Steer Clear Of Health Disasters

Some people approach exercise in an imbalanced way. Bringing balance to your training will make it more enjoyable and more effective.

A common fault is to look at one area you want to flatten or develop and focus on this too much.

It may be a desire to flatten your stomach means you spend a lot of time on similar abdominal exercises. Or for some it may mean an unusual amount of bench pressing to build up the chest or ‘pecs’. It is easy to see why people place a lot of emphasis on ‘mirror muscles’ but the best way to shape up is to do a mix of exercises.
 
A good regime of cardiovascular work such as running will help burn calories and keep your stomach trim and make your muscle definition look better all over your body. Exercises that also include your back muscles will help to prevent injuries due to imbalance.

Often it is not the muscles you think that cause the problem. Weak back muscles can make your posture more slouched. The result is you look as though you are carrying more weight around your middle than you are. Likewise strong upper back and shoulder muscles will give a man the V-shaped upper body more readily than lots of bench pressing. Endless arm curls to shape your arms up may seem a good idea but the shape of your arms can be more affected by the tricep muscles on the back of your arms.

Developing one set of muscles without the group that work in the opposing way can cause imbalance problems. Developing muscle groups that surround the ones you are mostly concerned about also gives you a big advantage. For example, don’t just do those endless bench press exercises to shape your chest. Do some shoulder presses, long pulls, lateral pull downs and pull ups too. These work other muscles around the chest and shoulders so they will help shape your chest and enable you to do more work on the bench/chest press than if you were just banging away at the same exercise all the time.
 
Establish a training routine that includes all major muscle groups. After each activity think what the closest thing to the opposite of it is. Even endurance athletes can benefit from some weight raining to improve their strength and reduce their susceptibility to injury. If you have worked the front of your legs think what you can do to exercise the backs and side of them.
Those of you looking to lose weight should not be afraid of doing a few exercises on the weights. The cardiovascular exercises such as running, cycling or the cross trainer will burn calories. While it might not be such an obvious way of losing weight including strength training to your routine raises your metabolism for a prolonged period and so you keep burning the calories long after you have left the gym, gone home and eaten. If your exercise is predominantly cardio (or if you are female) you are highly unlikely to ‘bulk up’ so don’t worry about that as a danger.

If you are a guy who is looking to get in shape then don’t just pound away at the weights. When you see the World’s Strongest Man Competition you will see incredibly powerful guys who don’t always have the greatest muscle definition. Mixing some cardio work in there will shift some of that layer of fat. It will also give you a bigger base of fitness or ‘conditioning’. This means you will be able to do more training and so get fitter than someone just doing weight training.

This will not only be healthier it will also make your exercise routine more varied and interesting. By alternating types of session or the muscles you are exercising within a session you allow your body more recovery time before you go back to doing similar work again. Our coaching section with Sonia O'Sullivan can help you achieve effectove training and variety.

Variety and balance will keep your interest and enhance the fitness benefits of your training.

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