Personal Trainers vs. the Go It Alone Approach

Many new fitness aficionados do not thin they need a personal trainer, but those individuals may not understand all of the benefits a personal trainer brings to the table. The do it yourself approach can be effective – but only if you are an excellent self-motivator. Before you pass on finding a personal trainer to help you with your fitness goals, ask yourself these important questions

Am I willing to stick with a strict fitness regime, even with no personal trainer looking over my shoulder?

When it is raining or cold, or I simply do not want to get out of bed, will I have the proper motivation to get to the gym anyway?

Do I know the best fitness trails, gyms and other resources in the area? A personal trainer will be able to find the best fitness resources in the city, while you may struggle to find the right gym and fitness equipment.

Would I benefit from the personal attention of a personal trainer, and would that personal trainer be able to help me meet my goals more effectively?

Answering these questions honestly is one of the best ways to determine if a personal trainer is the right choice for you. There are many reasons why hiring a personal trainer makes sense, from the ability to train on your schedule and on your terms to having a trainer who is an expert on the local area and therefore best able to help you meet your goals.

The most popular cardio exercise is running. This is one of the most inexpensive and simple cardio exercise that can be done anywhere without special equipments. You just need good running shoes and also appropriate clothing to match the weather. Running helps you to burn a lot of calories especially on hills and sprinting landscapes. You need to warm up with a 5 – 10 minute stretching exercise followed by a 5 minute walk and then jog for 10 minutes before you start your run. You can avail special marathon training to run for long distances. You can also choose short distance running where you can maintain better speed. While you end the run, you jog for the last 2 – 3 minutes, then walk slowly and stop.

Boxing is one of the best cardio exercises, concentrating on various important muscle groups. You need to perform warm up exercises for 5 – 10 minutes. This is followed by basic resistance endurance exercises for another 10 minutes. Then, you perform 5 minute drilling exercises where you do punches and defense exercises. While you do the boxing workout, slowly increase the boxing intensity by punching different weight bags. You may need to take 5-minute breaks in between to stabilize heart beat. Make sure you wear good boxing shoes and also heavily padded gloves while performing this workout.

Swimming is another excellent cardio exercise where you can concentrate on various part of the body and muscle groups by performing the different strokes like freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke. You start swimming with a warm up exercise of 250 – 400m. Then you do a balancing drill. You can pause every 25m to improve your balance inside water. A typical beginner workout involves swimming for about 2000 – 2500m. At the end of the swimming workout you can do a combination of the three strokes mentioned above, rest for a minute and again do some easy swim strokes for the last 150m to end your exercise routine for the day. A good swimsuit with goggles will make your workout routine comfortable. It is better that you start slowly in the beginning and do good warm up exercises before increasing the intensity of the workout. Swimming reduces the risk of various diseases like strokes and diabetes. A 30 – 60 minute workout is a good start for beginners.

Power walking is one of the best cardio exercises recommended for people including senior citizens. You are advised to wear good rubber shoes when you do this workout. This workout helps in maintaining good pulse rate and also burns excess fat in the body. You need to warm up by easy walking for 5 – 10 minutes and perform stretching exercises for another 5 minutes. Then you can increase the pace of walking and reach a heart rate up to 70% of your maximum recommended heart rate.

Ashtanga Yoga is another popular cardio exercise involving traditional yoga postures with aerobic moves. This cardio routine involves breathing exercises, increasing the body energy by awareness and strengthening the abdomen.

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Chest comprises of large muscle groups and is broadly divided into two portions – pectoralis major and pectoralis minor. Pectoralis major is the bigger muscle attaching to upper arm from collar bone to the sternum. Under this muscle, pectoralis minor, a triangular shaped muscle, is found. These chest muscles help in flexion, rotation and adduction.

The large chest muscles allow you to handle weight and also burn excess calories. While working out your chest, you exercise your shoulder as well as arms. In addition, the chest workout routine also is a warm up of several smaller muscular groups in our body.

There are two types of chest workouts. The first type is called presses involve triceps and deltoid muscles and weights are pushed away from the chest during the exercise routine. Flyes is the second type of chest workout where the extended arms are brought towards the chest center. These two workouts are performed at different angles for the overall development of the chest muscle.

Chest exercises should be ideally performed twice a week with 2 to 3 days rest in between the workout routines. Some of the best chest workouts include chest flies, chest presses and also pushups. You need to perform a variety of these exercises and also vary your workout routines. The chest press exercise is targeted at the major chest muscles, shoulders and also the triceps. Push ups lay emphasis on arms and chest in addition to targeting on many other muscles in the body. Chest flies works on primarily the outer portion of the chest.

For an effective chest workout routine, you need to perform good warm up exercises. This would ensure circulation of blood in the chest area preparing it for the physical exertion. Beginners should concentrate on building the size of the chest muscle as the first step. The motion should be different ranges for a good muscle development as good muscular contraction yields better results. You also need to occasionally stretch the chest muscles in between the workouts. You should also not perform triceps exercises before chest exercises.

Once you build the muscle size, you can concentrate on building the shape of the chest and also focus on the overall development. In addition to the basic chest exercises mentioned above you can also include other chest workouts like pullovers, cable crossovers, dips, burn out sets and supersets. In case you have a weak chest, you need to take up priority or weak point training.

For getting the best results of chest workouts, you need to concentrate on good well balanced nutritious diet. Also, you need to work out on balancing your muscles and involve the rest of your body while performing the strenuous routines. Extreme care should be placed on postures in order to avoid muscle imbalances.

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Best bicep workout routines consist of activating the vital muscles by bringing the forearm and upper arm close together under resistance. While choosing weights for working out your biceps, you need to be very careful as the biceps muscles are small. You cannot use heavy weights like in the case of chest and the back exercises. Since the workout routines of your back and chest also involve exercising your biceps, intense workouts of your biceps on a daily basis would not work well for your body.

While you workout your biceps, also focus on other muscle groups. In a single workout routine, a maximum of two biceps exercises can be carried out. You need to work out on your biceps just once or twice a week and take rest in the days in between before repeating.

Some of the best biceps workouts involve pulling exercise routines where you generally curl your hands towards your shoulders. You may also work on your forearms by performing wrist curls. Dumbbells, cables, resistance bands, barbell and bicep workout machines are available to aid you for performing the exercises.

While working out your biceps, choose weights which you handle and not heavy weights which would tire you very soon. Also, vary the intensity (of weights) and the volume (number of reps) to get best results and enable you to recuperate from the tiring workout routine days. Focus on the quality of muscle workout than the quantity of exercises performed.

One of the best bicep workouts is called Biceps curls. This is one of the most popular exercises where you hold weights placing your elbow next to your body and your palms facing out. You curl the weight towards your shoulders. The variations of traditional curls include concentration and preacher curls which add a new intensity level to the bicep exercises. Hammer curls offer challenging movements and hence you need to use lighter weights to perform the workout.

The standing barbell curl is an example of a compound biceps exercise where you pile the weights and use your forearms and biceps to lift them. This can help you in developing tank arms and also exercises all the muscles on your biceps and forearms.

The alternating rotating dumbbell is another simple biceps workout exercise which helps in focusing on maximal intensity workout on each arm separately in alternating cycles.

The cable curl workout with rope handle helps in building huge arms. It concentrates on the arm flexors and emphasizes on exercising the biceps. This exercise also allows you to maintain constant tension.

The supinated bent over rows workout is another exercise which helps in gaining biceps mass. The close grip chin ups exercise also helps in building biceps mass. You need to keep your hands together and focus on your biceps to lift your body. This is different from a pull up which exercises your back and also your arm.

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Why is it important to eat after you workout?

First, you need to know about what is called the “golden hour”. It’s the 45 minutes to an hour directly after your workout that you need to eat. The reason eating within the golden hour is so important is because it is the time after your workout that your body will absorb the most nutrients. This golden hour is also when an energy reserve in your muscles called glycogens, is best replaced.

What to eat after you workout?

Your post workout meal should consist of both carbohydrates and protein. Depending on what your fitness goals are, you’ll either want carbs to be a larger part of the post workout meal or more protein than carbs. If your goal is weight loss, you’ll want the majority of your after workout meal to consist of protein, and only a small percent (10% will do) to consist of carbs.

Your best solution for a post workout meal is to drink a 1-3 scoops of powdered Whey Protein and mix it with water. To purchase Whey Protein you can visit here. It’s a simple way to get your carbs and protein and it takes seconds to make! Pour some protein powder in a glass or plastic bottle, add some water, and shake it up. It can’t get any easier.

Remember, you don’t need to eat a huge meal after you workout. Many people feel the urge to binge eat after they workout. They feel like they are starving after they get back from the gym. Drinking a protein shake will make you feel full fast.

How to gain weight and bulk up

• Most importantly, you need to eat more. Start by eating more calories than your body burns.
• Eat around six meals a day spaced about every three hours.
• You should be taking in about 1g of Whey Protein for every 1lb of body weight. To buy Whey Protein go here.
• When working out, keep the workout short and increase the intensity. You should be using heavy weights and a small amount of reps.
• Drink a lot of water! You should be drinking the recommended amount of water every day. Go here for how to find out how much water you should be drinking.

Foods to eat when trying to gain weight

• Eggs
• Lean Beef
• Whole grain breads
• Pasta
• Potatoes
• Milk

It’s important to eat a lot of food when you’re trying to gain weight. However, the food you eat will have an impact on how you actually bulk up. Stay away from junk food like candy, donuts, greasy food, fast food, etc. Stick to carbs and protein and you’ll start seeing results in no time.

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What Should I Eat Before I Workout?

Before you hit the gym to exercise, here are a few meals you can try. Remember, finding what works best for you is important. Everyone is a little different.

• Oatmeal with honey and milk.
• I personally like to use the Designer Whey Protein available at Netrition. It has all the proportions of carbs, protein, and sugars you need to have a good workout. This is great for pre and post workout.
• Fruit
• Vegetables
• Whole grain cereal with low fat milk
• Eggs
• Banana with Peanut Butter
• Saltine Crackers with Peanut Butter
• Trail Mix

There are tons of pre workout meal recommendations, the list could go on. The key is to remember that most importantly you need a decent amount of carbs, and a decent amount of protein. Don’t over think it. Try something out and keep an eye out for results. If it works, stick with it. If it doesn’t work, try another pre workout meal.

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Why free weights are better than machines

It’s a well known fact that free weights have been around long before machines ever showed up in your local gym. There’s a reason for that. They just do the job better. First, the human movement that is accomplished during lifting of free weights simply can not be duplicated by a machine. The strain your muscles go through in trying to balance and keep the free weight steady is a far better workout for your body than a machine can give you. Second, using free weights in the gym is much more closely related to the strain your muscles might use while in a real life situation. The correctness of a weight machine just can’t translate into real life muscle movement. Further, using free weights can actually prove to do less harm on your joints than a weight machine. By moving your joints over and over in an absolute fixed motion on a machine, you are more likely to experience joint problems. Thus, free weights are better than machines.

Advantages of machines over free weights

To be fair, I should explain a few things I think to be advantages of using machines rather than free weights. One advantage is the fact that machines allow you to perform the proper technique when lifting weights. It is sometimes scary the amount of people I see at the gym using free weights with improper technique. These are the type of people that should be learning technique on a machine first, then switching to free weights. Another great advantage of machines over free weights is the fact that machines essentially have built in spotters, making your workout much safer. You’re able to max out your repetitions for the ultimate strength workout without having to worry about the weight coming crashing down on you if you can’t lift that last rep.

Concluding, we’ve covered the important factors of free weights vs machines. In the end, you can’t really go wrong using free weights over machine weights. Next time you’re in the gym take a shot at using the free weights. Not only will you find that free weights are better than machines, you’ll also find your strength improve ten-fold over time.

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