In my time spent as a Long Beach Personal Trainer, I’ve learned that people really only want two things from their exercise regimen: to spend as little time in the gym as possible and get results as quickly as possible.
While nothing replaces hitting the gym consistently and a good diet, there are a few things you can do to make sure the time you spend in the gym is as effective as possible. Here are the tips that this Long Beach personal trainer has personally dispensed to people looking to reach their optimum fitness level.
Lift that Weight Slowly – Go to any gym in the country and you are bound to see a bunch of people slinging weights around as fast as they can. All that will get you is sore joints and maybe even a torn ligament if you are using too much weight. To make sure that your muscle is bearing all of the weight of the dumbbell or barbell and that you are using good form slow down each rep. Ideally, each rep should take about four seconds, with two seconds to raise the weight and two seconds to lower it.
Make Multi-Joint Exercises the Core of Your Weight Routine- Multi-joint or “compound” exercises, such as the deadlift, squat, or bench press, have a lot of benefit over “isolation” exercise, such as the tricep kickback or leg curl. This is mostly because they activate more muscle in a single move, which means you can get more results with less time in the gym. Compound exercises have also shown to increase the production of hormones that help muscle development and weight loss.
Switch Up Your Exercises Every Six Weeks – Human muscles are very good at adapting to stress, and when they become accustomed to a certain exercise, they will stop developing. So approximately every six weeks, change up your exercise routine. They don’t have to be big changes, but they should be enough to work your muscles in a different way and get faster results.
Of course, it’s also a good idea to switch up your routine to keep you from getting bored of it. There is nothing worse than feeling like your exercise time is drudgery, and keeping things different and interesting will keep you motivated to continue pursuing your fitness goals.
Focus Mainly of Free Weights – It might sound strange, but cheap free weights are way more effective and versatile than machines that can cost thousands of dollars. This is partly because free weights are able to organize “stabilizer muscles,” the muscles you use to balance the weight, while machines don’t. This is because the joints in the machines do the stabilizing and balancing for you.
This is not to say that machines don’t have their place. Like I said in the previous tip, it’s good to switch things up and have variety in your weight training routine. Throwing in a machine exercise here or there can work your muscles in a different way than free weights, and lead to faster results. But generally speaking, it’s still a good idea to keep weight machines to a minimum.
Keep a Workout Journal – It can sometimes be difficult to remember how far you’ve come, or how much weight you usually use for a particular exercise. A workout journal where you record your exercise activities can be a huge motivator because it lets you see in black and white the progress you have been making. And even if progress is a bit slow, it can help you make changes to your diet or exercise routine by recording which changes made what effects.
Chris McCombs is a personal trainer in Long Beach California. At one time Chris was 143 pounds overweight at which point he looked in the mirror and decided to do something about it.
Chris lost the weight and started his own fitness business Positively Fit Inc. which services personal training in Long Beach, CA.
