Fitness goals for men and women both have their fair share of similarities and differences. For your average male, his ideal body would involve a lot of muscle mass and preferably have defined muscles and great ab insertions. As for females, they aspire to have a slim upper body with a flat torso, and a thick lower body with rounded glutes and thick thighs. It’s safe to say that majority of the male fitness enthusiasts prioritize their upper body, while the females target the lower.
The common goal for both parties, however, is that they both want to lower their body fat percentage; most people say that they want to lose weight, but this is the more accurate description. This has proven to be quite a tough target for people to hit as many struggle with not being able to leave their old eating habits behind. How often have we seen individuals try to turn their lives around (usually at the start of a new year) only to stop 2 to 3 months later? This happens because a lot of the time, these people feel like they have lost track of what they want to achieve because they never had a clear destination in mind. In this article, I will be going through the different types of goals and explain how you can achieve them easily.
1) Six-pack Abs & Losing Body Fat
This is by far the most commonly sought out result for people who work out. In order to decrease your body fat percentage, you will need to ensure that you are in a caloric deficit. That means that your body is burning more calories than it consumes. There are websites on the internet (TDEE calculator) and apps on your smartphone (MyFitnessPal) that will help calculate the calories you need to be in that state. Remember that doing one thousand sit-ups a day won’t give you the washboard abs you have always wanted, you are going to have to lose body fat first before they become visible.
2) Developing Muscle Mass
For both men and women, this serves as the main objective when hitting the gym. When trying to stimulate growth, you must ensure that your workouts target muscle hypertrophy. Hypertrophy is attained by putting your muscles under intense stress and tension in order to enable them to increase in size. This can be done by performing exercises in a controlled fashion for 10 to 15 repetitions. It might not be as conducive to strength training as that usually involves lower rep ranges, but it will certainly enlarge your muscles.
For women, the process will remain the same as they will also target hypertrophy during their workouts to enhance their desired muscle groups.
3) Better Stamina
For individuals who value stamina, cardiovascular exercises are the way to go. You could go for the traditional exercises such as biking, swimming, and running, or opt for more variety in the form of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). The goal of this type of exercise is to increase your muscle endurance. Focus on performing these exercises thrice a week and your cardio should significantly improve.
4) Machinery/Equipment To Use
For men, they prioritize muscle groups located in the chest, back, shoulder, and arm regions as most would want a muscular upper body. To achieve this, utilize compound lifts (exercises that involve 2 or more muscle groups). Good examples of compound exercises are the bench press, deadlift, military press, barbell row, lat pulldown, dips, and pull-ups. This core group works all of the major muscles in your upper body and should give you the ideal image you are looking for. Try to work out at least 3 times a week to achieve the best results.
For women, they tend to focus on lower body exercises such as hip thrusts, squats, lunges, and the leg press. The frequency of the workouts will remain the same, anything over 3 times a week is ideal.
If an individual needs to travel to their gym to a certain distance to work out they may not be highly motivated to go as often as oppose to if their gym is in their local home town i.e if a gymgoer resides in York, he/she is more likely to visit their own Ultraflex Gym in York.
However, the most important aspect in achieving your goals at the gym is patience and consistency, You will need to accept that results will not happen overnight and it might take several months/years to get your ideal physique. Also, try to think of this process as a lifestyle and not something temporary. That way you will learn to love what you do and not see it as a punishment.
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