Tag: phoenix personal trainer

Top 5 New Year Resolution Mistakes

Top 5 New Year Resolution Mistakes

As another year wraps up and comes to a close, I always tend to see more and more people “looking” to better themselves in some way or another.

Most of the time this is great to see! Nothing quite like a list of solid goals to shoot for, starting NOW.

 

A HUGE trap that I’ve seen many others fall into though, is the lack of correct preparation. Just because you want something big to change in the future doesn’t mean that it will. You must take ACTION on it.

Watch out for these 5 New Years resolution mistakes!

1.   Having unrealistic expectations

From your point of view, the word “unrealistic” can mean something completely different than it means to me. I’m talking about something completely abnormal or unhealthy. A great example would be:

“I’m going to lose 50lbs in the next month because I saw the people
on The Biggest Loser do it.” No no no…

BE REALISTIC.

Those programs do not transfer completely into everyday life, nor do
they fit a “one size fits all” approach. Try making your goal
obtainable based on healthy guidelines like: Lose 10 pounds in the
next 3 weeks.

2.   Not Giving Yourself a Deadline.

This can be an extreme help to push you in the right direction if
you plan it right. Remember this old saying…

“Goals without deadlines are just dreams.”

Having a precise deadline to shoot for will keep your priorities in order. You’ll set aside the designated time to workout, cook or do whatever it takes to reach your goal. This leads me into mistake #3…

3.   Not Making Yourself Accountable

One of the best ways to keep yourself accountable EVEN if you aren’t physically working out with a partner is to tell EVERYONE what your goal is. Tell your closest friends, family members, broadcast it on Facebook, tell your dog, I don’t care! People will remember that you set the bar high for yourself. Just knowing this little tidbit of information can keep you motivated to reach the end result.

4.   Not Having Action Steps

You see, if a big goal is to be accomplished, most likely it will consist of a bunch of “small” goals that lead to the “big” one. It can often be overwhelming once the novelty wears off and you realize that this New Year’s resolution is no walk-in-the-park after all. The first couple weeks may be amazing, but just like life; it will have its ups and downs. You can count on it.

The trick is to take a step at a time, literally. Don’t get caught up and distracted by the “big picture.”

Try writing everything down, too. It will save you from overworking your brain!

Draw a diagram with the big goal at the top. Make it branch out into 3-5 smaller goals that will be needed to accomplish it. Take it one step further and branch out from those into 3 daily goals for each. By now you should have a full “tree” on your paper.

This is a great way to get a mental “picture” of what the process will look like, and you’ll have a better understanding of exactly where to start.

5.   Not Rewarding Yourself!

This is the simplest step of all:

When you reach one of your goals, big or small – reward yourself! You don’t have to pretend to be superman and go a million miles an hour 24/7. That’s just not realistic!

So many times in life I feel like we get caught up in “trying to be happy” with our current situations; but what about being happy with what you have right now? Why wait?!

Life is short my friends. Enjoy every single day to its fullest and reward your hard-earned accomplishments!

Just don’t go crazy with the pizza and chocolate 😉

Just a friendly reminder: 2013 can be the BEST year of your life if you allow it to be! Don’t settle for anything less. If you need some help keeping motivated, send me an email and I’ll be happy to tell you about some AMAZING books that have literally transformed my life and thoughts.

Take care guys, train hard!

 

-Mitch Muller

CPT – MindsetFitness.net

 

PS – Like my blog posts? Try subscribing to my YouTube channel HERE for latest videos and updates!

Triceps Training

Triceps Training: The Right Way

As you all may know, having big arms is a standard in the bodybuilding community. If your arms are small, you look small, period. So in effort to overcome and bypass this pitfall in your muscle-building journey, most will succumb to more intensive bicep work; Which, more often than not, will lead to some sort of overtraining, or lopsided-looking arms. What most young lifters fail to understand is that the bicep only makes up one-third of your arm mass; the other two-thirds belong to the triceps! So you may now see the importance of focusing more of your attention on this muscle.

The tricep brachii is a three-head muscle (hence the prefix “tri”). The heads consist of the Long, Medial, and Lateral head. An effective, mass-building tricep workout will always target each of these three at some point or another. The tricep is also a very easy muscle to isolate, so hard work and exercise selection will be the two main factors to assess.

So what exercises are the best for tricep development? It is very easy to fall into this confusion of what exercises may do the trick, and which may not. An already written up arm workout from a bodybuilding magazine may work for the person who wrote it, but what if it just doesn’t seem to work for you? Then again, most magazine workouts are BS anyway to begin with. If you’ve run into this problem then don’t worry, many of us have been in the same boat. From experience with my clients and my own workouts, I’ve come to the conclusion that each arm must do the work at some point by itself. The brain will always send more nerve impulses to the dominant side of your body regardless of the muscle being trained. I’m not saying that barbell tricep movements are ineffective, but as far as full and exact stimulation to BOTH triceps go, dumbbells will work hands down.

An array of different exercise types will give your arms the size or muscle tone you’re looking for, not JUST one type individually. Cables, machines, and body weight exercises will also do the trick when used at the right times. I could go on all day about the numerous variations of tricep work, however there is no need. I’ll keep it plain and simple…

[magicactionbox]

Steps to maximum tricep development:

1.   Establish a pump

Getting the maximum blood flow to your muscle is extremely important to how much effort it’ll  give you. This can be done by warming up the tricep with lighter weight, and with slow and controlled movements.

triceps

2.   Go heavy

Once the pump is established, it’s time to hit em’ hard! Heavy compound exercises like the close-grip bench press, skull crushers, or behind the head tricep extension will work the best here.

3.   Variety

A stimulated muscle will always respond to new exercises given that the triceps have grown and already adapted to the current exercises first. Switch up your routine every few weeks to keep your arms growing!

4.   Stress and Form

Never sacrifice form for adding additional weight. Perfect form provides perfect results. The stress on the muscle must also gradually increase with time in order for the muscle to grow.

5.   Feeling

Focus on feeling the muscle, not just the weight. Creating a mind/muscle connection is extremely important for maximum muscle stimulation.

6.   Isolation

Once you’ve established a pump, and have completed your compound movements, move on to isolation exercises. The compound sets recruit more muscle-fibers than that of isolation sets, so it is important to isolate the triceps after. The long head is usually neglected here, so the “palms facing up approach” or kickbacks will get the job done.

Below are the best recommended tricep exercises for compound, and isolation…

 

COMPOUND

– Close grip bench press

– Skull Crushers

-Behind the head tricep extension

-Reverse close grip bench press

-Dumbbell roll-ups

 

ISOLATION

– Cable pushdowns

-Rope pushdowns/reverse

– Tate press

– DB kickbacks

– Elbow drops (Bodyweight)

– Single arm lying DB extension

-Single arm cable extension

-Dips (upright/seated)

 

Hope this clears up some things on tricep development! I will be posting exercise picture examples and videos in the Exercise tap if you are unsure on the form of any of these. Keep me posted on your experiences! Catch ya’ll later.

 

-Mitch Muller

CPT – MindsetFitness.net

Summary with credit to: Permanent Muscle by Reuben Bajada. The Poliquin Principles by Charles Poliquin. ACEFitness.org

Biceps Training: The Right Way

How To Train Your Biceps

Ok so, out of all the muscles discussed in this section, the biceps are by far the most popular. When someone asks to see your muscles, what’s the first pose you give them? Exactly my point. There are so many variations and exercise routines now-a-days for the biceps that sometimes it’s hard to tell which are for real, and which won’t make your biceps grow to save your life. So let me clear up a lot of questions for you guys…

Let’s start by digging into the anatomy of the biceps. The bicep muscle consists of two heads (hence the prefix “bi”). These are referred to as the inner and outer heads. Joining the bicep on the arm and located between it and the tricep on the outer portion of your arm is the brachiallis. We will go into further detail about this muscle later on. But for now, let’s stick to the basics…

There are six guidelines that I follow on a weekly regimen when my biceps day comes around:

  • Biceps Guideline #1 | Isolation

The single most important rule for effectively training the biceps is isolation. Nothing drives me more insane than when I walk into my gym and the guy on the first curl machine is using most of his body to somehow get the weight as high as he can up to his shoulders. When seeing people like this, it’s no surprise that more muscles are being recruited to help carry the load and

biceps

complete each rep. The biceps are not meant to be trained this way! It is one of the easiest muscles to stimulate and isolate so let’s put them to work the RIGHT way shall we? Slow and controlled movements will pay off over time. The key to keeping these controlled movements all throughout the exercise is to create a solid foundation. To do this, lock your elbows into your sides when using dumbbells/barbells; when using preacher benches or machines, make sure your upper arm is completely flush with the pad. The shoulder should never move.

  • Biceps Guideline #2 | 90 degree curls

Adding to my previous note about creating a strong foundation: your arms should not rise past the 90 degree angle. This allows the bicep to work completely alone. Remember, we are trying to achieve MAXIMUM stimulation to the bicep muscle. What good will it do to have other muscles helping out? It simply just doesn’t make sense. The anterior deltoid will want to help lift the weight when your arms start to fatigue so it is important to stay focused on using the bicep alone. If you can’t lift it, then you can’t lift it! Which brings me to my next point…

  • Biceps Guideline #3 | Lift heavy when possible

A repeated phrase that I often tell my clients is that “ten is the magic number.” What I mean by this is that when your purpose for lifting weights is to maximize muscle growth; your rep range should aim for ten each time, while ALSO increasing the weight. A standard range for muscular development is 8-12 reps per set. So why not aim for 8 or 12 reps? I have found from my personal experience and from many of my clients, that the time spent under tension is just as important as the heavy weight itself. If you fail under 8 reps, your body has not spent enough time under the tension (TUT principle) to enforce the muscular micro trauma that we’re looking for. However, staying with a heavy weight/low rep set WILL increase your strength, but size will not follow as fast.

  • Biceps Guideline #4 | Full Range of Negative Motion

One of the best ways to build the bicep in a short amount of time is emphasize the negative (Essentric) portion of the exercise. When done correctly, each arm will be using heavy weights that normally would be too heavy to lift. This is done by starting with a dumbbell (Best choice) at the 90 degree position on a preacher bench. One arm is used at a time so a helping hand is there to assist when the bicep hits failure. Slowly lower the weight for about 5 seconds till your arm is COMPLETELY extended at the bottom. This will stretch the bicep to its full potential and cause unbelievable micro trauma to your bicep! All good things. The ten rep rule will not apply to this exercise because the 5 second lowering motion will give your muscles plenty of time under tension! I recommend aiming for 4-5 sets of 6-8 reps here.

  • Biceps Guideline #5 | Use Dumbbells

Unfortunately I learned this lesson on my own after a few years of training my biceps the wrong way. Barbells are great for many exercises, however in my opinion, until your mind is able to focus the same tension for both arms in the lifting process, only dumbbells should be used. Your brain will automatically choose which side will receive the majority of nerve impulses, which in turn will cause one side to dominate over the other. Then minute I started using dumbbells I saw the difference. My left arm fell short of my expectations while my right arm dominated. Stick to the dumbbells, and watch both of your arms grow at the same time!

  • Biceps Guideline #6 | Variety

Like any exercise routine, the body will adapt to the work you’re putting it through. So it is important to constantly throw new things into the mix to target the bicep from different angles. Remember the brachiallis that I mentioned earlier? Here’s a simple secret to building bigger-looking biceps: Do hammer curls! This is done with your palms facing towards your body instead of facing forward as they would be in a standard curl. This motion stimulates the brachiallis along with parts of the forearm to give a thicker appearance to the bicep. Put simple: basic curls build the bicep peak, hammer curls build bicep thickness. For a complete bicep workout, make sure to incorporate both of these. Using various machines and cables can provide variety to your bicep routines as well. Change things up, and shock your arms into growth!

Being able to understand these simple bicep principles will help you achieve eye-catching results that will make you stand out from the rest. So try these out and let me know the progress that you guys are making!

Most importantly, establish your mindset before you even pick up that first dumbbell. Focus on your goals, and how much you’re willing to sacrifice to achieve them. Establish your pain barrier, and prepare your mind and body for growth; get after it!

Feel free to email me with any questions!

-Mitch Muller

CPT – MindsetFitness.net

Summary with credit to: Permanent Muscle by Reuben Bajada. The Poliquin Principles by Charles Poliquin. ACEFitness.org