How to achieve your fitness goals at a gym

For a lot of us, fitness is about health: we practice sports, fitness or go to the gym simply to stay as healthy as possible and keep our figure trim (and our metabolism high) as we age. But for a great amount of people, fitness is not simply about staying trim: it is a lifestyle, and it helps us set goals and become the better version of ourselves.

This goals are usually building muscles in a particular area, getting stronger, looking better or losing weight; and to get there you need to follow a different road every time: you can’t get trim by doing the same exercises that you would do for, let’s say, bodybuilding.

Today let’s explore some of the most popular goals gymgoers have, and how to get there:

Popular goals for men:

-Building muscle: One of the most popular goals for men is to build muscle and bulk. If you want to achieve this goal you will have to eat enough calories: during exercise, your muscles will suffer microtears that can only get repaired if you get enough calories and nutrients. You will also need to lift weights: if you want to get stronger, you will need to lift heavy and do little repetitions; but if you want to build a beautiful figure your best bet is lifting moderate weights and doing many repetitions. If you aren’t sure of what your goals are or how to get them ask a coach: they will be able to guide you!

-Getting abs: If you want to have good looking abdominals, exercise won’t get you very far. There is such a thing as a reason why fitness enthusiasts say “abs are made in the kitchen”: only through losing weight will you be able to get that sought after 6 pack that a lot of men are after.

For a person living locally i.e in York. A gym in York closer to home would be ideal for them to achieve their goals in a quicker time as they would get to visit their local gym a lot more times rather than travelling out.

Popular goals for women:

-Losing weight: If you want to lose weight, perhaps the most important thing to take care of is your diet. You will need to eat less calories than you burn, so find a diet that you enjoy and stick to it: intermitteng fasting, keto, low carb, paleo… Exercising is a good way to burn extra calories, stay healthy and get trimmer faster: look into cardio exercises such as running, dancing, hitting the treadmill, walking, hiking…

-Building endurance: If you want to build endurance, you will need to elevate your heart rate for long periods of time so as to build your heart capacity. Exercises that can help you do so are long runs in the treadmill or biking, but you might want to look into HIIT (high intensity interval training): this type of exercise combines very high effort for a short period of time (usually around 30 seconds) with more moderate exercise (usually 4 to 5 minutes) in sessions of around 10 to 30 minutes. HIIT is not only an excellent way to fit exercise into a busy schedule but it has numerous benefits such as better endurance and cardiovascular health, improved metabolism and it can help you build muscle!