With summer approaching I’m predicting that the memberships of gyms and local health clubs will sky rocket, but is the gym the BEST way to FAT LOSS?
What do you get out of going to your gym?
Is it the:
- Warm showers and nice changing rooms?
- The chance to use all that ‘sexy’ equipment?
- You think you HAVE to train at the gym to get ‘in-shape’?
- You like throwing money away?
- You enjoy the classes you get as part of your deal?
- You think by paying for something you’re likely to attend?
Well for me, gyms are not very appealing! If I really wanted to kick start my summer fitness plan and MELT AWAY FAT, the LAST thing I would do is cough up £30 - £40 per month (in a so-called ‘recession’) to NOT get results! I am neither interested in queuing for machines I KNOW don’t work you hard enough to burn fat and I don’t want to be training LESS than I’m resting! I also can’t be ar*d to deal with the socialites who believe gyms are a good place to ‘catch up’ and watch Eastenders omnibus on the treadmill!
That’s just me, and this is my problem with gyms!
Gyms are too highly saturated with tyre kickers and spare parts! These are people who go to the gym ‘just for the sake of it’, or because they’ve signed up in a January OFFER after a fattening xmas period with good intentions of going 4 times per week! Come February the ‘shiny new gym buzz’ has completely wore off! You haven’t lost any FAT and it seems that everyone is now there for the social aspect! People standing talking and wasting other people’s time by spending aaaaaggeess on one particular workout station whilst posing in the mirror! These people make gym’s a sh*t place to train so DON’T be one of them!
I also reckon that out of all gym-goers, 90% of them are not following a structured training programme! Most of the remaining 10% who are following a structured programme WILL NOT be getting the results they crave, even if they’re plan was devised by the gym’s PT! The reason they won’t get results is because they are using the ‘sexy’ gym machines! I see people standing waiting in groups of 2 or 3 and even sharing stations with the old ‘Do you mind if I jump in between sets mate?’ bollocks, yet these machines are not worth waiting for anyway!
Gym machines isolate only individual or small muscle groups, creating little metabolic disturbance to our overall body, thus burning little fat! Few people realise this and that’s why you see people spending 1, 1 and a half, or even 2 bloody hours in the gym in a bid to ‘get in shape’, but to no great avail! Why? What are they actually spending 2 hours doing? Queuing, time-wasting, talking, TV watching, sitting on their ar*e – NOT WORKING, that’s what!
If this sounds familiar, don’t become another tyre kicker at your gym, start kicking your tyre at home where you are free to complete your workout without any of these problems! Please read on….
Like I say, training your absolute ‘hardest’ on ANY exercise machine will NOT burn you enough fat to GET IN SHAPE FOR SUMMER, end of story! I mean, don’t a lot of these ‘sexy’ machines mean that the user is SITTING DOWN? How many calories do you think you’re burning whilst sitting on your ar*e?
What I recommend you do is to first off, save yourself some money, cancel your gym membership and start UTILISING your gym that you are never without - your body! Utilise the space around you! Gyms are not cheap and they can seem a whole lot more expensive if you’re not getting results!
I train ALL clients OUTSIDE including FITNESS ACADEMIES (launching 3rd May 2011 FREE Trial Week) and people absolutely LOVE IT! No machines, No equipment, No changing rooms and No queuing to use anything! I also teach programmes that are designed to cause the biggest metabolic disturbance using movement based resistance training. These exercises are proven to be the most efficient fat burning exercises in the fitness world!
All you need to start is a garden, a garage, a field or any open space big enough to complete bodyweight exercises!
No need for a GYM!
Consider Bruce Lee, do you think he trained on ‘sexy’ gym machines to build such a powerfully fit and proficient body? Do you think ancient warriors trained in gyms, with ‘sexy’ machines before the battle of troy? Do you think they wasted time queuing to train isolated or small muscle groups? Course not, their body and power was a direct result of some of the most advanced bodyweight resistance exercises in the world!
So how did they stay ‘fit’ using only their body?
The reason movement based resistance training works is because it HIT’s the vast majority of our overall muscle mass. This in turn will increase muscle endurance, CV ability, aerobic and anaerobic ability – if we do this, we BURN FAT!
YOU DO NOT NEED CARDIO TO LOSE WEIGHT EITHER!
If you spent 30 mins on a rowing machine or treadmill, sweating your box off, you would burn roughly 350 calories, if you’re lucky! If you spent 30 mins using a combination of bodyweight exercises – you will burn up to 950 calories!
Try starting to write your own Summer Fat Loss programs using these exercises as your ‘base’ exercises:
- Squats
- Lunges
- Press ups
- Burpees
- Plank
I know what you’re thinking “there’s not much I can do with 5 exercises!”` WRONG. Be creative, think of ways you can increase intensity in these 5, can you add any explosive element to them; can you increase/decrease leverage, use an unstable platform, add a pause or turn an exercise into a single limb movement?
Let’s take push-ups for example. Standard push ups work your chest, shoulders, triceps, abs, oblique’s and lower back (unlike benching which works half of these).
Beginners could start with their hands against the wall a couple of feet in front of you, pretty easy I admit so let’s make it harder. From there we could use an elevated ledge, then we could increase it again to do a standard flat push up, from there we elevate our feet, we can then do a 1 arm push up and so on and so on. That is only some of the variations for 1 exercise! Do similar with the other base exercises and form programs around this!
Make sure you train HARD and limit rest intervals. This is the beauty of training with bodyweight. Your rest times can be minimised as you are no longer changing machine, queuing, sharing stations etc, the only thing you’re moving or changing is your body position. Make sure you time your sessions with a watch, timer or stopwatch! Resistance under time is the most effective way to burn fat! Forget sets, reps, amount, and just make sure you’re working under resistance for the full ‘work’ period!
Hopefully you can see how versatile and efficient YOU can be? Why do you need a gym to do this?
Let’s be serious about BLASTING off some fat in time for summer by combining bodyweight resistance programs with excellent nutrition and you WILL get there, I GUARANTEE IT!
