The LA Fitness Difference Starts with Attitude

The difference is in the attitude you discover when you enter a LA Fitness center. How often have you walked into an exercise center and were completely ignored. You walked around looking at all of the gear and felt overwhelmed. You saw people participating in classes but you had no idea how to get started. They were excited to get you signed up, but then the staff’s enthusiasm died.

At LA Fitness you will encounter trainers, receptionists, and managers who live and breathe the fitness business. They are doing the job they love and it shows. They welcome you into the building and start asking you questions. You do not feel deserted. You will be shown around the facility and all the equipment is clearly explained. The best part is the time they take to discuss your fitness goals and to help you plan out a workout plan to get started.

If you want a little extra help every LA Fitness center has personal trainers on staff who can work with you one-on-one to get you up to speed fast. There is a big advantage to using a personal trainer as you get started. It is called motivation. Imagine waking up in the morning and knowing someone is waiting to meet you at the fitness center to coach you through a training session. You will not be tempted to put off working out. You get ready. You get to the fitness center and you meet your goals. Consider this option when you start out to improve your success.

Enjoy Working Out with Other Beginning or Advanced Members

One thing which will really excite you about your membership at LA Fitness is the fact all of their group classes are included in your monthly membership fees. You can join in a kickboxing class, yoga, tai chi, aerobics, aqua fit, boot camp, or many other group offerings.

Being part of a group can make exercise more fun and push you to workout harder. You will feel challenged by the instructors and your desire to keep up with other class members. Keep in mind you should always set your own pace dependent on your fitness level. Your LA Fitness instructor will remind you of this fact and pays attention to their students during exercise sessions.

Diversity is one of the most important aspects of staying focused on your fitness goals. You need to be able to change up your routines and keep your excitement high. LA Fitness offers more choices for working out than anyone. You can swim laps, jog around a track, lift weights, perform aerobics, play racquetball, or dozens of other methods of getting fit you can choose from, also.

LA Fitness provides a great balance between price, equipment, and the interactive help you need. When you get everything you need for a low price you attitude stays great and you stay committed to your fitness goals.

They are known as a “super gym”, meaning that they have lots of facilities in each gym, such as swimming pools, squash and basketball courts etc, as well as the usual weight and cardio equipment. This means that La Fitness is well suited to cater for anyone, of any fitness level.

Below is a brief run down of what you will find in a typical La Fitness center.

Free Weights: LA Fitness have a wide variety of free weights available. They start at a very light weight, suitable for women or the elderly, up to extremely heavy weights that a bodybuilder would use. Free weight exercises are one of the best for toning and overall fitness. Free weights include such things as dumbbells and barbells.

Cardio Machines: The cardio area is the go-to spot for weight loss, and fat burning. That’s why cardio machines are a must for any gym. LA Fitness has a wide variety of machines, such as treadmills, rowing machines, ellipticals, bikes, and stair climbers. There are plenty of high quality machines that will be enough to satisfy even the most picky of cardio bunnies.

Group Classes: Sometimes when working out, it’s hard to get motivated. That’s why group classes are ideal because when you are in a group, you don’t want to be the first person to stop so you push yourself harder. All La Fitness gyms will have classes like aerobics, yoga, kickboxing, Zumba, spinning and more. Before you join a group class, make sure you do a lot of stretching, as they can be very intense and you don’t want to pull a muscle. Some classes will cost extra, but many are included in your monthly gym membership.

Swimming Pool: Swimming is one of the best cardio workouts to lose weight because you use your entire body, both upper and lower. It is also low impact, which means there is less stress on your joints and thus less chance of injury. The swimming pools at LA Fitness have three or more lanes, and the water quality is monitored regularly.

Basketball and Racquetball Courts: Basketball workouts are fantastic as cardio. LA Fitness also caters to basketball teams and leagues. If you are into racquetball, their facilities have hard-wood floors spanning the entire length, and glass that is shatter proof for your safety.

Spa and Sauna: After a tough workout, you can wind down and relax in La Fitness’s spa and sauna. Spas are usually found near the swimming pool, and the saunas are segregated and can be found in the mens or ladies locker rooms.

Personal Training: In order to achieve the best you can, some people like to hire personal trainers to help them. You might be concerned about the cost of personal trainers, but if you can afford it, it’s well worth the money. LA Fitness has well trained and qualified trainers that can help you improve your fitness.

Although these are great benefits that every LA Fitness gym offers, there are some downsides to using a large scale chain gym. You may want a more “personal” gym, where you can get to know other members. Smaller gyms with fewer clients will have a more “family” feel, and if this is what you prefer, than a large fitness center like LA Fitness may not be right for you. But if you like having a lot of facilities under the one roof, then give LA Fitness a try.

The most effective ingredient in any pre-workout supplement is caffeine. This is where the majority of your energy is going to come from. B vitamins also supplying energy but they work with your body to release the energy that is in the calories you eat, rather than stimulating your body. Together these two ingredients will give you a powerful energy boost for your workout, from start to finish.

Creatine is a staple of any pre-workout supplement. Creatine aids with recovery and also delays muscle fatigue by increasing carnosine levels, which battle lactic acid build up. My personal recommendation is creatine monohydrate. It is the only tried and true form of creatine that has proven itself time and again, through decades of research. There are, however, other forms of creatine that may be effective, such as creatine HCL or creatine nitrate. Many users claim that creatine nitrate will give you the best pumps. Creatine HCL is the newest and most popular creatine supplement.

To get the pump in your muscles you need arginine. There is not a pre-workout formula on the planet that doesn’t contain some form of arginine. Arginine is an amino acid that your body converts into the natural gas nitric oxide, which aids in dilating blood vessels and thus increases blood flow to the extremities. This increased blood flow to the muscles is what causes the sensation known as the pump. Arginine AKG is the most commonly used form of arginine in pre-workout supplements.

Many pre-workout supplements will have branched chain amino acids and other amino acids as well. BCAA’s can be an effective tool during workouts for decreasing soreness. Many pre-workout supplements will contain taurine as well. Taurine is the second most abundant amino acid within your muscle tissue, right behind glutamine. Glutamine benefits include anti-catabolic properties among others, although it isn’t usually in pre-workout supplements.

Vitamin C has actually been shown to possibly increase stamina and absorption of other nutrients, which is why some pre-workout supplements include it in the mix.

The Checklist

Caffeine (about 100mg is good)
B vitamins (as a general rule – the more the better)
creatine (most pre-workouts contain around 1 gram per serving)
arginine (around 5 grams is optimal)

Other helpful ingredients

BCAA’s
Vitamin C
taurine
other herbal stimulants (1,3 dimethylamylamine is an example of a popular one)

One final thing I highly recommend is switching between different pre-workouts. The body can become accustomed to a particular formula and the effects will diminish after time. To avoid building up this tolerance it is good to switch to a new pre-workout supplement every so often. Different blends and different amounts of ingredients can surprise your body and increase the effectiveness of your pre-workout supplement.

John McKiernan is a personal trainer who enjoys researching information on bodybuilding, supplements, diets, health tips and more. He is the owner of Supplementhelper.com where he shares knowledge and advice about popular bodybuilding and health supplements.

The reasons why many people look at nutrition facts is because of the fat content. They want to determine how many calories they are putting into their bodies. Many people make the mistake of only looking at the total fat content. But you must also take into consideration of trans fats and saturated fats. This is where people become lost because a lot of people may not know what different fats do to their bodies and if the different fats will make them gain weight.

Deciphering A Nutrition Label

There are four main parts to every nutrition label. There is the recommended serving size with how many servings in a particular product, the calorie amount per serving, the amount of nutrients per serving, and the recommended daily nutrient amount information. So with all these in mind it is hard to know where to start. Let me show you the steps that I take when reading nutrition products.

Step 1

The first thing that I think most people will look at is the amount of calories in a recommended serving. That’s why it is placed conveniently at the top of the label. To determine if the amount of calories is right for you, first you must determine what is your goal. This will be up to you to decide. Is it to lose weight or is it to gain muscle?

I am usually trying to put on muscle mass so I generally like to have more calories. But I also take into consideration how healthy those calories are, which we will talk about in a minute. The other thing you have to take into consideration is how much of those calories are you planning to burn. So for example, if you are trying to loose weight, but you want to eat something that has a high amount of calories, it is usually fine if you are planning on burning those calories from your daily workout.

Many labels also include the amount of calories that come from fat. This is also beneficial if you’re trying to cut some weight. Around 100 calories is about the range of the normal amount of calories that you would see in any food product. So use 100 calories as the determining factor when seeing if something has high or a low amount of calories.

Step 2

After I have looked at the amount of calories I will be consuming, I see exactly what I’m putting into my body by looking at the nutrients section. I usually like to explain this section like this; the top have of this section is usually the things that you want to cut down on your diet, and the bottom half is the nutrients where you want the most out of your diet.

It breaks down like this; the top half includes fat content, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, fiber, sugars, and protein. With the exception of fiber and protein, these are the things that most people don’t want in their diet. The bottom half includes all the vitamins that are contained in the product. Mainly you will see vitamin a, vitamin c, calcium, and iron. Then you will see the daily value percentage of each nutrient.

A point of reference that could be used is 5% or lower is considered to be low and anything thing that is 20% or higher is considered to be high. So eat foods that contain 20% of your daily value with the nutrients that are found at the bottom half of the nutrient section.

Understanding the last Part of The Label – The Footnote

The footnotes of food labels are the same on all products. This part of a nutrition label is merely a reference to determine how much nutrients you should be taking in. The information is based on a 2,000 diet. Compare this information with the information above to tell if the nutrition information corresponds with your recommended daily intake.

Erik Smith is a contributor at Workout Designs and is passionate about fitness and living a healthy lifestyle.

Unfortunately, you cannot just lose fat from your stomach. You need to follow the general fat loss principles and you will lose fat from your whole body, including your stomach. Fat is burnt when performing cardio, or aerobic exercises. This type of exercise is long duration, moderate intensity exercise. In other words, you elevate you heart rate to about 70% of your max heart rate, and sustain this for a minimum of 20 minutes.

When performing cardio exercise, your body uses fat stores as energy during the exercise. It uses fat stores from all over your body, as I mentioned earlier, there is no way of targeting burning fat just off your stomach. Research as shown for optimal weight loss, it is recommended that you perform 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, at an intensity of 70% of your max heart rate, at least 4 days a week.

Once you start burning fat form the area, by exercising and eating a low fat diet, its now time to tone an tighten the abdominal muscles. There is no point starting these exercise earlier as they will never be seen if there is a layer of fat covering them! The three best ab toning exercises are crunches, oblique crunches and the plank.

Crunches are basically 1/2 of a traditional sit-up. Start by lying on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Make sure your feet stay on the floor throughout the exercise, if they lift off you are using you hip flexor muscles more than your abs. Place your hands behind you neck. Never pull you neck with your hands, they are just there for support. Breathe in as you lift you head and shoulders off the floor towards your knees, then breathe out as you return to the starting position. Perform 3 sets of as many as you can!

Oblique crunches are a variation of the above exercise. As you lift you head and shoulders off the floor, twist your body as if trying to get your right shoulder to your left knee. This exercise targets the oblique muscles more than the rectus abdominus (six pack) muscles at the front of your stomach.

The final exercise is the plank. It is important you don’t hold your breathe when doing this exercise. You start by lying on your stomach. raise your body off the floor so your body-weight is supported on your elbows and feet. Try and hold this position for as long as possible. If you feel any back pain stop the exercise immediately.

In summary, the first step in losing stomach fat is starting a low fat diet and an aerobic exercise program. When you start losing fat, ad din resistance exercises and you will tone and strengthen the area, creating a six pack in no time!

This is a guest post by Susan. To learn more of the fastest way to lose weight off your stomach please visit Susan Johnsons blog here.

There are currently two models of power racks available from Powertec, the full and half rack. Each offers a little something different in terms of use. The WB-HR11 half rack can accommodate 700 lbs of weight while the WB-PR11 full rack can take up to 1000 lbs of weight and 400 lbs on the pull-up bar. It’s also worth noting that the pull-up is ergonomically correct in shape; not just a straight bar. Saber spotters also come with both racks.

However, both have been designed such that additional components can easily be added, which then form an integral part of the rack. Each Powertec rack can be fitted with an optional Lat Tower so you can, in addition to lifting barbell weights, perform lat pulldowns. Its weight capacity is an impressive 300 lbs.

The WB-MP11 utility bench is also easily slotted in. With this addition you can perform many more exercises. But, it gets even better. Additional components can also be added to the bench itself. These include, Leg Lift, Curl Machine, Leg Press, Dip Machine and Pec Fly accessory.

Most opinions on both Powertec Workbench power racks are very positive. The overwhelming feeling is that you get very good value for your money – to get a better rack you would need to think about purchasing a commercial-grade unit and pay a commercial-grade price. If there is any negative points raised it tends to be about height. If you’re 6 foot you may find the full rack a little on the short side.

When you purchase the Powertec power rack in either full or half version you can keep it simple and get on with your barbell work in complete safety or, you can add as many of the additional components you want and have yourself a complete home gym.

Robert Mangan is guest author and owner of FitnessLyceum.com an authorized retailer of Powertec Fitness. You can find out more about the Powertec Power Rack by visiting the website.

This statement is completely backwards. Instead you need to learn to say “Work Your Workouts”. This statement will produce power, effort, results, and success in your workout efforts.

Workouts that work implies most workouts do not work, which is not a true statement. Most workouts can be highly effective when you commit to doing them with passion, commitment, and effort.

Let us take a look at a few of the most popular workouts and see if they truly work, or if people just fail to work them.

Pilates has become one of the hottest workout regimens in existence. It focuses on building core strength and stability. You will find a long list of supporters and lovers of this workout program and for great reasons. It creates lean, long, flexible muscles. It uses a combination of light resistance and stretching to improve your body.

Where Pilates attracts a great number of detractors is when they start complaining it does not burn off their excess fat and improve their cardiovascular fitness. Their complaints while being correct are unwarranted. Pilates does exactly what is claims. It produces better core strength, flexibility, and power.

Some people claim exercise bikes are one of the workouts that work for everyone. Once again they are correct in most ways. An exercise bike is fabulous at burning calories, improving cardiovascular fitness, and improving leg muscles. It is terrible at building core strength, better abs, and overall physical power.

Perhaps the greatest definition of workouts that work which exists today comes from Crossfit. They define fitness as being able to do any activity with above average capability. Their idea of workouts which work requires you train in a multitude of methods including sports, resistance training, stretching, cardio fitness, and more.

You may beginning to wonder what the point of all this is. Workouts that work can only be defined by the goals you set for yourself. All workouts work for their intended purpose. You must define your goal and then select a workout to match it.

If you want bigger muscles and power then do not buy an exercise bike or treadmill get yourself a home gym filled with resistance exercises. If you want to lose weight and get lean then stay away from the weight equipment and focus on aerobic exercises like running, cycling, and rowing.

You are in charge of creating your own workouts that work, and then learning to work the workout. You will quickly discover all workouts work, the majority just happen to not match your chosen goals.

Get out the pictures of how you want to look. Write down your fitness goals. Think about what is required to hit those goals in terms of physical motion and intensity and then the answer to your question of choosing workouts that work will become very obvious. You will be able to spot the proper workout for you from a mile away.

Weight training for women does not create big bulging muscles like develop on a man. Instead you develop a sculpted, lean, and sexy body. You can look like a professional dancer, gymnast, or competitive swimmer. Your body will be noticed.

There are a few very important items you should know as you get started in weight training. First, your nutritional needs are going to change. Where you could eat a simple balanced diet before, now you are going to need to feed the muscles a little differently. You need additional protein to help the muscles repair between workouts. You need to eat enough complex carbohydrates to fuel your workouts.

Another fact about weight training you need to understand is the idea of progressive improvement. You will see many sets of weights designed for women which offer only one weight. You buy a set of 5 pound dumbbells and they are supposed to be good for everything. Do not buy into this idea. You need adjustable weights if you wish to see improvement in your strength and your body shape. Muscles change and adapt only through being challenged progressively. You want to endeavor to increase the weight you are lifting slightly each week.

Beware of one of the biggest myths about weight training. You cannot turn your fat into muscle. You can replace your fat with muscle. You need to take careful control of your diet to lose the fat, while you build lean muscle. The lean muscle will be smaller and look fabulous compared to the fatty tissue you lose. The process is very simple, lose fat, gain muscle.

Weight training can help you lose fat. While weight training for women is not specifically targeted to cause fat loss, you will discover with the increase in lean muscle you metabolism becomes faster and you burn more calories. Assuming you are consuming the same amount of calories you will lose weight.

You might be tempted to only lift weights for body parts you consider to be problem areas. One piece of advice, do not do it. Plan your workouts to cover all parts of your body. Ideally separate your body into upper and lower halves. Do your strength training three days each week. As an example on your first week do upper body weight training on Monday and Friday. On Wednesday to your lower body training. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday should be used to do aerobic training to improve your overall condition and cardiovascular fitness. The next week switch your weight training around. Do lower body on Monday and Friday, with upper body on Wednesday. This schedule gives your muscles time to heal and rebuild.

Weight training for women is an essential part of making your body sensual, lean, strong, and beautiful. It is nearly impossible to sculpt your body to meet the vision you have in mind without weight training.

Weight training equipment comes in a wide variety of styles, capabilities, and cost. Before considering any equipment it is time to define what you are trying to accomplish. What are your goals in lifting weights?

If you are setting up a home fitness area for overall fitness, then buying an all in one home gym may be your perfect solution. It helps eliminate having weights and bars lying around the house getting in the way. You have increased safety because all the weight stations have safety stops and are controlled through pulley systems or tension rods. You never have the full weight of the bar and weights over your skull or chest. You can find many great home gyms to fill your needs priced from just over five hundred dollars up to a couple thousand dollars. For the higher prices you get more weight, and more exercise stations.

The offsetting disadvantage to a home gym shows up when you are wanting to train to the extreme. Bodybuilders, powerlifters, and football players would probably find a home gym very restrictive. The weights provided in most home gym systems are not high enough. The safety features often get in the way of full range of motion. Free weights engage more supporting muscles causing greater increases in muscle mass and strength. Buying a home gym which holds enough weight for a power athlete is very cost prohibitive often jumping up to prices approaching three to five thousand dollars.

Weight training equipment for power athletes is almost always free weights. You will want to check into buying Olympic weight lifting bars, weight benches designed to work with the Olympic bar, and Olympic plates. You may want to buy a variety of cast dumbbells in a wide variety of weights. Having dumbbells you do not need to change plates on allows for rapid changes in workouts and keeping your muscles fully pumped and engaged.

If you are in the first category and going to buy an all-in-one home gym for your weight lifting equipment make sure it fills all your needs. It must have a bench which allows bench presses, a squat station, a leg curl station, and pulley systems for lat pull downs and other pulling exercises.

If you are just getting started out with weight training and want a simple well rounded workout go ahead and take a look at the home gym. If you progress beyond the capacity of the gym you will discover used gyms sell very easily and you can buy free weights in the future. The most important decision is to go ahead and get started. Your muscles and strength will never grow sitting at the computer, it requires getting busy on your new weight training equipment.

One of the two big problems you will find with many people working out in the gyms is their nutrition. Their weight training is excellent. They hit the weights religiously but never seem to make great gains. They struggle for every added rep and every added pound on their lifts. They are getting in great shape, but not changing their shape much.

When you are weight training you are tearing down your muscles. You must provide them with the proper building blocks to rebuild properly or you simply end up with over-trained muscles which gets you stuck on a plateau. Your muscles can only make a certain amount of gain in power and size without great nutrition.

Your nutrition must include plenty of protein, shooting to get approximately .75 to 1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight. This easiest way to keep your calories down and get plenty of protein is to use a protein supplement. Powdered varieties are ideal, but you must keep a close eye on the amount of sugars and unnecessary fillers in the mixture.

As you progress and need even more muscle growing nutrition you can explore HGH Boosters, Creatine, Amino Acid Stacks, and other nutritional supplements.

The other area these weight training fanatics often miss is right between their ears. They are pounding away on the bench doing their bench press. Their back arches, their arm muscles are fully engaged struggling to lift the weight. Their effort looks tremendous, and it is. The problem is they are focusing the exercise on everything wrong. Are you guilty of this? Focus on form and even more importantly focus on the target muscle. When you are doing a bench press mentally crush the weight upward with the pull of your chest muscles against your arms. Feel the pull, and then flex the chest muscle fully at the top of the lift. Focus on lowering slowly allowing the chest muscle to control the weight all the way down.

By changing your mental focus you change the effort in the muscle you intend to develop and the change in growth and power can be tremendous.

The real magic is when your weight training is hitting on all three legs of a great program. You are working out with intensity. Your mental focus is in place and provides you with excellent technique and isolation. You feed your muscles the proper nutrition with plenty of protein. When these three legs are all in place your muscle mass and power will increase, it is the formula to success.