Let’s Get Physical

I’m always asked by friends to buddy up and train in gym, to push each other to stay motivated! Stuff that!! I’m a complete lone ranger! I motivate myself with my music and by keeping track of my workouts day after day, week after week, month after…. you get the point.

I find that when you train with friends, especially good friends you’ll talk about social things and might lose your focus on what you’re doing. However this is a bit of an unfair generalisation for all but I find this can be often the case.

It’s not all bad training with friends though. I find they are always there to spot (providing they know how much to spot you) and can give you that push to do more with more intensity (however if you’re not sensible this could lead to injury, and it’s always the bench press when this happens!!).

In short it’s each to their own but try both and figure out which is best for you and take it from there. If you train with a friend just be sure they are like minded!

For every session of fitness planned there should a goal or purpose preset that you’re trying to achieve, whether it’s aerobic fitness, muscle tone & strength or flexibility, but regardless of this you should always try to incorporate all bits in so no area of your fitness suffers.
So firstly decide which aspect of your fitness is the primary goal and then we can balance the other aspects around this. For example when trying to improve strength, don’t neglect endurance work. For beginners you should always balance you workout to involve strength, endurance and flexibility.
How is this done?

Warm-up

This gets your body ready for exercise by increasing the body’s core temperature and encouraging flexibility in the joints. Slowly move your joints through their natural path of movement and then perform a gentle aerobic activity for about five minutes. Something like rowing, brisk walk or jog, stepping or cycling.

Aerobic exercise

Target the aerobic workout to last between 20 – 50 minutes (beginners need to start from the lower end or less and work their way up) at a steady pace leaving you breathless with a light sweat. Gradually increase your intensity and duration of the workout. When you are finished always stretch afterwards unless you are strength trainings afterwards.

Strength training

For this part of the workout, the aim is to work all major muscle groups. Split them up across a few days, about 3 – 4 days a week using weights you can only lift between 8 and 12 times (reps)so that the last couple require effort, before you need to rest. A good work out would target a different body part at a time. Always ask a gym instructor or personal trainer for advice.

Stretching

This is the last and probably most important part of the work out. While doing strength training and aerobic exercise the muscles can contract and shorten. It’s important to stretch them so they don’t become tight and mobility is restricted. Also when tight this increases risk of injury. A session of stretching should last about 10 minutes holding for 15 – 30 seconds at a time each stretch.

It is possible to do all aspects of fitness in under an hour. Try doing these 3 times a week at least for great results.

Now we have the basics covered, we now need to put them into action. We now need to put time aside to achieve these. But there isn’t much point putting all the work in at the gym in the work if you spend your time out of gym lazing around or sat all hunched at a desk. Exercise and fitness needs to become a way of life.

When you are away from the gym in your day to day life at work or even whilst driving or walking, remember to try and incorporate fitness into these activities. Even for a regular gym goer who goes daily for about an hour, what about the other 114 awake hours (assuming you get 7 hours of sleep a day on average)? If this time was spent poorly it would be a serious imbalance compared to the time spent being fitness positive, so this is a reason why fitness should be a lifestyle!

Strong, lean and muscular arms, we all want them but you have to work for them! At least most of you mere mortals do!!

If you want arms like a hero then you’ve come to the right place. In two moves which you can add to your current work out or perform as an alternative to what you do now, that is if you are doing anything you can add some size and definition to your arms .

1.    Alternating Dumbbell Curls

Select the heaviest weight you can handle for about 8 – 10 reps. Holding the weight by your side with the palms facing your thigh, curl the weight up twisting your wrist until your palms face towards you. Pause at the top for a second and return to the start. Switch arms and repeat.

2.    Overhead Dumbbell Extensions

As above select a weight heavy enough to perform 8-10 reps with. Hold the dumbbell with your arm extended above you. Slowly lower the dumbbell behind your head, keeping your up arm straight and elbow pointing upwards. Stop when your hand is in line with your ear, pause and return to the start.

Combine these 2 exercises back to back. Perform 6 reps per exercise continuously until you have completed 10 sets in total. Do this twice a week leaving at least 2 days between each session for a month and you’ll have guns like the ‘Governator’ in no time!

If you are thinking about getting into shape it’s important that you get the foundations in place. Regardless of what you want to achieve its always too good to set yourself personal goals to develop on, whether it’s to lose weight and tone up or to increase muscle mass, there is a plan for all.

The three main things to focus on when wanting to improve fitness is

1.    Endurance
2.    Strength
3.    Flexibility

Each one of these elements brings with it their own benefits, but each requires different exercises to achieve these results.

Endurance
To improve endurance you will need to do cardiovascular or aerobic exercises. These include running, cycling, rowing or even a brisk walk. These should be for prolonged periods, for example a 30 minute run or brisk walk. The intensity should be enough to raise your body temperature and cause you to sweat.

Strength
Build strength involves using resistance or weights to improve the strength of muscle and connective tissue such as tendons and ligaments. It also helps to increase bone density, a point especially important as we lose bone density as we age, women in particular which can result in Osteoporosis or Osteoarthritis. Strength training can also lower the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure.

Flexibility
Over age our joints become stiff reducing our range of motion and reducing mobility. Stretching to aid flexibility helps against this and help prevents the shortening of muscle and reduces the occasions of muscle cramps and joint stiffness.