• If you are a personal trainer you probably know why, and you can stop reading
• If you are trained by a personal trainer, he/she will tell you all that you are doing wrong
• If you are none of the above, there is a huge chance you are doing something wrong and not getting the results of your workout.

But don’t worry, a lot of people are doing something wrong while working out, and you must have noticed that there are no visible results after a while, and you probably did something about it, like reading this for example. Doing a workout routine for a very long time in the not proper way can harm your health, muscle pain, back pain, leg pain, etc.

Regardless of the reason why are you exercising, whether because you want to lose weight, or build muscle, or just keep your overall health in good shape, you have to do it properly if you want results. When it comes to losing weight, you want those numbers on the weighing scale to go down, and go down fast! When building muscle, you want the scale to go up, but in a muscle mass, losing fat really fast.

It can be difficult, and it takes time and effort, and if you are not doing it right, it can take a lot more time and a lot more effort. So, here is a list of top 8 things you are (probably) doing wrong while working out:

1. Sleep – sleep deprivation affects the same hormones that control appetite, stimulating them, and making you do all those midnight snacks, usually high calorie and fat kind of food. Lack of sleep won’t help you lose weight, but it also won’t help you gain muscle, because sleep will facilitate muscle growth. Sleep also boosts your immune system and keeps you healthier, and a well-rested body is a body you want in the gym. The tired body gives lousy results in the gym, and even worst, tired body can cause bad injuries!
2. You are not using weight as your ally – maybe you are not aiming for the muscular look and using too little weight, or maybe you are craving for huge muscles and using too much weight. Either way, stop it, you are doing it wrong. Weight lifting is what challenges your muscles, and gives them shape and helps them grow, and whatever your goal is, fat loosing or muscle building, choosing the right weight is critical. If you don’t do the exercises with proper weight, you are not getting close to your goal soon, so challenge yourself, don’t overdo it, and keep safety as a priority always. The number one cause of gym injury is overweighting!
3. Improper warm up – cold muscles are easy to hurt, not being elastic and flexible enough. The proper warm-up prepares your whole body, muscles, heart, lungs, and keep you safe from injuries, increases your blood flow and warms you up. A proper warm-up increases your overall performance, speed, strength, and endurance.
4. Change the routine workout, for a little bit – small changes in your routine might give big changes in your expected results. Running on the treadmill on different speed or different difficulty is a completely different workout, and the same applies to change weights or reps. Every change is welcomed, however, try and keep it one at a time, because too much change can also give you unwanted results, or again, injury! Change the routine every month or so, sometimes even the order of doing exercises can give you better results.
5. Count your calories – it can be dull and annoying, but watching portion sizes does give results fast. It can be quite difficult to balance your workout with your diet, and intake just the number of calories you will most likely spend in the gym seems impossible (and most of the time it is), but trying to maintain the balance can be good enough for you. Never over-eat and never stay hungry for too long, look for healthy snacks that will get you out of the red zone (meaningless overeating)!
6. Rest – not sleep, but give your body time to accumulate all the stress you are causing working out. A walk in the park, doing yoga, medium hiking, all ways to fast recover your body, keeps you in shape, and rests you at the same time.
7. Not disciplined enough – make a plan, and stick to it. You can make minor adjustments, and sometimes minor changes (as recommended), but jumping through all the machines in the gym is pointless, and time exhausting. Having a plan and keeping a diary usually helps you maintain discipline, and stick to a well-prepared routine. Try and make a routine plan for a whole month, and review the diary afterward. You will notice the changes that have to be done! Keep logged all your sessions just like taking your antibiotic, four times or three times a week at the exact place and time.
8. Having fun? This perhaps is the most important thing of all, having fun while doing it. If you are not having fun, and go one step ahead, two back, you have the change the whole routine, or the whole workout plan. Maybe running is not for you, or weight lifting is just too boring, whatever the reason, you have to change it. Doing it just because is not a reason enough, and doing it and not having fun while most certainly not give you any results. Find fun exercise you want to do, and do it, and in time results will come!

The post Workout without results? Here is what you (probably) are doing wrong! appeared first on Transforming Fitness.

Calisthenics is types of exercise where you use your own body weight in different types of exercises with different intensity. This type of exercise is not new they originated from ancient Greece and became popular in the early 19^th century. You’ve surely watched a movie where marines are training hard on a muddy ground during a rainstorm… well, that’s pretty much it, but in a lighter and friendlier environment.

All athletes, fitness trainers, military staff use these exercises for warming up, and some use them as a full-body workout. This includes pullups, pushups, dips, squats, crunches, jumping rope, etc.

Pros and cons of calisthenics

Of course, like any other workout routine, calisthenics has its pros and cons and depending on the results you expect, you will see on which side you lean more.

Pros:

• Free – you don’t need a gym, so no membership, all you need is a bar in your house (if you don’t have, they are cheap and easy to install), or you can visit the local playground. Using gloves can help, especially if you have more gentle hands
• All muscle workout – almost all of the exercises are done in a matter that engages all your muscles, starting from your legs all the way to your neck and shoulder
• Freedom to do it anywhere – if there is enough space to do a pushup and squat, then you can do all the exercises. And you can do it anytime, and use everything around you, chair, staircases, the sofa, everything!
• Fat burner – the routine is excellent for high-intensity interval training, which burns fat really fast. The exercises are meant more for strengthening, but some of the exercises are also great for a cardio workout.

Cons:

• Hard to measure your progress – in the gym, it can be easy, you are doing well if you can increase either the weight or the number of reps. With calisthenics, it can be more difficult to measure your progress, since your body weight is all you lift.
• Poor leg training – without weights leg training can be hard and slow. There are many exercises for leg workout, however, none of them will give you results as heavy weight lifting.
• Not for bodybuilding – be confident that you will not be building huge muscles, and you won’t strengthen your muscles for heavy lifting. However, you will build strong lean muscles!

How does calisthenics go?

The exercise routine is pretty simple, you perform a list of exercises one after another in one circle. You can rest for 30 seconds between each set, and you rest three minutes after each circle. Usually, you should do three circles, and stick to the plan, if you have to, it is better to lower the number of reps of each exercise but do the three circles.

For a beginner, you should follow the next plan, and stick to it for two months, and if you are doing the exercises without any difficulties, then you can switch to a more advanced calisthenics routine.

• 10 pullups – facing the exercise bar grasp it with your arms slightly apart (more than shoulders), and lift with your biceps to get your head above the bar so the bar is behind your head
• 10 chin-ups – similar as pull-ups, but you lift your head so the bar will be in front of you (your chin should be above the bar)
• 20 jumping squats – stand on your feet slightly apart (wider than your hips), bend your knees for a squat while keeping your back and chest upright, and then jump straight in the air
• 20 dips – for this exercise you can use a chair. Hold the chair on the seating area with your arms behind your back, spread your legs forward and lower your back, and then lift with your triceps. If you can, keep your feet on another chair, putting more weight to lift.
• 25 pushups – get on the ground with your hands wider than your shoulders, then extend your legs backward. Keep your back upright, like plank position, and then bend your elbows up until your chest are near the ground, and then pull up. Make sure your back and chests are upright, and your legs are extended all the way back.
• 60 crunches – lay on the ground flat, bend your knees to 90 degrees angle to your body so your feet are firmly on the ground. With hands crossed on your chest lift your torso all the way so your arms touch your knees. It is important to keep your back as much as upright as you can.
• 15 burpees – facing forward with your hands at your sides. Lower into a squat, and continue in a pushup starting position, extending your feet backward shoulder-width apart. Next, lift with your hands and jump your feet forward next to your hands, and jump in the air with your arms over your head.
• Air running – get in a running position, and do static running for 30 seconds. The tempo should be medium, not too fast. Even better, if you can, you can jump rope for 30 seconds!
• Plank – the starting position of pushups, but with hand bend in the elbows for 90 degrees, so you can rest your weight on your forearms. Do it as much as you can!

Bear in mind that this is the beginner’s guide, and in order to master the beginner’s routine you will need more than two months of practicing three days a week. If you are mastering at a faster pace, then you check the intermediate routine, which is far harder and much more demanding than beginners.

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Well, not exactly, those guys probably had a belly sometime in the past, and believe that those guys or girls will be the ones who will help you the most, for everything, from the beginning to the end of the day.

Before starting the plan for the gym, remember the most important thing, feel good and have fun, without these two, you will have poor or no results at all! So let’s get started!

Relax – don’t let fear take control, you should feel good in your body, and feel good when people look at you. Going to the gym is just a way to upgrade your look, inside and outside, make your body look good, and your spirit shine. This is the first obstacle on your way to the better you, so make sure you jump over it with full thrust self-confidence.

Plan a great meal before every visit – always eat before exercise, and don’t believe that you will lose weight faster if you don’t, you will only feel more tired and burn muscle, which is exactly what you don’t want to do. You need the necessary energy, and the best way is to stick to lean proteins such as grilled chicken or fish with steamed vegetables for carbs, or oatmeal with dried fruits and some protein shake. Most of the gym-goers also like to eat a banana before practice, because it is a great source of natural carbohydrates (sugar) and also potassium. Avoid eating legumes, because of obvious reasons (strange things happen when you are bloated and lifting a heavy load, right). Also, remember to eat at least one hour before practice, and one after!

Plan your Workout routine – always plan the day at the gym, it doesn’t matter if you are new to this, or a “returns from a long break”, you must have a plan. You don’t want to lose precious 20 minutes wandering around looking like a stalker, plan the routine and get right on it. If necessary, consult a professional, or take a personal trainer. Or, find a beginner’s plan online, write down your routine and go with it (this is a much cheaper option of course). Always start with a warmup and stretching exercises, you do this on the floor and you don’t care if the machine you have in plan is not vacant. Next have a backup plan for the exercises, because, the machine might be taken, and you don’t want to sit and wait for it to be available.

Be flexible, not only for your body, for the routine also, every day is not the same and your body does not behave the same all the time. When tired, go small and easy, don’t rush it! Start with small weights and over time increase the weight, according to your expectations and wishes!

Inventory check – the equipment for your workout is important, you don’t want to find yourself missing something like a fresh t-shirt, or even worse, fresh underwear! Make a list of all necessary clothes and items you need for your everyday workout at the gym, put it on your fridge, and cross it out as you pack. It seems a lot of work, but you will find it handy. Amongst the most needed items:

• spare underwear, clean shirt, and fresh socks,
• water (1 L should do you just fine)
• spare shoes
• post-workout meal (protein bar or a simple banana)
• workout gear (shoes, lifting gloves, headband)
• toiletries (shampoo, shower gel, deodorant, makeup) and towel for the shower
• Plastic bag for your wet clothes.

Aftermath – working out after a long pause, or worse, for the first time can be an unpleasant experience afterward. The soreness and muscle pain is inevitable, and proper care for your body in these moments is crucial for a fast recovery. Stretching, cold bath, some aspirin, and continuous training are very popular. Whatever you do, don’t make a pause after the first training! The first time is the worse, the second time you go in, start slowly, do a good warmup and you’ll see, the pain will slowly go away.

Make a playlist – update your playlist, put some music that makes you feel alive and ready to rock. Plus, sometimes you will just want to enter your safe bubble and stop listening to all the gym noises (machines, taunts, laughs, and others).

Give yourself a treat – after a good workout feeling great is often without an option, you will feel excellent, you can’t avoid it, and it becomes like a drug, you will want to visit the gym more and more. Now and then treat yourself a snack you might find unsuitable and in the same sentence with “workout”. A chocolate bar or one beer cannot hurt you as much as avoiding them at all costs, give your body some (dosage is critical, some, not plenty), and it will return the favor!

You don’t need to follow all the tips from above; you can make your own list. More important is to follow the list and be persistent and disciplined, and in good time, results will come. Don’t expect miracles, all good thing comes with a lot of effort, time and commitment, and if you can, try and avoid all chemical supplements for raising body mass and increased performances. These chemicals will show results in a much faster pace, but the side-effects can be devastating to your body and mind, and can have a pretty sound backfire!

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A proper pre-practice diet

Eating food with medium carbs is good every time before practice, however, not too many carbs, 1 to 4 grams of carbs for every kilogram of body mass. It is important to eat at least one hour before the workout, because it takes a while before those carbs turn into a muscle fuel for physical activity. And of course, you will need to input enough fluids, water, tea, or yogurt.
If you workout on an empty stomach your body will start breaking down muscle glycogen to fuel your body for the exercise. This way you will lose muscle mass faster than fat mass, and this can lead to ketosis, keto-acid build up in your body that can do serious damage to your kidneys.
If you decide to start early with your practice, do have a quality breakfast. Some experts argue with this, and say you yourself should decide if you will have breakfast before workout, but because of the above stated, keep your belly filled before going to the gym. A good breakfast should include whole-grain cereals, a banana, yogurt, juice, and one cup of coffee at least an hour and a half before workout. If you are very hungry, if you’ve skipped dinner or similar, have a large breakfast, but wait for at least three hours so you won’t feel sluggish, while for a smaller portion you can exercise after an hour or so. Small snacks like smoothie, banana or protein bar you can do right before exercise. And of course, be properly hydrated!

Proper food during exercise

Eating during practice might seem impossible, and you might find it difficult to grab a sandwich, and yes, it sounds silly too, right? However, taking fluids during the workout is mandatory, water, sports drinks, juices, all are welcomed. If your workout is longer than one hour, you should also eat some carbs, from 30-60 grams of carbs for every hour of workout. An apple for example has 25 grams of carbohydrates, but you can also eat a protein bar, or granola, or dried fruits to get the same carbs.
Taking fluids is better than taking solids because the stomach can get upset if it is filled with solids during a workout. If your workout is less than 45 minutes long, water will do just fine!
After workout diet
After a workout you will feel hungry as a wolf, especially if your practice was longer than two hours. The most important thing to do is be disciplined, and try and not get stuffed with the first thing you find in the fridge.
After a workout it is important to consume 1 to 1.2 grams of carbs for every kilogram of your body weight, and from 20-25 grams of proteins, in order to replenish muscle glycogen reserves spent during exercise. A quality meal is important after each session in the gym, high-protein and carbohydrate-rich food, and of course with low fat. This includes yogurt, fruit, eggs, turkey with whole-grain and veggies, and some chocolate, preferably low-fat! Other meals you should include are:
– Meat – ground beef, venison, chicken breasts, pork tenderloin
– Dairy – Yogurt, cheese, and low-fat milk
– Grains – cereals, oatmeal, and rice ( a lot of it)
– Fruits and vegetables – all of them, just avoid fiber-rich vegetables (beans and legumes) prior workout, they can make you feel bloated and can produce gases
– Seeds and nuts – walnuts, almonds, chia and flaxseed, and you can snack on sunflower seeds anytime.
Also, fluids are very important, you have to make up for all loses of water. If your session is longer, it is best to use a sports drink after a workout, because they also contain electrolytes (salts and minerals), which you will lose during sweating.

What to definitively avoid

Some food is strictly forbidden if you want results, so you might have to make some lifestyle changes.
– Avoid deep-fried foods, the reasons are not just because you won’t see results, it is because these type of food is bad for your overall health!
– Alcohol – excess drinking of alcoholic beverages will affect muscle build and fat lose, in a bad way. One beer is allowed, and even good for you after practice… But only one, remember!
– Sugars – you need carbs, but some food contains them more than enough. Avoid candy, cookies, cake, and avoid using too much sugar as a sweeter (for coffee or tea).

What about supplements?

Supplements are a good way to speed up gaining muscle mass, and today the market is full of safe organic, natural products that can aid you in your cause. Protein is widely available, mostly as whey protein, however, there are vegan alternatives also.
If you are aiming at the “bodybuilder” look, then you can also try creatine for muscle growth, however, do consult your physician first, because if you are taking creatine and not spend it in the gym it can cause multiple problems to your health, both physical and mental. The use of anabolic steroids is highly not recommended, because of various health issues connected to the usage.

The post A healthy diet for the gym – what to eat and what to avoid appeared first on Transforming Fitness.

But have you ever considered working out at home, in your living room, or in your bedroom? It is quite easy actually, but even if you want to do this at home, you will still require discipline and persistence, because even at home you might find an excuse not to do it. Make your plan on how to do it, and stick to it, no matter what try and find at least 20 minutes every second day, it is a very good start, and enough so you can say you are trying to make a change.

Why is working out at home a good option?

There are many advantages when working out at home:

• You don’t need any equipment
• You don’t have a schedule, 15-20 minutes whenever you decide
• 3-4 days weekly is enough for results, in burning fat, and gaining muscle mass
• You don’t need a personal trainer, the exercises are easy and everyone can do them by themselves
• Use everything at home, every piece of furniture can be your workout device
• Do it as comfortable as you please, in pajamas, or even bare naked (although not recommended)

Few simple rules to workout at home

Other than discipline, there are not many rules you have to oblige, but please do stick to the ones below, they can be the difference of good results to no results:

• Stick to the plan, choose 3 days of the week (for starts), and do it as planned, no backing up
• Keep a diary, count the reps, and write them down. Making a schedule with the exercises and table of reps will give you a good picture of how you’re doing
• Always rest after a cycle, but no longer than 30 seconds for short rounds, and no longer than 1 minute after a long round
• Try and increase the number of reps after each week, and write it down, there is no bigger stimulation than that of seeking your own progress written down
• Don’t eat at least 30 minutes before practice, and never eat during. Water will do you just fine.

The workout plan

Here is a list of exercises you have to go with for at least four weeks, try and go with the plan:

• 10 push-ups (or knee push up)
• 10 walking lunges (right and left)
• 20 squats
• 10 dumbbell rows (if you don’t have any weights, use any ball)
• 20-sec plank
• 30 Jumping jacks

Do the exercises with small or even better, no breaks in-between. But don’t force it, if you get too tired, it is best to take a break instead of doing the exercises incorrectly. If you do the round and feel like you can do more, go for another one, and afterward, another one again.

Before you begin, it is important to warm up and stretch, and try to avoid an early injury (another possible excuse). Because you won’t be able to run to warm up, you can jump rope, or run in place (or mountain climber is even better), do punches and kicks, it would be enough to get you ready to start.

The routine is welcomed to be executed 3 times per week, with a pause day after the workout day (no consecutive workout days).

This workout might seem boring, but stick to the plan and do it for at least 4 weeks, you’re bound to get results. Plus, at home, there are tons of ways to make it more fun. For example, use the kitchen cabinet to lean on them and do elevated push-ups, or use the sofa for assisted squats (yes, hold on the sofa as for an assistant), and be creative, nobody will judge you, cause you’re at home!

Nutrition help

You have to eat good and proper if you want results, lose weight and gain some muscle. Natural whole-grain with low-fat meat, and a lot of veggies and fruits, low-fat milk, yogurt, eggs and a lot of rice, you’ll need carbs and proteins in a very well balanced diet. Skip all the sodas, alcohol, cigarettes (normally), and stay away from deep-fried and fast food as far as you can.

The goal in starting with this beginner’s guide is to find a way to like the exercises, and then after a while, you should aim for more. Using dumbbells after a few months is an excellent idea, and when your body adapts to a working out routine, there is rarely a way back. You will start running in the morning and working out more and more, and longer too, and before you know it you will have an amazing and healthy body. Stick to the routine, and this is a promise!

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