Past Tips
Tip # 10 So lets talk about rep ranges now! As we mentioned two weeks ago, depending on your goal, you might want to incorporate different repetitions in your routine. Low rep ranges such as 1-5 builds more into strength and power, while 6-12 reps builds more of a hypertrophy. Where 15-20reps builds more muscle endurance. Even though we are focusing on fat loss right now, it is still possible focus on one of these to match up to the sport you’re either playing or just for general fat loss. Repetition Ranges: 3-5 Reps: Strength and Power 6-12 Reps: Hypertrophy, for muscle building. 15-20 Reps: Muscle endurance Different repetitions would require different resting periods, such as hypertrophy focuses on expanding the muscle and giving the muscle the biggest “pump”, to maximize muscle building, hence 30-90seconds rest would be feasible depending on your personal abilities and preferences. Mainly for time under tension purposes. For strength and power, it would be best to rest around 2-3minutes between sets to give the muscles adequate time to rest as your goal is to build strength and lift heavy, and therefore more recovery time would mean you can lift heavier or at least sustain a good weight. As for muscle endurance, it’ll be best to rest around 1-2minutes. As we know, different repetitions could give different results. Hence next week we will finally be giving out some routines for different results! Tip # 8 Here we will focus on fat loss. Our goal? whether its to lose the fat, gain the muscle, or to reveal that six pack ab of yours, excising is the most important after dieting. In-order to lose fat, it would be reasonable and more logical to do exercises that can burn more fat and use more calories. These exercises would be compound exercises as they would work more than just one muscle, hence burn more calories. Exercises such as: Bench press Military press Front/Back squat Pull ups Dips Deadlift Powercleans Are all great examples of compound movements that can burn more calories. However, safety is our number one priority which is why make sure you tone it next week for our safety tips!!! Future tips would include detailed guide on how to do these exercises and to incorporate it in your routines. Sources: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/wotw12.htm Tip #6 Power and strength training Remember we talked about training in regards to strength and power earlier in the tips? Remember we talked about some of the major compound exercises good for full body movements? Here we have for you an integrated version of the both, focusing on increasing overall body strength and power! As mentioned before, 1-5 repetitions would be great for power and strength, while compound movements allow you to stimulate most muscles in the least amount of time. Looking back at previous tips, we have also mentioned what % of 1 rep max means. To integrate these tips, we could create a training that focuses on full body power and strength building. In this training day, you would want to do 5 sets of 5 heavy reps for each exercise. Warm up: jump squats (body weight) 2 sets x 20reps Chin ups (body weight) 2 sets x8reps Dips (bodyweight) 2 sets of x8reps Actual workout: Back Squats: 5sets x 5reps 80% of your 1 rep max Deadlifts: 5sets x 5reps Bench Press: 5sets x 5reps Power Cleans: 5sets x 5reps References: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/plbegin.htm http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sclark70.htm Tip #4: Repetition is the KEY to what you train for!
Repetition is the key to building a well balanced physique. Depending on your goal, you can adjust the repetitions in your workout to reach your goal. Repetition Ranges: 3-5 Reps: Strength and Power 6-12 Reps: Hypertrophy, for muscle building. 15-20 Reps: Muscle endurance *No particular rep ranges stimulate more or less fat loss. *Depending on goal, a variety of rep ranges through workout routine should be utilized.* Tip #2: Beginner guide to compound movement
Balance is very important when it comes to our bodies, regardless of our goal; to be an athlete or to have an all rounded physique. Here are two compound movement exercises that all beginners should start with in order to build a balance between muscles in-order to progress the further exercises in the gym. Chin ups/Pull ups - Back, shoulders, and biceps: A great bodyweight exercise focusing on the posterior chain of the body. Squats - For legs and core: Many variations to do so, mainly with bodyweight, barbell, or dumbbells. |
Tip # 11
If you’re looking to burn fat in a minimum amount of time, circuit training will do you good. It not only helps you burn calories, but also it could improve your overall physique and athleticism. You can have 2 exercises in each circuit, or even more depending on your preference! An example of a circuit routine would be: Pushups ----> jumping jacks -----> sprint -----> rest and repeat. But of course, if we’re in the gym, we can always incorporate various muscles into your circuit. An example would be to do: 8 reps of dips and then jump straight into 8 reps of pull ups. This is actually considered a super set. This not only saves time, but could also burn more calories as you’ll be using more cardiovascular as you work for a longer period of time. Another circuit example: Planks -----> dips ----> russian twists (abs and obliques) -----> pushups You can also have circuits that involve specific muscle groups! Tip # 9 As you might remember, we talked about compound exercises last week and mentioned about safety. So heres your safety tip for the gym! First and foremost, the number one principle would be to warm up before attempting to do any heavy lifting as that would prevent major injuries in muscle and joints. Our shoulders are one of the most mobile joints we have, hence to injure them would be devastating. A good dynamic warmup for them would be to do shoulder circles starting with no weight, and then progressing to 1-5pounds depending on your strength. Remember, this is just a warmup, hence no heavy weight is needed. Another great warmup for the knees would be doing body weight jump squats, this exercise warms up your whole body, especially legs and knees. Damaged knees can cause lots of problems in the long run, so make sure you warm up the knees! The last warmup would be to warm up the elbow joints. Weightless tricep extensions can be done initially, then pushups can be done either on knees or on foot depending on your strength level as warmup. If pushup is too troublesome to do, you could pick 1-5 pound weight and do overhead tricep extensions to warm up the elbows. Note to self, stability of joints does not equal to mobility of joints. However, both are very important in-order to reduce injury. An unstable joint could easily lead to injury, especially when heavy weights are used as the joints might not be able to sustain the weight. Sources: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/hale29.htm Tip # 7 How to set a goal? Depending on your goal, either you want to gain muscle mass, lose fat, or to increase strength, speed, and so on. Muscle Mass: If you're an ectomorph (person who eats a lot and never gains weight), you can set a goal for yourself by setting a weight goal for a certain period. For example if you're 110 pounds, you can set a goal of gaining 3-5 pounds in a month or two. However, in-order to gain muscle mass, an increase intake of food and increased amount of weight lifting must be done. Lose Weight: Give yourself a time frame, and your desire weight loss! If you have no idea what is your ideal weight, here’s a website for you to calculate ! http://www.calculator.net/ideal-weight-calculator.html It is best to lose 0.5 - 2 lbs per week. After all your planning, give yourself a pat in the back, because you have done what majority of the people cannot do, however what comes next is the hard part in this. In losing weight, the most important factors is about calories counting and exercising. Here is a great website for you to count the calories for food you eat every day. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ Make sure you stay dedicated and motivated! Increase Strength: This is a part where if you're a beginner, you can fly through this but if you have been training for a while, it'll take alot longer, just like gaining muscle. To set a strength goal, you first have to know your strength currently, you then set yourself a feasible goal such as increasing either amount of reps and weights every second workout. Tip #5 Progressive overload
Progressive overload is a training style to increase strength and size of the muscle. The principles of progressive overload is to keep on adding extra weight throughout the few weeks of training. For example in a bench press progressive overload, you would have to do a 1 rep max (this means putting on weight where you can only do one rep of). Then, you would take 75-80% of that 1 rep max and do repetitions catered to your goal, whether it is strength, endurance, or hypertrophy (building muscle size). In your next training session for bench press, you would then increase either reps or weight in-order to shock your muscles into growth. Then in your next training session, you would do the same for a period of time lets say 1-3months. This would allow you to force your muscles into growing as you are overloading them with more repetition or weight every training session. Tip #3: Beginner guide to compound movement Balance is very important when it comes to our bodies, regardless of our goal; to be an athlete or to have a well balanced physique. Here are two compound movement exercises that all beginners should start with in order to build a balance between muscles in-order to progress the further exercises in the gym. Bench Press/Push ups- Shoulder, Chest, and Triceps: To build general strength, power, and size to the upper body using barbell or dumbbells. Dips - Shoulder, Chest, Triceps: A great bodyweight exercise to build that strength in the upper body. Tip #1: Push up challenge! Do you want to complete fifty push up in one attempt? Show off how athlete you are? Here is the One Hundred Push Up Challenge! Push up is easy to do and can improve your strength, power, and stimulate muscle growth, with more emphasis on your pectorals (chest), triceps (rear portion of your arm), and deltoids (shoulder). Push up is defined as “a common strength training exercise performed in a prone position, lying horizontal and face down, raising and lowering the using of arms.” (hundred pushup, 2014). The one hundred push up challenge is to complete one hundred consecutive push ups without pausing or resting. To reach that goal, there will be a list of training to be done. On the right, there are two tables showing the first two day of the training. If you wish to improve your fitness, doing the push up challenge would be a great start and it only need 30 minute of your time per week! For more information, please see http://hundredpushups.com/index.html |