Ideally, I’d like to have my brother, a friend, or one of the fitness trainers I know, with me in the gym each time I work out. To me, there’s nothing quite like having someone to help push you through a workout. They can provide added motivation, give a spot on heavy lifts such as bench press and even point out possible flaws in your technique.
Like many people, though, I have to fly solo often when it comes to my workouts.
However, just because you don’t have anyone around to go to the gym with you doesn’t mean the workout should suffer. Here are five tips to boost your solo workout:
1. Push yourself – Try to work as hard as you would if your friend or trainer was there yelling at you “Give it everything you’ve got! Give it everything you’ve got!”
Don’t back off because you’re alone. If the weights are going up too easy, such as doing 12 solid reps on a squat or biceps curl, then bump up your weight the next time.
2. You can ask for a spot – If you’re in a gym and have a few heavy sets, such as bench press or shoulder presses, there’s nothing wrong with asking someone else who’s there for a spot. Every time I’ve asked for assistance, I’ve received a kind “OK” usually followed by “no problem” or “any time.”
3. Try interval training – Mix in interval training to spice up your solo training. An example is to mix in 5-10 minute sessions on the treadmill or elliptical machine in between sets with free weights, or on a functional trainer.
4. Look in the mirror – A mirror in a weight room isn’t all for vanity. Look in the mirror to check your form and make sure you’re performing lifts properly whenever possible, especially if you’re working out without a partner. BONUS TIP: Slow down. Often people perform lifts too quickly, so make sure you’re going slow enough to really work the muscles throughout the lift.
5. Log it – As I’ve written before on this blog, keeping a workout log provides an excellent motivating tool and helps you set new goals as well.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.net

The summer is reaching its hottest stretch with the calendar about to flip to August.
To avoid reaching your boiling point, here are eight tips to cool off and ease summer stress:
1. Drink more water – It’s an obvious idea, but one some people don’t follow through on. Make sure to stay well hydrated – it‘s the single biggest key to keeping cool in the summer.
2. Exercise – Exercise can give you a natural high by releasing endorphins, plus if you’re in good shape you’ll feel better.
3. Take a vacation – Even if it’s only for a day or two, take a break to get away from day-to-day stresses.
4. Eat fruit – Get natural nutrition and an energy boost with a snack that brightens up your day.
5. Go swimming – When was the last time you went swimming? What could be a better way to cool off than taking a nice swim? I can’t think of any.
6. Where proper outdoors clothing – Wear light colored, moisture wicking clothes to help stay cooler. Also, wear a hat and use sun block to further block the sun’s powerful rays.
7. Tweak your training routine – When the temperatures get too hot, it’s really not practical to be outside. So either get up early in the morning or train late at night outside, or move the workout indoors into your home gym. Get a treadmill or elliptical trainer for your home.
8. Plan ahead – Use your time wisely to have enough left over to schedule some of these stress relievers. It’s hot out, but with a little planning we can all stay cooler – and calmer.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.net

Dogs bring happiness to their owners and that can add years to a person’s life

It’s a doggie-dog world sometimes, so to get an edge you might want to consider getting one yourself.
Owning a dog actually has many health benefits people might not be aware of. Here are the top 10 reasons why owning a dog can actually make you a healthier person.
10. Teach responsibility – By owning a dog you’ll have to be a more responsible person to take care of the animal.
9. Keep you motivated – If you don’t feel like going out for a regular walk or run with the dog, the pooch will make sure you get up and get moving.
8. Weight loss – Some studies show that walking a dog for 20 minutes a day can help people lose up to 10-14 pounds in a year.
7. Get tricky – Dogs can do some fun tricks, like play Frisbee or fetch with you.
6. Boosts your immunity - Incredibly, kids who grow up with a dog in the house have fewer allergies over the course of their lives. Regular exposure to pet allergens can also help boost the immune system.
5. Protection – A dog can provide great home protection with his barking and presence.
4. Recover faster – Studies have shown having a dog who relies on you can help you have a motivating factor to recover faster after a health problem.
3. Loyalty – Even if everyone at work is bugging you and you’re not getting along with the family either, the dog will be there to pal around with.
2. Lower blood pressure – The combination of exercising with a dog and its ability to improve your spirits can help lower your blood pressure.
1. Oh, Joy! - Dogs bring happiness to their owners and that can add years to a person’s life. You know what they say, a dog is man’s best friend.
These have been 10 reasons to back that up.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com

Tone your Tush

Has your back side gone soft? Or maybe it’s just not quite as strong as you’d like. Even for many people who try to stay fit, their tush is a problem area. It may be too big, small, soft or flabby. Whatever your backside’s situation is, here are five tips to tone your tush:

1. Squats

Arguably the single best exercise someone can do to tone the tush are squats. There are a variety of ways to do these. Keep back straight and squat down to parallel position. You can do squats without weights, with a weight bar or holding a weight in front. just make sure to use good form, keep the back straight and use controlled motions.
Do sets of 10-15.

2. Lunges

Alternate lunging down from one leg to another. You can do them in place and come back up each time, or walk around a room doing them. They will be harder than you might think, but get great results. It works the gluteus muscle, hamstrings and quadriceps. Do sets of 10-15.

3. The Bridge

While lying on your back, plant your heels and lift the hips toward the ceiling as high as possibly. Squeeze your tush tight at the top and repeat. Do sets of 20-30.

4. Donkey Kick

Establish a base on your hands and knees, with knees at a 90-degree angle. Kick your foot up from a flat position toward the ceiling. Lower your foot in control. Do about 10-15 on each leg until you feel the burn.

5. Hamstring lift

While sitting on stability ball, alternate raising your legs to a parallel position. This will burn your hamstrings and glutes.

This is the first in a series on my consultation with a certified sports trainer and subsequent training to run a 5K race Aug. 21. I am sharing my experiences with athomefitness.com readers in order to show the benefits of working with a trainer and what it’s like to train for a specific fitness goal.

After recently joining a new health club, I was told one of the benefits was that I could receive a free workout consultation from one of the certified athletic trainers there.
I feel I’ve acquired a great deal of knowledge about sports, fitness and exercise in general over my many years as an athlete and sports reporter at several newspapers.
However, one thing I am not is a certified athletic trainer.
So I decided to take the health club up on its offer and meet with one of the trainers. I’ve learned that you can never stop learning and I was anxious to see what would come of my consultation.
This wound up being a two-part process: 1. Meet, take some body and training measurements (such as body dimensions, weight, blood pressure, 1 ½ mile-run time on a treadmill and bench press strength, 225 for 10 reps) and 2. The trainer set up a program and went over it with me.
Back in high school, I had run cross country for one year and was very successful with it, but in the 20-plus years since my physique has changed significantly. I’ve gotten a lot stronger through weightlifting, but gone from about 165 pounds to a high weight of 225.
I weighed in for my consultation at 208 and was assessed a 21 percent body fat, which the trainer said was good for my age and body type and pretty close to the goal of 19 percent I should shoot for. When he asked me what some of my goals were, one of them I blurted out was, “Run a 5K.” I also mentioned things like stay strong into my 40s, which I’ll hit at the end of this year and improve my flexibility.
Before I could appreciated the true ramifications of what I’d said in regards to the 5K, the trainer told me he wanted to set up a four-week program that would get me ready to run the annual race in our town on Saturday, Aug. 21.
Today was my second meeting with the trainer and he took me through the workout I’ll be doing for the next month, with a primary goal of running the 5K (3.1 miles).
I realize that’s not a super-long distance and I should be able to finish it in good fashion, but having trained more for strength and not having done much distance running lately it will be a challenge to complete my training. I have also had some Achilles’ and calf problems that have plagued me over the recent years, so stretching will be a big key.
The trainer took me through the program he has designed for me and it was really something else: strenuous and different in many ways from the norm that I’ve worked out in the past.
Always one for a good challenge, I’m looking forward to seeing what the next four weeks will bring and will keep readers updated.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.net

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Gain 10 Pounds of Muscle

It can be a tough challenge to add 10 pounds of muscle in as little as 30 days, but whether you’re a string bean or already an athlete who’s just looking to get bigger, it is possible.
Here are five tips to pack on 10 pounds of bulk to your frame in 30 days – or close to it:
1. Up your intake of calories and proteins – No matter how hard you work out in the weight room or your home gym, you are going to have to increase the amount of fuel you take into the body to build muscle. Work with a dietician, trainer and-or study yourself what diet adjustments you need to make.
General tips are to consume more carbs, more chicken and steak, lots of green, leafy vegetables, and to eat 5-6 meals throughout the day.
2. Start heavy – For the first two weeks perform heavy sets with low repetitions. For instance, on the bench press or squat make sure to warm up properly but then do sets of 6-8 reps in which you lift as heavy of weight as you can for those sets.
3. Mix in high reps – In weeks 3-4, alternate days of heavy sets with some in which you take the opposite approach, going for extremely high reps with lower weights. Aim for 10-16 reps.
The muscle confusion will really promote growth.
4. Use a split routine – Pair up related body parts on certain days. A split routine will divide up when you work out the different muscles groups in order to focus harder on certain areas. Usually, people using a split routine will lift weights 4-5 times per week. You can work out more times in a week because there’s more rest time between working of the same muscles.
A split routine should divide lifts so that the muscles that work together are exercised on the same days.
Here is one of the most common split routines: Day 1 (chest and triceps), Day 2 (Legs), Day 3 (Back and Biceps), Day 4 (Shoulders), Day 5 (rest), then start over.
While doing this workout, don’t forget to also stretch well, work the core muscle and continue doing cardio on the treadmill, elliptical machine or running outside.
5. Get intense – It will take an added intensity in the gym for sure to reach a goal of adding 10 pounds of muscle in a month. You’ll have to step up your intensity and push yourself to the brink.
It will greatly help to have a workout partner to provide added motivation and also to help as a spotter. At the very least you’ll need to recruit a spotter in the gym to be able to lift to exhaustion on some exercises.
Even if you don’t quite reach 10 added pounds in a month, if you follow these tips you will see a growth increase and likely reach the goal soon after.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.net

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Lose the final 10 pounds

If you’ve ever tried to reach a target weight, chances are you’ve found the final 5-10 pounds are the toughest to lose.
Generally, the initial pounds are much easier to shed. Things like tweaking the diet and following a regular exercise program can cause people to quickly lose weight at first.
However, the closer you get to the finish line you want to see on the scale, the harder it can be to reach.
Here are five tips to lose the final 10 pounds to reach your target weight loss goal:
1. Up your daily workout – Add 10-15 minutes to your regular workout to increase the amount of calories you’re burning. Change up the exercises a little bit, too, to work muscles in a slightly different way.
2. Combo lifts – Perform exercises in which multiple body parts are used, such as squats, clean and jerk or lunge into an overhead press. These will push your body a little more and in a different way.
3. Up your cardio – On cardio days, try to add on 5-10 minutes on the treadmill or elliptical machine.
4. Eat 5 times a day – Instead of eating the traditional three meals a day, try to eat five smaller meals spaced throughout the day. This is a common approach used to boost the metabolism by people who are trying to really trim up.
5. Shorten rest between sets – To really push yourself, try to shorten the time between sets on certain days. This is one more way to push the body that little extra so that you can trim off the toughest weight to lose – the final 10 pounds.
With dedication, hard work and a little know how, your weight loss goals can be reached. Just keep working hard and stick with it.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.net

Free Weights Bench Press

One of the most noticeable attributes of a male’s physique is his chest.
Put simply, it’s a lot better to have a chest that sticks out farther than the belly does.
As men get older, this can be tougher and tougher to do as it’s more difficult to keep extra weight off and muscles can also tend to sag.
However, with a little knowledge and hard work in the gym, it’s quite possible to keep the chest looking good well into the golden years.
Here are five tips for men to keep their chests chiseled, or at least looking pretty good:
* Flat bench press – The most popular and arguably single best exercise to build chest muscles is the flat bench press, using free weights. Lay back on a flat bench and you can use a bar, or dumbbells. Bench press will also work the triceps and shoulders.
* Incline bench press – To work the top of the chest, change things up by putting your bench on an incline. You can bench with the bar, or use dumbbells.
* Decline bench press – To work the bottom of the chest, adjust your bench so that you lay back at a decline. Again, you can use a straight bar or dumbbells. I personally like using a home gym machine for these as the bar will stay on a consistent track. It works good to sometimes change things up by using dumbbells, too.
* Flyes – Another great exercise for the chest are flyes. Lay on the bench and bring the weights off to the side for flyes. You can also use pulleys for these on a home gym, functional trainer, or stand up for a variation known as cable crosses.
* Pushups – An oldie, but goodie are pushups. If I’m on vacation or don’t have time to get to the gym I like busting about four or five sets of 25-30 pushups. Even if I’m at the gym, sometimes it feels good just to get some pushups in there, too. To change up the angle, you can do pushups off the side of a bench.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.net