Alright, who's given up on their New Years Resolution already?

[Duffman]

[tacklejunkie]

LOl!!

[PierBridge]

Not me I have a G-Note on it though!

So far so good~~~~

[nofishfisherman]

I have never given up on a new years resolution. Of course I've also never made a new years resolution so that might be partly the reason.

[upnorth]

For me it is quit with the holiday eating patterns of huge meals, and cookies.

[Scott K]

I love cookies, and other baked goods. It is my weakness.

[upnorth]

I am pretty good most the year, but Xmas, my wife and daughter make authentic Scandinavian cookies. Just gotta have few. We all have weakness, Pizza.

[nofishfisherman]

I actually can't wait for everyone to break their New Years resolution. The gym this time of year is always packed with people that don't know what their doing and it makes it tough to get a workout in. By February most of them are gone until next January when the cycle starts over.

[fishersofmen]

Lol know doubt the gyms are packed right now. Some of the folks who are in there you almost want to help them out because it looks like they are going to injure themselves. There have been several times where I want to give a little guidance but not sure how it would be received.

[tacklejunkie]

That seems to be the pattern. By Feb, the gym gets less crowded, picks up a litle in May, slows, then for a short while in Sept.

Last Thanksgiving, after work, I went to work out before heading up to my folks for dinner and it was PACKED!!!!!

[mrklean]

When i worked out at golds it was like that packed in Jan and by Feb it was dead, LA has stayed pretty steady so far

[nofishfisherman]

Lol know doubt the gyms are packed right now. Some of the folks who are in there you almost want to help them out because it looks like they are going to injure themselves. There have been several times where I want to give a little guidance but not sure how it would be received.

I know exactly what you mean. I've seen people doing stuff that just makes you shake your head but how do you really approach them to tell them they are doing it wrong or that its potentially dangerous?

Every January there is one guy that comes in and heads right to the bench press. I'm pretty sure he does it about once a year to prove to himself he can still do it. He's a big guy and loads up 250-275 on the bench press and proceeds to struggle through a few reps without someone spotting him. His feet are on the floor and his back is arched so much that only the back of his head is touching the bench. Myself and the other guys lifting near him are all watching this knowing we all might need to jump in to save this guys life. People have offered to spot for him but he refuses. One of these years he's either going to blow out something in his back or he's going to drop the bar on his chest.

The other thing I see and have to laugh at are the people (usually women) who come in and get on the tread mill and set the speed so slow that they were actually walking faster and getting more benefit from the walk from the car to the front door. They walk for 20 minutes and probably don't even walk a half mile. Then they head to the weight machines and proceed to lift 5 pounds on every machine. Why does the leg press machine even go down to that low of weight? You have to be able to lift more than that just to be capable of walking over to the machine.

[Scott K]

Personally if I was doing something wrong, or using a machine wrong, I would invite anyone to teach me. I will have to admit, I dont know much about them. When I was in highschool, lifting for sports, we didnt have all of this fancy equipment. Now, when I was going to the gym daily, the only instructions I got, were from trying to read the machine, or from trying to watch others use it.

In fact, one time I went into the gym, and one highschool kid, actually asked if I wanted to try doing his routine with him, and he walked me through a decent workout. Before that, all I did was, go to a machine, and do as many reps as I could, then move to a different machine, with no idea of what I was doing. This kid that walked me through his routine, actually made my work out make sense, and I actually had an actual work out routine after that, rather then just, going there and making my muscles sore from running the machines.

I am sure many others feel as lost as I did at that time, and they are there just trying to figure out how to work out. Although, I know some people know everything, and will refuse any help. I guess what I am saying is, ask them, maybe even invite them to join you, doing your routine, and they may stick to it more, being they will know what they are doing a little better.

[upnorth]

I did reading on resistance training and gist of it was:

Do your compound or multi muscle group exercises first. And work your way down to the single or isolated muscle exercise. Theory was you will have more energy when you start your routine to do the compound exercises.

I do a full body workout in somewhat this order.

Warm up/stretches

squats

bench press

Lat pull downs

leg extension

leg curls

standing bicep curls

sitting shoulder press

calf extensions

flys

french curls

isolated bicep curls

lateral shoulder raises

Leg crunches

Planks

cool down strethes.

[that_guy]

Upnorth, That is a pretty comprehensive full body routine! Well done! I'd add a few of my faves to it, but I essentially break your entire routine out into 3-5 days worth of work.

As for the resolutions...I don't do them either. I feel I'm either going to do whats best, or I'm not. No point in starting something new on one day more than any other!

I heard somewhere, that there is no better time to start improving than right now.

[CANOPY SAM]

Many years ago I made a New Year's Resolution to never again make another New Year's Resolution.

It's the only New Year's Resolution I've ever been able to keep...

[upnorth]

That_guy, I do it more for fitness, not losing muscle mass and maintaining strength than body building. I used to do more of a area concentrated routine than now.

[that_guy]

Those are essentially my goals as well. I am horrible at keeping a decent pace up at the gym so I end up needing to break things apart into separate days so I keep my gym time to 50 minutes.

[upnorth]

No Gym here, just a space off the rec room with an elliptical, weight bench, some free weights and an adjustable set of elastic straps. Once I start I go until I am done with the whole routine, no rest period