Join a Health Club or Invest in Some New Equipment for Your
Home Gym
By Tom Venuto GHF’s
Fat Loss Expert
Does your workout still consist of walking around the block,
and/or doing the Billy blanks Tae Bo video or the Richard Simmons Sweating
to the Oldies video in your living room in front of the TV?
If so, then don't worry, I'm not going to make fun of you
- actually I want to congratulate you for doing more than 95% of the
lazy world population - you got started! However, if you're reading
this, you've expressed interest in moving up to the next level, so it's
time to put those 2nd grade workouts back on the shelf and move up to
something with a little more "punch" (pardon the pun).
First, I'm going to repeat my advice from part one of this
series: Join a health club! Since you'll be adding new exercises, a
good health club will put an almost infinite number of exercise choices
at your fingertips. Many people are scared to join a gym "until
they get in shape." Now that's really putting the cart before the
horse isn't it? If you're in this category, let me put you at ease…
You'd be amazed how supportive the environment is in a
good health club. I've been in the health club industry for 14 years
and I've never heard a member or employee of any club I've worked in
make fun of a beginner or someone out of shape. (Personally, I NEVER
make fun of the beginners or intermediates. I like to make fun of the
blunders made by the "big-ego, know it all experts," but "gym
blunders" will have to be the subject of another article.)
I've seen people who were very overweight in our club and
the attitude of the staff and members is usually one of "Good for
you! Is there any way I can help?" In fact, you're more likely
to get a derogatory comment from someone on the street than you are
in a health club. You owe it to yourself to put yourself in a positive,
supportive, caring environment and there's no better place than a health
club.
It also helps to realize that everyone has to start somewhere,
and everyone was "out of shape" when they started. We're all
in the same boat in the beginning and intermediate learning stages.
If you choose not to join a club, that's fine too, but you'd be well
advised to invest in a few additional pieces of equipment beyond the
bare basics.
Let's assume you own a bench and a set of dumbbells. The
next additions to your home gym should be a barbell set, a set of squat
racks and a cable-pulley apparatus with a high and a low pulley. By
owning these pieces equipment, you've just opened up a whole new world
of exercise options for yourself such as:
Barbell squats, barbell lunges, barbell rows, barbell bench
press, barbell shoulder press, barbell curls, barbell tricep extensions,
wide grip lat pulldowns, close grip lat pulldowns, low cable rows, triceps
pushdowns and cable curls.
By the way, why so much talk about weights? Isn't fat loss
mostly nutrition and cardio? Yep, that's true. However, I'm emphasizing
weight training because it plays a bigger role in fat loss than most
people realize. If you're busy aerobicizing and dieting without hitting
the weights, you're much more likely to lose muscle along with the fat.
And when the muscle goes, your metabolism begins to go down the tubes
too.
This article was provided by GHF.
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