Tag Archives: Gym

Fitness

Slimpossible- Some core workouts

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You might be at different levels of fitness, some of you might look at exercise as a remedial method to years of lethargy and bad eating habits, others would look at core workouts as another way to get popular, but then the few who are serious about fitness should understand that it is a way of life.

Some people exist in utter stagnancy without realizing it while others take every moment as an opportunity to learn, grow and get better at whatever they do. Some people need external idols and motivation while for others self improvement is enough motivation.

The approach matters

If you enter the gym with self improvement as your main agenda, you win against others who are looking at short cuts to look better.

You can always put on a show for the crowd but not the expense of your own improvement, don’t squander your talents in cheap exhibitionism.

It took me 6 years of core workout to put my first videos online, nowadays I see first timers focusing more on their smart phone cameras than the weights.

Here are a few core workouts that might help the ones who are serious about improving themselves:

 

You can perform most of these at home. Focus on form before getting too excited.

Dont be fooled by trainers trying to sell you their services. You can manage most workouts by yourself.

 

Try this without weights first before pushing yourself further.

Learn the rules of the game and then learn how to break them. You have to be patient at the onset and focus on repeating the same thing again and again till you become strong enough to try variations.

Ultimately you will learn to customize your core workout and make up your own exercises. Till then try doing these.

Fitness

Breaking the Plateau

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Re-invention and improvisation are the offspring’s of instincts and spontaneity. the social contagions of fear and insecurity prevent this union from taking place. Instinctive freedom assists you in approaching previously arduous tasks with creativity and innovation and getting more efficient results due to your impulsive decision making. I try to super impose this pattern at the gym as well. Before diving into how, I shall discuss a line or two about the gym.

The show-offs groan louder, the indolent overdose on protein powder,

The sluggish keep waiting for the spark, baby elephants enjoying protein bars on their walk in the park.

Beauty queens smothered in make up, others sleepwalking the treadmill, trying to wake up.

Some asking questions like a detective, others flirting around dejected.

Midst these, the dedicated who inspire don’t have no swag or style,

They are the ones drenched in sweat and tears, still affording a smile.

True fitness demands sacrifice and patience there is no way that you can bilk,

Fight major wars later, begin with having your coffee without the sugar and milk.

The modern day fitness fad replicates the same craze as drugs from the hippy era. Everyone wants to make themselves extra fit, may it be by pulverizing a Tyre with a sledge hammer, dancing on a pole, enrolling in Spartan like combat classes,taking part in endless marathons or simply by going to the gym.

The gym of course is the focal point for all fitness enthusiasts, Everyone doesn’t come to the gym for the same reason. Whoever has cared to read this post till here will knows the different categories of “gym” people from the comfortably corpulent to the desperate housewives, from the despondent souls after a break up to the skinny predators trying to get a glimpse of some yoga pants, from the ones who were bully-ed to the ones hunting for the next prospect. Their purpose defines their commitment. On the other hand some of us just go to the gym to be in the habit of staying fit, some others to prevent others addictions by compulsively having a good one. Others still, have seen their loved ones suffer from unexpected health issues and believe in the “prevention is better than cure” adage.

The ones who think they belong to the second category of gym freaks might just benefit from this post. Anyone who follows any schedule in the gym reaches a point of time when he doesn’t perceive any muscle or strength gains, he reaches a self perceived plateau where the willingness to slog is about to be overtaken by the lack of belief as a consequence of less visible results. An improvisation helped me overcome this plateau and gain more strength in the process. The method involves following your normal exercise but approaching the sets of particular exercise in different ways. This is specifically for weight training.

  1. Warming Up– Take weights you’re comfortable with and do as many repetitions as you want to get warmed up.
  2. One rep max– This is where strength comes in. A one rep max helps you measure and improve your progress.
  3. The Drop Exhaustion– This helps in really tiring those muscles beyond limits. once you have measured your strength you try to exhaust your muscle for growth. This is done through a simple set wherein you do sets of 1,3,6 and 12 repetitions while dropping your maximum weight at these intervals.

This technique can be applied to any weight exercise you do. It will assist you in breaking all the physical and psychological plateaus as you would have a better measure of your performances. I don’t even need to be a gym geek and turn to my phone or diary after every set to keep account of my performances.

Other than this little pattern of working out, you should always keep all your sense open. Any new concept involves interlinking and representation of older concepts in a newer pattern. Hence by noticing all the exercises that you see around you, you can come up with exercises which suit you better. Although there are no shortcuts to fitness, the journey involves a lot of pain, sweat and patience but still you can make it a little pleasurable by improvising on your exercises. The improvisation is not limited to your exercise but expands to your eating habits too, which will require a blog or two.