Spending hours in the gym but not achieving your goals? You could be making some very simple yet common workout mistakes.

Fitness expert at The Chelsea Club, Neil Johnson, is here to give us the lowdown. The ‘face of FAME’, Neil is a personal trainer to the stars and has a history of working with Take That, East 17 and Boyzone.

#1: Sit Ups = Six Pack

Not quite! In fact too much concentration on the abs and no focus on other areas of your body could lead your stomach to expand and a pot belly rearing its ugly head! Sit ups combined with an overall weight loss programme, a balanced diet and regular exercise will help with this.

#2: Under Eating

All too often I see people trying to lose weight by starving themselves. Yet this doesn’t actually help you lose weight, instead it leaves you with muscle loss, a slower metabolism and less energy. By having a diet which consists of eating foods in moderation but exercising regularly at the same time – this is how you will lose weight.

#3: Ignoring Weights

Do you spend all your gym time doing cardio? Chopping and changing between the treadmill and the cross-trainer? People, particularly women, tend to gravitate toward cardio exercises and avoid weights like the plague. There’s a myth that weight training will bulk you up. This simply won’t happen unless you go too extreme. In fact lifting weights will tone and firm up your muscles, something that cardio actually cannot do. Maintaining regular weight training will increase your body’s ability to burn fat around the clock.

#4: Repeating Workouts

Going to the gym 2/3 times a week and doing the same routine each time will work to begin with. You may see some pounds drop straight off and your body getting firmer but this needs to be maintained. The way to do this is to keep pushing yourself, keep adding to your workout. Whether that means increasing the weights you are using or adding quarter of an hour onto your cardio training every couple of weeks, you need to be always progressing.

#5: Skipping Stretching

Stretching is so important both before and after a workout but is the most common mistake. Stretching is important to be done properly and not rushed as it increases our flexibility, helps with a better posture and also decreases muscle injury.

#6: Playing Favourites

Playing favourites in your training can lead to problems. Many of us have a body part we prefer to workout on or a particular exercise we like doing more than others. However, favouring these can leave you unbalanced with poor posture. When you workout you need to work out the whole body.