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25 GREAT FITNESS TIPS


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1 Get kitted out

It’s easy to start making excuses not to exercise if you’re missing any of the essentials – home equipment, gym membership, kit bag, even a towel. Make sure you have everything you need before you start. This will also help you assume an ‘exercise identity’, so that if you look and feel the part you’re more likely to play the part. But avoid Spandex – unless you’re Justin Hawkins.

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2 Aim for progressive overload

 

The basis of increasing any measure of fitness – strength, size or endurance – is making your muscles work harder than they’re used to. You must progressively overload your muscles to advance. To gain strength, you must constantly try to handle greater amounts of weight. To increase size you can increase the number of sets or reps, and to build endurance you can increase sets or reps and decrease rest time between sets. The key word is progressive. You should build-up gradually, rather than attempt too much too soon, but the concept of overloading underpins all physical training.

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3 Build pyramids

 

Muscle fibres grow and gain strength by contracting against heavy resistance. In an ideal world you would lift the maximum weight you could handle eight times for a number of sets, without warm-up, to build size and strength. But in the real world all this would do is injure you. That’s where pyramiding comes in. Start with about 60 per cent of the maximum amount you could lift for one rep, and do 15 reps. Then increase the weight and decrease the reps to 10-12. Finally, add weight to about 80 per cent of your max and do 5-6 reps. This allows you to handle heavy weights after warming up, maximising the benefits and minimising the risks of injury.

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4 Pre-exhaust yourself

 

This can help if you have imbalances within a muscle group. Pre-exhaustion involves using a single-joint (isolation) movement before following up with a multi-joint exercise. Let’s say your quads are strong but your glutes and hamstrings give out on squats before your glutes get pumped. With pre-exhaustion you do leg extensions first, then move on to squats with your quads already a bit fatigued. This way you work all your muscles as close to their maximum potential as possible. Other examples are lateral raises before military presses, and flyes before bench presses.

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11 Power up

 

‘When most people work on their fitness they only really do one part – the endurance part,’ says former Olympic champion Daley Thompson. ‘They spend maybe 30-40 minutes on a running machine but would get much more benefit if they mixed it with some really high-intensity work. The crucial bits in sport come down to how you perform in short bursts – those half-seconds and milliseconds. But few of us actually work on those.’

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12 Shoot like Thierry Henry

 

‘Strikers rarely get more than one touch to find the back of the net. Practise with a friend, and get him to knock balls to you at different heights and speed,’ says the Arsenal star. ‘Try attacking the ball and hitting the target first time without the extra touch.’ As well as honing your skills, it’s a great cardio workout that also helps to boost explosive power and flexibility.

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13 Improve your breaststroke

 

‘The straight-arm pull comes from your fingertips,’ says Olympic gold medallist Duncan Goodhew. ‘Recreational swimmers often allow their pull to continue too long, rather than quitting while ahead. With a long pull it’s difficult to get the hands back to their starting position. Practise very short strokes, keeping the pull completely in front of the body.’

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14 Breathe properly

 

‘Most people don’t think about breathing and consequently end up inhaling and exhaling rapidly,’ says former Olympic cyclist John Howard. ‘This stimulates the flight-fight mechanism and is very inefficient. If you can elongate and control each exhalation, you can improve your cardiovascular conditioning.’

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16 Stick with it

 

For most men, what starts off as a new and exciting hobby can seem more like hard work after only a couple of weeks, especially if you don’t see instant results. Rest assured, this is normal. You’ve come this far, so persevere. It usually takes around three months for training to become a habit, and by that time you will start to look and feel better. In the meantime, remind yourself why you’re doing it and reward yourself for sticking with it. A top-quality massage is an example, but even a treat like a takeaway is better than quitting.

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18 Be SMARTER

 

People who set Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, Time-framed, Exciting and Recorded goals are more likely to succeed than those who simply ‘do their best’. You wouldn’t go to work and say, ‘I’ll do as much of my job as I can over the next few months and see what happens.’ Don’t do it in the gym either.

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24 Concentrate!

 

A lack of focus when exercising can lead to injury. Try the following exercise: sit in a comfortable position, relax and empty your mind. Slowly count to ten, thinking of the figures alone. If your mind wanders, start again. Repeat several times. Done once a day, this will relax you and improve your focus.

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25 Visualise success

 

‘Use all five senses,’ says sports psychologist Michael Sachs. ‘Don’t only see things, but hear what’s going on, smell, taste the sweat in your mouth and feel the steel bar and what’s it’s like to go through the movements. This benefits ordinary people lifting weights as much as it helps elite sportsmen.’

 

 

MY WORLD FIT MY FRIEND FIT! :)

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