The perfect workout.  It’s intense, powerful.  It’s the difference between putting in a good effort and TRYING hard…  and actually sweating, grunting, straining your muscles beyond the point of exhaustion… and  BREAKING the pain barrier!

It doesn’t matter where you exercise or what exercise you’re doing; when you finish the perfect workout you not only feel great… you finish with a spine tingling sense of fear and excitement at the prospect of doing it all again!

Sounds good doesn’t it?

Follow these 5 rules and make every workout, the perfect workout…

No.1 - The perfect workout is PLANNED

Drop the “try a bit of this and a little of that ” approach.  The perfect workout is a well defined mission, with a clear plan of which exercises you need to do, in which order and for how long.

No.2 – The perfect workout is INTENSE

Long, lazy rest periods kill fitness gains.  The perfect workout might be squeezed into 20 minutes… but you’ll achieve more in those 20 minutes than most gym goers achieve in a month.

No.3 – The perfect workout is CHALLENGING

No more going through the motions.  The perfect workout will challenge your body, your mind and your pain threshold… but you’ll soon learn how to face the fatigue and smash through it!

No.4 – The perfect workout is CONSISTENT

Forget overtraining on a Monday then wimping out for a week.  The perfect workout is like a vitamin pill – a compact, perfectly balanced mix of exercises delivered to the body daily.

No.5 – The perfect workout is PROGRESSIVE

Average workouts deliver average fitness gains.  The perfect workout brings unrelenting fitness gains as it adapts, adjusts and progresses to ensure you keep challenging your body.

Putting it all together…

Start planning your workouts, keeping them intense and challenging – but consistent! – with regular adjustments to ensure progressive fitness gains.

And finally… here’s what the perfect workout looks like…

Liam – everythingZing.com

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This is the first of many fitness challenges that will be posted on the EverythingZing Blog. Zing Fitness Challenges are perfect for anyone who wants to test their fitness, challenge themselves or take on their friends in the gym.  Best of all, Zing Fitness Challenges are suitable for men and women of all abilities – from the complete beginner to the advanced athlete.  You give as little or as much energy to the challenges as you want!

Readles-20

This Fitness Challenge is called “Readles-20″.  It combines the four main pieces of cardio equipment you’ll find in a gym – the bike, the cross trainer, the treadmill and the rower – over 20 minutes.  It’s a great test of all-round cardiovascular fitness so why not try it as a personal challenge, a competition with friends …or just for fun!

[Before starting this fitness challenge take a moment to warm up and ensure you are feeling well, free from injuries and fully hydrated.  You should have undergone a Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q) on signing up to your local gym to identify any reasons why you should not be exercising.  If you are unsure please ask a qualified gym instructor or personal trainer to assist you.]

The Challenge

To cover as much distance as possible on each piece of equipment over 5 minutes – 20 minutes in total for the four pieces of equipment.  Take 1 minute between exercises to write down the distance travelled, move between equipment and rehydrate.

• 5:00 Bike (level 10)
  - 1:00 to record the distance, change exercises and hydrate.
• 5:00 Cross Trainer (level 10)
  - 1:00 to record the distance, change exercises and hydrate.
• 5:00 Treadmill (1% incline)
  - 1:00 to record the distance, change exercises and hydrate.
• 5:00 Rower (damper 6)
  - challenge finished!

 
Total up the distances for all four pieces of equipment (in km) and there’s your result!  Each time you repeat the Readles-20 fitness challenge you should try to beat your previous distance. If you’d like a printable tracker set up for this fitness challenge all you have to do is click this link here to email your request.

Feel free to post your results in the comment box below!

Liam – everythingZing.com

With the growing popularity of the Wii Fit, more and more people are cancelling their gym memberships and making the living room their fitness venue of choice.  Exercising at home is certainly cheaper and more convenient than going to your local gym, but is it as good a workout? 

Let’s put the Wii Fit and The Gym head to head and find out which offers the best workout…

There are two factors that make a workout a good workout - the “enjoyability factor” and the “results factor”.  Some workouts bring phenomenal results if you stick at them for long enough, but they’re too hard and too boring, which might put you off after just one attempt.  Other workouts are great fun and easy to do regularly, but are so low-intensity that they bring no real fitness gains.  Before choosing between the Wii Fit and The Gym you need to consider both factors based on your personality and fitness goals.

 The Wii Fit pros…

• you don’t have to travel to use it, it’s right there in your living room
• it is something you can easily fit into your daily routine at home
• it offers yoga, strength training, aerobic and balance workouts
• the workouts are great fun and you can do them with friends

 The Wii Fit cons…

• the variety of exercises are limited, meaning limited fitness gains
• the intensity of exercises are limited, meaning limited strength gains
• if the novelty wears of it can conveniently be hidden under the sofa

 
 The Gym pros…

• there is a vast selection of resistance and cardio equipment
• the fitness possibilities and results are endless, the sky is the limit
• it’s a more motivating exercise environment, so you workout harder
• it’s far more social, so you can meet new people while exercising

 
The Gym cons…

• you have to travel to the gym to do your workout
• some people might feel intimidated by the gym environment
• it can get monotonous, especially if you stick to the same routine

So which is best?

Whilst the Wii Fit appears to favour the enjoyability factor over the results factor, the gym goes the opposite way and offers far better fitness gains at the expense of the fun factor.  It really comes down to how much you want to enjoy your workouts versus how much you want to see results.  My honest opinion? You just aren’t going to get very fit using a Wii Fit, nor are you going to be wetting yourself with excitement at the gym.  The Wii Fit is ideal for people who want to enjoy exercise and be a little more active, the gym is for people who are serious about getting slimmer, leaner, stronger and fitter. 

The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  Perhaps if you are very unfit and just getting into exercise then the Wii Fit might be a good place to start to build up your fitness and confidence before joining a gym.  If you are already at a good fitness level then the Wii Fit just isn’t going to challenge you, but it is great fun!

Liam – everythingZing.com

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Imagine a place where 1000s of people strive to get fit, but fail time and time again.  Imagine a place where avid gym goers commit years of their lives to exercise, but see little or no results.  Imagine a place where hour long workouts become completely worthless and 100s of reps utterly pointless.  What is this dreaded, time sapping, gym membership wasting place? It’s called …the comfort zone.

We’ve all seen people living in their comfort zone in the gym.  Those people who do the same routine day in, day out, yet wonder why they aren’t seeing results.  The guy who lifts the same weights, in the same order, for the same number of reps.  The woman who does the same cardio routine, at the same low intensity and even reads her book on the bike.

This approach to exercise is fine if you want to maintain a moderate level of fitness and simply keep active, but if you really want to be fitter, faster, stronger and leaner, you have to break out of your comfort zone.  Once you understand how and why we get fitter, you’ll understand why it is so important to challenge your body and bring variety to your workouts.

Survival of the fittest…

You may not realise it, but your body is constantly adapting to your environment.  Spend time in the sun for a day, you’ll get a tan.  Start using the stairs at work, your legs will get stronger and leaner.  This isn’t your body’s way of making you look pretty, it’s your body adapting to the environment and protecting you from the stresses and strains we put ourselves through each day.

“Fitness” in its true sense is all about adaptation.  When we exercise we are deliberately creating a false environment for our body.  On the inside, the post-exercise hormones and chemicals that trigger adaptations have no idea we’re in a gym.  For all our body knows, our 30 minute jog on the treadmill could be a daily run in with a lion.  If it doesn’t adapt and make us fitter, faster, stronger and leaner… we’re going to be breakfast!

The key point is that the body only adapts if it is challenged.  Why would it need to adapt if it can already cope with the challenges it faces?  If it ain’t broke, no need to fix it!  So if you want to “get fitter” you need to push your body beyond what it is used to, which means creating a harsher environment for it – more workouts, heavier weights, more reps, longer runs, faster runs, more exercises, different exercises.  This is known as the “overload zone” and it is the exact opposite of the “comfort zone”.  It is a place where the body is challenged, adaptation is triggered and fitness gains flow.

No pain, no gain?

To achieve “overload” you need to increase the Frequency, Intensity, Time or Type of your workouts (just remember FITT).  The overload zone doesn’t need to hurt, it’s simply the point where things are no longer comfortable.  It’s those extra few reps, those extra few kilograms or that extra minute on the treadmill. 

Take a scale of 1 – 10, if your comfort zone is a 6, your overload zone occurs at 7 and above.  The “no pain, no gain” approach is a little bit old school and might apply to competitive athletes or bodybuilders who need to perform at a 9 or even a 10.  For your average gym goer “no discomfort, no gain” is closer to what is needed, but it doesn’t quite have the same ring to it!

Liam

So you’ve just joined a local gym and you’re looking to add some flesh to your bones!  Getting bigger and stronger takes time, but a great starting point is to understand the how the body actually builds muscle.  Like any building process there is an order and technique you need to follow for best results – good foundations, a blueprint, the right materials – otherwise your workouts will be nothing more than cardio. 

The Foundations

Before you begin your training programme you have to be in good health, well rested and relaxed.  Poor health, tiredness and stress have a huge effect on the body’s ability to build muscle.  Not only do you perform badly during your workouts and risk injury, you are also far less likely to turn up to your workouts in the first place.  You’ll need to put yourself through at least 20 workouts before you start to see a visible difference, so take a look at your work and social commitments over the next 12 weeks and ask yourself whether it’s a good time to be adding extra stress to your body.

The Blueprint

Going to your local gym and throwing a few dumbbells around just isn’t going to work.  Nor will copying the buff guy and hoping for the best!  You need to work to a blueprint – a solid training plan that sets out which muscles you’ll be targeting, which exercises you’ll be working them with, for how many sets and reps, and on what days of the week.  If you’re not sure then book a session with a personal trainer and get them to put a muscle building programme together for you.  It’s what they do.  They are architects of the body!

The Materials

You cannot build a house without the right materials, nor can you build muscle without the right nutrition.  Muscle doesn’t magic itself from the atmosphere after doing a few reps, it is made from good quality protein – fish, seafood, poultry, meat, eggs, beans, pulses.  You should try to make your protein intake every few hours, which often requires taking a good protein supplement.  You also need good quality carbohydrate to fuel you through your workouts and fuel the repair process that converts these proteins into extra muscle.  You’re going to be eating a lot!

The Labour

Each exercise you do stresses the muscles according to your blueprint – bench press stressing the chest muscles, squats the legs, and so on.  The body responds to this “microtrauma” by repairing the muscle fibers a little thicker during rest so that in future it can cope better with the load.  It is this increase in muscle fiber thickness that makes muscle grow visibly bigger in a process called “hypertrophy”.  Without enough stress to the muscle there is no stimulus to adapt and grow, so reps need to be performed to failure, meaning you can’t do another one with good form.

The Mortar

Even with the perfect blueprint, good materials and hours of labour, your muscle building plan is going nowhere if you don’t rest.  Think of rest and recovery is the mortar that cements everything together.  Without it you end up overtraining, over-stressing your muscle and immune system and ultimately everything falls apart.  Rest is a positive and essential part of your training regime, so don’t think you’re ”being lazy” or “skipping a day” or “losing out on time when I could be working out more!”.  It’s useful to remember that muscles are built during rest, not during your workouts.  No rest.  No muscle!

The Layers

There will come a point where you’ve built enough muscle to cope at one level, which means it’s time to break through your comfort zone and step it up a level.  In weight training we call this “the progressive overload principle”.  You need to gradually increase the intensity of your workouts, otherwise your muscle gains will plateau.  How?  By increasing either the weight, reps or intensity of the exercises you do.  So many gym goers make the mistake of staying on the same level and wonder why they’re not making any progress.

…And Repeat

The body building process – nutrition, workout, rest, nutrition, workout, rest  - needs to be repeated over a number of weeks before you’ll start to notice your muscles getting bigger.  If you want to get very big you’re looking at months and years rather than weeks.  Be patient and make the process a part of your lifestyle rather than a quick fix blitz.

Liam – everythingZing.com

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When it comes to choosing a gym, the number one question you need to ask yourself is…

… Am I actually going to use it?!

If you don’t use it you’re not going to get fitter and your monthly membership fee will be money down the drain. Here are 5 tips that will help you make the right choice and find a gym you’ll enjoy visiting time and time again.

 
1) Location – choose a gym within 15 minutes drive.

By far and away… or not as that case may be… location is the most important factor to consider when choosing a gym.  Your dream gym with state-of-the-art equipment, deliciously toned personal trainers and a bargain membership package is useless to you if you’re put off by the journey and never even get there.  Chose a local gym within 10 to 15 minutes of your front door or workplace, so you don’t have the age old excuse of not having the time to get there.

2) Facilities – choose a gym with facilities that suit your goals.

Are you joining a gym to get a six-pack, tone up, or just be a little healthier?  If fitness or weight loss is your goal, then look for a gym with a good selection of cardio equipment – rowers, steppers, treadmills, bikes and cross trainers.  If muscle building or toning is your goal then look for a gym with a good free weights section.  If you simply want to improve your health then choose a gym with a good sauna, steam room and café – the treats will give you a reason to get to the gym in the first place!

3) Fitting in – choose a gym where you’ll feel comfortable.

If you are a lady looking to lose weight then you’ll probably feel a little uncomfortable at Micky’s Meathead Powerlifting Gym.  A ladies only gym or all-round health club is a far better choice.  On the other hand, if you are a man looking to bulk up, you’ll want a place where you can scream a bit without upsetting other members, so chose a gym where weightlifters and strength trainers go.  If you find a gym that suits your personality, you’ll enjoy more workouts, make more friends and stick at it longer.

4) Trial – choose a gym that let’s you try before you buy.

Most gyms offer a free guest pass, so take the opportunity to see if you enjoy the experience.  Is the gym overcrowded? Are the personal trainers slipping into a coma or  interacting with the members? Do the fitness equipment and facilities look clean and well maintained? Perhaps most importantly, look at the members – if none of them are the fitness level you aspire to be, a few months down the line you probably won’t be either!

5) Price – don’t put membership costs above usability.

Your budget is always going to be a factor, but it’s better you spend a little more on a gym you use regularly and benefit from, than less on a gym you never even get to.  Think about it on a pay-per-workout basis.  A gym that is £40 a month and you use 3 times a week, 16 times a month, is £2.50 per workout.  A gym that is £20 a month that you use 2 times in the whole month is £10 per workout, with little or no benefit from such a big gap between workouts.  Think usability first, price second.

And finally…

A good place to start is to go online and search for gym reviews in your area.  People will write good, honest reviews of gyms if they’re worth talking about, so have a look at what other people are saying before you make your choice.

Liam – everythingZing.com

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