Source: firstbeat.com
Too light or irregular training, no effect
A large part of the general public believes that they are doing enough physical exercise to keep fit. Contrary to their belief many people do not fulfil the criteria of training as their exercise is not vigorous enough to produce an improving training effect. This is a common problem in developed nations.
Too hard training, too frequently
There are many amateur athletes who are very conscientious and tend to train too hard. They may want to follow the training programs that are written by the pro coaches for full-time athletes. This does not work. The athlete very easily ends up overloading the body. As the training and recovery are not balanced and the body is not prepared for such a training load, the risk of injury and overtraining runs very high. This is the case when a training program does not match the user’s fitness level and there is no mechanism to link outcome to needed change in training. The necessary time for recovery is often missing.
Always the same training, no improvement
It is very typical for amateur athletes (runners) and fitness enthusiasts to be very set in their ways. This means that they always repeat a training pattern. This pattern may long since have lost its effectiveness. A lot of time is spent on training with no real improvement. In many cases spending less time in correctly measured and guided training would produce a far better result. This has been shown by many who have started to use Firstbeat tools.