Workout Tips

Fitness is one thing that people either love or hate. Everyone has different goals, strengths, weaknesses, level of experience and body types. I enjoy working out, therefore, I workout a lot and I work at a gym. I have had five years experience of weightlifting due to high school athletics and personal motivation. I want to share some of my experiences and things that I find helpful, in hope that they can help someone else. 

1) Goal:

The first step in your fitness experience is determining why you are working out. It is important to determine this goal because it will help in establishing your workout plan. For example, a person looking to gain strength and a person looking to get toned will have a different plan. As a general precursor, when looking to gain strength, the weight will be heavy and the reps will be low. For a person looking to get toned, their weight will be low with high reps. 

2) Planning:

The planning step is vital to your fitness. Starting off with fitness is something you have to take slowly. If you attempt to workout 7 days a week, chances are you will burnout and give up. I would suggest starting with 3-4 days a week with one day of rest/recovery in between. This will allow your body to heal and allow your mind to process the changes your body is going through.

Proper sit-up Technique

3) Misconception:

There are a few misconceptions of fitness that need to be clarified. If you are prepping for spring break and attempting to get the perfect set of abdominals, doing 1000 sit-ups is not what you want to do. Yes, this is not the way to get the toned body you want. Cardio is the most important aspect when you are trying to tone your core. High-intensity cardio will get rid of your unwanted fat and weight. Of course, you do need to do some abdominal exercises, but these are not the only things that you need to do. What happens when only abdominal exercises are performed is that the muscle is built underneath the layers of fatty skin. This creates strong muscles, but not a toned body.

4) Misconception:

Many people think that they need to pay for a trainer or go out to GNC and buy supplements to get fit. These are plausible options that could enhance your fitness experience, but they are not necessary and they can become costly. Trainers are motivators and a great source of advice and experience. They will tell you what to do, how many to do, and they will hopefully push you to your limit. Supplements are a great way to increase your gains in the gym. Pre-workout supplements can get you focused and pumped up before your workout begins. Post-workout

supplements allow your muscles to grow and recover faster because of the great proteins and nutrients that it puts into your body. I would suggest any sort of Whey protein to use as a post-workout. Pre and post-workout supplements are the most basic supplements that people can take. When you get more advanced in your program you can begin to look into supplements such as creatine, bed-time supplements, and nutrition packs. 

5) Rest:

 One thing it took me personally long enough to realize is that rest is beneficial to your muscles. Actually, taking even up to a whole week off is beneficial. In one week, you will not lose your strength, tone, or endurance. Having a whole week to grow allows your muscles to fully recover. When working out, muscles are actually torn and then they recover by growing back together.

6) Eating:

 Eating. Eating. Eating. This is one of the MOST important things to do when you begin your fitness life is to watch what you eat. Fast food is not ideal when you are trying to make a change in your life. Eating healthy is super hard, for me personally, it is harder to do that the everyday exercising (which is pretty intense). You want to eat foods that are natural, not processed, high protein foods, low sugar/sodium foods, and fruits. Foods such as eggs, chicken, beef, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and sweet potatoes are all great sources of proteins. Eating things such as bread, candy, and chocolate are ALLOWED! Yes! You can actually eat some of your favorite things - pizza, pop, and ice cream. These are foods that you can eat in moderation. You can eat these foods as long as they are not something you eat everyday.

CAUTION: Video is gruesome.

7) Socialize: 

Socializing at the gym is highly beneficial. There are so many things that can come from having friends in an environment like the gym. Having regular people that you enjoy seeing, at a place that is not the most fun in the world is good. It makes the gym bearable for some people who have something to look forward to. Also, when you are performing some exercises, having a person who can "spot" you while exercises. A spotter is a person who watches over you while performing an exercise with weight that you make not possibly be able to perform the maximum number of repetitions. They can assist in you finishing these repetitions if you are not able to do so on your own. Some of the best exercises - bench press, squat, and types of press exercises - are not capable of being done to the maximum potential without a spotter. These exercises can actually be dangerous if the spot is not done properly.

He came, he conquered.