Record your workout
Keep a track of what you have done as this will make it easier for you to improve and monitor your progress.
Drink water
Drink a glass of water before exercising and sip 250ml every fifteen minutes to maintain hydration levels.
Warm up
Always warm up before exercise. The warm up will increase blood flow around the body, increase body temperature and reduce the possibility of injury. Warm up can be anything from cycling, rowing or walking on the spot, as long as it slowly increases the heart rate and warms up the body. Gradually warming up will also decrease post workout muscle soreness. Gymbods.com includes a warm up in your personal workout.
Cool down
Always perform a cool down after exercise to slowly decrease your heart rate and aid recovery. As with your warm up, your cool down could be anything from rowing, cycling or walking on the spot. Slowly decrease your effort to lower your heart rate. A cool down has the same purpose as the warm up except it is there to bring your body temperature down slowly and safely to help aid recovery and reduce injuries. Gymbods.com includes a cool down in your personal workout.
Prepare your mind
- Ask yourself what you want to achieve.
- Set yourself a realistic goal.
- Picture how you want to be as this will help you transform your goals into reality.
- Change the way you think. Have confidence in yourself, positive thoughts lead to positive actions.
- Make time to change. Plan what you are going to do each day to create extra time in your lifestyle for exercise.
- Don’t put yourself under too much pressure. You can achieve anything you want to if you keep your goals in mind.
Workout errors
By making errors you are slowing down your results. Consider the following tips:
- If you do not drink enough water, you could suffer from dehydration which can lead to an impaired performance and a lack of results.
- Do not overtrain. You need to exercise intensely but not to the point where you are going to pass out from exhaustion.
- Make sure you train with the correct technique. Please perfect your exercise technique by following all exercise animations correctly.
- Warm up and cool down. This will help keep your muscles and tendons loose and injury free.
- Stretch after your workout. This helps remove lactic acid which will help increase your recovery time. Gymbods.com includes stretching exercises in your personal workout.
Goodbye cellulite
Some experts insist that cellulite is a medical condition which has no remedy. The hard fact is if you lose fat you will lose cellulite. It will take you a little time but with correct nutrition, resistance and cardiovascular exercise you will achieve results.
Motivated for exercise
If you cannot get out of bed in the morning to exercise or you feel too tired in the evening to exercise, consider these motivational tips:
- Prepare your workout clothes the evening before a morning workout.
- Train with a training partner. You can push and encourage each other to new levels of health and fitness. You will feel less likely to quit knowing someone is depending on you.
- Set yourself goals.
- Picture your body changing shape.
Quick tip
Whilst performing leg extensions on the seated leg extension machine change the focus of the muscle stimulated by moving your foot positioning. Point your toes out slightly to place emphasis on your inner quadriceps and point your toes in to place emphasis on your outer quadriceps.
Quick tip
Walking is one of the best ways to exercise and it is free. Schedule it into your daily lifestyle, for example; take the stairs instead of using the lift.
Quick tip
Make sure you live an active lifestyle as it will help you look and feel much better. Living an active lifestyle will give you more energy and greater stamina.
Quick tip
A combination of resistance and cardiovascular exercise raises your metabolic rate which will help you burn your body fat.
Quick tip
Breathe out when lifting the weight and breathe in when lowering the weight. This helps delay the onset of fatigue by maximising oxygen uptake into your lungs.
Quick tip
Wearing a heart rate monitor is an accurate method to check your heart rate. If you do not have a heart rate monitor take your pulse every five minutes whilst training. On certain cardio machines your heart rate is automatically taken using sensors.
Quick tip
When training with dumbbells, hold them with a firm but relaxed grip. If you hold and squeeze them too tightly you will drain energy from your muscles and tire your hands.
Burn calories
There are some who say you burn more calories with cardiovascular training than with weight training. Cardiovascular training will only cause your metabolic rate or metabolism to increase whilst you are exercising and for a short period after. Weight training or resistance training will increase your metabolic rate which will cause you to burn more calories in a 24 hour period after exercise. Introduce some resistance exercises into your workout. Brief intense workouts have been shown to produce the best results in both muscle gain and in fat loss.
Body types
There are three main body types. These are ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph.
- An ectomorph person has a delicate frame, long, thin arms and legs. They tend to have a fast metabolism with little body fat and it will take longer to build muscle.
- A mesomorph person is a rectangular shape in men and an hourglass shape in women. They are naturally muscular with minimal body fat. They can easily gain or lose weight and tend to build muscle quickly.
An endomorph person has a round shape with an overall softer look. They have short full arms and legs that taper to slim wrists and ankles. They have a slow metabolism and find losing weight difficult. They have a great deal of body fat and build muscle easily.
Boost your circulation
There are certain factors that affect blood circulation. Consider the following tips:
- Eat healthily. High cholesterol foods and foods high in saturated fat block the arteries, restricting blood flow. Eat more fruit and vegetables rich in antioxidants as these reduce the risk of narrowing arteries.
- Exercise daily. By taking daily exercise you will strengthen your heart and lungs.
- Cut out smoking and reduce alcohol. If you smoke you inhibit blood flow which results in the narrowing of arteries.
- Drink plenty of water. If you do not supply your body with enough liquids (water), your circulation will become sluggish.
- Do not sit or stand in one position for too long. This can lead to blood pooling in the lower half of the body making it harder for the blood to flow back to the heart.
Look after your heart
Your heart is in action 24 hours a day, continuously pumping blood around your body. You need to keep it well maintained. Look after your heart by following these tips:
- Do not smoke.
- Drink in moderation.
- Keep your weight under control.
- Keep physically active.
- Eat a well balanced healthy diet.
Mental solutions
If you can’t stick to your workout, take a break and try some mind exercises. Before you can make big changes to your body you have to change your mind. You need to identify the real reason you are deciding to change. Consider the following tips:
- Why do I wish to change?
- Why am I doing this?
- What do I have to sacrifice to achieve my goal, if anything at all?
Are you motivated?
Everyone wants the results of a healthier and fitter body but sometimes it can be hard to get motivated. Follow these tips to help fire up your motivation:
- Go outside. If you get bored looking at the same surroundings go outside. Rather than running on the machine in the gym run in the park or around your local area.
- Visit a different gym. By visiting a different gym you will be in new surroundings and in a different atmosphere which can boost your energy and workout performance.
- Find yourself a training partner. Having a training partner can increase motivation because whenever you feel lazy they are there to give extra support and encouragement.
- Listen to your favourite music. This relieves stress and helps increase your concentration.
- Sleep. A good night’s sleep can do wonders for you. If you deprive your body of sleep it will increase the chances of injury.
- Take control of your nutrition. If you feel run down and lethargic eat something fresh and healthy. What you put in is what you get out.
- Take a rest day. Sometimes you may be trying too hard that you could be overtraining. Schedule a rest day into your workout to rest your body. Gymbods.com includes a rest day in your personal workout.
- Set a realistic goal. It will be much easier for you to stick to your workout if you set a goal that is attainable. Working to a goal will keep you fresh and motivated.
- Treat yourself to some new gym clothes. New gym clothes will make you feel better about yourself which will raise your motivation levels. With an increased level of motivation you will see improvements and gain new and improved results.
Don’t quit
Be patient. The food you eat and the exercises you perform will help transform your body. You may not be seeing immediate results but you should feel more energetic and positive following a workout or after eating a healthy meal. Do not get obsessive with the scales. Gauge your results on how you feel.
Women on weights
One of the biggest myths about training with weights is that you will become a big muscular person over night. Women are especially afraid of touching a weight for fear of gaining too much muscle. Muscles require testosterone to grow and get big. Women do produce testosterone but in very small quantities, not enough to get big. If you are aware of this fact, you will not be afraid of increasing the weight you are lifting as you may not be getting the results because you are not stimulating the muscle enough.
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