Wednesday 16 July 2014

Losing Weight Vs Losing Fat

I see many people in the gym trying to drop unwanted weight and shed the fat. VERY few of those people actually now how to exercise and diet to reach their fitness goals. This segment is going to focus on helping those overweight people understand a CRUCIAL concept: the difference between LOSING WEIGHT and LOSING FAT.

When attempting to diet, too many people are concerned with the number on the weight scale and not concerned enough with their body composition. Losing fat and losing weight are NOT the same. Yes losing weight could also mean you ARE losing SOME fat, but you’re also going to be losing muscle.
But for those individuals that are very overweight and do not necessarily care about “losing muscle” does it matter?

YES IT MATTERS


Body Composition

Everyone’s total body weight is composed of EVERYTHING inside his or her body. This includes the weight of their organs, bones, muscle tissue and fat. The weight that the body loses can come from a person’s fat stores OR muscle tissue

Have a look at the picture below. Both individuals are the same height and same weight, yet their BODY COMPOSITION is completely different. The reason for this is because both individuals have a very different muscle-to-fat ratio in their body. Remember your body weight is composed of muscle AND fat. The person on the right has a much higher percent of MUSCLE contributing to the 190 pounds of his total body weight, where as the person on the left has a higher percent of FAT contributing to his 190 pound figure. An individuals body composition can be measured by his or her BODY FAT PERCENTAGE. Your Body fat percentage tells you the percentage of your TOTAL body weight that is solely FAT.


For an example lets say Tony weighs 200 pounds at 10% body fat. This means that out the 200 pounds he has on his body 20 pounds of it is pure fat. Say Tony want to go on a diet and lose 10 pounds. If Tony diets and loses 10 pounds, but that 10 pounds is lost from his muscle mass instead of his fat, Tony will now weigh in at 190 pounds but STILL have 20 pounds of FAT on him! So even though Tony LOST WEIGHT he’s actually in worse shape than he was before he started, because now his body fat% has increased! Even though the scale is telling Tony his weight has gone down 10 pounds, when he looks up at the mirror he will look even more out of shape because his body composition would have gotten WORSE.

Fat vs. Muscle

Many of you may have heard the old popular riddle “what weighs more, 1000 pounds of feathers or 1000 pounds of bricks?” The answer is, they both WEIGH the SAME, they’re BOTH 1000 pounds!

 It is important to remember one thing about this riddle, and that is even though 1000 pounds of bricks will weigh the same as 1000 pounds of feathers, the AMOUNT of bricks required to add up to 1000 pounds verses the AMOUNT of feathers required to add up to 1000 pounds ARE VERY DIFFERENT. Have a look at the picture below.

Since bricks are much HEAVIER and DENSER than feathers, you would need significantly LESS bricks to compose that 1000 pounds, where as you would need significantly more feather. So even though the the bricks and feathers would weigh the same on the scale, the feathers would take up more SPACE since you need MORE OF IT to compose that 1000 pounds and since the bricks are more dense and compact they would take up LESS SPACE on the same scale.

Have a look at the picture below. On the left you have 5 pounds of fat and on the right you have 5 pounds of muscle. Even though both weigh only 5 pounds you can see that the muscle is more DENSE and COMPACT and takes up LESS SPACE than the fat.


Why "The fat get fatter and the fit stay fit"

Muscle tissue is Denser and more compact than fat tissue. Recall that muscle needs energy to maintain and build itself. That means if a higher percent of you total body weight is composed of muscle; your body burns MORE calories without you doing ANYTHING. Individuals with higher muscle mass have a higher BMR which stands for Basal Metabolic Rate. Your BMR is the amount of calories your body uses while at rest. So if Tony had a higher BMR than Bob and they both did nothing but sleep all day, Tony's body would still use up more calories than Bob's.The key point to remember here is that muscle needs calories to survive, so the more lean muscle you carry the more calories your body is able to burn and NOT store AS FAT.

Also, since muscle is more COMPACT and DENSE, a 200-pound person whose weight is composed of muscle will be much smaller, tighter, and harder than a person whose 200 pounds is composed of fat. The 200-pound person composed of fat will take up more space and be much softer. Both people in this picture are the same weight and height, yet their body composition is significantly different because one person has much more muscle mass, and the other has much more fat contributing to their respective weights.


If higher percent of your bodyweight is composed of FAT than MUSCLE than your body doesn’t need to use as many calories for energy. As a result, the more fat you carry on your body the more your body is likely to store extra calories as fat.

Cardio or Weight lifting?

Another common mistake I see overweight people making in their attempts to get fit is performing hours and hours of cardio. Many people are unaware to the fact that if your goals including burning a significant amount of fat performing cardio alone is very inefficient to help you get fit. 

Why is that?

Consider this, in order to lose one pound the body needs to burn about 3500 calories. Think for a second about how long an overweight person would have to do cardio to lose a significant amount of fat. As I mentioned before its not ONLY about working hard, it’s about working smart. The biggest tool people looking to lose weight should include in their routine is WEIGHT TRAINING. Even if your goals are not to put on muscle and just strictly focus on fat loss weight training should be a CORE part of your training program.

The difference in efficiency between burning calories through cardio and burning calories through weight training to lose body fat is enormous. Consider this, while performing cardio you are burning calories for as long as you are performing the exercise. As soon as you hop off that cardio machine your body stops burning calories. Weight training is significantly different. Recall that muscles use up calories to maintain and build/recover. Therefore weight training not only burn calories during the exercise session, but CONTINUES to burn calories even while you’re resting and your muscles are still recovering from the workout! In fact weight training lets your body CONTINUE to KEEP burning calories for up to 48 hours AFTER the workout.

This segment was just designed to help you understand the difference between losing weight and losing fat. This topic is one I find people have the most difficulty grasping so I will be getting back to it and talking about it in more depth in the near future.

And please DONT BE THAT GUY..





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Monday 14 July 2014

Exercising to Build Strength

How to workout to build strength

As I mentioned before, building muscle and gaining strength are NOT mutually exclusive, and as one increases the other tends to as well. However in order to build muscle and strength as EFFICIENTLY as possible, its important to understand the difference between the Hypertrophy and Strength building training styles. My last segment focused on training for hypertrophy and increasing the size of the muscle. But lets face it; no one wants to be that big looking dude that can’t lift the weights. After all, you don’t just want SHOW muscles, you want GO muscles!

Strength Training

What is strength training?

Training for strength is a lot different than training to increase the size of your muscle. While training for Hypertrophy recall that the goal was to increase the size of the muscle by pumping more blood into it through slow and controlled muscle contractions. Strength training deals with teaching your brain how to RECRUIT those muscles and involve them in your lifts so you can increase your weight load (motor unit recruitment).

Benefits of strength training

Strength training has TREMENDOUS benefits and plays a VITAL role in helping you achieve your ideal physique. Strength training doesn’t focus on building muscle; it strictly deals with increasing the resistance load on your lifts. Unlike the 8-12 rep range required for MUSCLE BUILDING, Strength training has a much lower rep range (usually 1-6) but with a much higher resistance load.

The question you may be asking is “what’s the point of training to just lift heavier?”
I’ll tell you why.

1) Hormonal Response

Hopefully by now you understand that our body RESPONDS to the stress we introduce to it in the gym. Since compound exercises such as Squats, Dead-lifts and Bench press recruit the most amount of muscles in the movement, it places the body under the greatest amount of stress compared to other isolation exercises. In response to this stress, the body releases GH (Growth Hormones) and increases the body’s free testosterone production. These hormones are essential to helping you build muscle, recover, and burn fat.

2) Increased Strength

The second benefit is Obviously the increased strength. But how is a strength increase without any major muscle gains going to be of any benefit to you? Is there a point of just lifting heavy for the SAKE of lifting heavy? Think about it like this, even though you MAY not put on muscle while strength training, when you DO go back to training for Hypertrophy (muscle growth) you will be able to perform a much higher resistance load on the 8-12 rep range required to build muscle. This has obvious benefits for putting on size because as stated by the progressive overload principle, the INCREASED stress being placed on the muscles will help them grow BIGGER! Essentially, once you’re off that strength-training program, the weights you lift to put on MUSCLE MASS will have increased which will TRANSLATE into MUSCLE GAIN.

3) Denser Body Composition

Many people may have seen individuals with a small frame or “skinny/slim” build lifting a ridiculous amount of weight for their size. Don’t let their appearance fool you; unlike people who train to increase muscle size, these individuals have much more DENSE muscle fibre. This really DENSE and HARD look is achieved by lifting heavy weights. By strength training you wont necessarily increase the SIZE of the muscle, BUT you WILL increase the amount of MUSCLE FIBRE used by your body. The benefit of this DENSE muscle fibre is that it has a harder and more defined look to it and it is less likely to be broken down by the body if it goes catabolic.

Compound Exercises

Strength training doesn’t focus on increasing the resistance load on ALL exercises. The main focus for most strength training programs is COMPOUND exercises. Recall that a compound exercises is an exercise that works MORE than 1 muscle in the movement.
 
The following are a list of reasons why you should incorporate COMPOUND exercises into your routine.

-Burn more Calories per rep
-Work more muscles in the same amount of time
-Promote testosterone and GH

Now it’s time for the MILLION DOLLAR question.
 What if you don’t want to compromise between strength and muscle, what if you want both? Is it possible to build a hybrid program that allows you to build both muscle and strength? 

Of course there is.

This is a popular training style know as "power bodybuilding". There are many power bodybuilding programs and they all usually revolve around the idea of starting your weight-training session with the heavy compound lifts (squats, dead-lifts, bench-press) and THEN going on to focus on the bodybuilding exercises (increasing the size of the muscle). I will be posting some routines later on when I start talking about HOW to bulk to put on muscles mass, but for now I just wanted to help you guys understand an differentiate between training for Hypertrophy and training for strength.

Heres a short video by fitness expert Elliott Hulse who brefly talks about the concepts I discussed in this segment on Strength training vs training for Hypertrophy.


Hopefully after reading this and my last segment you have a solid understanding on the difference between training for size (hypertrophy) and training for strength and the benefits on incorporating each into your routine.

AND PLEASE...don't be Tony and Bob


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Sunday 13 July 2014

Exercising to Build Muscle

Building muscle vs. building Strength

Many people have the misconception that just because you’re getting stronger and your lifts are increasing that you’re also building muscle. Don’t get me wrong, there is a STRONG correlation between muscle mass and strength gains however just because your getting stronger, doesn’t ALWAYS mean you’re also EFFICIENTLY building muscle.

If you lift heavy and strength train I am NOT saying you wont put on muscle, you WILL. What I’m saying is Strength training isn’t the most EFFICIENT way of building muscle.
An easier way to put this is using Cocaine as an example, yes...Cocaine. A lot of people may or may not know that one of the side effects of sniffing cocaine is (unhealthy) weight loss. If an overweight individual wanted to LOSE WEIGHT, and they decided to sniff cocaine they WOULD lose weight, but is that the best way? OF COURSE NOT, healthy diet and exercise would be the most EFFICIENT (and less fatal) way of losing weight. Just like the SIDE EFFECT of cocaine is losing weight, building muscle is a SIDE EFFECT of STRENGTH TRAINING but it is NOT the most efficient way of putting on size.

*NOTE* I DO NOT RECOMMEND YOU CONSUMING COCAINE TO LOSE WEIGHT IF YOU ARE OVERWEIGHT,  I’M JUST USING IT AS AN EXAMPLE TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND, DONT DO DRUGS!

It is important to keep in mind that building muscle and gaining strength are NOT mutually exclusive; gaining strength DOES result in building muscle (and Vice Versa). The point I’m simply trying to make is that it is important to understand the DIFFERENCE between strength training and Hypertrophy training so you can maximize your desired results and be as EFFICIENT as possible.

In this segment I'm going to be focusing on strictly Hypertrophy training, and focus more on Strength training in the next.

Hypertrophy

 The Hypertrophy training style’s main focus is to increase the SIZE of your muscles and inflicting as much MICROSCOPIC damage to the muscle tissues as possible so they repair and build BIGGER and STRONGER. Just as I explained how muscle building is a SIDE EFFECT of strength training, increased strength is a SIDE EFFECT of BUILDING MUSCLE, but not necessarily the main priority. If your main focus is to gain as much STRENGTH as possible, training for Hypertrophy is NOT the most efficient way of doing so.

Without overly complicating it, training for hypertrophy is when the main focus of your training sessions is to pump as much blood in to the muscle as possible, while also tearing down the muscle fibres so they rebuild bigger and stronger. The most ideal REP RANGE for building muscle is anywhere from 8-12 reps.

It is important to note that you DO NOT have to lift your max weights to build muscle, but that does not mean you lift light either. Keeping the “progressive overload” principle in mind from the last segment, the 8-12 reps you are performing should be the heaviest 8-12 reps you can lift. Every week the WEIGHT LOAD on that 8-12 reps should still be increasing so your muscles are always being forced to ADAPT. However if you can’t perform at least 8 repetitions with proper form chances are you’re lifting too heavy for building muscle and you’re starting to enter the realm of strength training.

Time Under Tension

After the PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD principle, the next term on our “Kung Fu Panda Scroll of Gains” would be the "Time under Tension Principle".

As I mentioned above, the goal for training to BUILD muscle is to pump as much blood into the muscle as possible WHILE causing as much microscopic damage to that muscle tissue. The time under tension principle is directly related to the progressive overload principle. Recall that progressive overload requires you to introduce your muscles to an increased level of stress every workout either by increasing the weight load or volume of exercises/reps. Just as the name suggests, time under tensions deals with HOW LONG you expose that stress to your muscle, where as progressive overload focuses more on HOW MUCH stress you expose to the muscle.

It is imperative to understand that while performing your 8-12 repetitions with a muscle building mind set, EACH rep should be performed in a SLOW and CONTROLLED movement. At the end of each rep you should take a brief moment to really SQUEEZE the muscle you’re working to force as much blood into it as possible before SLOWLY completing the rep. The LONGER the muscle you are working is under STRESS, the MORE it is being broken down and the MORE blood is being pumped into it. With that being said I’m not suggesting you take TOO long on each rep because then you would be exhausting too much muscle energy and wouldn’t be able to complete the 8-12 reps.

Eccentric and Concentric (positive and negative) muscle contractions

Before I get into how long each rep should take you to perform, I want to briefly talk about POSITIVE (concentric) and NEGATIVE (eccentric) muscle contractions. Every single exercise performed while weightlifting works both a POSITIVE part of the muscle and a NEGATIVE part of the muscle. 

Using a Bicep curl as an example, the eccentric movement )(negative contraction) is defined as the “lengthening of the muscle” so that would be when you extend your arm with the weight in hand.

 The concentric contraction movement (positive contraction) is the contracting or shorting of the muscle, this is when you bring your arm back up and perform the actual curl.



This concept of positive and negative muscle movements is important to understand because many people rush through their reps and just “go through the motion” but don’t really take their time to work the muscle. The negative movement of any weightlifting exercise always causes more damage to the muscle tissue then the positive movement. SO for an example if a person was bench-pressing, they would cause more microscopic damage to the muscle tissue while LOWERING the weight to their chest than they would from the upward PUSH. Recall that one of the goals for Hypertrophy was to cause as much microscopic damage to the muscle tissue as possible, therefor it is CRUCIAL that while performing exercises the individual takes particular care in putting tension on the NEGATIVE muscle and not just the positive.

The game I've posted below is an excellent representation of the time under tension principle as well as understanding the positive and negative movements of each rep. Have a go at the game to understand why.


Bench Press
Play Bench Press
Notice how this individual SLOWLY lowers the weight before exploding up. HE took longer on the negative movement (eccentric contraction) than he did on the positive movement (concentric contraction). 

Also watch this short Youtube video by personal trainer Chris Jones who explains the importance of the Positive and Negative muscle movements, and why these movements are so important in BUILDING MUSCLE. 


1-0-4-0 Tempo

One way to maximize the tension you introduce to your muscle is by changing the TEMPO of your reps. The 1-0-4-0 temp basically means:
1 second on the positive movement
4 Seconds on the negative movement
With 0 seconds at the top and bottom

*Note* The 1-0-4-0 Temp principle should NOT be applied to ALL exercises.
Exercises such as Squats, Bench-Press, and Dead-lifts provide the greatest benefits to you when performed HEAVY. These powerful compound exercises recruit many muscles into the movement, so regardless of the tempo in which you perform them you’ll be placing a lot of stress on the muscle any way as long as your form is proper. The 1-0-4-0 tempo can be applied to these lifts only when you aren't lifting your max weight, or close to your max weight. 

High-Volume

High volume is a term used to describe a training style that incorporates many exercises and sets. Since hypertrophy training doesn’t require you to lift you MAX weights, you will be able to workout with MORE exercises to pump MORE blood into the muscle. Strength training requires you to lift at or close to your max weights so your muscles exhaust quicker as Glycogen stores are depleted at a faster rate. The idea behind high volume training is to hit the muscle from as many different angles as possible to maximize the microscopic damage and pump the most amount of blood into it.

In this segment I focused more on tips to help you increase the SIZE of your muscle while adding some strength. My next Segment will deal with Strictly Strength training and why you should incorporate it into your workouts. And as always, if you have any questions or comments feel free to message me personally or leave a comment below.


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Friday 11 July 2014

Gym Commandments

Having a solid diet plays a major factor in achieving your fitness goals. But even with the perfect diet, achieving your goals will be next to impossible unless you learn how to exercise CORRECTLY. In this segment I’ll get into the fun stuff; general tips to improve your actual workouts.

Before I start I want to clarify a few terms I will be using throughout this blog and future blogs.

Compound Exercises: Compound exercises are basically any exercise that works MORE THAN 1 muscle.
 Examples of some good compound exercises include


-Dead-lifts

-Squats

-Bench press

-Military/ any overhead press

-Pull-ups/Dips




Isolation Exercises: Isolation exercises are exercises that focus only on ONE specific muscle. Examples of some isolation exercises include


-Bicep Curls

-Tricep extensions

-Pectoral fly’s

-Calve raises



*Note*
I just want to get you familiar with the TERMINOLOGY right now, I will go into much more depth on compound exercises and isolation exercises in my next blog.


Muscle failure: There’s a difference between stopping a set because you are uncomfortable, and stopping a set because you are completely exhausted. In simple terms, muscle failure is when you can no longer perform a rep.
 
Drop-Sets: A drop set is when you perform a particular exercise until muscle failure, and then without taking a break, reduce the weight load, and repeat. A drop-set is a valuable tool to help you exhaust the muscle and achieve complete muscle failure.

Super-Sets: A super set is when you perform an exercise, and then immediately proceed to another exercise with NO breaks.


Now that you have an understanding of some basic gym terms, the first thing I’m going to start with is the BIGGEST mistakes people generally make in their workouts that’ll severely hinder their progress. The following is a list of some of the most common mistakes made INSIDE the gym.

 Ø  Incorrect Form: If your form on every exercise in NOT correct, you’re wasting time. By performing exercises incorrectly you are unable to properly isolate the muscle you’re trying to work, and could result in serious injury. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, make sure your form is on point!

 Ø  Bringing your EGO with you: It’s as simple as this; LEAVE THE EGO AT HOME. I see countless people consistently coming to the gym only to lift weights that are way to heavy for them and having their spotter do all the work. By doing this not only are you ASKING for an injury, but also lifting weights that are TOO heavy for you usually leads to bad form, which once again hinders your progress.
      
 Ø  Getting too fancy: For some reason everyone has the misconception that super-setting and drop setting EVERY exercise will help you build muscle and get in shape because you burn more calories. Don’t get me wrong, super-sets and Drop-sets ARE extremely valuable tools, but shouldn’t be performed on EVERY set. Stick to the basic's and build a solid foundation, don't get caught up in these new "miracle muscle building workouts" being promoted everywhere. Keep it simple.
      

 Ø  Socializing: Don't be what I like to call a "social lifter". A person (usually guy's) that tweet or make a Facebook status every time they set foot into the gym. Once they're at the gym they start scouting for girls and talking to their friends.You will have countless opportunities to catch up with your friends outside of the gym, but always remember as soon as you enter the gym your mind should be FOCUSED. Talking to your friends or other people excessively not only ruins your workouts but ruins theirs as well. Also if people are waiting to use a machine that you may be exercising on, it wastes their time as well. Don't come to the gym to just stare at all the pretty girls, (lady's that goes for you too, don't be checking out all the dudes!), make it a habit to put away the phone, stay focused and get the job done.
       
     
 Ø  Cardio BEFORE weightlifting: This one may surprise a lot of people, but yes, performing excessive cardio BEFORE your weight lifting session IS counterproductive. Why? Recall that your body utilizes glycogen as energy fuel your workouts. Doing cardio burns burn energy and exhausts your glycogen stores which you would need later on in the workout to weight lift. Don’t get me wrong, it is EXTREMELY important to make sure you warm up properly before weight lifting, but save the cardio for                                                                               AFTER your weight training sessions.

 Ø  Lack of a routine: and of course there will always be those who have no idea what exercises to do. It’s very important to come into the gym FOCUSED and know exactly what exercises you’re going to do and the sequence in which you’re going to them. Its important to include both compound and isolation exercises in your routine. Staying organized and focused with your routine is crucial for achieving your fitness goals.
      

Ø  Taking too long between Sets: you shouldn’t be taking longer than 30 seconds to a minute between sets UNLESS your strength training in which sometimes your body needs a little longer to recover between exercises. This also ties back into socializing, remember others are also waiting to use your machine and taking too long between sets results in your heart rate decreasing and slowing down the blood circulation to your muscles. The last thing you want to do in a workout is take too long between sets and lose the “pump”.
 

While we’re on the topic of most common mistakes made in the gym, enjoy this short little video of the most EPIC gym fails. If you don’t laugh I will give you your money back.



Now that you guys have an idea of what you SHOULDN’T do, its time to start talking about what you SHOULD do. The most important and absolutely CRUCIAL concept that any gym-goer MUST grasp to reach ANY kind of fitness goal is the “Progressive Overload Principle”. Before I explain what this is, write it down on your wall, in your phone, on your face, wherever, but ALWAYS remember this principle and more importantly APPLY it.

Progressive Overload

If there was a kung-Fu panda scroll on how to build muscle, it would have the word progressive overload in it.

The human body was made to ADAPT and RESPOND. Think about it, when you have the flu, your body will adapt by increasing its internal temperature to sweat out the virus, and respond by releasing anti bodies and white blood cells to help combat the sickness. You get the chicken pox? Your body ADAPTS to the sickness and responds by recovering in a way in which you’ll never get the chicken pox again. The easiest example to understand is the process in which your body develops callouses. When your skin is frequently exposed to pressure for an extended period of time, your body adapts and responds by hardening the skin in that area and creating callouses as a defence mechanism. BUILDING MUSCLE WORKS THE SAME WAY.

We all know the story of the 3 little pigs. To sum it up the big bad wolf blows down the first pig’s house. Second pig builds a STRONGER house, but once again the wolf huffs and he puffs and breaks it down. The third pig builds up the house even STRONGER and this time the wolf cant blow it down.
Why is this significant?
When you weight lift the goal is to break down muscle tissue during the workout, and with the aid of proper nitration, that muscle not only builds back, but builds back STRONGER THAN BEFORE. Essentially, your body adapts to the weight overtime and it gets easier to lift because your body responds by increasing your strength and building the muscle. Think of it as your brain telling your muscles “hey the weight this person is struggling to lift is kind of heavy, lets adapt to the weight by becoming STRONGER and BUILDING muscle so the next time this person lifts the weight it’s a little bit easier”.

The progressive overload principle requires you to expose your muscle to an increased amount of stress every gym session. This stress doesn’t necessarily mean you have to increase your weight load, it could also mean performing more exercises, repetitions, reducing rest between exercises, basically anything that exposes a stress to the muscle that it has not been exposed to before. When you “overload” the muscle with more stress than it’s capable of handling, the body MUST respond and adapt to that stress so in the future IT IS capable of handling it. Your body responds to this stress by building the muscle BIGGER and STRONGER after its broken down from exercising.

If you perform the exact same repetitions, with the exact same weight load every workout, your body has nothing to ADAPT to and thus no longer has a need to grow. I’ve said this before, our body’s priority IS NOT to build muscle, it is simply to SURVIVE. Therefor if your body already has the capacity handle the stress you expose to it in the gym, it no longer needs to adapt, and therefor stops growing stronger.

How to achieve progress overload?

1. Increase the weight load
2. Increase the number of sets
3. Increase repetitions
4. Increase how often you train that muscle
5. Increase the number of exercises you perform
6. Reduce Rest

Every gym session you should always be aiming to improve. If you're not improving anymore, or your lifts are even going down, it may be a sign that you need to improve your diet or rest more. Remember even if you can do ONE MORE REP than last week, its still GOOD. One rep may not seem a lot, but thats one rep your body was not ABLE to perform the week before. Slow progress is STILL progress. Be patient, keep good form on all your lifts, and eventually you WILL improve. Don't compete with your friends or other people, your only competition should be who you see in the mirror. 

In this segment I wanted to focus on basic gym tips. My next few Blogs are going to keep building on how to improve your actual workouts, and what TYPE of workouts you should be doing to achieve your desired fitness goals. As always Feel free to message me with any questions, or just leave my a comment underneath, and please continue providing me with feedback! Thanks.

God bless your Gains.