By TOM BONANTI
It’s easy to skip the gym and make lame excuses about being too tired or too busy to get up off your glutes and lose weight and tone up. But unless you prefer living under a rock, you’ve got to see that the summer sizzle is nearly upon us and everywhere guys are looking leaner and hotter than ever. If you’re going to make the grade, you’ve got to have a plan. Plus you should never play the procrastination game when it comes to living a healthier happier life.
Here’s a few training strategies that will pump new vitality into your training regime and help you to spring into a new season of sun and fun in South Florida. Shake up your routine and shock those muscle fibers into growing bigger – now! If you are bored with your same old weight training and cardio routines, chances are so are your muscles…and when they’re bored they refuse to grow bigger and stronger.
Never rely on only one type of free weight equipment or cardio station during a workout. In every workout, combine dumbbells, barbells and cables. Your muscles need a variety of forms and movements in order to be challenged, breakdown and grow. For example, when blasting chest, you may want to do barbell flat bench presses, dumbbell incline presses and cable crossovers.
As far as cardio goes, begin with a recumbent bike, switch to a Precor and try out the stair stepper when you are bold enough. Calculate your target heart rate and work your way into the fat burning zone and keep it there for 20 minutes or so. Often when my schedule is very busy, I like to workout twice a day. “What’s that?” you say! Sometimes in the morning, I may have only half an hour between clients. That’s a sufficient time for a pretty decent workout especially if you want to target one muscle group or do a dynamite cardio routine. Later in the day when time allows work another muscle group or do some more cardio for 20 minutes or so.
Be consistent with your workouts and keep track of what you do and when you do it. Stretching your muscles is great for injury prevention and it can actually help you build muscle. Like any muscle movement, stretching helps in its own way to break down stubborn muscle fiber, prevent the build up of painful adhesions, and build new muscle. Remember to stretch and tightly flex after each set of exercises the muscle group you have just worked.
Light overall stretching session before and after your workout, is a must. Turn the heat up on your cardio by adding a burst of power and speed at brief intervals. This is basically what interval training is all about. If you’re on a treadmill or Precor, for example, this will mean bumping up to a minute of intense activity at a higher speed every 10 minutes or so according to your ability.
These high intensity intervals interspersed into your already challenging routine will help you reach a higher level of cardiovascular fitness. As with any form of hard work, it is good to reward yourself as you see progress happening. Therefore, go shopping! Replace those tired, baggy, sweat stained, workout clothes with gear that shows off that body of yours. Make the most of your workouts. Enjoy the beautiful body you’ve worked so hard to create and stay healthy!
For more tips on making your workouts fun and exciting contact TrainerTomB@aol.com.