What fitness plan should i be doing at the gym? | The Healthy Living ...

i am 20 years old, i want to start going to the gym to build muscles and do a bit of fitness. I am 6ft (approx 180 cm) and 14 stone (90kg). I have started to play rugby twice a week in which i play prop and i would like to use the gym to help me with the rugby.

I am a certified personal fitness trainer and fitness instructor so I routinely set up fitness programs for clients. Any good fitness program will incorporate elements of the 3 fitness components ? weight/resistance (which uses resistance training to tone and build muscle), cardio/aerobics conditioning (which strengthens the heart muscle and makes you more efficient and increases endurance for aerobic activity, like running or playing rugby), and flexibility training (stretching to decrease the risk for potential injury).

Based on your specific fitness goals, ie building muscle and using gym to prepare you for the rugby field, you will want to focus on resistance (weight-lifting type of actvities) and cardio (any activity that increases and maintains heart rate in your target heart rate zone for the duration of the activity.)

In developing a resistance program it is good to know how much you should be lifting. This will be individual to you, based on your fitness level, your body type, if your muscles are somewhat conditioned already etc. Most modern gyms have either trainers available to help you find what weight you should be lifting, or have pre-programmed machines that will guide you towards the weight you need. If not, you can figure it out yourself by trial and error. You should find the weight you can lift 8-12 times or reps before reaching muscle fatigue. That is probably about the weight you should be lifting at. (Most people start with one set of 8 reps and then as they get stronger, increase to 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps.) A few other things to remember about resistance training:
1. You should not work the same muscle group on consecutive days. In other words, if you do biceps curls on Monday, skip exercises involving biceps until Wednesday or later. Repetitive resistance training actually causes tiny tears in the muscle, which can develop into big tears if not given enough time to repair themselves.

2. Introduce a resistance program slowly. To start with, shoot for 3 days/week of resistance training, and then based on results, increase days. If you?re lifting at your appropriate weight, you will be sore at first. If you do too much to start out with, because of lactic acid buildup in the muscles, it may discourage you from continuing. Challenge yourself, but go easy and be careful!
3. Make sure you incorporate some stretching, as well as warmups and cooldowns. This keeps your muscles flexible, improves range of motion, and seriously decreases your chances of getting hurt!

In developing a cardio program, you want your heart rate to go up (your Target Heart Rate Zone ? calculated percentage by factors such as your age & weight) and stay there during your workout. Both indoor and outdoor activities count as aerobic or cardio: running/jogging, vigorous walking, elliptical, treadmill, swimming, dancing, and yes, rugby! If you use gym cardio equipment, they will most likely have programs built into them that can help you find and sustain your target HR. There are also Target HR calculator sites where you plug in your data and it will tell you your *estimated* target heart rate for your age group, such as this one: http://exercise.about.com/cs/fitnesstools/l/bl_THR.htm

Unlike resistance, cardio/aerobic activities can and should be done on consecutive days. If you?re just starting out, try to go for at least 15-20 minutes 3xweek, increasing to 30 minutes, then 45, then an hour, 5x week. You want to give yourself at least one day off every week for your muscles to recover, as it is possible to overtrain otherwise.
It is not a bad idea to get pointers or advice from a local personal trainer. They can help you develop a tailored fitness program based on your needs and goals.
Hope this helps!

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Source: http://utvsneo.org/fitness-machines/what-fitness-plan-should-i-be-doing-at-the-gym

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