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Common Workout Questions Answered

Will I ever enjoy working out?


Working out consistently may be a bit uncomfortable for the first month or two because your body isn’t used to it. You may feel like the burn in your muscles is not normal, the soreness the next day isn’t worth it, and the mental toughness you must keep within the first few weeks is too difficult to maintain. In contrast, when working out is part of your lifestyle, you will love the discipline you have developed, you will love the burn you get while exercising because you will know that’s what it takes to get results, and you will love the soreness you feel the next day because it means you had a great workout. You will be stronger, healthier, and toned in the end because of it.


If you still aren’t enjoying your workouts after a couple of months maybe you need to mix things up and find a type of movement that you enjoy more. Perhaps consider yoga, dancing, fitness classes, team sports, or triathlons. Working out shouldn’t be a huge chore forever, the aim is to get to a stage where you enjoy it being part of your lifestyle and it makes your mind and body feel good, so find a fit that’s best for you but also don’t give up on things to quickly if they are hard in the beginning.


What’s the key to getting the best results from working out?


To get great results in your health and physique, the best thing you can do is intense workouts with effective exercises. This gets your heart rate up which improves your cardiovascular fitness, gives your muscles a great burn which tears the muscle fibers causing them to come back stronger and leaner, and shreds fat by revving your metabolism up to awesome heights. No matter what kind of workouts you do – if they are intense and consistent, you are setting yourself up for success.



Should I do weights or cardio for toning?


A mixture of weight training and cardio is what gives you ‘muscle tone’. If you were to do only cardio you would eventually end up just looking skinny and flat; you would have no shape or tone. Therefore, weight lifting is an important aspect if you want to build muscle to attain a fit looking physique. In addition to the aesthetics of weight training, you will feel stronger, healthier, and you will have more confidence. Cardio is also an imperative form of training too, as it will help you to drop your body fat percentage which will allow your muscle to show better, giving you the ‘toned’ look.


Ladies – ‘Will I get bulky if I lift weights?’


No, this is a busted myth. Women don't produce enough testosterone to build big bulky muscles like guys can. Even if you were to train the exact same as a muscular guy, and eat the same sorts of foods as he eats, you would not get huge! All you would get from doing that is a toned body, which is why you need to train hard if toning is your goal.


Fit looking people train intense and consistently, so you must lift weights that are quite challenging for you. Lifting heavier will make you feel stronger, make you look toned, and allow your body’s metabolism to sky rocket, causing you to burn more calories at rest. It’s much more beneficial than lifting a light weight for a high amount of reps and not even feeling a burn in your muscles. Don't be afraid of lifting some heavier weight because going hard with the weights will give you the body you want.



Can you explain the main workout terminology?


Reps:

Reps are repetitions – the amount of times you do the movement of the exercise. For example in a bicep curl, bringing your arms up towards your chest, than back down again counts as one rep. When choosing a weight to use for an exercise it is important to pick a weight that is challenging for you. If you need to do 10 reps for an exercise and the weight is still quite easy by the time you get to the 10th rep, then you will need to go up in weight next time. In contrast, if you can’t even get to the 10th rep because it is too heavy for you, go down in weight next time. The goal is to be able to get to 10 but be struggling with good form. Challenge yourself to get results.


Reps till Failure:

Doing an exercise to failure refers to doing as many reps as you can until you can’t do anymore. This is mostly used in abdominal exercises to help exhaust the muscle so it can grow back bigger and stronger – so a great one for getting a toned stomach!


Sets:

After completing the needed amount of reps, you have completed one set. Think of it as a set of reps for the exercise. A common amount of sets to do is 3, so you may do 10 reps of bicep curls for the 3 sets.


Supersets:

A superset is the same as above except it is two exercises in the same set. For example; lat pull down and bicep curl as a superset. So, you would do 10 reps of lat pull down, and straight afterwards do 10 reps of bicep curls, then rest. This would be one superset. You may do this superset 3 times (3 sets of the superset). These are great for keeping your heart rate up and in turn burning extra fat.


Circuits:

Circuits are the same as supersets, except you have 3 or more exercises to do as one set before you rest.


Rest:

You generally rest after completing one of the forms of sets above. The average rest period is between 30 seconds to 2 minutes. It is best to rest as little as possible between sets so that you can have an intense workout, but rest enough so that you will be able to complete the next set.



How do I get abs?


One big myth in the fitness world is that if you work your abs every day, you will get an amazing six pack. The sad truth is that you won’t see your abs until you are at a low body fat percentage, and because you can’t actually spot reduce fat, doing 100 sit ups every day won’t produce the results you want.


You can’t work on a particular muscle group to make fat come off that area, because fat will gradually come off all areas of your body when your body is in a calorie deficit each day. So as the saying goes – abs are made in the kitchen! If your diet is on point long term, your abs will come. Something we can do now though to work towards your toned tummy is start building your ab muscles, so that when you have lost enough fat you will have a great defined stomach.

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