plan your training program properly and stop doing overrated core development exercises like crunches, sit-ups, etc. Remember, your exercising routine and your diet plan will only help you achieve your desired goals. I will wrap up by saying famous quote of legendary Boxer Muhammad Ali,"Don't count the days; make the days count."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 26, 2019 07:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).