9 things that bug me about the gym

I had so many things that I wanted to write about today that I decided to compress it all down and summarize all of the posts into one mainly because I’m feeling a little lazy. I get a little antagonistic but I think it’s warranted and it might actually help some people.

So here we go:

1. Yogging

I have a couple of hang-ups about ‘Jogging’. I call it Yogging because it sounds funny.

The first being that it’s really boring.

You could be doing something a whole lot more interesting with your time and a whole lot more productive. If you actually genuinely like jogging then, by all means do it, but I don’t think you’ll want to after you read the next few points.

People only do it because they associate sweating with losing weight. Just because you are sweating does not mean you are losing weight. You are losing water and the second you drink anything that water is back. End of story. If you try to be smart and not drink water you will dehydrate and die. If you are stupid enough to try this then the world is probably going to be a better place without you anyway.

Jogging for long distances is very technical.  If you don’t do it right you will end up in a bad way and it can be very bad for your joints. This leads on to my next point:

2. Cardio for weight loss. 

It can make you fatter in the long run. You teach your body to use fewer calories each time you perform a cardio workout.

i.e.

Week 1 you burn 350 calories

Week 2 you burn 300 calories

Week 3 you burn 250 calories

To Read More Click Here… I wrote an entire post on this before on my old personal trainer blog.

3. Bad squats

It really pains me when I see people doing cra**y squats in the gym.

I train in a commercial gym in Dublin sometimes because it’s a good facility and it’s a change of scenery from the ABS Gym but every time I train there I feel distracted.

Everyone is making an absolute dog’s dinner of their squats. I put this picture here because it’s hilarious.

Ladies… you won’t get ‘Big Thighs’ from squatting…

This girl is an experienced lifter that either had big legs in the first place or is squatting very heavy weights and WANTS big thighs.

Men… squatting is one of the best exercises you could possibly do but… squatting like this guy will get you NOWHERE…

4. Bad benching

Have your feet elevated?
Elbows Flared?
Flat back position?
Rounding your shoulders?
Lowering the bar to your shoulders/ upper chest?
Then you are doing it wrong and you look like this guy:

5. Stupid random crap, balancing acts and out of control functional training

There is absolutely no sense in standing on a spherical object and doing anything. It has no relevance. I agree that it’s hard to do, but so is a backflip. That doesn’t mean that you should be doing backflips in the gym because, unless you are a gymnast, it doesn’t fit into your program and it doesn’t make sense unless you want to end up in a wheelchair.

6. Overweight people doing curls/ extensions/ crunches

Somebody who has a goal of losing body fat should never do isolation work.

Curls, machine exercises, crunches, bicep work and leg extensions/ leg curls all fit into this category. Not one of these exercises is going to burn a significant amount of calories or have any impact at all on your results.

For an exercise to be worthwhile for losing body fat it has to be metabolic in nature. The more muscles and body parts involved in an exercise the more metabolic it is.

7. Skinny people doing curls/extensions

I see it every day; the guy who wants to put on muscle buys the biggest bag of weight gainer he can lay his eyes on, a tub of some nonsense nitric oxide product and heads to the gym and starts nailing a load of bicep curls on his first day.

NO NO NO

If someone wants to build up they need to ‘earn the right to isolate’.
They need to get stronger, build their pushing and pulling strength up, and then isolate the muscle. Bodyweight exercises should be mastered first such as the push-up and chin up and then big compound movements like the bench press, squat and deadlift. Once you have progressed at these movements you have earned the right to do curls and extensions.

8. People who won’t ask for help

All of the above can be rectified very easily. Bench press technique, squatting and benching. Ask someone how to do it properly, don’t try and visually copy them. I see people all the time trying to copy me in the gym, but two or three things are wrong and it ends up being a completely nonsensical movement that has injury written all over it. You need 1^st hand information. Ask somebody who knows what they are talking about.

9. People who won’t invest in themselves

This year, including flights and accommodation, I have spent a lot of money on my education and learning things that I don’t already know about health and fitness, web design, business, online and offline marketing and lots more.

I invest in myself.

Joining a gym, bootcamp or getting a personal trainer isn’t an expense or a cost, its an investment. You don’t work with a personal trainer and forget all that that you have learned, you own that information for life.

The knowledge you get about lifestyle management, training and nutrition stays with you for a lifetime.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest – Ben Franklin

The ABS Gym offers a number of different services ranging from programming and assessments to Private Personal Training sessions. To find out more – book a Free Consultation and we’ll see how we can help you get to where you want to be.

 

Thanks for reading,

Bryan Kavanagh BSc. CSCS

 

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