Your Gym Advice

It is a common misconception for many people to think that the only way to get in shape is to join a gym. I want to clear that up for you and show that there are other solutions to getting leaner, fitter, faster and stronger without a gym membership.

First of all, let me say that this is in no way a stab in the back for gyms or health clubs. I have several areas that I can criticise strongly regarding them but it is fair to say that they do work for a lot of people. I myself do use one for a small proportion of my heavier weight strength training because I do not have that weight at home. I need this for strength training alone, any environment can be prepared for fat loss and fitness!

Unfortunately a large part of the misconception lies in the fact that many running into the thousands will trial a gym to get in shape and not succeed in their quest, leading to the assumption that if they cannot make it work there, where will it work?

Others who have not even ventured down this route will assume that this is the only route also and not try other methods because they don’t believe there to be any. There is a lack of knowledge or education. To a large degree, if your goals are results orientated rather than having an environment to workout in and watch MTV you are not missing out on a gym membership. They are filled with machines that offer very few benefits in getting fit and lean; exercises are very isolated in the movements they create, limit the range of movement and encourage positions and weights that can contribute towards injury.

I touched on it above but time can also be robbed that makes the exercise ineffective by waiting around for equipment, watching TV or chatting when one piece of equipment that everyone should take with them is a stopwatch so they can control how long they are resting for.

Time or lack of it also puts many off the gym and exercise in general when they’ve had a long day and accept that they do not have time to exercise whether in a gym or elsewhere.

What does this all mean?

That you are not getting the activity that you should to maintain some form of health and help your performance in your day to day activities. I am a big activist for understanding the link between having good exercise and activity in your lifestyle to help promote better lifestyle and success at home and work. Your ability to concentrate is stronger than ever before and you are more productive when necessary while being able to relax when the time comes to do so.

Gym memberships become costly and ineffective. They can become unused direct debits that continue to leave your bank account each month.

A growing trend towards an overweight population.

There is no need to accept that a lack of time or pre-conceived environment as a reason for not succceeding.

Solutions towards getting lean, melting fat and providing stores of energy for the day are all around you.

Working out at home is one of them. For now, lets assume you are training inside without equipment. Bodyweight training is an extremely valid format of performing activity to promote use of your muscle tissue and all of your energy systems that create the fat burning, lung busting environment. There are hundreds to thousands of exercises out there that can be used and adapted for all levels of experience and ability.

Take a press up for example. Just one single exercise can be changed from performing it against a wall to on the knees to standard to one handed to provide a level of difficulty appropriate to produce the right outcome. No equipment is involved but then it is also how you perform the exercise, how it sits into a program and how much time you have to act out an effective program.

Some tips to use would be:-

Pair exercises together so that there is no rest in between. Advance this further to 3 or 4 exercises in a row across all sections of the body.

Set a time limit and go through a set of exercises as many times as possible, resting as necessary. Use a reps based challenge. I’ve used routines in the past that challenge an individual to perform say 300 reps across 10-12 exercises in as quick a time as possible.

Use large movements. This is actually more possible in bodyweight routines than a number of gym based routines that will utilise one joint with smaller muscle volumes that offer no increase in calorie expenditure.

Use time-based sets with short rest and perform with good form but also with intensity and overload the body, given your own ability.

There are plenty others that would make this article a book but the body combined with the strategy eliminate the requirement of a gym and the best part of an hour or more to achieve anything remotely productive.

In fact, I’ve prescribed routines as short as 10 minutes, twice a day to promote the burning of fat tissue. Does that leave a reason for not engaging in the right activity and helping yourself?

Take the exercise outdoors but I don’t mean jogging. That’s all well and good if you’re training for a long distance run (and so you’re putting in a lot of time) but not for fat loss and fitness in a short space of time.

Interval training using exercises that work the muscle tissue (mostly resistance based) and the lungs (cardio based) can be performed for short bursts with short periods of rest in between. Similar to the workouts described in the home they provide an overload on the system in a short space of time that is adaptable to any person’s level of experience and ability.

Many do look into equipment for the home; just make sure you get good value for money, versatile, space saving (for most), beneficial pieces instead of the latest fads or expensive bulky pieces.

Back on to the subject of time, many will differentiate between exercises that provide resistance and those that provide a cardiovascular stimulus. If you want to do both which if performed in the correct way I would recommend then that also takes more time. Methods and tools are now providing both at once and cutting back further on the time required to build and participate in an effective training regime.

What is this great equipment?

Kettlebells, Sandbags, Rope training, Advanced Resistance Band training to name a few. Perform these the right way and not only do you get great results but I’ve never really met anyone yet that has not got a buzz out of using them because they come from outside the box in terms of regular standard types of exercise.Check any out on video sites to see what I mean.

These pieces of equipment are extremly effective in providing intense gut busting workouts and are here to stay. I hate the idea that exercise should be mundane and boring and prefer to adopt styles that provide a challenge both physically and really engage the mind. That itself is enough to stimulate repetition.

I’ve come across and worked with countless numbers of people that are in time consuming jobs and home-life that are not conducive towards the standard type of exercise routines. I would also recall many individuals that are anti-gym for one reason or another. In all cases I have found results to have blown any misconceptions out of the water and create characters that embrace the right type of activity for them in a suitable environment that achieves results. I would start off with bodyweight routines using resistance and cardio based exercises that promote progressive overload using work and rest intervals of 60 seconds to 30 seconds and aim for about 20 minutes of fairly continuous work.

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