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3 Reasons to Make Greenville Your Local Gym

Choosing your local gym spot can be a tough settlement. We all want a good deal. We all want the most bang for our buck. And we all want a gym that takes the stress out of working out.

Not to brag or anything, but the services offered here at Greenville gym are unparalleled. If you’re looking for a fitness club in Greenville, here’s 3 reasons to choose our gym as your local sweat spot:

  1. Solo + Group Options: Do you operate as a lone wolf? Or do you need the energy of a pack to get moving? Either way, you’re covered at the Greenville athletic club. For the do-it-yourself folks, step into our state-of-the-art cardio center and/or advanced strength-training area. Here, you’ll find everything you need to carry out your personal Greenville health club routine. For those that need more of a group environment to get motivated, choose from hundreds of class options every month to sweat, strengthen, and surpass your training expectations.
  2. Childcare Services: Work out with peace of mind. Keep your kids occupied and entertained while you train hard! Greenville health center offers free childcare for children that are 6 weeks through 6 years. Your kids will receive plenty of attention from our trusted staff members. What’s more, children 6 through 12 are eligible to participate in our Pivotal KidZONE program, which offers programmed activities available every evening from 4-8pm. Greenville sports club child activities include yoga, speed training, gymnastics, functional classes, and more!
  3. Nutritional Center: Our high-end nutritional center is truly something special. Complete with Good to Go fresh fruits, veggies, and other food items, we make it easy to train hard and eat well. Support yourself to vibrant health and grab a Good to Go snack post-workout.

Start your FREE 30-day membership now!

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7 Tips for Weight-Lifting Newbies

Are you a weight lifting newbie at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville athletic club? If so, explore these weight lifting tips to better approach this awesome form of exercise. Build strength. Increase power. Sculpt and tone your body. Plus, better support your Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym activities and other physical endeavors.

  1. Don’t be intimidated. Weight lifting, contrary to popular thought, is an accessible exercise. All the heavy lifting beasts you may witness didn’t start out that way. Lifting is a mindful progression. It’s important to add weight gradually and place the emphasis more on technique. That way, you’ll avoid potential injuries and set up a strong foundation.
  2. Form first. As mentioned, your primary focus should be on establishing proper form before you start packing on the weight.
  3. Light weights, more reps. Again, this is to avoid injury and to practice safe, aligned technique.
  4. Find a place to lift comfortably. Don’t lift in congested areas if it is going to make you feel intimated, uncomfortable, or overwhelmed. Find a corner to avoid distractions. Also, try coming to the Pivotal Fitness Greenville health center at off peak hours.
  5. Drop the excuses. Resist the urge to create cop-outs. Sure, there will be days when you are low on energy, stressed, sore, or exceptionally busy. Those are the days when you should really commit to hit the gym. Weight lifting boosts energy and speeds up recovery, so it will actually benefit you to keep up with your progress even on days where you feel off.
  6. Find a weight lifting partner. Find a trusted partner to challenge and inspire you – someone who keeps pushing you and relentlessly supports you.
  7. Consult a Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym trainer. For weight lifting newbies, this can be incredibly helpful. You’ll learn the ropes faster under a trained professional. Plus, you’ll have someone there along the way motivating and challenging you.

 

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Monday WOD (Workout of the Day)

Next time you hit up the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym, your goal will be to make love to the squat rack. Yeah…you heard me right.

Here’s one solid, squat rack WOD for you to tackle and tear up:

  • 30x Back Squat
  • 15x Push Press
  • 10x Pull Ups
  • 20x Front Squat
  • 15x Push Press
  • 10x Pull Ups
  • 10x Overhead Squat
  • 15x Push Press
  • 10x Pull Ups

Don’t have the slightest clue about these various squats? Don’t know how to properly perform a back squat, front squat, overhead squat, or push press? No worries. YouTube to the rescue!

Tune into these YouTube videos with one of my favorite fitness inspirations, Elliott Hulse – a pro strongman and strength coach – to master the front squat.

Click here to learn the correct form. After you’ve mastered that, check out Elliot’s video for a juicy tip to make your front squat that much stronger. Oh yeah.

Next, to master the back squat, check out this CrossFit back squat demo.

To learn the overhead squat, click here for a CrossFit overview of overhead squat basics.

Finally, receive detailed instruction for the push press in this CrossFit push press video.

It’s incredibly important to learn the correct technique and form before you crank out this squat rack workout at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym. Get real familiar with the proper movements to avoid uncomfortable sensations in the body, pain, and potential injury.

In terms of weight, keep it light to start. If you don’t know where you are at for weight, consult a Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym personal trainer. For all fitness related questions, don’t hesitate to ask our athletic trainers and health specialists. The fitness team at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville athletic club is here to help you!

Don’t fear the squat rack. Make it your friend. Get intimate with it. Make love to it.

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Yoga to Increase Thoracic Extension

If you do a lot of overhead pressing, snatches, squatting, and exercises that require really good thoracic extension, this post is for you.

The thoracic region of your spine is the mid region of the spine. For many people, there is a rounding of this region, otherwise known as kyphosis of the thoracic spine. In order to retain good form and boost your overhead pressing, snatching, and squatting performance, it is important to create and increase extension of the thoracic spine and correct any flexion or rounding that might be going on.

What do you gotta do to create better thoracic extension?

Yoga.

Yoga supports thoracic extension and allows you to do more overhead pressing, snatching, and squatting in your workouts at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym. One pose, in particular, is highly effective in lengthening the thoracic spine. That pose is called Downward Facing Dog.

Downward Facing Dog stretches the muscles below your pelvis. It stretches the backs of the legs, which if tight, can create a posterior pelvic tilt. A posterior pelvic tilt can create flexion (rounding) of the entire spine. Go ahead and try it. Tuck your butt or tailbone and you’ll feel your entire spine flex or round. This is not good. You want to ensure and promote the natural curvature of the spine in all of your actions, especially when you are working out at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym.

Let’s try out this pose. Come to all fours, creating a tabletop position. Press the palms firmly into the ground. Wrists will be directly under the shoulders. Knees will be directly under the hips. Palms are shoulders distance apart. Knees are hips distance apart. Now, raise your trunk from the floor sending your hips to the sky. Press the heels down. The feet should be parallel to each other with the toes pointing toward your head. Roll the shoulders onto the back to create space between the ears and shoulders. Extend the arms strong. Let the heart melt toward the earth. Relax the head and neck. Notice how the positioning of the arms is exactly the form you want to have when doing an overhead press or snatch.

Donward Facing Dog

You can also practice Downward Facing Dog with the assistance of a wall. Put your hands on the wall (like you’re getting arrested). Then, drop your body down through your arms. Slowly start to reach your arms up higher, all the while pushing your chest down through your arms. You’ll feel a sweet release in your thoracic spine.

Practice this pose pre-workout or post-workout when you are at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym. Hold it for 10 long, deep breaths. It is an awesome way to correct that rounding of the spine, open your shoulders, and expand your chest. Boost your overhead strength and get down with some Downward Facing Dog.

Photo Credit: Downward Facing Dog via yogaxtc.com

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A Fitness Myth Debunked

Countless myths are constantly circulating with regards to fitness, health, and weight loss. There’s one in particular that I would like to debunk…

Myth: Weight training makes women look bulky.

Many women shy away from weight training because they are under the impression that they’ll end up expanding instead of leaning down.

Sure, if you’re a woman abusing steroids.

The truth is, to be bulky and appear manly you have to be producing lots of testosterone. The average man produces 10 times more testosterone than the average female. So, unless you are popping steroids, fear not morphing into a man. You will retain your womanly physique if you lift weights, all the while gaining muscle and loosing fat.

Lots of women also believe that the key to weight loss is loads of cardio. Wrong. While cardio is beneficial to your health, you have to be careful because lots of cardio will result in loss of muscle. Loss of muscle makes it that much harder to stay fit and keep the weight off. As you shed fat and muscle simultaneously, you weaken your digestive fire. Less muscle, then, correlates to a lower metabolism. No good.

So, what’s the best weight loss solution?

You may not want to hear this: Diet is first and foremost the most important component in cutting fat. Second to diet is a solid weight training program. Cardio comes in last. In fact, it’s not even necessary to kill yourself with cardio. Clean eating combined with weight (or strength) training creates a highly effective fat loss package all on its own, sans cardio.

So, it’s always odd to me to see so many people (especially women) killing themselves with cardio and avoiding lifting. While a cardio craze may yield temporary weight loss results, it’s not effective for sustained weight loss. To sustain, you must watch what you put in your body and boost your strength.

Next time you are at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym opt for a weight training routine over cardio. Maybe even consult a Greenville gym personal trainer to help you design a customized diet plan and weight training program.

Shift your perspective and make strength and diet a priority to realize true, lasting weight loss results.

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New Year Countdown: Burpee Challenge

Happy New Year’s Eve to all of you Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym enthusiasts! In celebration of the impending New Year, I would like to share a burpee challenge inspired by trainers at Rise Above Fitness. I’ve tweaked the burpee challenge a bit to observe the lucky number 13. Run through this challenge to continually remind yourself that 2012 is soon to be a period of the past. Goodbye 2012. Enter, now, the year of 2013.

Complete this brutal burpee challenge to start off the New Year with a bang and detox from all of the holiday indulgences you ingested. This burpee challenge is an opportunity for you to kill two birds with one stone: To (1) cleanse and (2) commemorate the New Year.

Before you give this challenge a whirl, retrieve a timer to record the amount of time it takes you to brave this burpee routine at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym.

For this challenge you will need a weight bench, a pair of dumbbells, and a wall ball. Consult trainers at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym if you have questions concerning the exercise equipment.

2013 Burpee Challenge:

  • 13 Box Jump Burpees
  • 113 Double Unders
  • 13 Burpee Curl Presses
  • 113 Double Unders
  • 13 Ball Slam Burpees
  • 113 Double Unders

Give it a go. Push your limits. Sweat out the sweets and stagnation of the holiday season. Set the New Year on fire with a fierce Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym session.

Disclaimer: You will most likely feel a bit sore starting off the New Year upon completion of this challenge. That’s a good thing! It means your muscles got some sweet action. It means you are starting off the New Year boosting your strength and supporting your health. Props to you!

Enjoy your final day of 2012. Make your last workout of 2012 at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym count.

Finally, may you enjoy an abundance of health and strength in 2013!

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2 Protein-Packed December Indulgences to Feel Good About

Happy December all you Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym enthusiasts and heath nuts! Holy moly does time fly! 2012 is coming to a close. How it closes is up to you. Will it close on a note of health and wellness? That’s the hope!

The months of November and December are tricky months to navigate. Stress soars. Craziness increases. Diets plummet. Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym sessions fade into distant memories. It’s easy to lose your cool and fall victim to the holiday stress and its accompanying not-so-healthy temptations. Don’t fall into the trap. Stick to structure. Start 2013 off right!

So, the Thanksgiving Day feast recently hit. It probably hit harder for some. Post Turkey Day, the detox, damage control stage starts to kick in. Healthy, clean eating resumes for awhile. The gym is hit hard to sweat out all that turkey and its tryptophan inducing lethargy. Then, December hits – the month of candy canes, gingerbread men, fruitcake, excess, and indulgences. Uh oh.

Yes, December definitely has potential to put a dent in your diet. It’s so tempting to indulge in those traditional holiday treats. I mean everyone else is doing it. So, why not? Well, you know why. Like I said, we want to end 2012 feeling healthy and empowered. Not sluggish and stuffed.

Yet, rather than distance yourself from all temptation, why not create new satisfying and health-conscious indulgences? Do those even exist? Why, yes. They do.

Here are some protein-packed treats you can put back post-workout created by FitMenCook.com.

Sweet Potato & Oat Protein Cupcakes with Creamy Cinnamon Protein Icing

**Protein-Packed Cupcakes by FitMenCook via Instagram :: Whip these babies up for holiday party. Treat your friends to clean eating.**

Um…yes please. These protein packed delights are only 210 calories a piece. Not too bad, eh? They are made using Team Betancourt Big Blend French Vanilla Protein and they are good.

Icing Ingredients

8 oz. Fat Free cream cheese
2 scoops Big Blend protein
2 cups fat free cool whip
2 heaping tbsp cinnamon
1.5 tbsp coconut oil

Batter Ingredients

1 scoop Team Betancourt Big Blend French Vanilla Protein
1/3 cup oat flour
1/4 cup amaranth flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 packets raw Stevia
170 g sweet potato
1/3 cup Almond
1 egg & 1 egg white

Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees F. (Macros for 1 cupcake of the 6: 18 g protein, 17g carbs, 7.5g fat).

Brown Rice Flour & Almond Flour Banana Spiced Protein Pancakes

**Protein-Packed Cupcakes by FitMenCook via Instagram**

Here’s how to make muscle building pancakes! These pancakes, rich in complex carbs and healthy fats, are a wonderful post-workout indulgence! Bring on the batter and the lean bulking.

Batter Ingredients

1 scoop Team Betancourt Big Blend French Vanilla Protein
1 egg, & 1 egg white
1/4 cup Brown Rice Flour
1/4 cup Almond flour
1/3 cup Almond Milk (unsweetened)
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 ripe banana
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 packet Stevia (optional)

(1) First, mix all DRY ingredients in a bowl, including protein powder, brown rice flour, almond flour, cinnamon, baking soda/powder, and Stevia. (2) Mash 1 ripe banana in a bowl. (3) Add in all wet ingredients to the batter and mix, including eggs, banana, and Almond Milk using a hand blender. (4) To ensure each pancake is the same size, use a measuring cup to dip batter out. Use a 1/4 measuring cup. (5) Set a small skillet on medium-low heat, lightly sprayed with organic olive oil and slowly add batter. (6) Let it cook. When the sides of the pancake look hard/firm, use a wide spatula to scoop the pancake up and flip it over. Each pancake usually takes about 3 minutes to cook. Be careful not to over or under cook!

Next, add your fruit topping of choice. Suggestion: Use Sugar Free Maple Syrup and fresh, seasonal fruits. (Approx. Pancake batter macros: 42g protein, 56g carbs, 22g fat).

There you have it! Two easy and scrumptious sweets to satisfy those cravings and support your workouts and fitness goals at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym. Enjoy!

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Two Ferocious Chest and Back Circuits

Next time you are at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym, destroy yourself with these killer chest and back circuits inspired by fitness innovators and educators Krissy Cags and Travis Baker.

First, enjoy this dirty, giant set of fortifying chest and back exercises:

  • Incline Barbell Press x 12 reps
  • Pull Up x 12 reps
  • Flat Bench Press x 12 reps
  • Bent Over Row x 12 reps
  • Dip x 12 reps
  • Reverse Grip Chin Up x 12 reps
  • Push-ups x 12 reps

Repeat this circuit 5 times, resting 45 seconds between rounds. Ouch.

Not going to lie, this will hurt. You’ll immediately feel like you put on some extra pounds of muscle after manning your way through this circuit beast. What’s more, you’ll definitely feel this one the next day. That’s a good thing! It means you successfully worked those chest and back muscles. It means you are moving forward, tackling your Greenville gym fitness goals and creating your best you.

To add more brutality to the fitness mix, here is a further series of exercises you can perform at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym to fire up the muscles of the chest, back, and more. Get ready and pumped to slam, swing, and slam some more.

Slam. Swing. Slam. via Krissy Mae Cags Webstagram

  • Rope Slams
  • Kettlebell Swings
  • Ball Slams

Fun, right? Right. You definitely gotta muster up some enthusiasm for this set!

Perform exercises as repeats of 40-30-20-10-20-30-40. That’s 40 of each exercise, 30 of each, 20 of each, and so on. We’ve got plenty of exercise equipment at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym. However, if you can’t find some of the equipment necessary, ask a trainer or staff member at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville athletic club to help steer you in the right direction or modify the exercise. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

What’s the hold up? Transport yourself to the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym. Suffer the burn. Generate a sweat. Strengthen and sculpt those chest and back muscles. Meet your fitness goals. Create your best version of you.

Kill it.

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8 Simple & Strengthening Yoga Poses for Gym Enthusiasts

Amidst your strenuous workout routine at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym, you probably don’t feel like you have adequate time and energy to get in that yoga or Pilates class that you have been pondering. That’s cool. I feel you. We can’t do it all. The good news: You don’t have to get in a full-blown yoga class to reap the powerful benefits of a yoga practice. Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym does, however, offer yoga and Pilates in the mind and body room. So, if a full-blown class is what your heart desires, we’ve got you covered. If not, get wild with this handful of highly accessible, total-body strengthening, and core-enhancing yoga poses while you’re working it at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville athletic club.

  1. High Plank
  2. Low Plank (Plank on forearms)
  3. Side Plank (Each side on forearm or arm extended)
  4. Downward Facing Dog (To amplify Down Dog, try bending your elbows at about 45 degrees so that they are hovering right above the ground)
  5. Dolphin (Downward Dog on forearms with option for Dolphin push-ups)
  6. Crescent Lunge (Each side)
  7. Boat Pose
  8. Bridge Pose

You can sprinkle these poses into your circuit-training regimen or practice them as a sequence post-workout. Hold each pose for 30 seconds to one minute. If you find this too easy, set your timer for 2 minutes per pose. The more the merrier. Also, after you have practiced these very fortifying postures, it’s nice to enjoy a few restorative poses to relax, cool down, and reboot the system. Try Child’s Pose and/or Butterfly Pose to experience a juicy stretch and release.

See that? Your Greenville yoga doesn’t have to be so hard to get in. Just hop on an exercise mat post sweat session, cycle through a few poses, and there you have it. Boom. Yoga made easy for Greenville gym going enthusiasts!

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Butts and Guts Challenge

I am about to propose a serious challenge for you to master next time you are working out at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville athletic club. Actually, challenge is an understatement in this fitness scenario. This “challenge” may be better described as a murderous, muscle-frying fight. One of my fitness gurus, Krissy M. Cags, is, again, setting the bar pretty high here; maybe, even, a bit too high. You gotta aim high, though, right? Right.

There is always room for advancement in your fitness regimen at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym. There is NEVER room for boredom or stagnation. If you think your workout at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym needs a significant boost, here it is in the form of an energizing 1K exercise experiment.

This set of exercises is pretty simple, actually. The exercises are very straightforward. No funny business here. Yet, don’t get too excited or smug. I said simple. I never said easy.

Allow me to lay it out for you.

First, get in a short, cardio warm-up of 10 to 20 minutes tops. Then, here goes…

  1. Sit-up to Bridge Exercise – 1000
  2. Atomic Sit-ups – 1000

Yeah, that’s right. 1K of each exercise. Do it in whatever order you wish. Just do it!

If you are anything like me, you may prefer to ease your way into things. 1000 of each exercise may be a bit much right off the bat. I’d start out with 250. Then, jack it up to 500. Then, 750. Finally, 1000. See that? Baby steps.

Spice up your Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym time with this crazy challenge once per week. By all means, up the ante to twice (or more) per week if you’re a super hero.

The bad news? This will kill. The good news? You are well on your way to stronger, more defined abs and glutes.

Fight for 1K victory at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville athletic club. Go all the way to 1K!

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