COMING SOON BOXING FITNESS. I will soon be teaching boxing fitness. So if you want to get in the best mental and physical shape of your life,learn the conditioning secrets of boxers, who are among the best-conditioned athletes anywhere, strengthen your "core," to cross-train for golf, tennis, football, or other sports (where core strength is so critical), learn self-defense, improve self-esteem and self-confidence, and have fun and get away from generic training programs join us for our boxing fitness class.

Putting on size( Muscle Mass) is the topic of the day. Most people use the standard pyramid type workout when doing sets. Meaning they start at a low weight and add weight as the sets progress. I've had good success with not only adding size but upping my strength by doing the opposite. Pyramiding down with supersets. First do a light warm up set, which you should always do to prevent injury. Then start with a weight that you can get at least 6 reps out of. Rest 30 seconds then go down about 5 pounds and do the next set. I do this for about 9 sets. You'll have to figure out the number of sets that works for you. I've been at this awhile and I know it takes about that many to stimulate any new muscle growth. Trust me after trying this for the first time you'll be sore.

You may find today's post confusing coming from someone who owns a gym. Today I'm going to discuss getting a good workout from home. Don't get me wrong, I want everyone to continue coming to the gym, but sometimes you may not be able to make it for whatever reason. While there is no substitute for the workout you'll get in a real gym. There are ways to get a workout at home. You'll need some basic, inexpensive gear. I suggest a stability ball, a quality set of changeable dumbbells, or set of resistance bands, and a quality jump rope. With these few items you can get a good home workout. In fact in the very near future I'm going to be doing some group fitness classes using these very items. Using dumbbells or bands you can do squats, curls, shoulder press, lunges, and lots of other exercises. Using the stability ball works great for crunches, or by placing you feet on the ball and doing push ups for chest or place your hands on the ball and do the push ups. You can do ball squats. Place the ball between your back and the wall and slowly squat rolling the ball along with you. The thing about a stability ball is that like it's name you have to stabilize yourself on the ball. So while you're doing these exercises you are constantly working your core muscles. Now to my favorite, the jump rope. Boxers have long used jump ropes as a way to build aerobic ability and balance. Try doing one of the above exercises, then 60 seconds on the rope. Rest 30 seconds then repeat using a different exercise. Do several sets of these until you've done one exercise for each body part.

You may have noticed a new headline on our website that reads "a real gym with real weights". in yesterday's post I mentioned that the exercises for getting big and "toning up" are basically the same. With that being said, most people do way too many unnecessary exercises. What I mean by this is, when people go to most of the big franchise type gyms with all the fancy machines they tend to do too many isolation exercises and not enough basic lifting. While bodybuilders need to do these types of isolation movements, people who are just trying to get into shape are better of using basic movements. These include the bench press, shoulder press, leg press (or squats), calf raises, barbell curls, and triceps extensions. Take the leg press as an example. If done correctly this one exercise works your entire upper leg, both the quadriceps and hamstrings. Not only will using basic lifts help you gain muscle, they take a lot of effort which in turn will help you burn calories and fat. Which brings me to another point on the new headline. Machines can make you lazy. Free weights take greater control to use proper form. Most people get on a machine, and half heartedly knock out several reps then move to the next machine. This is why most people don't see the results they want from their workouts, and give up all together. Maybe it's all the gimmicks being sold on TV nowadays. People expect the machines to do the work for them. Unfortunately that's not how it works. To get into shape you have to get in there and do the work yourself.

Losing weight(fat) the right way. There are many ways to lose weight, some good some bad. Starving yourself is not only a bad way to lose weight, but can be counterproductive. If you you've every known someone who lost weight this way you probably noticed that, yes they were thinner, but still looked out of shape. Starving yourself can result in weight loss, but a lot of the lost weight will be in the form of muscle mass. This is where the counterproduction comes into play. As you lose weight this way your body starts to adapt to the weight loss and stops using fat for energy. Your body knows it's not getting enough calories so it begins to hang on to the fat for a rainy day so to speak. That's when weight loss comes to a halt. Eating a healthy diet with the right kind of calories along with weight training and low impact cardio workouts is the best and safest way to lose fat. People with more muscle mass burn more calories through out the day than those with less muscle mass. This is what is refered to as your Basal metabolic rate (BMR) or resting metabolic rate. The RMR, which is the amount of calories consumed by the human body at rest for performing essential body functions such as beating of the heart and keeping the body warm makes a huge difference to the calories consumed by an athlete every day. The more the lean body mass (muscle weight), the more is the RMR of the body. The athlete’s lean body mass should be increased through weight training and aerobic exercise so as to increase the RMR. If the weight loss program leads to weight loss accompanied by a loss in lean body mass (reduction of muscle weight), it will also mean that the RMR will decrease as well. The reduced RMR will mean the body will require less energy while at rest and the chances of regaining the lost weight will be extremely high. It is therefore essential that the muscular fitness is increased along with the weight loss. Therefore, a mix of aerobic exercise (to burn calories) and weight training (to increase the lean body mass) is the best technique for losing weight.

Hi to everyone

I've had some Internet issues, so I haven't gotten to post the last few days. Over this past week I've had both men and women come to me and ask what exercises they should be doing. They tell me they don't want to get big but "tone up". This word is used by a lot of people when describing how they want to look. What they are really saying is I want to lose fat and build muscle, even though they don't realize it. Lifting weights if done properly builds muscle plain and simple. Even though most people aren't trying to look like bodybuilders they still need to build muscle. The types of exercises to do this doesn't change. What does change is the amount of weight lifted, the number of sets, and reps performed. Bodybuilders ,and powerlifters build big muscles because they lift a lot of weight, and perform more sets than the average person needs to to get in shape. I normally tell people if your trying to get bigger use more weight and keep the reps in the 8 to 10 range, and rest enough(at least a minute) in between sets. If your goal is to bulid smaller muscle and burn fat move the reps up to the 15-20 range and use shorter rest time (30 seconds) between sets to keep your heart rate up. Now I need to explain the range when speaking of reps. For example if your doing bench press and your goal is to stay within 15 to 20 reps. The weight you use should cause muscle failure somewhere within that range. You don't just pick a number and do that many reps. If you stop at 20, but you could have done 25 then you need to go up on the weight. This is true for those trying to get big or just get in to shape.

Today let's discuss Aerobic Fitness (Cardiovascular Fitness)-It is the ability of the body to perform exercise over an extended period of time in the presence of oxygen e.g. cycling, marathon running. Aerobics are what most people associate with weight loss. While this type of activity will definately help you burn calories, it's main goal is to make your heart healthier. During long periods of excercise your body depletes it's store's of glucose, and begins using fat for energy. The problem is if you're taking in more calories than you're burning off you could still be overweight. This is why diet is so important in getting in shape. Simple carbohydrates like table sugar or sugars that are in most processed foods ( high frucose corn syrup) converts to glucose in your body very quickly . If these aren't used quickly it will be stored by the body as fat. As we go along we will discuss how aerobics, strength training and proper diet go hand in hand for getting in shape and staying that way.

In today's post let's start off with some basic exercise terminology.

• Aerobic Fitness (Cardiovascular Fitness)-It is the ability of the body to perform exercise over an extended period of time in the presence of oxygen e.g. cycling, marathon running.

• Anaerobic Activity-Anaerobic activity is a term used to define activities undertaken in the absence of oxygen e.g. weight lifting and sprinting. Such activities cannot be undertaken for long periods of time.

• Cardio respiratory endurance – It is the ability to perform prolonged large-muscle dynamic exercises at moderate-to-high levels of intensity. It is the central component of fitness that trains the heart and makes it healthier and more efficient.

• Muscular strength – It is the amount of force that a muscle can exert with a single maximum effort. Adequate muscular strength is important for body alignment and also for the performance of daily tasks. An increase in muscular strength means increased fat-free mass and therefore a higher rate of metabolism. Maintaining strength and muscle mass is also vital for healthy aging.

• Muscular endurance – It is the ability to sustain a given level of muscle tension. It is important for good posture, injury prevention, and for the performance of various physical tasks.

• Flexibility – It is defined as the ability of the joints to move through their full range of motion. Poor flexibility, which can be improved by exercises, leads to stiffness, misalignment, and pain.

• Body composition – It is defined as the proportion of fat-free mass (muscle, bone, and water) to fat in a body. Healthy composition is a high proportion of fat-free mass and a low proportion of fat. Weight training is the best way to add muscle mass.

In tomorrow's post I'll explain how these terms relate to the gym and your workouts as far as gaining muscle, losing fat (not weight) and keeping your heart healthy.

Hi

I'd like to introduce myself. My name is is David, and I am the owner of BHP Fitness and certified personal trainer. I created this blog to share some tips with the gym's members and anyone else interested in getting in shape. I'll be posting some workout tips, along with some basic nutritional advice. I'll also dispell some common workout myths. So I hope you'll all enjoy the blog and find out that staying fit can be fun and it doesn't have to be a chore.