Gym Tips For Weight Loss - Pump, flirt, thrash

 

Pump, flirt, thrash: A fitness trainer reveals it all

The beginning of the year is for gyms like Christmas, birthday and Eurojackpot together: In no other month are people more motivated to finally really do more exercise now. The studios can hardly save themselves from registrations.

 

"But by March, a great many are gone again. They still keep their contracts running and pay," says David. He is 27 years old, well-trained, his skin tanned and full of tattoos. Just as you would imagine a fitness trainer to be. His name is actually different, and he's been working for one of the big chains in Hamburg for three years.

A good body is part of the job, he says. What counts is the surface.

David told us how he recognizes hopeless cases, whether everyone can achieve a trained body and when he kicks people out of the gym:

Can you tell if people are going to stick it out?

I do. It's not about fat, thin, short, tall, young or old - if you talk to people and someone affirms "I really want to change something about myself now," they'll come for a short time. Of the people who sign up in January, not even half come back regularly.

From my own experience, it's like this: you start and you're motivated. That lasts for two to three months. Then you hit a low point, you have to struggle every time - and that lasts another two to three months. This is where most people collapse. If you manage to overcome this low and still go, you're in. Then you have built it into your everyday life and manage to come regularly.

Can anyone get a well-toned body or is it just unrealistic for some?

Everyone can achieve a trained body. But it takes different amounts of time depending on your disposition, training and diet. The gym is only a small part of it: poor nutrition has much more influence than predisposition.

30 percent is training, 70 percent is diet.

30 percent is training, 70 percent is nutrition is a common saying in the industry. But to deal with it and cook for yourself, of course, takes a lot of time and work. You would have to change a lot of things in your life - and most people don't feel like doing that.

 

How do I get muscles?

In general, the fastest way to build muscles is through top nutrition and regular training. Three times a week is enough. If you want to build more mass, you have to increase your daily calorie intake a little, from 2500 to 2800. Conversely, if you want to lose weight in a healthy way, you should eat 300 calories less per day than you consume - and not 1000 less right away, that would not be good for your body.

What does sports science say?

Protein helps build muscle, not more calories, writes us a sports scientist.

 

What is the fastest way to lose weight?

I really wouldn't advise anyone to lose weight fast.

To lose weight, strength training is ideal because it's more strenuous and you burn a lot more calories than if you just walk. If you work your legs really hard, you burn a lot more calories than if you run on a treadmill for hours. A mix of intense strength training and cardio, or endurance training, is ideal.

What does sports science say?

Endurance athletes burn more fat than strength athletes, but build less muscle mass. Endurance training also lowers the resting heart rate more than weight training. For strength athletes, on the other hand, energy consumption increases more at rest. So they burn more calories while lounging around on the sofa.

Many women are afraid that if I show them exercises with weights for the chest area or for the upper arms, they will soon look like Hulk. But that doesn't happen with women because they have far too little testosterone in their bodies.

Some run in thick sweaters to sweat more - do you burn even more calories?

No, but it takes more water out of the body. People often do that in the last step before they go on stage or the catwalk, because it gets a little more out of your body. But it doesn't help you lose more weight, it just helps you lose water.

What do you do with clients who smell extremely of sweat?

You can't kick someone out because they smell. Everyone has a contract and it doesn't say: If you stink, your contract will be terminated. If it's extreme and other customers complain, you try to take the person aside and talk to them nicely, perhaps recommend her to take a deodorant after the shower. That's a tough one. So far, fortunately, I haven't had to do that. No one feels like having such an awkward conversation.

What's the worst thing you've ever experienced?

One guy threw up in the sink once - and since it was clogged, I had to clean it up. That was disgusting. And there's something very unpleasant that didn't happen in our studio, but in another one: someone wrote something on the wall with his feces. That really happened once.

People often throw up from too hard a workout.

People often throw up from too hard a workout. That has happened to me as well. Especially if you train your legs very hard, you can get so sick that you can't do it anymore and have to throw up. Fortunately, most people make it to the bathroom.

What do you have to do to get kicked out as a member?

Fight. I've had to intervene a few times. Then you get a warning. And if it happens again: out.

If someone gives their card to a non-member, the same thing happens. We see the photo on the card on the monitor of everyone who comes in. The non-member is then immediately kicked out and the person who passed on the card gets a warning and the next time: out.

Let's become friends!

Do many women want to meet you after the training?

It works. There are already many flirting, and I have also been invited on dates. But for me it's clearly my job, I try to keep that separate. Of course, I've already dated a few women I met there, but I'm still careful. If I had a different one in the studio every week, that would be unwelcome. I would also never work out with my girlfriend where I work. I don't think much of this #fitnesscouple on Instagram.

Would you date a fat woman, too?

Depends on how you define fat. Very, very fat maybe she shouldn't be, but she definitely doesn't have to be super trained and into sports. Personally, the face is very important to me, the eyes.

Do you think some people want to compensate with muscles?

What a Porsche is for some people, fat muscles are for others. Some people can't do anything but have big muscles. Of course, not everyone is like that. I have also talked to many hugely pumped up bodybuilders and was surprised, also by my own prejudices.

A typical cliché to end with: It says that men with big muscles have a small penis. Is that true?

No. That's what many think, because some also take substances to get very thick muscles, that it makes the penis smaller. But the only thing that gets smaller when you take something like that is the testicles. The penis remains the same size.