Body4Me

It’s something that I see in the gym every day and it is something that makes me cringe a little inside every time I see it. People working out while hunched over. If I see participants hunching over in one of my Body Pump classes, I’ll go to great pains to explain the correct posture and reasons why, but it’s just not something you can walk up to just anyone on the floor to talk to.

The most fascinating thing about it is that most of us are absolutely unaware of incorrect body posture because we are so used to it. It took me ages to become aware of my own body as I was moving and lifting weights.

The most useful (and obvious) tool to help: The Mirror. Watch yourself as you’re working to see you technique. Are your arms/legs balanced and moving to the same height and angle ? Are you inadvertently moving non-weight bearing parts of the in an awkward position. Maybe all the massive guys in the free weights are aren’t just admiring themselves in the mirror. There’s a good chance they are actually constantly checking their form for correctness.

Next time you are at the gym, do yourself a favour and have a real good look at your form. Before you start a Dead Row or Dead Lift, roll your shoulders up, back and down and feel a little tension between the shoulder blades. Push your chest up and out and stand proud. As soon as you set your shoulders back, it will align both you upper and lower back. It will give you the correct curvature in your lower back and set your pelvis correctly.

More importantly, it is impossible to hunch over once you actively draw your shoulders back. Your lifting technique will improve dramatically and you will target the right muscles much better.

Ok,I admit it, I’ve probably been doing a little too much TV viewing over the holiday period. One thing that has really jumped out at me are the continuous ads for home exercise machines. Now, don’t get me wrong… I’m all for home based exercising, however, something about all these little machines just isn’t right.

You see, they all target specific muscle groups, typically being the abs and upper legs. These are the areas we all feel a little insecure about and it’s that insecurity the the advertisers are targeting.
The problem is though, the kind of people that buy these machines to get fit are exactly the people who wont really benefit form them!  Why ? Well, because, funnily enough, those great looking models they get to demo the machines are about the only people that would get the full benefit from them. And that’s because of some very basic exercise and weight loss principles:

• You can target specific muscles for muscle gain, but
• You CANNOT target specific areas of your body for fat loss

Spending your 3 (or however many) minutes a day on the abdominator machine will not make you lose your belly. Yes, it will work your abs, but you wont see them until enough body fat is lost. Your abs wont show until you’re at about 8% bodyfat (for men) or 14% bodyfat (for women). That’s a very low figure given that most of start in the 20-30% range. When your body uses fat for energy and exercise, it will retrieve it form all over your body, not just the area that you’re currently working out.

My Advice: Save your money. Go for a nice long, brisk walk. Do some complex muscle group exercises. The more muscles you use, the more energy you will consume, the more fat you will utilise. Reduce your calorie intake. Someone once told me: “Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym.”

Ahh… the start of a New Year. New promises, new hopes, new dreams and countless new ads on the TV telling us we should lose some weight and that their product is the best one yet. In the course of two ad breaks yesterday, I think I saw three or four different gyms, pills, readymade meals and home exercise products. Now, obviously, these ads work because otherwise they wouldn’t be putting them on.

Now, what makes us think that an arbitrary change of date will suddenly make us change our eating and exercise habits when nothing else in the previous year did ? Let me assure you… nothing will change. I know that sounds pessimistic, but come on. We’ve all been there. Goodness knows I have. Yes, the first week will be great, the second not quite as good, the third ok and by the end of January, the only thing that’ll remember about the resolution is the monthly membership fee from the gym you joined up to on a 12 month contract.

So, what will make a difference ? Not calling it a New Year’s Resolution for one! This has got nothing to do with the new year. It has everything to do with you and your reasons. And no, “Because it’s the new year” is not a valid reason! Ask yourself… Why are you embarking on this journey ? Why are you doing this ? Who is it for ? These are the important questions and these are the ones that make it stick. It was only when I got it clear in my head why I was doing this that it had any real impact on me. I looked at my life and where I was going to be in 10 years time if I didn’t do something right now. I saw myself as a 40 something overweight work-a-holic couldn’t muster the energy to play ball with his kids. Someone who was probably going to have a heart attack in their mid-fifties and finished their life on a series of life-sucking drugs.
That sort of painful future wasn’t something I could live with. And that was my reason why something had to happen. And, more importantly, that was something I could take with me to the gym in week three and four of January when things became hard. This is something you can do right now to give yourself some leverage over your will power. Create yourself that mental image of what will happen in your life if you chose not to make a difference right now. Use it every day to push yourself to be better, stronger, fitter healthier than you were before. I know you can do it. I did.

Our reasons why we do something is far more important than how we do them. Chose your reasons carefully.