Drake Fitness – Birmingham, AL – Altadena Square » We can get you there.

DrakeFit classes are intended to help you get in to shape or take you further down you’re fitness road than you are now.  The classes, taught by our training staff, are for ALL fitness levels and ALL body types. They are very energetic and FUN. During the classes we will target the entire body from head to toe. Each trainer adds his own twist to their respective class but the concept is the same for each class, maximum caloric burn! Classes are cardio oriented and will include, but certainly not limited to, body weight exercises, kettlebell exercises, free weight movements and plenty of plyometrics. All we as trainers are trying to do is put together the ultimate fat burning, cardio driven workout for each participant that takes the class. The class is individualized for everyone. Each person is capable of moving at their own pace and not the pace of the best or worst shaped participant. These classes are for the old and young alike. So quit using excuses and get in a class today. Here’s the schedule:

Monday: 7pm – 8pm with Ben Moore

Wednesday: 12pm – 1pm with Kevin Drake

Wednesday: 6:30pm – 7:30pm with Chris Davis

Saturday: 9am – 10am with Ben Moore

Make an appointment today by calling Drake Fitness at 205-298-1001 or write your name in on the schedule the next time you’re at the gym.

In the midst of the holiday season, it is really easy to start adding on a few inches around the waist without ever realizing it with feast after feast. Healthful eating goes to the wayside as pies and eggnog seduce us. Then as we are carrying the Christmas tree to the curb and we accidentally trip over our gut, we begin to panic and begin frantically looking for the miracle drug/food/diet to deflate our spare tire. Why not start countering that weight gain now? It seems impossible to burn as many calories as we need to, especially with the hustle and bustle that goes hand in hand with this time of year. This simple answer to this dilemma is resistance training.

When people think of exercise, the first thing that comes to mind is cardio. My first years of being in a gym were formed by a man my friends and I affectionately called “backwards elliptical man”(or “BEM” for short). This guy came in around 3 o’clock every day, dressed in several layers of sweats and took his Reader’s Digest and stepped onto “his” elliptical. This guy would get after it, seriously. There would be a small river of sweat flowing from his machine as he pedaled backwards for what seemed like days. I would do my sprints next to him on a treadmill, always encouraged by his tenacity on the elliptical and thinking if I really wanted to get in shape, I was going to have to devout hours of my time to the treadmill every day.

One morning, during a week off from school, I decided to be adventurous and head to the gym at 6am. Upon sitting on a bench and surveying the early birds, one person caught my eye in particular, it was “BEM“. This time however, something was different about “BEM“. He was still sweating profusely, but this time he was doing curls, had a tank top on and looked like a Spartan from 300. I was perplexed and had to ask him bashfully, “I thought you only did cardio?” He laughed and said, “That stuff wouldn’t get me anywhere if I didn’t do the weights to go along with it.”

The bike, the treadmill, the elliptical, the stairmaster, all of these things are great tools for helping you stay in good health and lose weight. These things alone rarely get you where you want to be before you give up. Without weight training included in your weekly exercise program, cardio will sometimes seem ineffective, just because it doesn’t show results quickly. During weight training, you not only burn tons of calories, but you are also replacing your fat weight with muscle weight. This lean muscle mass not only helps increase aesthetics and athletic performance, but it also allows you to burn more calories in every day life. The fact that you are training your muscles to burn calories for you is a great thing!

And for all the ladies, don’t think that just because you are adding lean muscle mass that you are going to “bulk up.” The really great thing about weight training is that it can be tailored to any need and goal. Women’s bodies do not naturally have the hormones that promote them to bulk up from lifting weights. So combined with a natural predisposition and the expertise of your trainer, you can get the same calorie burning benefits without deepening your voice and adding 10 inches to your biceps.

And so, in a “Real Men of Genius” fashion, we salute you, Mr. Backwards Elliptical Man, for your superior understanding of the most efficient way to burn off that extra serving of turkey, and helping us realize the importance of weightlifting in every person’s weight loss routine!

Are you getting the most out of your workouts? Thanks to a thing called life, few of us have the time available to spend several hours in the gym each day. This means that it is essential to make your workouts as efficient as possible. One major component of an efficient workout is the mind-muscle connection. This term gets thrown around a good bit and many of you have probably seen it used in various fitness publications. However, it is such a vital part to your fitness goals that I am going take a minute to analyze this concept.

So what is the mind-muscle connection?
This term simply refers to the awareness of a muscle or muscle group that is working during an exercise. You can increase the intensity of a given exercise by focusing on the muscle being worked, such as trying to consciously flex your biceps during a biceps curl.

First, it is important to determine your goal. If you are interested in powerlifting or olympic style weightlifting, then this article will not impact your training much. However, if your goals include shaping and toning your muscles, increasing muscle size, and/or just looking great, then pay attention. The difference between powerlifting/weightlifting and resistance training/bodybuilding is the theory behind your training. Weightlifters focus on completing the lift. However, your goal is not to just move the weight. The weight is merely a means to end; it is just a tool to stimulate your muscles. Your goal should be to focus on contracting the muscle to move the weight.

Lets look at the flat dumbbell press for an example: the primary muscle being worked is the pectoralis major (chest muscle) with the anterior deltoids (front part of shoulder) and triceps acting as secondary movers. If you use sloppy form, not only are you at a greater risk for injury, but also you probably are not going to stimulate the chest properly. However, if you use strict form and really concentrate on feeling your chest stretch and contract throughout the movement, you will actually recruit more muscle fibers in the chest and ultimately work the muscle harder than if you just passively performed the movement. At the same time, you could focus on your triceps or shoulders during the exact same movement and you would begin to experience more fatigue in the muscle you were focusing on. Applying this principle during every exercise will quickly add up over time and the results will follow. One thing to remember is that using strict form makes the exercise harder. So if you are used to using improper form, you may have to drop the weight down a little. Don’t let your ego get in the way when lifting: more weight does not necessarily mean better stimulation of the muscle.

So the take home message here is to make sure you are getting the most bang for your buck in the gym by stimulating your muscle in the most efficient way possible. During each exercise focus on feeling the muscle work, not just moving the weight. If you can’t feel the target muscle working, you are either using too much weight or your form is off. If you are unsure what the target muscle of an exercise is or how to properly perform the exercise, ask a qualified trainer for help. Using this simple mind trick during your workouts might be just what you needed to kick your progress into overdrive!

Ben Moore is another new addition we’ve made on our team here at Drake Fitness. Ben has a passion for training and being the best trainer that he can be. If you have any questions about the above article or would like to schedule 2 free training sessions with Ben, please call Drake Fitness today.