Be Fit Fitness Blog

When it comes to working out with weights, everybody has a favorite part of their body that they like to work out. It could be their back, chest, shoulders, etc… Many people have areas of their body that they do not like to work out. I think most people hate doing leg exercises. The most likely reasons are that leg workouts are tough and take a lot of energy. I guess most people figure, who looks at your legs anyway!

It’s important to work out all areas of your body to achieve a uniform look. It doesn’t make sense to have a massive upper body but scrawny or weak legs. Plus, by doing various leg exercises you can achieve a well-defined and amazing pelvic area which can be appealing to people in many ways.

By ignoring certain muscle groups you will not have proportionality. Let’s take a look at shoulders. If you hate doing shoulders but love exercising your back and chest, you will not achieve a proportional balance. Plus, sculpted shoulders look amazing.

All I want to say is that it’s important to work out all areas of your body. In this way, you will achieve amazing results with respect to body symmetry, proportionality and strength. You have to remember, most muscle groups are tied together and affect one another. You should be working out every muscle group equally or as close as possible.

Here are some basic weight training tips for you to get the most out of your gym workouts.

Whenever working out, it’s best that you exercise your large muscles groups first. By large muscle groups, I am talking about chest, back and shoulders. The smaller muscle groups would be the triceps, biceps and forearms. With respect to legs, I recommend that you do them on a separate day since leg workouts tend to be very exhausting and you may not have enough energy for the rest of your body!

Anyway, if you start exercising the smaller muscle groups first, you will not have as much strength to effectively workout the large muscle groups since you have fatigued the smaller muscle groups which act as secondary muscles when you exercise your chest, back and shoulders. Basically, what I am saying is that when you exercise your large muscle groups, you will also be working out the smaller or secondary muscle groups as well since there is an inter-connection between muscles in your body. By focusing on exercising the large muscles first, your workouts will maximize the benefits and strength gains that you can potentially receive.

Another weight training tip is to vary your exercises. I am talking about the order that you do your exercise and the types of exercises you do for each body part. You may want to introduce new exercises every few weeks or alternate between exercises in a given month. In this way, your workouts are more interesting and challenge your muscles. Consequently, you should realize better results.

Another tip is to perform your exercises slowly. Some may argue with this technique, but I feel that if you don’t hurry every repetition, you will get more out of your workouts by emphasizing the positive and negative of each movement.

These are just three out of many weight training workout tips that I wanted to discuss and review with you.

Do you occasionally go to the gym and you feel very tired? You say to yourself, “I don’t really feel like working out today!” This occasionally happens to me. I’ll go through weeks of feeling very energetic and then I’ll hit a bump in the road. I’ll feel tired for a day or two. There are even times that I really don’t want to go to the gym. This is perfectly natural. It’s difficult to workout at 100%.

The fatigue that you can be experiencing can be attributable to the weather, stress, feeling over-worked, what you ate that day or lack of sleep the night before.

This is the approach that I take to overcome fatigue. I really don’t like to waste my time at the gym. I want to get the best possible workout that I can. Feeling mentally tired won’t enable me to do this. Fatigue can be eliminated by focusing on your workout and not thinking about how tired you are. This is what I do. I begin my workout with several light sets and focus on breathing. Breathing helps to clear my mind and re-invigorates my body. The fatigue is gone and I feel a lot better. Now I can continue with my workout.

One has to remember, that you can easily give in to fatigue at the gym. A lot of it is in your mind and you must motivate yourself to eliminate it. If you are constantly tired, than you really have a problem and you must look at your current lifestyle and make some changes!

There are so many abdominal gimmicks and many types of ab equipment out on the market these days. Some work and many do not. But, do you really need to purchase any of them to get your abs toned and in shape?

Personally, I don’t think so. So save your money and follow my advice.

Here are my 4 keys to getting your abs in tip-top shape.

1. Eat Healthy Foods
2. Eat Smaller Portion Sizes
3. Avoid Excessive Alcohol
4. Exercise - Abdominal and Cardiovascular

The first two keys go hand-in-hand. Try to avoid fatty foods and junk food. They are only going to accumulate around your mid-section. Definitely not where you want to store the fat!

When it comes to eating, many people over-eat. You end up feeling more tired and the extra food gets stored, you know where! My advice, try to eat more healthy portion sizes and not to over-indulge, especially on your dinner or evening snacks.

And yes, alcohol does contain calories. Some types of alcohol more than you would think. So limit your alcoholic intake.

Getting nice abs also requires exercise. There are many abdominal exercises that can be done without the use of equipment, almost anywhere, which will enable you to achieve incredible abs. One ab exercise that is very simple to do and that I feel is extremely effective is the Ab Crunch. Watch my Ab Crunch video on YouTube. If you do your repetitions slowly, properly and in combination with other ab exercises, then you will be able to achieve amazing results.

Let’s not forget there are many other cardiovascular and weight training exercises that indirectly will help you shed those unwanted pounds on your belly.

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Doing your exercise workouts at the gym with a partner can have many benefits for you. I suggest that you exercise with 1 partner and not 2. Three people can be a crowd and it will take awhile for you to complete your workout effectively!

The first benefit of working out with a partner is that he or she can motivate you to exercise. This extra motivation will push you to complete your workout and at times, can help you to workout harder, achieve higher plateaus.

Another benefit is that your partner can be an effective spotter for you so you can lift weights which are little heavier than you normally do or complete those hard-to-do last reps of a set!

Sometimes a partner can help suggest tips for working out. This is especially true if one person is more knowledgeable or serious than the other.

It can also be a lot of fun to work out with someone else. You get to talk about things but if chit-chat takes over your workout, you may lose your concentration, focus and not work out as effectively as you should.

If you decide to exercise with a partner, be prepared to spend a little more time at the gym.

The final benefit that I can think of is that it can save you money. If you join a gym or go to the gym with your girlfriend, boyfriend or spouse, many gyms offer spousal or family discounts which can save you a lot of money.

Which types of weights should you be using when working out: free weights or exercise machines? Personally, I like to use a combination of both free weights and exercise machines, including pulley machines. It all depends on the type of exercise that I am doing.

Let’s take a look at exercise machines. They are great for beginners because you don’t need a spotter, therefore they are safer. You can feel confident that as you increase the amount of weight, you won’t hurt yourself or be stuck on a repetition. Machines can help you focus more on targeted muscles. Some machines even have different hand grips to help you hit different muscles and add some variety to your workout. The only drawback is that machines tend to move in a single plane, a limited range of motion. Although, by incorporating a workout using certain types of machines, you can achieve different range of motion and a wider range of motion.

With respect to pulley machines, they allow you to change hand grip bars and you can get constant tension on both the positive and negative movements. They also give you a wider range of motion, particularly while doing chest crossovers. Therefore, pulley machines offer you a lot of variety which can mimic the exercises that you can do with free weights.

On the other hand, free weights tend to give you a wider range of motion. Basically, you control the motion. There are also so many types of exercises that you can perform with free weights. You can even combine your free weight workouts with a Bosu Ball for a total-body workout.

If you are working out with heavy free weights, you may need a spotter.

It is important to add variety to your weight training workout to make your workouts more interesting and effective. If you exercise a lot, after awhile, it’s only natural that you may feel tired or you may not feel like working out as much or as often. Sometimes, it’s good to take a week off every once in awhile to re-think your approach to exercise or just take a break.

Ways to add variety to your workouts

What I like to do when I am weight training is that I like to change the order of my exercises for a particular muscle group each workout. Every other week, I also like to alternate between different types of exercises for a particular muscle group. So this way my muscles do not get accustomed to the same movements and I don’t get bored. There are always a few exercises that I enjoy doing every week and since they work for me, I keep them in my weekly workout.

You may also want to add new and different exercises every once in awhile to enhance your workouts and work different muscles. Of course if there are exercises that you enjoy doing and they are very effective for you, stick to them!

Another technique I like to use is to change the grips I use with respect to dumbbells and when using certain machines. There are many weight training machines from companies such as Nautilus that offer you a couple of different hand grips such as close-grip and wide-grip. So if you are doing a chest exercise on the machine, one week, you may want to do the wide-grip and another week, the close-grip. There are countless workout scenarios you can devise when machines and gym equipment offer you such alternatives. You should choose the ones that work for you and fit with your weight training approach. In this way, you are able to focus and hit different muscles and achieve much better results.

If you are also interested in building more strength, every once in awhile, you may want to increase the amount of weight for a particular exercise to an amount that you have never done before. Even if it means that you can only 2 to 4 repetitions, you have progressed to a new level.

These are only just a few of the many ways that a little variety can make your workouts more interesting when exercising with weights.

There is a tendancy for most people as they get older to be less active and exercise less or not at all. It’s important to exercise when you are young, but equally important to do it when you are older. Many studies have shown that people who continue to exercise and stay active in their golden years have healthier brains. By healthier brains I mean better memories, better cognitive skills and positive outlook on life and things.

Today I was watching the news about a study which was done on exercise and a person’s brain functions as they age. They were showing this lady who is 92 riding a seated exercise bike. From what I saw, she was riding it pretty effortlessly. In her interview she said that although she is 92, she feels like she is 25! Her hair may be grey, but she looks and feels amazing for her age.

I’m not going to go into the technical conclusions from this study, but the basic reason for a positive correlation between exercise (staying active) and a person’s brain function as they age is that exercise helps to increase blood flow to the brain and repair brain tissue and keep brain tissue healthy.

This is just another reason why you should continue to exercise as you get older and not resort to a sedentary lifestyle.

You may be thinking about joining a gym. Now is probably the best time. Towards late December and the beginning of a new year, gyms will be offering a lot of good deals and discounts. Just shop around. Ask what services they will be offering for each price plan membership. Some memberships only allow you to work out at one specific gym and not the entire chain or you can be limited to certain services at a particular gym. Also, read the fine print. Some gyms have a lot of strings attached!

What are some of the advantages of joining a gym over working out at home? Here are a few:

The Atmosphere

- By being exposed to everyone exercising, you end up being more motivated. Don’t be intimidated by others or how they look like, just do your own thing.

- It’s a great way to get away from work and your house. You get the chance to talk to people and meet new friends.

Learning Experience

- You can get the chance to see how other people work out, what they do that works for them and ask questions if you like. Most people are more than willing to share their successes and offer you tips.

Variety

- There are so many different exercise machines, barbells, free weights. This will help you vary your exercise program.
- A plethora of fitness classes ranging from Yoga, Pilates to aerobic and even strength-training classes designed specifically women.

Proximity to Work

Some gyms could be close to your work or along the way home making it convenient to stop by and do a quick or long workout.

So what exercise program is best suited for you? It all depends on what your fitness goals are. You may be interested in losing weight, toning your body, building muscle and strength or into some serious bodybuilding. Therefore, your exercise program should be tailored and customized to meet your fitness goals.

Regardless of your fitness goals, your exercise workouts should always include both weight training and cardiovascular exercise.

Let’s begin with weight training. You can create a program based on a 3 to 4 day weekly workout schedule or on a every-second-day rotating workout schedule. Your workouts should incorporate both the big major muscle groups (chest, back, shoulders) along with the smaller muscle groups (triceps, biceps, forearms). Legs can be done on a separate day or incorporated into your daily workout schedule. Abdominals can be done two to three times per week. Of course, you can create variations on my following suggestions depending on what works best for you and the time available to you.

What I like to do is focus on a major body part in each of my workouts plus a minor body part. So one day, I will work on chest plus biceps and 1 set of legs. The next day, I will work on back, triceps and abdominals and 1 set of legs. The third day, I will work on shoulder plus supersets of biceps and triceps and 2 sets of legs. If this is too much for you, you can do your legs on a fourth day. Somewhere in there, you will want to do some cardiovascular exercise. Also, such a workout can be customized to be long or short in length.

When it comes to getting the most of your workouts, I suggest that you perform your exercises slowly, vary your exercises with each workout and pay attention to your form and technique. Remember, it’s not necessarily how many exercises you perform, it’s how you do them!

All this may sound confusing to you or you may really need some help to customize your own exercise program tailored to your fitness goals. Don’t hesitate to seek professional fitness help. A lot of people do this and many have received excellent results after seeking professional fitness help.