One Major Misconception That Could Be Keeping The Ladies From Achieving Their Fitness Goals

The man in the image above is probably in peak physical condition and there are few men and women alike who would deny that he doesn't have an incredibly impressive body. But what most, if not all, women would agree upon is that the physique of this weight lifter is not exactly what they’re aiming to achieve when they head off to the gym after work! Just because you wouldn't mind being with him, doesn't mean you want to be him.

“I’m afraid that weight training will make me look like the hulk.”

This is, unfortunately, a pervasive misconception amongst women in Los Angeles, who actually end up avoiding one of the most effective forms of weight loss and fitness training because they are afraid it is going to turn them into an Arnold Schwarzenegger lookalike. Here’s what Raphael Verela, an experienced SantaMonica gym instructor and owner of Circuit Works LA fitness studio, has to say about the misconception concerning weight training:

 “Ladies, you do not need to worry about bulking up and looking more masculine by training with weights. It’s an issue of biology: your body simply doesn’t contain the testosterone necessary to build muscle mass the same way men do.”

The Virtues of Circuit Training: Combining Cardio and Weights

In the meantime, however, many women don’t challenge themselves with weights and prefer to keep their workouts to running on the treadmill or cycling in an effort to stay trim and fit. But, according to Raphael, this could be keeping them from the body they are working out so hard to achieve.

“Circuit training integrates both cardiovascular and weight-based exercises and the combination of the two will rip through any physical plateau you may have been struggling to surpass,” says the Santa Monica gym instructor. “What many women need to realize is that weight lifting is not about building huge muscle mass, it’s about whole body toning and fat burning. Weight training kicks your metabolism into overdrive and torches calories far faster and more efficiently than running on the treadmill for hours at a time. Combining the two kinds of exercise can challenge your body in a totally new way and expand those fitness horizons. You’ll find yourself achieving far more in far shorter a time.”

It’s for this reason that circuit training is considered one of the most effective forms of exercise for Los Angeles ladies looking to get into peak physical condition… without looking like they’re being throttled by their own neck muscles!

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Gym Instructors Discuss the Three Reasons Santa Monica Residents Could Be Failing Their Fitness Goals and How to Overcome Them, PART 3

Welcome to the final installment of this three-part article series on the common mistakes Santa Monica residents make when trying to achieve those fitness and weight loss goals. In Part 1 and 2, some top Fitness Center Santa Monica explained the first two mistakes and these were that people simply don’t train correctly or they use injury as an excuse not to do any exercise at all. While there are some injuries that deserve some rest, most can be successfully rehabilitated with the right exercise regime, which is why it’s always recommended that you get the advice of your doctor and then get back into it!

Let’s take a look at the final error that could be keeping you from your goals!

Mistake # 3: You’ve Lost Your Workout Mojo

Anyone who has ever exercised regularly at a gym in Santa Monica will know that the biggest hurdle – bigger even than fatigue – is a lack of motivation. You aren’t to blame really; doing the same routine day in and day out can be exceptionally boring and sometimes you just don’t have the discipline for it. The thing is, there are ways to prevent gym boredom, so take a look at the following recommendations and see how you can get the joie de vivre back into your workouts!

• Change your gym routine: Are you doing the same exercises you’ve done for years? Time to try a new machine or switch out one gym equipment for another. Maybe try swimming instead of running on the treadmill. Better yet, take up a circuit training class instead of doing your usual routine.

• Switch it up: Pushing and challenging your body can often have really inspiring results; enough to overcome any boredom and encourage you to come back for more. You can see your body adapting to newer, tougher exercises and you’ll find muscles popping up where you didn’t even know you had muscle before! So, instead of trying to run for longer or do more reps, simply increase your intensity, your speed or your weights and make sure to rest in between! Interval training yields better results, faster, advise Santa Monica fitness instructors.

• Change your exercise routine: Didn’t we just cover this? Not quite: by changing your exercise routine, we suggest that you try a circuit training class run by a group trainer, rather than plodding your usual 30 minutes on the treadmill. These thrilling one-hour classes are intense and involve the fast-paced switching between multiple machines and pieces of gym equipment. It’s virtually impossible to get bored during circuit training and you can get a whole body workout in just one hour!

• Listen to music: Music has an incredible hold on the body. Listening to your favorite tunes can distract your mind from what you’re doing and make the time fly by faster. Listening to the latest club anthems can send adrenalin surging through your body and give your limbs the energy to take on new challenges! 

• Watch a movie or your favorite series: Most cardio equipment nowadays comes with screens and USB ports, so you can plug in your hard drive and a set of earphones and keep yourself entertained while working out. Don’t forget to switch up the intensity on your settings though. It can be easy to forget that you’re trying to get fit when you’re riveted by the latest episode of True Blood.

• Keep a gym diary: Keep a record of your time, calories burned, exercises covered and how you felt before and after gym. It can be extremely encouraging to see how you’ve progressed by looking back at your earlier entries.

Through one or more of the above-mentioned methods, you can keep yourself engaged and excited by working out at any Gym inSanta Monica, thereby beating gym boredom and the mental shackles that hold you back from achieving your weight loss and fitness goals!

 

Woman and Weights: Santa Monica Gym Instructors Debunk 8 Myths That Could Be Keeping You From Your Fitness Goals, PART 1

It’s one of the most common misconceptions in women who come to the gym to get fit and/or to lose weight: they stick to cardiovascular exercises because they’re afraid that weight lifting is going to give them a more masculine physique. This is just one of many myths surrounding the use of weights in the gym and, according to many Santa Monica fitness trainers, these myths may be getting in the way of women who are trying to achieve a variety of fitness and weight loss goals.

In order to debunk these myths and provide you with the truth behind weight lifting and its indispensible role in Circuit Training, fitness and fat busting, we spoke to some professional gym instructors and fitness experts on the matter. In this four-part article series, we present to you what they had to say about the 8 popular myths on women and weights.

Women and Weight Lifting Myth # 1: It Builds Muscle and Makes You Look Bulky and Masculine

“So many of the women who come in for circuit training classes express the reluctance to use the weights and certain weight lifting stations because they don’t want to build upper body bulk,” explains one personal trainer in Santa Monica Gym. “They’re afraid they’re going to start looking androgynous and masculine like some of those female body-building athletes. Here’s the thing: unless you are training for six hours per day and pump your body with protein and other specialized supplements, you aren’t going to resemble any of those athletes.”

Why? Because as a gender, women do not naturally produce enough of the hormones (testosterone) necessary to build the kind of muscle bulk that men do. Or at least this isn’t something that can come from regular exercise and weight training. It takes serious dedication to pump your body up to the sizes attained by some of those professional athletes, so you really don’t need to worry about this.

The problem with this myth is that it deters women from incorporating weights into their gym routine and weight lifting is an extremely efficient way of burning fat! By alternating between short intensive weight and cardiovascular exercises – as is consistent with circuit training – you can burn up to 500% more calories than you would by running on the treadmill for the same amount of time. So, cast this myth from your mind and ask your gym instructor how you can start pumping iron to get into fabulous shape.

Women and Weight Lifting Myth # 2: Weight Training Can Increase Breast Size

 

If this were true, there would be a lot fewer successful plastic surgeons in Los Angeles! Unfortunately, lifting weights and working out your chest muscles does not make you more buxom. Women’s breasts are composed of fatty tissue – not muscle tissue – so they won’t increase in size if you workout harder. In fact, if you lose enough fat through weights training, you can end up achieving the opposite effect!

“Most professional female body-builders have less than 10% body fat and as a result, their breasts have shrunk,” explains one female Los Angeles personal trainer. “If you want to get bigger breasts, there are only three things you can do: (1) increase your body fat percentage, (2) see a plastic surgeon or (3) be happy with your fabulous self and if any one ever complains, give them the boot.”

Stay Tuned for Part 2, Coming Next Week!

We’ll be exploring the following myths:

# 3: Weight lifting leaves you stiff and inflexible.

# 4: Stopping weight lifting can allow muscle to turn in to fat.