Gym fitness program

Ordinary people don’t need to follow Xiaohongshu’s “Perfect Weekly Training Plan” to choose a program when they go to the gym. The core depends on your own goals, exercise foundation and the time you can squeeze out every week. The conventional programs in all gyms on the market essentially fall into the four categories of strength training, aerobic training, functional training, and group classes. There is no absolute “best program”, and adaptability is ten thousand times more important than popularity.

The area where you first hear the sound of banging barbells when you first enter the gym is the strength training area, and it is also the place where most novices are discouraged. Nowadays, the noise about strength training methods can overwhelm the sound of the barbell landing: a group of old players adhere to the logic of differentiated training. Chest, shoulders, back, legs, and arms are trained separately every day, and each movement is done in 4 groups of 12 times. This model is indeed friendly to enthusiasts who can spend 4-5 hours in the gym every week with the goal of gaining muscle and shaping. The efficiency of muscle hypertrophy (that is, the growth of muscle dimension) is the highest among all training models. ； But another group of "high-efficiency flow" players who have become popular in the past two years don't follow this method at all. Every time they go to practice three compound movements of deadlift, bench press, and weight-bearing squats, they can finish it in 40 to 50 minutes and leave. It is suitable for office workers who can only come 2-3 times a week. Don't believe it, I used to have a friend who worked in the Internet. He went to the gym twice a week when he was 996, and just practiced these three movements. In three months, his body fat dropped by 4%, and his shoulders were stretched even when wearing a T-shirt. The only drawback is that the muscle dimensions increase slower than the differentiation of training. After all, the time invested is there. Oh, by the way, novices don’t be afraid of the big guys in this area. Most people are cold-mouthed and hot-hearted. If you ask if you don’t do the moves correctly, you will most likely get free guidance, which is much more cost-effective than injuring your waist by practicing blindly.

Bypassing the strength area is a row of aerobic areas with bright screens. Treadmills, elliptical machines, rowing machines, and spinning bikes are neatly arranged. Many people go up and run for an hour on the first day after applying for the card, thinking that this is called "training." In fact, there are the most people here. There has been a long-circulated saying that "you must do aerobics for 40 minutes before you start burning fat." This has long been falsified by the exercise physiology community - as long as you have a caloric deficit, even 10 minutes of interval running can burn fat. Not to mention that hard running for heavy people will cause irreversible wear and tear on the knees. Last year, I met a 180-pound brother who ran 5 kilometers every day for a week. In the end, he went to the hospital for meniscus pain, and the card was not used up for half a year. If you want to do aerobics but your knees are not good, choose an elliptical machine or a rowing machine. If you want to be efficient, choose intermittent running. If you really feel bored, you can also use the elliptical machine while watching TV dramas. Don't worry about the duration. If you can persist, it is better than anything else.

The place in the corner where there are wave balls, TRX suspension belts, medicine balls, and agility ladders is the functional training area. There is now a lot of controversy over this area: some people think it is just a showpiece and a prop used by personal trainers to cheat money, while others regard it as the core of improving sports performance. In fact, it depends on your needs. I have a friend who plays amateur badminton. He specializes in practicing TRX core and agility ladder twice a week. After three months, his reaction to receiving and smashing the ball on the court has become more than a little faster. Opponents that he could not beat before can now easily win. ； But if you just want to lose weight, jumping on the wave ball every day is useless. It is better to do 10 minutes of abdominal crunches and half an hour of aerobics, which is much more cost-effective.

If you really can’t get enough energy to practice on your own, you can try the group class room in the gym. From Les Mills barbells and spinning bikes to yoga and Pilates, basically everything is popular. I once had a friend with social anxiety who was dragged into a spinning class by a salesperson. The instructor asked everyone to shout slogans, and he almost ran away while sitting in the last row. However, for people who like a lively atmosphere, group classes are simply a savior to keep exercising. My colleague used to be too lazy to practice on his own for at most two weeks and signed up for a fixed spinning class. Now he goes four times a week without hesitation. He has lost 12 pounds in three months, all because the coach and classmates are watching. As for the recently controversial Pilates, some people tout it as a universal program that can lose weight, stretch muscles, and cure diseases. Others say it is an IQ tax. In fact, its core is to improve core control and improve posture. For office workers who sit for a long time and have chests, practicing rounded shoulders and hunched back for a month or two can really improve a lot. However, if you want to rely on Pilates to develop eight-pack abs or peach buttocks, you still have to go to the power area and lift iron. Don't have unrealistic illusions.

In fact, after all is said and done, there is really no distinction between high and low in gym projects. Last week, I saw an aunt in her sixties at the gym. She danced in a group class for half an hour every day, and then used two 2kg small dumbbells to do arm exercises for ten minutes. After half a year, her blood pressure stabilized, and her frozen shoulder was much better. She was much better than those young people who hurt their waists and shoulders by doing heavy weights every day. If you go there for the first time and really don’t know what to choose, just go around one by one and try each item for ten or twenty minutes. After practicing whichever one you feel like “I’m still willing to come next week,” which one is the most suitable for you. After all, persistence is the most important thing when it comes to fitness, and everything else is illusory.