Category: Workouts and exercises

With today`s article it’s time to look at another side of the training at the gym. So far, we’ve focused our efforts on writing about the proper methods and techniques for workouts with free weights and fitness machines, with whom you can develop different muscle groups, but this time we will like to stop your attention on the most important muscle in the body – the heart.

Aerobic sessions in the gym put the focus on training and improving the cardiovascular system. This type of workouts are beneficial for our health in many ways. Most important is that, they reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and helps to slow down our heart rhythm. If we regularly perform this type of activity we can strive for better health and long life.

Cardio workout sessions can be different types and each type has its own advantages and benefits. From a training point of view, some types of cardio are more effective than others for burning fat. We will look at several types of workouts, so that you can choose and combine them, according to what best fits your expectant goals.

Treadmill – Running is probably the most natural movement of the human body. When you practice this activity it is important to learn the right technique, otherwise the risk of injuries increases. When running you have to  pay attention to the way how you step on your feet. Landing on your heels is the worst choice,  as well as lifting your legs very high from the knee. Middle of the foot should meets the ground first, not the heel or the fingers. Breathing in and exhale should be deep, but fast. It is important that the pulse does not exceed 130. Otherwise, the heart and lungs become overloaded, and this is not advisable in the long term. Beginners should not run long distances. When you master the technique and adjust your breathing and pulse properly, the results will come.

Spinning on exercise bike – also very effective cardio training method. According to your physical preparation, speed and pulse should also interact in such a way, that the pulse does not exceed 130. it’ is almost impossible to make a mistake in the technique of performing this movement. The time spent on the exercise bike can be much longer that the time spent on the treadmill, because this exercise does not generate so much pressure on the leg joints. It is appropriate to combine it with running. The seat of the bike should be positioned, so that your legs have a small angle in the knees.

Jump rope – an exercise that is used in many different sports. Improves coordination and endurance. Due to its nature, it can not be performed over a large interval of time. The jumps have to be done only with your toes and have to be low. When you are feeling confident with rope jumping, you can try various combinations with the jumping steps. For example,  switching left and right leg or double loop with the rope while jumping higher. Due to the fact, that this exercise overloads the heart quickly, it’s advisable to divide it into few sets. Each set with interval equal to about 1 minute. It is possible to feel pain in the calves at the beginning so approach the exercise with caution.

We hope that the information provided will unviel what you need to know for your personal goals and help you achieve them more quickly.

CityFitness ™

Today, we are returning to the topic related to the newbies at the gym, but this time we will try to focus on the practical part, or in other words, what exercises are suitable for the beginners and how to perform them the right way. In the following lines, we will try to introduce to you the most appropriate of them, that we think everyone who just started visiting the gym, should know and practice to gain progress.

And so, you are already at the gym and trying to figure out how to perform the different exercises. Of course, as a beginner, it is quite likely to experience difficulties to do them the right way, but that should not batter you. Over time these moments will become more and more rare.

Lat pulldown: This exercises aims to develop your back muscles. Тhere are three key moments you have to have in mind here. The first one is the upright position of the body and keeping your lower back solid, during the working set. In second place – the pulling have to be towards upper part of the chest and have to finish below the chin. The movement must be vertical to the body with slightly tilting backwards. The third key point is the ability to partially isolate the biceps, otherwise the exercise would put more stress on them rather than on the desired muscle group.

Bench press: Basic and most familiar exercise for the chest muscles. Also, one of the most underestimated. To be executed correctly, it is fundamental to keep and pressure your feet on to the floor. This will give you the necessary stability and you will be able to apply more power to the movement. It is important, that the elbows point slightly forward, this will allow you to use more additional muscle groups to support the main one.

Triceps cable pushdown: Start the exercise in upright position, with elbows pressured tight to the torso. Push down towards the knees as you do the movement only from the elbow joint. Do not lock the joint. When releasing back towards the shoulders, the angle formed between the forearms and the biceps should not exceed 90 degrees. Be careful with how much weight you are trying to execute the exercise, because putting to much load will instantly lead to bad form.

Barbell curls: Take a standing position with a bar in your hands. Raise it up towards the chin, the movement have to be done from the biceps by moving the elbows slightly forward. Keep the back muscles tighten and try to isolate this muscle group as much as possible while performing the exercise. The hands have to be kept close to the torso.

Squats: The most important exercise for legs. Basic and extremely effective. Place the bar on your shoulders and the upper part of your trapezius muscles. When you start tо  perform the exercise your focus have to be on managing to keep the back in a upright position until the gluteus is in the same parallel line with the knees. Knees go forward and slightly to the side. Be reasonable how much weight you put on the bar.

Barbell overhead press: The movement is performed from standing up position. Make sure to spread your feet as wide as the length of your shoulders. Hold the bar more inward than the usual bench press hold. Lower the bar below the chin and at the same time tilt the torso little bit backwards. When pushing upward, finish the movement in fully upright position of the body.

Thank you for your attention. We hope we have been useful to you.

CityFitness ™

The body as a complex machine needs a different type of care to function properly and to develop wright. In addition to well know factors, like proper and healthy eating, enough rest, we also need to know how we should properly structure our workouts in order to achieve the desired change. Today we will like to pay attention to some of the foundations that everyone who is training at the gym has to keep in mind , regardless of his level of progress. They are – the workout methods, workout techniques and the workout approach.

Workout for beginners – The beginners are those who are going to made their firsts steps in the gym workouts. They are yet to learn, construct and perfect the various techniques and methodologies of their workout sessions. The commercialization of fitness and bodybuilding as an industry brought an elements of underestimation of the process in which our workouts are made, which in turn brought two serious risks for every beginner. The first is the risk of injuries due to lack of enough knowledge about the training process, the second is the risk of so-called workout plateau. In this article we will look at how to make the first steps in this yet unknown environment.

1. Workout techniques for the beginners –  The dice are cast and you are in the gym surrounded by all sorts of different fitness machines and free weights. The first and logical question, of course, is how to use this equipment and which muscle groups is developed by it’s use. This is the moment were we start to enrich our fitness culture. Our first tasks is to learn and develop the proper technique for performing the different exercises. The use of light weights is advisable as well as the presence of certified personal trainer. The different position of the body and the ability to control your moves by your volitional capabilities, without disturbing the proper performance of the exercise is a coordinating skill which you will acquire in time. Most important techniques that everybody have to try learn at the beginning are:

• acquiring the ability to isolate parallel working muscle group, when working out for desired muscle group (eg. Isolating the biceps when pulling on lat pulldown machine)
• acquiring the ability to include different muscle group, when working out for desired muscle group (eg. Use of muscles on the back when performing squats).

2. Training methods for beginners. The methodology is the cornerstone not only for workouts at the gym, but also in any kind of activity that has a specific purpose. It is the way how are we going to structure our workout, outlining a clear cause-and- effect chain, between what we are going to do at the gym, how we are going to do it, and how all this reflects on our body. A typical example of a training methodology is your workout plan. For well structured training plan you need to include:

• First, we need to consider our physical capabilities as a beginner and to what level we can tolerate physical load. Based on that we will determine how many times a week is good for us to visit the gym.
• On second place, is important to separate properly the training sessions for each muscle group on the different days of the week, or so – called workout split. It is good to determine how many sets and repetitions we are going to do in each workout. And, of course which exercises according to the muscle group and our physical culture we will perform.

Preparing a proper training method is a complex task and, as a beginner, It is advisable to refer to personal trainer.

3. Workout approach for beginners. Many of you will ask the question – are not workout method and workout approach one and the same thing? The answer is – there is a deference. Тhe right approach to the workout is the skill by which you and your trainer will find the appropriate rhythm for you in your new venture. It will help you set realistic goals and form your action plan. Each step of you progress will be well thought out and on the basis of intelligent actions you will find the right methods and techniques. We may say that the three elements we have examined today are in connection between each another and if we apply them carefully our first step and those after will be successful.

In this first part of this article we show you how best to prepare for the first visits at the gym. In the second part you can find more about the practical part of the workout. You can find out which are best suitable exercises for beginners and how to perform them with the right technique.

CityFitness ™

Everybody who is visiting the gym has a goal in mind. This article is about one of the most common goals for every gym enthusiast – how to build muscle and size. Bodybuilding is a sport displays a level of aesthetics and muscle size. From aesthetic point of view, everybody have their own conception about how well toned body should look like. It is widely accepted that, for a body to be considered visually appealing and aesthetic, it must have visible muscle mass with very little body fat. The process of gaining muscle size goes thru 3 main phases, which if followed correctly can guarantee you good results. Those phases are: Developing and increasing will power, Workout plan, Meal plan. For the best results all 3 of them have to be applied together.

1. Developing and increasing will power

It’s not a secret to anyone that in order to achieve every goal we need to put our best effort and consistency. To maintain a good speed and dynamic of what we started, keeping our motivation up, it is necessary to create a certain way of thinking. If we don’t pay enough attention to this phase of the process the chance of success is decreasing. Increasing our will power is long and complicated journey. It is not a temporary phenomenon that will accompany the fulfilment of our goal and then we will forget about it. Will power is not just a tool to achieve the task at hand. If we keep thinking of it like that, we will lose everything that is accomplished shortly after the goal is achieved. It is important that we start to consider that developing and increasing our volitional abilities is a part of our constant way of thinking and it is a part of our personality in general. An effective way in the long run to improve our volitional abilities is to take notes of what we are doing at the gym. For example – how many repetitions we are doing in a set, how much weight we are putting on the bar and etc. The efficiency of this activity is very often underestimated but in a long term it can guarantee results. At any time we can look at our notes and they can gives us information how close we are to the final goal. With this method we illustrate and arrange our ideas, which helps us to clarify our plans.

2. Workout plan.

– High intensity workout – These type of workout includes exercises that are done in supersets.  Another popular method that is included in this group is – increasing repetitions in one set with optimal weight. The idea behind high intensity training is to teach us to do our working sets under the conditions of so-called ‘”burn”. One of most effective way to increase our volitional abilities is to try to do more repetitions coincided with a “burn”.

– Heavy lifting – It is important to note that this type of workout requires high level of preparation. With this method we have to be very careful. If we underestimate it and didn’t pick up the right approach to it in the long term it may lead to injuries. This type of training strategy can be used just to „test our limits”, but it is not a method we can practice for a long period of time. The purpose of heavy load workouts is to reach maximum muscle hypertrophy. When muscle hypertrophy occurs we tear apart small muscle fibers, then the body repairs them and make them stronger than before. This process in fact makes muscles grow.

– Workout with negative reps – One extremely efficient way of stimulating muscle growth is to do our repetition very slowly and concentrated. This may be quite painful, which is why we need a high level of volitional culture, which we have already talk about. The purpose of this method is – by making slow repetitions we trigger the breaking of as many muscle fibers as possible, and activate as many muscle groups as possible.

– Meal plan – Success is an aggregation of many factors, so achieving it cannot be done without looking at the last piece of the puzzle – food. The proper caloric balance is fundamental for our physic. The reach of our goal depends on how and what we feed ourselves. If we want to gain muscle mass it is important to realize that we have to work consistently on that idea forward in time. To increase the size and volume of our muscles in the right way, it is extremely important to clear our menu from empty calories. Otherwise, the gained kilograms will be dead weight, which will make our body look not so toned and not very aesthetic. In addition to that, the dead weight can lead to health problems in time. The macronutrients that we are using as fuel is important to come from good quality food which are well absorbed by the body. To start gaining muscle mass our caloric balance should not be increase more that 300-350 calories per day. Anything rather that that would rather push us a step backwards, that‘s way it is important to be combinative, analytical and, above all, patient. Success goes to those of us who can wait!

CityFitness ™