A Few Fitness Tips I will be honest I came up with these quirky fitness tips after a personal gym experience recently. They are not your usual tips on how to get fit quick, best abs exercise, best way to train the long head of the biceps, best way to hypertrophy the popliteus or anything else like that. It was Friday 11th February 2011. This was the day i pulled my first 100kg from the floor three times, and it is now recorded in cyberland! I was feeling good, the gym was full of energy, and a little voice from a Greek God shouted out “Just do it”.  I realise now that many other things had influenced how I was feeling on that day, and it was not all down to the Greek Gods. I realise that my experiences that day can all be recreated. Apply these fitness tips to your training so that you can also create the energy and atmosphere conducive to a good strength, power or general fitness session. Fitness Tip 1: Commit to train with someone else, even if you are not training together. You are more likely to go to the gym, and the healthy camaraderie can really influence your session positively! Earlier in the day I had arranged to meet my colleague in the gym for a training session. We generally do our own seperate program, but it is still beneficial to be in there training at the same time. I always feel a little more energised knowing she is lifting some iron too and putting effort into developing her strength. This is important. I was deadlifting on this particular session, and it was week two of four in a phase of training more geared towards intensity (heavier weight, less reps, increasing load each week). Knowing that I am already going to be in the same room as someone else who goes there to train will often get me a little more psyched up for my session. Fitness Tip 2: Find some way of influencing someone else and giving them a good experience. It really does feel good when you can have a positive influence on someone else’s life. Immediately prior my gym session I had just taken a client through a Personal Training session. This client always gives it their all. They have set themselves achievable goals and are clearly focussing on the behaviours needed to achieve those goals. The “behaviours” in the gym are where I have the most direct influence. This client does not whinge, bitch or moan, they just get on with what is necessary. When they say two little words “thank you” and leave the gym with a smile on their face it makes it all worthwhile. They are leaving the gym in a good mood ready to face their day, they will have a better day as a result. Trust me when I say that the job this person does requires them to be functioning at their best. If they go into their work with a positive mindset they too will influence the lives of many others. I feel good about this.  In addition to a healthy mind this client will get stronger, leaner, fitter, faster and be more resistant to injury in the long term. I feel good about that too. This puts me in a happy place ready to work on getting stronger myself! Fitness Tip 3: Scan the gym and look at what people are doing and how they are doing it. Find those with the focussed look in their eyes and face or some other determined look clearly evidencing their positive attitude to training. Now mirror that perception of effort in your training. That is a long tip! Hopefully I can rephrase it here and put it into context. In addition to my colleague there were 2-3 others in the gym also. There was a girl doing intervals on the treadmill who did more work in 20 minutes than I have seen others do in 1 hour. There was a chap doing body weight circuit exercises and some free weights and was clearly in the zone for his training intervals. There was also someone else preparing for their workout, who i know takes his strength training seriously. There was also this mutual respect and understanding that only people who train or play sport seem to get. It is kind of like an unwritten law for the gym. For those that are not sure here are some of these laws wrote down for clarity: a) Do not talk to someone while they are lifting, pushing, pulling, lunging, squatting, bending, twisting, jumping, running or sprinting or anything else looking like an exercise. b) Talk only on rest periods. c) Immediately remove yourself from the friendly gym banter when your rest period is over. d) If anyone does any of the above recognise it is not ignorance or rudeness, just one of the laws of the gym, conducive to a good workout. What I am trying to say for tip 3 is recognise the change in people as they transition from resting to lifting. Recognise this change in people as they are coming to the end of their rest and preparing for the next set. You will see this change in those who are mentally preparing for their exercise and visualising it happening. Mirroring the behaviour of other successful people and visualising your own successes really does give you a performance enhancing edge. Fitness Tip 4: Plan something that you look forward to after your gym session. About 40 minutes after my gym session I had arranged for someone to meet me in the gym for an assessment. They have a major endurance cycling event approaching and are keen to explore the benefits that strength training will bring to their performance. I find this sort of thing really exciting. It is fitness related, it is influencing someone’s life in a positive and often times life changing way. What is there not to look forward to! Fitness Tip 5: Tell the right people what you are going to do in the gym that day. I told my colleague that I was going to lift a personal best, I got nothing but encouragement and was left to get mentally ready and complete the lift. My colleague was the right person to tell, I knew I would get enough motivation. I thought about lifting the bar and how it would feel to complete the task. When I completed it, it felt even better. I believe if you are going to tell someone they have to be the right person. It helps if they are into their fitness. If you tried telling someone adverse to a little risk they would probably come out with all sorts of rubbish reasons as to why you shouldn’t do it - “bad for your back”, “waste of energy”, “what if you get hurt”....all negative. Tell the right people, get the right motivation, and listen to the voice from the Greek God and... “Just Do It”. Now give yourself a big healthy tick! Bridgeman fitness training aims to provide top quality fitness training advice, exercise information and educational resources for all fitness enthusiasts.  Expert fitness advice Bridgeman Fitness Home SEARCH THIS SITE FACEBOOK