Fitness Link-up

Find yourself in a winter phunk? Yeah, me too. Set yourself 3 fitness goals and stick to them. Post a link below to a blog post / tweet / facebook status listing them and we'll work through it together.

My goals - between 12th November - 24th December I will

1. Run 35 miles
2. Cycle 150 miles
3. Bench 30kg

Lat Pulldown

Your lattimus dorsi are the muscles running down either side of your back. Keeping them strong helps posture and core strength as well as your overall upper body strength. Using a cable machine to do lat pull downs is a great way to work these muscles for a beginner as you can start with a small weight. If you're already pretty strong you can work your lats with pull-ups.

I'm pretty new to the whole upper body workout thing so I'm using my multi-gym (bargain from Cashies) to build up my strength. For this exercise, as with most, I do a pyramid - starting at a low weight with 30 reps, I then increase the weight and go down to 20 reps, increase the weight again for 10 reps then go back down.

• Start by sitting facing the machine and grasp the bar overhand (palms away from you) - a wide grip works the whole lat muscle whilst a close grip focuses more on the lower lat and biceps.
• Lean back at about a 30° angle and pull the bar down to chest level. Focus on squeezing with your back muscles and not your arms, try to keep elbows directly under your hands.
• Slowly raise the bar maintaining control and tension at all times.
• Repeat, repeat, repeat!

To stretch afterwards first cross your arms around yourself to grasp the opposite shoulder and hug tightly to feel a stretch across the whole of your upper back. Next stand with feet shoulder width apart and bend at the waist keeping your back straight. Reach forwards to feel a stretch down the whole of the back and hold for 10.

Upper Body Weights

I'm trying to increase my upper body strength at the moment, but I'm a bit clueless about weights. Luckily my lovely Mr Bunn is here to help me and has designed an upper body workout for me! I do this once a week (although I feel like i should be doing it more often). Matthew tells me not to focus on the weight or the fact that I am lifting way less than the people I follow on fitocracy. He wants me to focus on reps. Lots of reps makes pretty arms and builds up strength without ending up properly muscly. I tend to do pyramids - so I start with lots of reps at a low weight, then increase weight and decrease reps, then back down again.

So, here's what I did on a recent session...

A Guide to Fitness Supplements

TRAIN HARD – EAT PROPERLY – SLEEP WELL

Maybe take a few seconds to re-read those words, as it is vital they are understood. Before considering supplementation you need to ensure that the more important aspects of your training are in order.

• The training itself - by this, I mean exercise (running, lifting weights, swimming, etc.) If you don’t put the hours in you are not going to get anywhere. 

• Diet - there is absolutely no substitute for a healthy, well balanced diet, full of protein and good quality carbohydrates. 

• Sleep – so often over looked but SO important. Your body needs rest, especially when subjecting it to hard training regimes.

The variety of sports supplements available is outrageously huge. If you allow yourself to be sucked in you can very easily, soon find yourself spending hundreds of Pounds every month. I use four different supplements and they are -

30 Day Shred

I've heard about the 30 Day Shred before, and I've heard it's pretty tough. Jillian Michaels (the one who makes fat Americans exercise until they're sick on The Biggest Loser) uses her 3-2-1 technique to get the best workout from the shortest time. That's strength-cardio-abs. 3-2-1. Easy.

An introduction to squatting

Image Credit

Whether you are training to lose weight, increase size and strength or for sports - you should be squatting! Squats are a compound exercise, this means that they use more than one set of muscles. In fact squats are the most important compound exercise you can do. The main muscles used are the quads, glutes and hamstrings, but squats do a lot more than build lower body strength. Squatting correctly uses muscles over the whole of your body.