About 6 months into my fitness journey, I joined a gym with the intent of moving from using the Wii Fit to actually lifting weights. The problem was, that's all I would do: "lift weight". I had no real idea of what I was doing. I just basically went from machine to machine doing 10 reps of the exercise on a given machine and then moving on to the next machine. There was no real plan, and I really had no idea what I was doing. I wasn't really strength training. After a couple of months of spinning my wheels, I started working with a personal trainer. During that time, I learned how to focus on specific body parts, the foundations of how to lift, and how to really engage the muscle groups to get stronger. Within a few weeks, I increased my strength and built noticeable muscle. Now, as a personal trainer myself, I help others with strength training programs to assist them with fat loss and to build lean muscle. It's one of my favorite things to visibly see the results my … [Read more...]
6 exercises to improve your golf swing
Six exercises to improve your golf swing - ACE Fit Life blog provides us with these six body weight exercises that you can do anywhere will help your rotational power for a better golf swing. A TRX Rip Trainer is also a great tool you can use to improve your rotational strength by adding some additional resistance. You can pack it up and take it with you anywhere. … [Read more...]
An interesting thing happened on the way to filming my deadlift….
I recorded myself doing deadlifts today, because I was planning to talk about how deadlifts are the king of exercises. But an interesting thing happened - I noticed that my back was more rounded than it should have been. So I recorded the above lift with a lighter weight and better form. You can see from the still below, my back is rounded more than it should be. This video exercise taught me a valuable lesson. With lifts like this and the squat that are hard to see your form with in the mirrors, it might be a good idea to film it so as to see your form. This can help you identify your problems in form and correct them. … [Read more...]
Test of Strength: Squat, Curl, Push, Press
Kevin at my gym 24/7 Fitness has been doing a great series of videos on how to do different exercises, with a great focus on challenging yourself to do something new. In one of his latest videos, the challenge is to do as many reps as possible of the Squat, Curl, Push, Press move within 1 minute using 25% of your body weight. I did this yesterday with two 25 pound dumb bells (I'm currently at 195 pounds, so 25% of my body weight is a little less than 50 pounds), and cranked out 23 reps in 1 minute. How many can you do? Check out their YouTube page for some other great videos and strength tests. … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Fit In 30 Minutes of Exercise A Day
A report was published recently that says that the decrease in exercise over the last 20 years is what has really caused the weight gain in America. For me personally, I know this was the case - coming home after sitting for 8 hours a day, and sitting around for another 4 hours or so watching TV was a direct cause to me putting on weight. When I first started my weight loss journey, one of the books that helped me was Encyclopedia of Sports and Fitness Nutrition. Besides helping me look at food as fuel, it had a very simple piece of advice - as an adult, I need to get 30 minutes of physical activity in every single day. If you're struggling with this, you might wonder how to do it. Here are five things that I did that worked for me:. Make it a Game - One of the things I did was play 30 minutes of Wii Fit everyday. Wii Fit caught a lot of flack early on, but it has a good tracking system for weighing in everyday and it's easy to do 30 minutes of games without even knowing … [Read more...]
