“Being in good shape” is a literal translation of the English verb “to fit,” from which the concept of “fitness” comes. Combining many areas, fitness classes pursue two goals at once - changing shape, body weight and general improvement of the body. To achieve them you need to train regularly. However, fitness is not easy going to the gym. It is something more – a way of life and a philosophy through which a person improves his physical fitness and improves his health. Fitness enthusiasts tirelessly talk about the benefits of exercise, while their opponents consider intense physical activity harmful to health. The truth, as usual, is in the middle.
You get powerful motivation
It's hard to stay motivated when training alone because there are no people around you who demonstrate their abilities better.
Group exercise, be it spinning or squats, increases interest in fitness because there is a desire to keep up with or surpass others.
In addition, a partner or trainer in group fitness will always encourage you, which will give you more strength and confidence in your workouts. This is especially true for beginners who, after working out alone for a week, quit training, and the whole reason is lack of motivation.
Is it possible to work out in the gym on your own?
There is no correct answer to this question. After all, if you have been working with a personal trainer for a long time or attend weekly group classes and have learned almost the entire range of proposed exercises, you can safely try to switch to independent training. But if you are a beginner and are unfamiliar with most of the machines in the gym, then practicing on your own can be dangerous.
Andrey:
First of all, independent training carries the risk of injury. Incorrect technique, especially in exercises with free weights (dumbbells, barbells), can lead to unpleasant consequences - pinching, sprains. Working in simulators partially removes these risks. The second point is the danger... of not getting the desired result. Incorrectly calculated loads or the number of approaches/repetitions can slow down progress, or even completely eliminate it. That is, you regularly go to the gym, move from one machine to another, push/pull/lift something, but this does not affect your appearance in any way. And even the working weights are always the same. But I’m not at all trying to convince everyone that without a personal trainer, on your own, there’s no point in going to the gym. Of course this is not true. This is not some kind of super-wisdom that is available only to a select few. Everything is quite simple, but you need to prepare to understand the basic principles a little. Watch videos, read a couple of articles. In general, take your time. Or money to pay for the services of a personal trainer. Depending on what you have more of.
Photo: istockphoto.com
Time will fly during group training
After motivation, like at work, when it becomes interesting to do some task, time flies by quickly. Solitary sports activities proceed slowly, the mood drops, it becomes boring to do fitness alone and the person gives up such an exciting activity.
Group fitness is varied and intense, and to make time fly by, turn on the music, put headphones in your ears, and then hard exercises will be more energetic and interesting. The trainer will write down a series of exercises for you that need to be done and then there will be no time to think about time.
Adequate program
There are dozens of ready-made training complexes on the Internet, and this is a huge disadvantage: most often, people either choose inappropriate programs or rush from one set of exercises to another, trying to find the most optimal way to pump up (preferably quickly). Exercising according to advice from Google is just as stupid, how to treat pneumonia according to recommendations from women's forums. In theory, you can get better, but most likely, the disease will only progress. A normal trainer will conduct a couple of tests, then ask about your goals and after that create an individual program and set up sane equipment - one with which you won’t end up in a video called “Why do I need a trainer?” I can do everything myself.” The most greedy clients can take 10-12 lessons, run all the sets 2-3 times, write down the sequence of exercises in a notebook and then continue training on their own, without a coach. A logical approach if you feel sorry for paying 1.5-2 thousand rubles for personal instruction.
Classes will be more effective
Solitary exercise in the gym or at home does not give the expected results as group fitness, since there is no incentive. After intense training, a person begins to feel sorry for himself and does not give 100% in the next exercises, because he knows that no one will scold him for this.
But the coach’s task is to not let everyone relax. He will also point out the example of a beginner who diligently performs the exercises. The trainer will also correctly create an individual exercise program for quick weight loss or muscle gain.
By doing the exercises under the supervision of a trainer, you will soon notice results.
Benefits of Fitness
“Movement is life!” - said the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle and a clear proof of this is going to the gym. Regular exercise has an extremely beneficial effect on the physical fitness of the body and is beneficial for the body. Among the obvious benefits of fitness classes, the following effects can be identified.
- Losing extra pounds, normalizing weight and shaping the desired shape of your figure.
- Increasing the body's resistance to negative environmental factors and strengthening the immune system.
- Neutralizing the negative effects of stress, relieving nervous tension, improving sleep and psycho-emotional state.
- Accelerate metabolic reactions and improve metabolism.
- Improving blood circulation, preventing cardiovascular diseases, thrombosis and varicose veins of the lower extremities.
- Slowing down the natural aging process.
- Improving the condition of the musculoskeletal system, preventing osteochondrosis, arthritis and osteoporosis.
- Development of flexibility, endurance, strength, sense of balance, coordination of movements, speed of reaction and attention.
- Increased self-esteem and self-confidence.
In practice, it has been proven that fitness classes are useful not only for your figure, but also help you give up bad habits (smoking, alcohol abuse), adjust your diet and lead a healthy lifestyle.
Fitness for women allows you to recover faster after childbirth and avoid the development of postpartum depression. Regular exercise is also beneficial for men's health - it is an excellent prevention of nonspecific prostatitis, congestion in the pelvic organs and erectile dysfunction.
Recent research by doctors at Harvard University (USA) has proven that regular exercise, diet and giving up bad habits prolong a person’s life by 10 years or more. The experiment involved 40,000 mature volunteers, who were monitored over the past 30 years. The average life expectancy of project participants who led a healthy lifestyle and regularly visited the gym was 90 years. While the subjects who led a normal lifestyle, on average lived only to 77 years.
Classes will have a clear structure
For any sports activity, you need a clear plan, consisting of a warm-up, certain exercises that must be performed on a given day. Also, specific time is allocated for each exercise and short rest. At home, sticking to such a plan is difficult.
Beginners who practice home fitness without a clear plan usually do not achieve the desired results. Because they don’t take the time to warm up their muscles, they perform exercises chaotically, don’t monitor their heart rate, and rest as much as they want.
Group fitness involves a workout plan that is created by a trainer and monitors the workouts.
Why do you need a gym? What does fitness give and why is fitness needed?
Hello dear readers of the site. In this article we will look at perhaps the most pressing questions about fitness, namely: “what does fitness give? and why do you need fitness? " In order to understand what fitness gives you, oddly enough, you need to do it. All people are different, some like to walk, while others like to drive. Most have a family, a job, their own hobbies and interests. To protect themselves from all kinds of diseases and illnesses, people try to eat more natural products and go to bed earlier. Most people think that this is enough, and fitness is the preserve of the rich or those who have nothing better to do.
You cannot lead an active lifestyle without playing sports. To keep yourself in good shape, you just need to do fitness. It's no secret that beauty is not eternal. Once you switch to a passive existence, extra pounds immediately appear. By pumping your muscles, you not only lift your mood, but also improve the functioning of your respiratory and circulatory systems. During exercise, serotonin and dopamine are produced. These are enzymes of happiness that are responsible for raising spirits and mood. Fitness is the least traumatic sport, in addition, you can always turn to a trainer for help. During group or individual training, he will help suggest how to correctly perform a particular exercise.
Fitness is great for developing motivation and willpower. The training goes according to a schedule, so a person forces himself to go to classes, regardless of his mood, weather conditions and time of day. In the process of training, it is sometimes necessary to perform complex exercises, and there is no way without willpower. You have to overcome your own efforts to master a difficult element. People of almost all age categories can engage in fitness; there are no restrictions. After all, fitness classes are not only about machines and hard physical exercises. Dancing, Pilates, aerobics, stretching are some of the few areas of fitness where everyone can find something to their liking.
People who play sports are more resistant to all kinds of stress, they are less susceptible to diseases. By attending regular workouts, you will forget about joint pain, your heart will work like a clock. During the training process, almost all muscle groups are involved, which ensures an influx of vital energy for the whole body. Everyone knows that life is movement. To keep the movement going, you need to exercise.
Fitness in a group reduces stress levels
Sport is an antidepressant. During physical activity, the body produces the hormone of happiness – endorphin. Intense training lifts the mood, a person tunes into a positive mood and focuses better on his business. But single fitness does not show such results.
Scientists from New England conducted a study. The experiment involved 69 medical students, who were divided into 3 groups. The first ones led a natural lifestyle without physical activity, the second ones went in for sports alone 2 times a week for half an hour, and the third ones did group training for 30 minutes once a week. After 12 weeks, they conducted a survey - it turned out that those who participated in group fitness had a significantly improved mood.
Fitness helps me express myself through movement, to feel the joy of the very fact of movement.
A person is designed in such a way that he simply needs to express himself in the sphere for which he is imprisoned. If this does not happen, for example, because a person simply does not know how to express himself, life turns into a painful labyrinth of problems and unpleasant adventures. I discovered quite early on that I really enjoyed overcoming physical obstacles, overcoming weights, wrestling, and running fast. I always felt excited about the opportunity to move and do a lot of physical work.
Group fitness offers more variety of activities
Most novice athletes soon give up training, and this is due to boring, monotonous exercises in the gym or at home. Such people do not achieve their intended results.
Group fitness is designed for diversity and no matter what type of sport you choose.
A professional trainer, noticing that you have achieved your goals, for example, pumped up your triceps, will create a new training program for other muscle groups to form a more aesthetic body.
Mandatory leg day
All normal people hate this workout. After a leg day, the body is completely exhausted, you desperately want to eat, your knees give way, but there is no visible effect. It’s much more pleasant to pump up your chest, arms and back, so when you practice on your own, leg day is either ignored or occurs once every two to three weeks. But this won’t work with a trainer. He will explain point by point why you need to kill your hamstrings, and will not leave you until you have done all the squats, platform presses and other wild things, after which your eyes will go dark.
You will burn more calories
People who just want to lose weight go to the gym, choose an exercise bike or treadmill and do the exercises alone. In half an hour of pedaling they burn about 300 kcal, they get tired and nervous that nothing is working out.
And in group fitness, oddly enough, during this time beginners burn 400 kcal and still have a lot of strength left for the next approaches. And in one session you can burn more than 1000 kcal. This is due to the fact that the coach tells you how to perform the exercises correctly, and your fellow athletes provide additional encouragement.
You will enjoy life more
Life feels much better when you are fit and healthy. You'll look and feel good, and therefore be more productive in everything you do in life.
Playing sports means exercising yourself, developing and improving your body and spirit. And working on yourself is a difficult daily work that requires constant effort and great desire. But the results will definitely bring satisfaction, joy, happiness and confidence. You have overcome your laziness and started playing sports. This means you can achieve whatever you want. Sports everyone!
Source: Iron World magazine No. 03/2015
Group training will make you a more organized person.
Independent training does not ensure the quality of its implementation, since there is no supervision of the trainer. An amateur athlete often takes days off, does not adhere to a schedule, and extends the rest between exercises. Accordingly, there will be no positive results.
In a group fitness class, you will be supervised by a trainer. If you are tired and other participants are still training, then you are unlikely to want to leave the gym because it will become awkward. After visiting the gym regularly, you will get used to the routine and become a more organized person.
Make your body beautiful and attractive
Nine out of ten people who want to make their body beautiful and attractive consider this the main reason for visiting the gym. In fact, one might venture to say that this is what gyms are for.
It's always great to be healthy. It's good for your body, and it's great for your overall health and longevity. However, being healthy already implies a beautiful body. Who doesn't want a super hot guy with great abs? It's no secret that people are instinctively more attracted to healthy people. It is built into our DNA. We want to reproduce with other healthy people so that our children have a better chance of survival. Strange? Watch this video about human sexual attractiveness. Interesting stuff.
As silly as it may seem, having a good body can help you more than you think. This will give you confidence. This will improve your social life. It might even help you get a job! Dr. Price conducted a study on how much healthier people are statistically more successful than those who lie on the couch in front of the TV or surf the Internet instead of exercising.
So just in case you are not interested in your health, now look at how going to the gym can help you perform! Do you want to get a new job? You might want to lose a few pounds first.
What should strength training be like?
Regardless of the program, every strength training begins with a warm-up. It must be done in the following order:
- Joint warm-up. Rotate the joints of your arms and legs 10 times in each direction, bend and turn your body and neck.
- 5-10 minutes of light cardio. Any suitable exercise machine will do: treadmill, stepper, ellipse, exercise bike. If everything is busy, jump rope.
In addition, before each exercise with a large weight, you need an additional warm-up with a small one. This will prepare the target muscles for work and protect you from injury. For example, if you are going to squat with a 50 kg barbell, do 5 reps with the bar, then 3 reps with 30 kg and 3 reps with 40 kg. Only then proceed to the main load.
Select the working weight so that the last repetitions of the approach are difficult, but without changing the technique: jerks, twisted back and unnecessary bends. If they appear, take lighter weights or reduce the number of repetitions.
Rest 60–90 seconds between sets and 1–2 minutes between exercises.
I strength training
Ab crunches
Works the abdominal muscles.
Lie on your back, place your feet on the floor, put your hands behind your head. Raise your body so that your shoulder blades lift off the floor and your lower back remains pressed. Do not put pressure on your head with your hands, your fingers only touch the back of your head, the movement is made by tensing the abdominal muscles, not the neck.
Perform 3 sets of 15–20 reps.
Hyperextension
Pumps up the back extensors, buttocks and back of the thigh.
Place your feet on the hyperextension machine and place your hands behind your head. Keeping your back straight, lower your body and then lift it up. At the top, look at the wall in front of you. Avoid jerking and sudden movements, perform the exercise smoothly and under control.
Investing in yourself
Okay, maybe you're short on money and you're thinking to yourself, “Why go to the gym when I can workout at home.” That's cool, but what happens when it rains or snows? Are you going for a run? Most likely no.
If you have a gym membership, you probably won't be able to skip a workout, otherwise your money will be lost, which will have a negative impact on your budget. It's just a fact. If you don't like snow or heat strokes, the gym is just the place where you can run and exercise, regardless of the weather.
You should view the gym as an investment in yourself. This may seem strange, but it will have a positive effect on your well-being. No need to worry about the cost. You only have one body and you must take care of it. Invest in your long life. You won't regret it!
A reason to update your wardrobe
Starting a visit to the gym is not just going to the gym, it is a special ritual. You can take your favorite sweatpants, your usual T-shirt with worn-out sneakers out of your closet and go play sports. But going to the store for a new tracksuit and a pair of comfortable sneakers will not only boost your self-esteem, but will also have a beneficial effect on the results of your workouts. The reason, of course, is superficial, but self-esteem is good, and one of the ways to increase it is to buy yourself something new.
How to choose a women's fitness center?
When choosing a suitable fitness club, pay attention to the following parameters:
- Close to home. The closer the gym is, the better. Long trips home after training have a negative impact, fatigue quickly accumulates, and the incentive to go to training disappears.
- Cost of subscriptions. Many fitness centers, competing with each other, offer various promotions and special offers.
- Coaching staff. Read reviews about instructors, try one-time classes. This will help you understand whether you are satisfied with the coach’s approach and whether you are comfortable with him.
- Find out about additional offers. Fitness centers often offer aerobics classes with elements of Latin American dancing, cardio striptease, and other unusual programs.
Rest from family, personal time
Often a situation arises when, in addition to work and family life, routine overtakes you and it begins to seem that there is not enough oxygen, you want to do something useful, but you are spinning like a squirrel in a wheel called “home-work-home”. With such a schedule, any sane person is simply looking for an excuse to leave home or get away from work, just to take a deep breath and look up. The wife is nagging, the children are jumping, the mother-in-law is blowing her mind? Give it a break and go to the gym. The brain will clear up, thoughts will be organized. Your husband began to look to the side, did the guy begin to disappear without you in the evenings with friends? Leave everything as it is, go to the gym. You will unwind, your brain will clear, it will become easier to breathe, and at home you will have something to talk about other than nagging each other. Who knows, maybe over time you will go to the gym together, and it will become not just personal space and an escape from everything, but a new family romantic tradition?
