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4 Basic Ways to Build Even MORE Strength

Have you hit a strength building plateau?

Here are 4 fundamental ways to train for even more strength at the Greenville gym.

  1. Add Load. Adding load (or increasing resistance) to a lift/exercise is a classic way to create more strength and build more muscle. Weight training, for example, employs the principle of progressive overload, in which the muscles are overloaded by striving to lift at least as much weight as they are capable. Sets pile up, and so does the weight. Muscles respond by growing larger and stronger. This process is repeated with progressively heavier weights as the lifter gains more strength and endurance.
  2. Increase Time Under Tension. This can be achieved by performing more reps or performing an exercise longer. This adds to the total work done in your Greenville health club training session.
  3. Increase Range of Motion. In lifting, this is a style of training called progressive movement training, in which the lifter aims to gradually increase the range of motion throughout a training cycle. The lifter will start with a much heavier weight than they could manage in the full range of motion, only moving through a portion of the movement. As the training cycle progresses, the lifter will gingerly increase the range of motion until the joint moves through the full range of the exercise.
  4. Speed Up! Another way to train for more strength, is to increase the tempo of the movement. In lifting, for example, move the bar as fast as possible through the concentric (up) phase of the motion regardless of the load involved. To observers, the increased tempo might not look impressively speedy, but the intention is to explode through the movement as quickly as possible. The workout remains the same in terms of sets, reps and load, but the quality of effort is much greater, as are the training results.

Go heavier, longer and faster to boost your Greenville athletic club training results and create a stronger you. If you need help developing a strength training routine, call on the fitness experts at the Greenville sports club!

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Gain Muscle, Lose Fat: 5 Simple Rules

These rules are simple, but not easy. Simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain is pretty straightforward, though it requires some serious lifestyle changes that aren’t always easy to implement. You really have to want to change. You really have to commit to a healthy, active lifestyle, following these parameters:

  1. Eat clean 90% of the time. Keep your carbohydrate consumption low. Only consume processed carbohydrates for your designated cheat days or cheat meals. On normal days, opt for lots of vegetables, lean meats, and legumes, preferably organic.
  2. Don’t shy again from strength training. Cardio is not the answer to gaining muscle and losing fat simultaneously. So, get out of your cardio comfort zone if you’re in one at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym. Get into a solid strength-training regimen. Start getting into big, strength-enhancing movements like squatting or deadlifting, pull-ups, pushups, overhead presses, and a variety of core exercises. Let that be your focus combined with some occasional cardio workouts. For cardio, sprinkle in interval training instead of steady state cardio. For example, do some sprints, which will really get those glute muscles strong and sculpted.
  3. Be mindful of your carb intake. Your body can handle carbs more effectively post-workout. To stay lean or work towards a lean physique, get those carbs in after a powerful workout at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville athletic club.
  4. Discover and do away with intolerant foods. You know you are intolerant to particular foods when they induce symptoms like bloating, gas, stomach pains, etc. anywhere up to 24 hours post-consumption. Typical foods to avoid: wheat and milk. Other foods may not be so obvious. To figure it out, try an elimination diet. Cut certain things out of your diet for one to two weeks and review the results. If you feel better, that thing was probably causing some issues. If you feel no different, it’s likely something else.
  5. Try a pilates or Greenville yoga class. Pilates and yoga are practices that cultivate a lot of strength, especially deep core strength. Plus, these forms of exercise enhance body intelligence and awareness, which is especially important for weight lifting.
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Yoga vs. Weightlifting 101

Don’t underestimate the power of yoga as a strength-building dynamo. If you practice a vigorous form of yoga regularly (3-6 times per week), you will undoubtedly notice increased muscle tone and enhanced definition.

Many people, however, believe that weightlifting is where it’s at in terms of building strength. True, lifting will most definitely boost your strength; however, it does so in a way very different from yoga. There’s an ongoing debate on which form of strength-building is better, but we won’t hash that out here. Weightlifting and yoga each have their strength-boosting merits. In fact, striking a balance between the two can produce incredible physical and mental results.

In many ways, yoga is a more convenient strength-training option. You don’t need all the equipment. In yoga, you simply support the weight of your own body with various muscle groups. For this reason, there is generally less risk for injury. Also, this tends to make yoga more of a full-body workout. In each pose, many different muscles are engaged simultaneously. It is less targeted than weight training.

Lifting, on the other hand, is oftentimes the quicker approach to realizing greater strength. It is not as skill heavy as yoga. In yoga, there is a lot going on – coordination, balance, breath, flexibly, quick transitions, pose after pose after pose, etc. In the practice, it is difficult to continue raising the bar in a noticeable way. With lifting, you simply increase the weight to monitor progress. In yoga, it’s more about increasing the holding time of postures and exploring different poses and pose variations. You may only realize subtle, gradual shifts in strength.

Weight training tends to make the muscles compact as they build up, which results in a bulky or bulging appearance. Yoga, however, lengthens out the muscles as they contract and build, so they end up looking a lot leaner but still tight and toned. For a balanced look, a combination of both practices can be effective.

The method you choose depends on what you wish to achieve in your workouts at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym.

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10 Awesome Benefits of Using an Exercise Ball

I have a friend who uses her exercise ball as a desk chair substitute. Sure, that is a fine use for it, but an exercise ball (also referred to as a Swiss ball, stability ball, gym ball, or a yoga ball) is good for way more than simply sitting. Using an exercise ball promotes many health and fitness benefits, plus it is an incredibly accessible exercise tool to use while you are working out at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville athletic club.

With regular use of an exercise ball you can expect to:

  1. Improve your muscle tone and balance.
  2. Support your physical therapy progress, if you are going through that process.
  3. Boost your deep core strength.
  4. Condition your stabilizer muscles – the muscles of the deep core and lower back.
  5. Strengthen the muscles of your lower back, lowering your risk for lower back pain and injury.
  6. Enhance your balance due to the development of a stronger core center.
  7. Better your core alignment.
  8. Promote a healthier posture (especially if using it as a desk chair substitute).
  9. Start stretching more, thus enhancing your overall flexibility. It is an especially great exercise tool to open up the shoulders, upper back, neck, and chest. Simply sit on it, bend back, and let your arms fall over your head to receive a nice chest/shoulder/upper back opening.
  10. Add variety to your daily Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym workouts.

To discover and practice new exercises and workouts to carry out with the stability ball, click HERE. Also, find information on how to spice up the exercise ball workouts with hand weights and more!

Strengthen, sculpt, stabilize, and spice up your strength-training regimen with some exercise ball action at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville health center.

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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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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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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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Secrets of Navy Seal Strength

Desire Navy Seal status strength? Well, it’s your lucky day. I’m about to unleash a circuit training routine that Navy Seals use for cardiovascular and strength conditioning and endurance building. Practice this circuit when you’re kicking it at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville athletic club. If you can make it through this, you are one mean, physical engine. If you can’t finish it all, no worries. You must start somewhere.

Here she is: 13 grueling exercises for you to master at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym. If you practice this routine twice weekly, it’ll yield impressive, fortifying results. This is a circuit, so start from exercise #1 and continue through the exercises until you reach #13. Then, repeat again…and again. Some of the exercises call for 5 repeats, while others only 3 or 4. As you will soon discover, the intensity tapers off towards the end, so you’ll land smoothly.

  1. Push-ups :: 35 x 5 reps
  2. Sit-ups :: 40 x 4 reps
  3. Dips :: 30 x 4 reps
  4. Swimmers :: 15 x 3 reps
  5. Hanging Knee-ups :: 15 x 3 reps
  6. Hanging Obliques :: 15 x 3 reps
  7. Body Builders :: 15 x 3 reps
  8. Breast Stroke :: 20 x 3 reps
  9. Squats :: 30 x 3 reps
  10. Lunges :: 30 x 3 reps
  11. Pull-ups :: 15 x 4 reps
  12. Wide grip pull-ups :: 15 x 4 reps
  13. Close grip pull-ups :: 15 x 4 reps

Whew. That’s no joke.

If you’re in topnotch shape, you should be able to get through this circuit routine in roughly 45 minutes. Take your time, though. No one at the Pivotal Fitness Greenville gym expects you to be a hero. There’s no set time limit. Just keep moving! Try your best to make it through the entire circuit regardless of how long it takes you.

As you continue to practice this circuit, you’ll find yourself working your way through it faster. Most importantly, you’ll realize increased endurance, enhanced muscle tone, and greater cardio power.

Enjoy!

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