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Six tips to improve your home gym workouts

Although home gyms and functional trainers have slight differences there are also many similarities. A home gym or functional trainer offers great freedom for owners: The ability to exercise whenever you want and to totally control the workout environment because it’s in your own home.

However, over time it can be hard to stay motivated working out in your home unless you change things up every now and then.

Here are six tips to keep your home gym workouts going full speed ahead:

Switch up your exercises - Home gyms offer almost a countless number of ways to do presses, squats, rows, curls, extensions and more.

Take advantage of that versatility by tweaking the way you perform lifts of certain body parts. Find a different way to work out the different body parts.

Have a ball - One new trend is to sit or lay on an exercise ball instead of a traditional flat bench when doing certain exercises. Give it a try. An exercise ball base will change things up for you and also give an additional workout to strengthen your core. An example is to lay on an exercise ball to do chest presses instead of on a standard flat bench.

Change your workout length - If your workout normally last 45 minutes or an hour, change it up every few weeks by shaving 15 minutes off the time.

Increase the intensity and amount of weight used for sets, but do fewer sets and take less time between exercises. This will create muscle confusion, force you to step up your effort and make it more interesting because it will be different. And the best part is you’ll get done a little bit quicker.

One at a time - Many lifts on a home gym are done with both arms or legs at the same time. To change things up a little, though, do lifts where you exercise one arm at a time, for example, on triceps extensions or one-legged extensions. This will work your muscles in a more concentrated way and serve as another way to change things up.

Change your workout time - If it’s getting harder and harder to stay motivated to work out, consider changing what time you exercise for a week. If you usually exercise in the morning, try working out at night after work a few times. Maybe you’ll like one better than the other, but a change even for a few days can make a difference in the quality of workouts.

Change your music - A small, but sometimes helpful tip is to change up the music you’re listening to. Take some time and think of songs that will get you pumped up to work out. If you don’t usually listen to music, then consider putting a CD on that will get you moving a little quicker.

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.

Popular Fitness Brands:    • Landice   • Life Fitness   • Power Plate   • Inspire   • Octane   • LifeCore   • Torque

Ranking the three best lifts for each body part

There are a seemingly endless supply of workout tips available from an almost endless supply of people, ranging from online articles like this, magazines, trainers, coaches and even friends.

It can actually get a little overwhelming, especially for a new lifter or someone trying to tweak their program.

One of the biggest questions that comes up is this: What are the best lifts for each body part?

Based on years of personal weightlifting experience and research as well, here are my top three exercises for each body part. If you follow these lifts you should maximize your time in the gym and have a well-proportioned physique, too.

CHEST

1. Pushup (The different hand-positioning options can hit the chest in a great number of ways, you can even do incline or declines depending on foot positioning) 2. Dumbbell bench press (This is safer for the shoulder than the barbell and provides a greater stretch for the pecs. Try these on a flat, incline or decline bench) 3. Barbell bench press (This is still a great lift that allows you to use big-time weight. Make sure to use proper form).

LEGS

1. Squat (This is probably the No. 1 overall lift you can do as it involves every muscle in the lower body, while offering a great aerobic benefit. Make sure you use proper form!)

2. Lunge (A close second for me, but could be first for a lot of people, especially those whose knees and-or back are bothered by squats. It develops flexibility and balance, while stabilizing knees)

3. Dead lift (Similar to the squat, is a great lift to build glutes and hamstrings)

BACK

1. Bent over row (Great for stabilizing back with horizontal pulling motion, also works traps hard)

2. Dead lift (This also works the back and traps, along with the legs)

3. Pullup-chinup (Very hard to do if you're not experienced with them, but works the lats great. For beginners or even intermediates, try using a machine assisted apparatus for these)

SHOULDERS

1. Dumbbell shoulder press (Allows for good, controlled work on shoulder. Fun to do looking in mirror)

2. Barbell (military) press (Can be tougher to do, make sure to use proper form, some people like me advise to just do in front, not back)

3. Front raises (I like to do these with dumbbells to balance out shoulder workout).

BICEPS

1. Dumbbell curls (alternate arms and feel the burn)

2. Barbell curls (You can use heavier weight with these and really get a good pump)

3. Chinup (Works the bi's along with back, again try machine-assisted pullup to get used to these if you need)

TRICEPS

1. Skull crushers (lying on bench with bar or dumbbells and elbows up, bring weights down to skull. I like it with dumbbells better, less tension on elbows) 2. Dips (A great workout for tri's, only go to parallel to avoid injury) 3. Pushdowns (Using a machine, do pushdowns. There are several different handle attachments to vary your workout.) Special honorable mention (close grip bench press)

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.

Popular Fitness Brands:    • Landice   • Life Fitness   • Power Plate   • Inspire   • Octane   • LifeCore   • Torque

Top 11 ways to get stronger

If you work out regularly at home or in a gym, congratulations!

You're already headed in the right direction and are a lot better off than the ever-growing list of couch potatoes in our country.

But for many people who are part of the fitness community, there are things you could be doing better. Instead of getting two steps ahead of your neighbor, friend or relative, wouldn't you rather be way ahead?

And for those who work out like you, wouldn't it be nice to stand out even among the fit crowd?

Take the following suggestions under considerations and you could be headed for bigger and better things.

Here are my top 11 tips for getting stronger (Why not a normal top-10 list? Because you can always do a little more!):

1. Vary the workload
Instead of doing the same basic workout routine, vary the exercises, amount of weights and repetitions you do. Variety is the spice of life and also the way to a stronger body.

Perform heavier weightlifting sets some days to build raw strength and muscle and then on other days go to lighter weights and higher reps to counterbalance with muscle endurance. You'll avoid hitting plateaus as often by creating muscle confusion.

2. Take a break
One of the misnomers some workout novices believe is that hustle is always good in the workout room, just like on the football field or basketball court.

That's not always true in the weight room. When you're in the middle of a heavy set of squats or bench presses, there's no way you should try to whip through the sets. It's OK to take 3-4 minutes to rest and mentally prepare between “big sets.”

3. Legs, legs, legs
Don't be a light bulb - a guy or girl with a big, ripped upper body and skinny legs. Make sure you put just as much energy into building leg strength as you do to working out your upper body.

Legs are the key to everything as your base and when worked out will help spark the entire body into growing.

4. Compound approach
Focus your time and energy on compound lifts - ones that incorporate multiple body parts in one exercise - rather than isolation movements. Examples of compound exercises are squats, deadlifts, clean-and-jerks and bench press.

5. Get to big stuff
When you want to do heavier reps, then warm up light, do a few more warm-up reps at intermediate weights and then get to the big stuff. If you do pyramid programs with lots of reps on the way up, you won't have as much energy left to try the really heavy weights - where the most growth takes place.

6. Use a weight belt
A weight belt will help provide better stability for your lower back when lifting heavier weights and help you do more.

7. Use lifting chalk
Improve your grip and get better sets, Plus, admit it, you'll feel kinda cool using lifting chalk.

8. Breathe right
One of the biggest keys to heavy lifting is proper breathing techniques. Breathe in before the rep and then blow the weights away.

9. Super buddy
Find a reliable workout partner and watch your results take off. You should naturally push yourself at least a little more, a spotter will be there to help when you use bigger weights and you'll be less likely to miss workouts knowing someone is counting on you to lift.

10. Analyze your workouts
Pick out things you do well and also that you need work on. Then set out to improve your weak points

11. Visualize
I really believe in the theory of positive attitude. Picture yourself having a good workout beforehand and prior to lifts visualize yourself powering up the desired number of reps.

Visualize yourself meeting short- and long-term goals - and now go get 'em!

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, aaron@athomefitness.com.

Popular Fitness Brands:    • Landice   • Life Fitness   • Power Plate   • Inspire   • Octane   • LifeCore   • Torque