Since I have joined up at Viva i have never felt better! The main thing I love is how every staff member there gives you the time of day… whether it’s a quick chat about your fitness progress or just a friendly wave. It’s awesome to feel like i really am part of a great team. Thank you so much! – Anita G*
* Disclaimer: Results reflect a dedicated fitness regime and may vary from person to person
Even experienced pros make mistakes in the gym. But you don’t have to with my comprehensive guide of what not to do!
You may be new to the gym, or you may have been going for years, but there are some mistakes that even seasoned trainers make again and again. If you’ve reached a plateau in your training or you’re not getting to where you want to be fast enough, there’s a good chance that you’re making at least one of these mistakes.
We all tend to repeat the things we like doing, so it’s no wonder that once we find a workout that suits us we stick to it. Change your programme after four to six weeks, otherwise you get into a pattern and you stop producing results because your body has hit a plateau. As well as changing your workout, you can mix it up by cross training – try a circuit or kickboxing class once a week.
It’s easy to think that to get as ripped as the guy in your gym who wows all the female instructors with one-armed press-ups, you have simply to follow his lead. People see someone lifting a heavier weight or using a certain technique and rather than ask them what they’re up to they just copy them. The problem is that without knowing what someone else’s fitness aims are, copying them could land you with unexpected results or an injury. Fastrack your process with experienced push trainers who’s sole job is getting you results and they know this!
You may be someone who can’t do anything by halves, but working out every day is not sustainable – either physically or mentally. If you go every day you won’t be able to maintain a useful intensity and you’ll get bored. It becomes a chore and you’ll start missing sessions, beating yourself up about it and losing motivation. Incorporate proper rest days into your schedule. Take the dog for a walk or play with the kids.
Go to your gym often enough and it starts to feel like a second home. This is a dangerous moment. For a lot of people who go every day it becomes their social life. They chat for half an hour and their training suffers, then they go to the restaurant afterwards and suddenly they’re at the gym every night – but how much work are they actually doing? So get your priorities right. The gym is there to burn calories and get you fit and looking good.
Exercise is enjoyable for its own sake. But once the high of bashing out monster reps on the bench press wears off it can seem a bit pointless. Keep short-term and long-term goals in mind to keep you motivated, and chart your progress. A short-term goal might be to improve your treadmill speed by a notch. It’s a good way to keep yourself working towards your long-term goal. If you can’t think of a long-term goal, it’s the gym staff’s job to help you find one.
Single-minded focus is commendable, but all top athletes use training partners to keep them going and push them to the next level of performance. Ideally you want someone who’s got the same goals as you and whose strength and fitness levels are just a bit better than yours. You’ll be pushed in every session and each will make sure the other goes to the gym.
Slavishly following a workout plan for a whole year is likely to lead to burnout. If your training is getting stale and you’re not getting anywhere, take a break – but do it properly and have a couple of weeks off. It gives you what you need for a total recovery of your body and your mind, because boredom is the biggest killer.
Even the most motivated and energetic gym-goer can have a really crap training session. There’s often no real reason: your body just isn’t up for it. Don’t imagine that you’re going backwards. Sometimes you don’t feel great, but just being there is enough. People who are hard on themselves and start to feel negative about it tend to eventually stop going to the gym altogether.
A tough day at the office leaves you shattered and in no mood for the gym, so you go home and try to get an early night but end up with a bout of insomnia. If that sounds familiar, you may need to separate mental and physical fatigue. People think they’re tired when all they’ve done is sit at their computers. Their brain is knackered but their body is keyed-up and ready for exercise. By going to the gym, you’ll get your energy levels surging and de-stress yourself in the process.
It’s often said that if you exercise when you have the beginnings of a cold, you’ll work it out of your system. This is nonsense. ‘When you train you weaken your immune system because you ask it to repair the muscles you’ve damaged in order for them to get stronger,’ says Archer. ‘If you’ve got a cold already, lowering the immune system is going to bring that cold on even more.’ If you’re feeling ill, eat well and take two days off to recover so you’re fully fit to begin training again.
You’ve reached a plateau and are struggling to move that pin on to heavier weights on your favourite machine. But your body knows its limits better than you do and has shut down growth in the muscle group you’re targeting because its supporting stabilising muscles aren’t strong enough. The best way to work stabilisers and make your other muscles work harder at the same time is to replace the weight machine with dumb-bells. You can get a lot more from dumb-bells because their movement is not restricted and they work both sides equally.
Running on a treadmill for ten minutes won’t warm you up for a set of chin-ups. Try matching the warm-up to the muscle group – rowing is good for the upper body. Then do two light sets of 12-15 reps before you do your work sets. The same applies to cardio workouts. Warm up at 30-60 per cent of race pace.
Between sets, you wander around or sit staring into space until you sense that the guy waiting for your station is getting wound up and you launch into the next set. This is likely to sabotage your workout. Your recovery time is important when looking at how much you are going to be able to lift later on. Too short a rest and your muscles won’t have recovered; too long and you won’t get the benefit. Wear a stopwatch and don’t be intimidated into starting your next set too early.
When you hit the weights room, you always lift the heaviest weight possible. This may limit your growth because you’ll hit your muscles in a very predictable way, and it’s hard to control large weights precisely. Now and then, go light and do extra reps with a greater range of motion. People don’t always lock out on biceps curls, for instance, and you can end up with short biceps. If you go heavy you have to make sure that your technique is spot-on first.
You hammer yourself into the ground with weights and cardio training until you end up breaking down your body faster than it can repair itself. When I train my clients I go for three or four sessions in the gym a week with three days off within that. When you rest is when you grow, and people don’t realise how long they have to rest. Listen to your body and if a muscle is aching don’t work it until it stops.
Make Your Results Happen Faster, Easier Better
Dion Mychalyn
I joined VIVA’s 12 week program as I was feeling flat and wanted to shift some unwanted weight. What I got instead was so much more! After dropping 7 kilos and 8% body fat – I am TRANSFORMED into a healthier and fitter me! My journey is far from over though,
as I continue with my training to maintain what I have acheived.
VIVA has taught me two things..
1. to NEVER GIVE UP and
2. That your Body WILL change – not in days, but over time.
Thank you to my best friend and training buddy Hayley and to ALL the staff and trainers at VIVA – Tina P*
* Disclaimer: Results reflect a dedicated fitness regime and may vary from person to person
I came into Viva yesterday to do a Sunday morning workout, prior to engaging in a great afternoon of food and entertainment at my best man’s daughters christening and heard a dynamic instructor of ours really having just a great time with her RPM class. What makes this instructor so great is that she was prior a member who then found she loved the club and the task of helping pothers live better lives so much she became accredited. Enza is a superstar and 12 months ago she wrote us a beautiful testimonial and shared her story in which I was reminded of yesterday and thought you would love some Monday morning motivation…
My name is Enza Meoli and I am a group fitness Instructor here at Viva, specializing in RPM. I would like to tell you my journey so far…
I joined as a member back in 1993 but was more interested in boys than my fitness!!! Then about 1995 got really serious (after a break up) I started to get compliments on how good I looked, felt great and that I could do anything I set my mind to. I was exercising on a regular basis, daily even few times a day, which enabled me to maintain my weight& tone up. I loved coming to Viva as I always felt like I was part of the family, everyone knew you by name, and always made me feel welcomed. That motivated me to become an instructor, as I pretty much lived here every day why not get paid for it????
I work Full time and have the ability to also teach 3 classes at Viva, I have been taking RPM now for about 5yrs and also trained in Pump. I can honestly say I love the members and my fellow team mates. It makes coming to work enjoyable, it’s such a fun environment, as we all have the same goals. I also have PT sessions with Dan once a week, who works me hard to get the best possible results, with such great precision, and technique, I live and breathe Viva!!
I truly love my classes especially when I get my regulars every week, they are so dedicated to their training and it’s like riding with my friends!!
I have worked at other gyms and nothing beats Viva, we are FAMILY, I can assure you there is no other gym that makes you feel more welcome, part of the family and that we are here for you, we want to help you!!!!
I encourage everyone to take on the fitness challenge to live a healthy life and be fit and happy within yourself, nothing beat’s a hard day’s work, even when ‘ you almost talk yourself out of going’ to the gym, by training hard!! It’s good for the mind, body and soul!!!
For those who are thinking of becoming an instructor to go and just do it, we need dedicated members who are committed to their fitness, promoting a healthy lifestyle and to VIVA, coz we love life!!!! It’s all about ‘work life balance and I can assure you, we have that here at Viva…
‘Haud Renumeror vacuus nixus’- ‘There is no reward without effort’*
* Disclaimer: Results reflect a dedicated fitness regime and may vary from person to person
Wouldn’t You?
Viva Fitness
Kidman Park
So you want to grow muscle right?
Why wouldn’t you. In layman terms muscle does wonderful things for our bodies. Muscle;
There are many reasons why strength training is wanted by men and women. One reason that has helped me stick with it for the last 16 years is that it simply makes me feel great. I love the feeling of mastering my mind and overcoming obstacles and then ticking it off my daily to do list. This small goal helps with confidence and gives you the motivation to go on and set more challenging goals ahead of you. i personally feel ‘less than’ if i have not trained with resistance for 3-4 days, regardless of the cardio sessions i have done. You see when you feel this way about your training you have found an addiction, a want or need that is necessary to be a part of your life. It is no longer about looking good or dropping kilo’s. Yes you want to maintain but the real win is the feeling of accomplishment and self worth that you are that person who is in their giving life a go!
With my weight training I have a routine yes, but it changes based on my feelings and time in a week. My non-negotiable is to train the three main areas weekly. PUSH, PULL, LEGS. If I train 3-4 times then great If I train once then I do the big mothers and pull the house down so i get maximal supercompensation from my session in order to maintain my strength so i can up it next week.
Why am i telling you this because learn to love your training and put the time in and watch the results keep piling up. Every day you enter the gym you achieve the goal. bettering yourself and don’t forget it
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