A back exercise you don’t see performed very often in the gym. A barbell rowing movement, with the added pause on the floor that keeps your reps explosive and prevents you using momentum to aid your lifts.
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Performed like a bent over row, start with the bar on the floor, place your grip just wider than shoulder
width, a slight bend in your legs, trying to keep your back as straight as possible. From there, row the bar close to your body trying as much as possible to keep your body at the same angle, with your back straight, and your legs out of the movement. This is harder movement than standard barbell rows, so take the weight slowly to find your level.


GAH Gym
Unit 38, Albion Industrial Estate, Cilfynydd, Pontypridd, CF37 4NX

A small piece of training kit we have in the gym, but one that can make a
big change to your fitness training. Fat Gripz can be added to a bar or dumbbells,
making the bar much thicker. For pulling movements suck as rows, this can aid your
grip by making it much more difficult to grip the bar. 
They are also a great alteration when performing curls, as the thicker bar will cause
even more tension through the arms, making them even more effective.
Finally, adding them to the bar for pressing movements can help you spread
the load adding more comfort to the movement.


GAH Gym
Unit 38, Albion Industrial Estate, Cilfynydd, Pontypridd, CF37 4NX

​Improve your hamstring training in the gym with 2 small tips

1 DON'T BE AFRAID TO GO HEAVY
Hamstrings are typically a muscle that will fatigue quickly and more suited to
heavy, powerful training. When performing hamstring exercises, don’t be
afraid to keep your reps lower and the weight high.

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2 HIT THEM FROM BOTH ANGLES
Whilst leg curls are great for hamstrings it is also important to remember that
they are also involved in movement at the hip joint. Incorporate movements
such as straight or stiff leg deadlifts to ensure you’ll hit your hamstrings from
both angles and train them even more effectively.

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GAH Gym
Unit 38, Albion Industrial Estate, Cilfynydd, Pontypridd, CF37 4NX

As with anything in the gym, there are always small changes you can make to
exercises to make sure you’re getting the most out of them.

1 FULLY FLEX, FULLY EXTEND YOUR ARM
When performing tricep extensions, moving the elbow joint through
its full range, so fully bending and straightening your arms, the tricep
will be full stretched and contracted. To contract you triceps, making
them as short as possible, perform the exercise until your arms is completely
straight andelbow locked. To stretch triceps, making them as long as you can,
fully flex your arm when performing the negative portion of the movement.
To make sure you’re doing this, contract your biceps for a moment at the top
of the movement.

2 WORK YOUR WRISTS
This small addition to the end of tricep extensions will allow you to feel a much
more forceful contraction in your triceps. When straightening your arms, at the
very end of the movement, point your wrists out, so that your thumb starts to
point down towards the floor (or up to the ceiling if performing overhead 
movements).


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GAH Gym
Unit 38 Albion Industrial Estate, Cilfynydd, Pontypridd, CF37 4NX

Another muscle group a lot of people have trouble targeting when they’re in the gym. As with chest, you’ll hear a lot of people saying that they feel it in their arms when training back. If you feel this, there are a few small tweaks that you can make to help you place the stress onto your back.

1 ENGAGE YOUR BACK BEFORE YOUR ARMS
This will apply to both rowing and pulldown exercises, and can help prevent
your arms from being the main driver of the exercise. When doing a row or
pulldown, let the weight stretch you, engage your shoulder blades (pulling
them down for a pulldown and back on a row) before starting to pull with your
arms, then begin pulling with your arms once you’ve fully engaged your
shoulder blades. This will allow your back to become the main driver of the
exercise. So whilst you may feel weaker at first, once you learn how to
engage your back, you’ll find your strength also increasing.

2 DON’T GO TOO HEAVY
This particularly applies to T-bar and bent over rows, exercises where
you need to be bent over in an unsupported manner. Going too heavy on these
exercises will not only increase the risk of injury, but will also cause you
to become more and more upright and use momentum to get the weight up.
This will mean you’re targeting your back less, and most stress will also be placed
on your traps. It might not be the most appealing advice but going a little light
on back exercises will lower the need to use momentum and allow you to
use your back properly.

3 USE LIFTING STRAPS
Using lifting straps will  prevent your grip from being the limiting factor in sets, so
when you do fail it will be because your back can’t move the weight, rather than
your grip failing. It will also mean that you don’t need to grip the bar or handles so hard. 
To use straps, wrap them around the bar once, going in the opposi
the direction to your grip. Once they’re secure, it will lower the effort you need
to put in the keep the bar in your hand.


GAH Gym
Unit 38, Albion Industrial Estate, Cilfynydd, Pontypridd, CF37 4NX

As with anything in the gym, there are always small changes you can make to exercises to make sure you’re getting the most out of them.


1 FULLY FLEX, FULLY EXTEND YOUR ARM
When performing tricep extensions, moving the elbow joint through
its full range, so fully bending and straightening your arms, the tricep will be
full stretched and contracted. To contract you triceps, making them as short at
possible, perform the exercise until your arms is completely straight and
elbow locked. To stretch triceps, making them as long as you can, fully flex
your arm when performing the negative portion of the movement. To make
sure you’re doing this, contract your biceps for a moment at the top of the
movement.


2 EXTEND YOUR WRISTS
This small addition to the end of tricep extensions will allow you to feel
a much more forceful contraction in your triceps. When straightening your
arms, at the very end of the movement, point your wrists out, so that your
thumb starts to point down towards the floor (or up to the ceiling if performing
overhead movements).

​
GAH Gym
Unit 38 Albion Industrial Estate, Cilfynydd, Pontypridd, CF37 4NX

Calves are one of the more simple muscles to train in the gym, due to the limited number of movements they are involved in. Use these small tips to take your calf training up a gear.

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1 USE THE FULL RANGE
Whilst this applies to most exercises, it is all too easy when training calves to
cut your range short and miss out on utilising the entire range of movement.
Whilst you perform calf raises, make sure you stretch all the way down, as far
as you can, and then during concentric portion take the weight all the
way up,where you should feel a strong contraction in your calves.

2 VARY STANCE WIDTH
When training calves, it is important to note how stance width changes
the target of the movement. When your feet are out wide, just wider than
shoulder width, you’ll be targeting the muscle on the inner part of you leg,
then with your feet together, you’ll be hitting more of your outer calves.
Change up your stance width when training calves to change how you hit them.

​
GAH Gym
Unit 38, Albion Industrial Estate, Cilfynydd, Pontypridd, CF37 4NX

Whilst there are many different targets in fitness, many people go to the gym with the goal of looking better in mind. Whilst with most muscle groups people want to make them bigger to look better, so they train them with heavy weights and/ or high reps to push them to grow. With abs however, this will not be the best goal. Training the abs with heavy to get them bigger may actually detract form your overall shape by making your waist look thicker.
So when training abs, we always recommend avoiding heavy weight, so that they can be trained whilst keeping your midsection small. Any ab exercise that makes your stomach protrude out should be avoid, so exercises with your feet hooked under a bar, or with a weight should be kept to a minimum when training your abs for appearance. By keeping to crunches or vacuums it will allow you to work your abs but also avoid your core becoming thicker.
To perform vacuums, blow all the air out of your stomach, then suck it in and hold for 10 seconds.


Sample Ab Workout
15 crunches
10 sec vacuum, 10 sec rest x6
Repeat 4 times


GAH Gym
Unit 38, Albion Industrial Estate, Cilfynydd, Pontypridd, CF37 4NX

Shoulders are another muscle group that people often experiencing difficulty in targeting when they’re in the gym, with triceps and traps often becoming heavily involved in movements. Here are a few tips to allow you to work your shoulders effectively.

1 PRESS FOR YOUR SHOULDERS
When dumbbell or barbell pressing, many people will finish the movement
 with their arms straight, as high above their head as they can, and lower it
only half way down. Pressing in this way will bring your triceps into it and can
take the stress for your shoulders.
To place the emphasis on to your shoulders, take the weight down to just above
your shoulders, then press it to just above head level. This will force the shoulders
to do more of the work and prevent the triceps from taking over.

2 PERFORM PROPER LATERALS
When performing lateral raises, many in the gym go too heavy too fast, which
causes the traps to become involved to complete the movement as a shrug
action often becomes involved. By taking the weight down, it will prevent this
shrug movement from becoming involved, and place more stress on your shoulders.


​GAH Gym
Unit 38, Albion Industrial Estate, Cilfynydd, Pontypridd, CF37 4NX