Tag: workout
Top 10 Annoying Things In The Fitness Community
Are you guilty of any of these top 10 annoying gym habits?
There is a reason bodybuilders are called meatheads. If you are a regular to the gym, or even if you aren’t, you are likely to encounter someone who turns you off to the things they do.
Some of these fitness enthusiasts don’t limit their erratic behavior to the gyms. They will find a way or two to irritate you no matter where you are. If you haven’t seen any such people at your gym, this article should help you spot them.
The Screamers
We can understand grunting, but do these people really have to scream like they’re going into labor? Most people scream the way they do to get attention. Nothing is more embarrassing for these princesses than people not watching as they hit a PR.
The Broscientists
Broscientists are the people who pretend to know everything when it comes to fitness and bodybuilding. You will often find them correcting your form or suggesting new diets and supplements. Most of these broscientists are full of BS and you’d be better off staying away from them.
The Brand Shop
We can understand you like brands, but wearing Gucci and Armani to your workouts shouts you’re a show-off. If you are wondering, most people aren’t interested in where you get your stuff from.
The ‘Put-it-on-Steroids’ Guy
You’ll always find people who will put everything on steroids. If they find someone who looks awful and has an enlarged gut, they will put it on steroids. On the other hand, if they find someone with a ripped physique, they will undermine their effort by crediting steroids for their physique.
The Sweat Junkie
Some people need to carry a bucket with them to the gym. People who sweat but don’t carry a towel with them are way more irritating. You don’t want to be using a gym equipment after they’ve used it.
The Talker
Every gym has a group of people who are there to make new friends. These people will wait for you to complete your set and will pick up a conversation right away. Ignoring them while they try to talk to you the next time is the only way of keeping them away.
The Photoshop Pro
The fitness industry is full of imposters who want to gain social media followers by showing off their bodies. More often than not these people edit their pictures to look better than they are in real life.
The Pseudo Humble Guy
There are many fitness celebrities who act as if they are the most humble people you will ever meet. These hypocrites do so to gather people at their booths and to sell their stuff. There have been many instances in the past to prove this.
The Hard Seller
You can’t scroll through Instagram without being sold something by an Instagram celebrity. These celebrities are either big on sponsored posts or have amassed a following big enough to start their own brand.
The Stealer
Most people never learn to ask. Ever gym has people who take away weights and equipment other people are using without asking. Only a few things are more annoying than finding your weights are missing while you were away for a water break.
Do you have any of these annoying personalities at your gym? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.
*Header image courtesy of Envato Elements.
Make These Small Changes in Your Daily Routine to Kick Start Your Fitness Journey
Everyday Changes You Need to Make for Leading a Healthy and Fit Life
Kick-starting a healthy lifestyle can be one of the biggest challenges in transforming your lifestyle. For some people, going to the gym six days a week and eating healthy can sound intimidating.
Many people never start working out and transforming their bodies because they think it is too hard and will take up a lot of time from their daily schedules. Getting over this misconception is almost like winning half the battle.
This article isn’t about what to do when you’ve entered a gym. It is about how to reach the gym and commit to a healthy lifestyle in a progressive manner. A spurt of motivation is the last thing you need before starting on your fitness journey.
We see hundreds of people joining gyms as their New Year’s resolutions but almost all of them drop out soon. You need the determination to take on this challenge as transforming your physique isn’t going to be easy and it is going to take time. Usually, longer than you would have imagined.
Hydrate
The first change you can make is to drink water, lots of it. Our bodies are made up of 70% water and people still make the mistake of only drinking water when they are thirsty. If you want to get in shape, you should be drinking at least a gallon of water every day.
Drinking four litres of water might look like a monumental task if you’re someone who drinks 4-6 glasses of water in a day. You can set mini goals of drinking a glass of water every half an hour to achieve this goal.
Setting reminders on your phone can also help you in achieving this goal. By keeping yourself hydrated, you can increase your brain power, flush out toxins, boost your immune system, prevent headaches, cramps, and sprains, among many other benefits.
Move
You don’t have to hit the gym on the first day you feel you need to work on your body. It is perfectly fine to start small. Set a daily move goal for yourself according to your long-term fitness goal. The daily goals could be to do 20 pushups, run a mile, swim two laps, etc.
Some people start working on their bodies but drop out soon. This problem can be tackled by keeping yourself accountable to someone. Share your goal with people around you, it could be with your family, friends, or even on social media.
By telling people what you’re working on, you’ll be setting a mental challenge for yourself. Most people stop working out and hitting the gym because they had no goal, and no one knew about it. By committing to the goal and sharing it with people, you’ll be accountable and will find it harder to drop out.
Eat Right
Don’t make the mistake of getting an appointment with a nutritionist on the first day of your New Year’s resolution. If you do, ask your nutritionist how many people actually stick to their diets.
Take baby steps into the world of fitness. This will improve your chances of staying on track. The next time you eat out, try to avoid junk food and stick to eating something like a salad or roasted chicken. Change your diet one meal at a time.
It might be a good idea to supplement your diet with supplements to help your body achieve the results. But always remember, supplements are called supplements for a reason. They can never replace real food.
Take it Easy
No matter how hard you workout, your body isn’t going to change in a single day – or week for that matter. Your muscles break down when you work out, and repair when you sleep. Just like a baby grows in its sleep, your body transforms while you’re sleeping.
Sleeping for 6-8 hours a day is essential for recovery. If you’re sleeping for less than six hours a day don’t expect your cognitive abilities to function at optimal levels. Most of the high-level executives and performance athletes advocate sleeping for eight hours a day.
Don’t plan on exercising seven days a week when you start working out. Plan your workouts as per your goals. Most of the pros don’t work out more than six days a week, so chances are you won’t have to either.
Are you planning to start your fitness journey? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.
*Header image courtesy of Envato Elements.
How To Master The Barbell Shoulder Press & Military Press
Pressing Technique, Muscles Worked, Benefits, and Training Considerations
The barbell shoulder press or military press is an upper body exercise that is commonly used to improve shoulder strength.
In addition to increasing pressing strength, it also has the potential to enhance shoulder size, improve overhead abilities, and reduce shoulder injury risk.
This article will begin by providing details on the shoulder press technique, muscles worked, and the benefits associated with the exercise.
It will conclude by discussing who should be performing the shoulder press, the equipment to use, and the training methods to apply.
How To Perform The Shoulder Press
While there are many shoulder pressing variations, the traditional press uses a barbell. When performing the barbell shoulder press, work through the following steps:
Start with the bar in the rack at just under chest height
Grip the bar using an overhand grip ensuring that the hands are just wider than shoulder-width
Bend the knees and engage the core before lifting the bar from the rack and stepping back
Ensure that the feet are placed slightly wider than hip-width before initiating the press
Powerfully press the bar straight up and back so that it finishes directly over the head
Control the descent and drop the bar back down to the upper chest
Muscles Worked In The Shoulder Press
As the name suggests, the shoulder press works an array of shoulder muscles. The primary movers during this exercise are the deltoids which provide the power during the pressing motion.
However, there are many other muscles that must contract to assist in the press or provide stability. These include the following (1):
Abdominals
Lats
Pecs
Scapular Stabilizers
Spinal Erectors
Traps
Triceps
Four Shoulder Press Benefits
This section will discuss four of the biggest benefits associated with regularly performing the shoulder press.
1) Enhanced Shoulder Strength and Size
By gradually increasing the amount of weight being lifted, it is possible to make large advancements in shoulder strength and size.
Regardless of the sport you partake in, improving your strength and size is highly beneficial and can transfer to enhanced performance and reduced injury risk.
2) Improved Overhead Abilities
For specific sports, such as Olympic lifting, for example, being capable of holding a substantial amount of weight overhead is imperative.
Therefore, practicing the shoulder press regularly will not only improve muscle strength, it can also enhance shoulder stability and facilitate proper positioning.
3) Application to Sport
Leading on from the last point, improving pressing power and movement quality can translate to improve performance in a variety of sports.
Obviously powerlifters, strongmen, and Olympic lifters will benefit greatly, however, a range of other athletes from a range of sports will also gain from regular shoulder pressing.
4) Better Shoulder Health
There are few shoulder exercises that can compare to the shoulder press for increasing injury resilience.
A combination of improving shoulder strength and stability will directly reduce the risk of sustaining a shoulder injury.
Who Should Perform The Shoulder Press
It’s clear that the shoulder press is a highly effective exercise that many can benefit from. But which athletes should have a particular focus on the shoulder press?
1) Olympic Lifters
The jerk and the snatch are two competition lifts in Olympic lifting. Not only do they demand a great amount of technical skill, they also require strong and stable shoulders.
Having strong and stable shoulders allows lifters to successfully catch the bar overhead and hold it in the right position.
Therefore, incorporating the shoulder press into their training is recommended as it will develop shoulder strength, size, and overhead stability thus facilitating heavier lifts.
Furthermore, enhancing triceps and shoulder strength through shoulder pressing can prevent the elbows and shoulders from buckling under heavy weights and reduce the chances of injury.
2) Powerlifters and Strongmen
For both powerlifters and strongmen, the shoulder press should be a staple exercise of their training program.
In powerlifting, although the shoulder press isn’t assessed in competition, performing it in training can enhance general pressing strength and consequently improve bench press performance.
In a similar way, strongmen may be required to perform an array of pressing exercises including the clean & press and the circus press.
Therefore, strongmen can also improve their competition performance by developing the shoulder press in training.
3) Competitive Athletes
Those who compete in other competitive strength sports may also find value in performing the shoulder press.
For example, in CrossFit, participants are expected to perform an array of exercises. Some of these involve pressing – exercises such as the clean & press, thruster, and handstand push-ups.
However, benefits extend further than solely Crossfit. The majority of competitive athletes will find that developing shoulder strength and size will facilitate athletic performance.
4) General Health and Fitness
Thinking more broadly, most people will benefit from performing the shoulder press as it can improve health, movement, and overall fitness.
As reflected on earlier, shoulder presses place a significant demand on an array of upper body muscles, many of which play an influential role in posture.
Therefore, shoulder presses can substantially improve our posture and movement as well as strength and size. This has a positive knock-on impact and reduces our injury risk.
Finally, pressing movements are a key human movement pattern and, as a result, it is one that should be performed often.
The Barbell v Dumbbell Shoulder Press
It’s clear that the shoulder press is a highly effective resistance exercise that has the potential to improve many fitness components.
Although the shoulder press is conventionally performed using a barbell, dumbbells are also commonly used.
Dumbbells are an excellent option for shoulder press as they can help to eliminate any imbalances and asymmetries.
However, the barbell will allow you to lift significantly more load than the dumbbells will. This is primarily down to the fact that the stability demands are greater with dumbbells (2).
Therefore, if your goal is to maximize shoulder strength, barbells are recommended over dumbbells.
Furthermore, if you perform a sport that uses barbells (such as powerlifting or Olympic lifting), it makes sense to utilize the barbell rather than the dumbbell variation.
While it’s not the case that one is better than the other, you do need to consider the demands of your sport and the goals you have set for yourself when determining the variation to use.
Programming Considerations
Considering that the shoulder press is a compound lift, it can be programmed like other compounds (such as the squat, deadlift, and bench press).
If your goal is to maximize shoulder strength, it is recommended to use heavy weight and a low range (3).
For building muscle size, research indicates that total training volume is more significant than the number of reps performed (4). Typically, however, moderate loads are used for hypertrophy.
Sports athletes can utilize a combination of these methods to generally improve strength, size, stability, and general pressing abilities.
Final Word
The shoulder press is undoubtedly one of the most effective resistance exercises that can be done to enhance shoulder strength.
The vast majority of individuals and athletes will greatly benefit from incorporating this exercise into their training programs.
References:
1 – Williams, Martin R.; Hendricks, Dustin S.; Dannen, Michael J.; Arnold, Andrea M.; Lawrence, Michael A. (2020-01). “Activity of Shoulder Stabilizers and Prime Movers During an Unstable Overhead Press”. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 34 (1): 73–78. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000002660. ISSN 1533-4287. PMID 29889776
2 – Saeterbakken, Atle H.; Fimland, Marius S. (2013-07). “Effects of body position and loading modality on muscle activity and strength in shoulder presses”. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 27 (7): 1824–1831. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e318276b873. ISSN 1533-4287. PMID 23096062.
3 – Schoenfeld, Brad J.; Grgic, Jozo; Ogborn, Dan; Krieger, James W. (2017-12). “Strength and Hypertrophy Adaptations Between Low- vs. High-Load Resistance Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis”. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 31 (12): 3508–3523. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000002200. ISSN 1533-4287. PMID 28834797.
4 – SCHOENFELD, BRAD J.; CONTRERAS, BRET; KRIEGER, JAMES; GRGIC, JOZO; DELCASTILLO, KENNETH; BELLIARD, RAMON; ALTO, ANDREW (2019-1). “Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy but Not Strength in Trained Men”. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 51 (1): 94–103. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000001764. ISSN 0195-9131. PMC 6303131. PMID 30153194.
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