I am new to the world of the gym. Having resolved to make my health and fitness a priority, spending time at the gym is becoming a staple in my weekly routine. While I find that I am getting well acquainted with different exercises and exercise machines, there is one area of the gym that I fear to tread.
Behind a partial wall, tucked to the rear of the building, away from the cardio machines, spinning rooms and yoga mats, is the free weight room. When I work the weight machines I am a stones throw from the free weight room, not close enough to really see what goes on in there, but definitely close enough to hear what goes on in there.
They say if you sit long enough in one place, the whole world will pass you by. This may be true, but if you sit long enough near the free weight room, you see a whole other world of gym patron pass you by. Into this mysterious room disappear giant men, their poor t-shirts barely able to contain their burly mass, arms propped out by massive lats; Amazon women with bodies of iron and physique most men would sell their mothers for. They disappear behind the wall and for a good while they vanish. All that remains is their grunting.
From the free weight room issues forth a chorus of hissing and grunting that would put any tennis player to shame. Now being a novice in the gym, I can only assume the grunting issues forth under the Herculean effort needed to heft such tremendous weights. On my side of the wall, the weight machine side, we are a quiet lot. The only break in the peace is the occasional clang of a poorly executed rep. In fact, on my side of the gym we are so quite, that no one even notices when we come and go. We are like gym ninjas – stealthy and quite. I would like to think that we choose to leave the grunting to the giants on the other side of the wall. Of course, really this is totally untrue. I choose to leave the grunting to the giants on the other side of the wall because I am totally ignorant of free weights.
Talking to a friend of mine who swears that while he loves to use free weights, not all of his kind, are grunters. He does however, insist that free weights are an excellent way to expand your work out. If done correctly, free weights allow you to work a wide range of muscles through a full range of motion, unhampered by any physical limitation often present in a machine. Further, lifting free weights forces your body to develop its stabilizers. These muscles help with balance and support. Another key component of free weights is that there is no size restrictions. That is, you have to be able to ‘fit' a weight machine. If not, you cannot use it. Free weights are, according to my friend, an essential aspect of any weight training regime.
I still sit near the free weight room to see the goings and comings of the gym giants, but I have made an appointment with a personal trainer to get introduced to the world of free weights. According to my trainer, good form while using free weights is vital for safety. Injury is possible if not used correctly. I look forward to my first foray into the unknown. I am excited to see what lies behind the wall. My trainer assures me that somewhere behind the wall, there are normal people like myself all taking advantage of free weights. More importantly, grunting is not a prerequisite. Apparently, there are free weight ninjas too.
The world of crunches: Defining your abdominals
So there I was, a gangly, ungainly guy standing in a giant aerobics studio surrounded by mirrors. Next to me on the floor was a fitness ball. I had never used a fitness ball, in fact I had never even heard of a fitness ball. None the less, there I was. My work out partner, in far better shape then I, was going to show me how to use the ball to make my ab routine more excruciatingly effective.
Thinking Too Much: How to Motivate Yourself to Lose Weight
It's winter and it's cold. In the winter the mornings are very humbling. The nights are long, the floor is cold and it sucks leaving the house in the dark. Getting the morning paper involves a blast of cold air from the front door that really motivates one to crawl back into bed. It's days like these that getting beyond the duvet is hard. It's even harder to drag yourself through the wintry morning to the gym. It's the kind of thing I think about before I go to bed. I think about it when I'm waking up and I really think about it when I am trudging through the icy air en route to the gym. But see that's the problem. I think about it too much. Imagine if you could wake up every day with a clean slate and not remember the bone shaking cold and wind chill. Imagine you could only retain the positive memories of working out and improving your overall fitness. Then getting out of bed even on the coldest, most miserable days, would be easy. Instead we have to fight tooth and nail to resist the urge to go back to bed. It's our minds that want to be cozy.
Boring Ol' Cardio
Cardio is a very important aspect of any work out. There are numerous benefits to a good cardio routine. In the real world, there are many ways to get a good cardio workout. You can jog, play sports and get chased by the police. In the gym cardio usually revolves around a handful of machines. There are the stair climbers or steppers, the elliptical trainers, tread mills, and bicycles. That's about it. A good cardio routine can last anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and is really intensive. The problem is that when you are on a cardio machine, you do the same thing over and over. What I am trying to say is that for most of us cardio gets boring after about five minutes. Don't lie, you know what I am talking about. The best I have every heard about cardio is ‘I don't mind it.' In other words, I get really bored, but I will keep doing it cause it works.
