The Fitness Journal

One method of minimising the time you spend in the gym is to try super-setting. Super-setting consists of choosing 2 exercises for antagonist muscles (i.e. muscles that oppose each other) and alternating between the two exercises. You could for example do the seated row for the back and the dumbbell bench for the chest. Your superset could look like this:

A. Seated Row
B. Dumbbell Bench Press
Rest
A. Seated Row
B. Dumbbell Bench Press
Rest
A. Seated Row
B. Dumbbell Bench Press

The rest between each exercise is reduced in relation to standard sets because the first muscle is recuperating while you are performing the second exercise. So, if you normally rest for 2 minutes between sets, reduce your rest to 45 - 60 seconds. The rest you take between supersets can be a little longer.

If you decide to add supersets to your routine, start slowly and like any technique don’t use it exclusively.

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If you are interested in me working with you to achieve your health and fitness goals, go to busy-fitness.com/online-personal-training/
Train Smart, Love Life.
Wayne

Weight loss is one of the biggest industries in the world and it seems that everyday a new and “better” method is being sold to the masses. With this overload of generally conflicting information, how is a person expected to know what they should do?

My recommendation would be to read “Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle” by Tom Venuto. Tom has produced a great fat loss book that gives you the information and tools to lose body-fat while maintaining muscle. When I read it, I was surprised with how similar it’s approach is to the one that I take with my clients. It’s all about smart food choices, training, motivation and lifestyle change. One thing I was very pleased with is that weight training is an integral part of the system.

If your after a quick fix, this book is not for you. You won’t find is any 10 day “miracle” weight loss plans. Instead it thoroughly addresses motivation, dietary patterns and exercise with the goal of successful, healthy, permanent fat loss.

As Burn The Fat author Tom Venuto says,…
“Burn the Fat is simple, but it’s not easy.”

Click here to learn more about Tom Venuto’s Burn the Fat.

Remember to sign up for my newsletter and download your free Exercise Guide.
If you are interested in me working with you to achieve your health and fitness goals, go to busy-fitness.com/online-personal-training/
Train Smart, Love Life.
Wayne

Unfortunately the technique displayed in the gym I train at often leaves a lot to be desired. My latest “Do they have any idea of what they are doing?” moment was a bench press I saw the other day. A genetically very shallow chested guy was “dropping” (I wish I could give a more kind description to his eccentric phase) the bar onto his chest, which then sank in about a quarter of his chest depth in order to get the bounce necessary to complete his reps.

The bench is a great compound movement that is often the cornerstone of upper body routines. I am in favour of working it hard and heavy at times but not at the expense of breaking ribs. You can certainly explode off the chest but bouncing to get the concentric phase started is not a great idea.

Remember to sign up for my newsletter and download your free Exercise Guide.
If you are interested in me working with you to achieve your health and fitness goals, go to busy-fitness.com/online-personal-training/
Train Smart, Love Life.
Wayne

What do you want from your training? Do you want to get stronger, bigger, faster, leaner? Are you achieving what you want to achieve? If not, you need to change what you are doing. I think that this quote from Anthony Robbins is very appropriate.

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

Remember to sign up for my newsletter and download your free Exercise Guide.
If you are interested in me working with you to achieve your health and fitness goals, go to busy-fitness.com/online-personal-training/
Train Smart, Love Life.
Wayne

When starting weight training, most people do a full body routine about 3 days a week. After training for a while, enthusiastic weight trainers esp. body-builders want to increase the total volume of the training they are doing i.e. do more exercises and more total sets. Instead of making their full body routine longer (which would generally be counterproductive,) they split their training into 2 or more parts. This allows for an increase in volume, while normally giving adequate recuperation (if training 3-4 times a week.)

Some sample splits include
Upper body/lower body
Push/pull/legs
Chest & back/shoulders & arms/legs
Back & biceps/chest & triceps/shoulders/legs

It is important to realise that changing to a split routine is not necessarily the best option if you want to get big and strong. To some degree all people are not created equal and you may get your best results with a full body routine. Unfortunately there is no one best system.

Remember to sign up for my newsletter and download your free Exercise Guide.
If you are interested in me working with you to achieve your health and fitness goals, go to busy-fitness.com/online-personal-training/
Train Smart, Love Life.
Wayne