Embarking on a fitness journey often involves addressing those persistent pockets...

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The Bent Over Row: a classic gym exercise that targets the muscles of the back.

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The best lower back exercise for strength and spinal decompression! The Reverse Hyper Machine's purpose is to build spinal erector nad glute strength as well as spina decompression. Prime Movers: Spinal Erectors (back) and Glutes (hips).

How To Do Reverse Hyperextensions

1. Set-up on a Reverse Hyper Machine with your feet hooked and the front of your hip crease placed against the edge of the pad.

2. Begin by flexing your glutes to lift your legs up behind you. Then, allow the weight to rock back down as you relax.

3. As your swings increase so that your legs extend backward in line with your body, pull your head back towards your feet arching your back and flex your lower back muscles hard.

4. Then control the weight back down and allow it to swing forward as you lower your head back in front of you.

By arching your back at the top with your head raised you will allow for a better, more complete contraction in your spinal erectors. And as the weight lowers, rounding your back, lower your head to allow for a full stretch. This full-motion promotes spinal health while strengthening your entire spinal erector chain.

Stream a playlist of hit songs for an instant happiness boost. According to study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, hearing the music you enjoy or simply anticipating hearing it causes a cascade of dopamine to be released in the brain.

Yet the benefits keep on rocking; a recent University of NSW study discovered that engaging in musical activities, such as singing or playing an instrument, has real benefits for one's health—about half those of regular exercise. Hey Siri, play "Happy" by Pharrell.

How recently did you laugh with a friend? And sending memes doesn't count. According to a recent study that appeared in the journal Communication Research, all it takes is one good chat to boost mood and reduce stress.

The more catch-ups, the better, although more IRL interaction was more closely associated with increased wellbeing, the researchers write. According to Dr. Sharp, social connection is "almost likely the most essential aspect" in determining one's health and happiness. It promotes a sense of belonging. Not much of a talker? Instead, compose a brief note. According to research, this modest act can have enormous benefits for both the sender and the recipient.

It’s no secret exercising is helpful for your mental health. Take it outside to enjoy the uplifting effects of nature. This year a major US study found spending time in urban parks can deliver a happiness boost similar to a holiday like New Year’s Day.

Green places have tonnes of positivity potential, says Dr Sharp. "Exploring nature tends to offer perspective and chances to practise mindfulness. However, escaping some of the more prevalent sources of stress and anxiety, such as social media, the news, and screens in general, involves going outside.

Even better if you can hear some bird song while you're out and about. According to Californian researchers, hearing bird sounds while strolling through natural areas is associated with higher levels of self-reported wellbeing.

Let's applaud hedonism. Short-term pleasures, like watching your favourite TV show or going out to dinner, are just as important for a happy existence as pursuing long-term, deserving objectives, like training for a marathon, according to researchers at the University of Zurich.

According to psychologist Dr. Tim Sharp, founder of The Happiness Institute, intentionally establishing space for enjoyment and play in daily life generates a positive feedback loop. It can inspire and drive us to feel good and do more good. This is incredibly beneficial and healthy.

One way to make each and every exercise more effective is to think about the muscles you’re trying to engage, rather than mindlessly going through the motion. It can be very easy to disassociate from your workout by chatting with your friends or paying more attention to the instructor. But what we've seen is that if you focus on contracting the muscle that you're involving, then you can get a better result out of it.

For example, if you’re doing a squat, actually think about your glutes powering you through each rep to make sure you’re using good form and the muscles you’re trying to engage are actually doing the work (rather than letting other muscle groups take over).

One of the biggest questions that beginners have in the gym is, "Which weight should I use?" Choosing a weight that's heavy enough (but not too heavy) will challenge your muscles just enough to grow stronger. If a weight is too light, you'll still get some of the health benefits from moving your body, but you won't see your strength or fitness improve.

Choosing the right weight can take some trial and error. In general, you want a weight where you can finish all of the reps in your final set of exercises, but feel like you're really struggling on the last two or three reps. If you can finish that final set easily, it's time to increase the weight. If you can't finish all of the reps in a set, move down to a lighter weight.

While you can get a heart-pumping workout using only bodyweight exercises, adding in weights gives your muscles an extra challenge. If you feel like you’ve mastered moves like basic squats and lunges, try holding a set of dumbbells or a medicine ball to make these types of bodyweight moves more challenging and effective.

Compound exercises recruit multiple muscle groups and two or more joints at once. That’s opposed to isolation exercises, which target one muscle group (like bicep curls). Because they help you get more done in less time, they’re great for increasing overall muscle mass, and they also burn more calories because they require more energy output. Compound exercises can be single moves that put multiple groups to work at the same time (like lunges and squats), or they can be two moves strung together (like bicep curls to shoulder presses).

To make the most of the time you put into the gym, you should aim for compound moves to take up 70 to 80 percent of your workout (and target specific muscles you want to work with isolation exercises the rest of the time).

Strapped for time in the gym? Cut down your rest intervals. By taking minimal rest, you’re automatically upping the intensity of your workout and keeping your heart rate elevated throughout your weightlifting or interval training session. This cardio challenge trains your body (and mind) to work efficiently and persevere through fatigue,. When you do cardiovascular training regularly, your body gets better at delivering fresh oxygen to your muscles, so you’ll get better at pushing through your workouts even when you’re tired.

The right amount of rest varies depending on the workout and the person, but as a rule of thumb, you should aim to take just enough that you can go hard during your next set, but not so much that you’re totally recovered. A quick disclaimer: If you're already feeling this way during your strength workouts, you might not want to cut down your rest intervals any further; too little rest won't allow your muscles to recover enough to be ready for your next strength set.

Foam rolling is another excellent way to improve your range of motion, so you can get more out of every squat, lunge, and push-up. Foam rolling helps relieve tightness by releasing knots your fascia, the thin sheath of tissue that surrounds your muscles. This tightness gets in the way of your ability to do exercises with a full range of motion, which may limit the benefits of the exercise. Foam rolling before a workout (and when you have spare time) is a good habit to get into to make every gym session more effective. When you roll, make sure to go slowly and pay special attention to any spots that feel particularly tight, like your hips or calves.

If you’ve steered clear of the weight room in the past, now’s the time to get familiar with strength training. Having strong muscles can help prevent injury and help you move better in day-to-day life, whether you’re lifting a moving box or climbing stairs. Strength training also improves your bone density, which is important to prevent fractures and osteoporosis. It also prevents against age-related muscle loss—the natural decrease in muscle mass that happens as you age—which keeps your metabolism humming. And although you probably associate cardiovascular exercise with heart-health benefits, research shows that strength training also helps keep your heart healthy by lowering your blood pressure and improving cholesterol levels.

Dynamic stretches are a core component of pretty much any warm-up. With dynamic stretching, you’ll be moving through different stretches, rather than holding the stretch in place. This gradually raises your body temperature and heart rate and starts to warm up your muscles, priming your body for activity. A dynamic warm-up also helps improve your range of motion, so you can get deeper into each exercise and reap the full strengthening benefits of each move. The exact stretches you should perform in your warm-up depend on the type of workout you'll be doing.

Resist the urge to chime in on your group text or check that Snapchat message. Your workout is the time you get to invest in yourself, so turn your phone on airplane mode to avoid unnecessary distraction. Even better? If you don’t need your phone for your music or any workout apps, leave it in the locker room. The workout 'grams can wait.

Get pumped up on your way to the gym and during your workout with songs that make you feel strong, powerful, and like you can do anything.

Having a plan of action before you step foot in the gym can help you avoid wandering aimlessly around while you decide what to do next. This indecisiveness not only adds time to your workout, it also makes it less efficient, since you’re letting your heart rate drop. "A clear plan is your secret weapon," Joanne russell, founder of Hammer House Gyms, previously us . Know what exercises you’re going to do, where you’re going to do them, and in what order.

It’s also a good idea to have a plan B, just in case the machine or floor space you were planning on using is taken. Move on to other parts of your workout and come back, or be armed with a backup exercise in mind that utilizes different equipment.

The caffeine in a pre-workout cup of coffee helps stimulate your central nervous system, so you’ll have a little extra oomph in your cardio or functional class. Plus, in addition to a performance boost, research shows that it can actually make exercise feel more enjoyable, so you’re more likely to push harder.

Drink up a half hour before you start sweating to give it time to kick in.

With 2020 just around the corner, most New Year resolutions include planning to lift more, run more, or sweat more. Chances are, you’re looking to do it in the most efficient and effective way possible. Sure, showing up may be half the battle, but the other half of the battle is made up of hard work, consistency, and training smart. Whether you’re a seasoned gym-goer or you’re new to fitness, here are 19 workout tips to take your fitness to the next level. And remember: doing any type of physical activity is a great first step.

Wake up with a cup of coffee before your morning workout.

The caffeine in a pre-workout cup of joe helps stimulate your central nervous system, so you’ll have a little extra oomph in your indoor cycling or boot camp class. Plus, in addition to a performance boost, research shows that it can actually make exercise feel more enjoyable, so you’re more likely to push harder. Drink up a half hour before you start sweating to give it time to kick in.

Walk into the gym with a plan.

Having a plan of action before you step foot in the gym can help you avoid wandering aimlessly around while you decide what to do next. This indecisiveness not only adds time to your workout, it also makes it less efficient, since you’re letting your heart rate drop. A clear plan is your secret weapon. Know what exercises you’re going to do, where you’re going to do them, and in what order. What exercises you’re going to do, where you’re going to do them, and in what order. It’s also a good idea to have a plan B, just in case the machine or floor space you were planning on using is taken. Move on to other parts of your workout and come back, or be armed with a backup exercise in mind that utilizes different equipment.

In the process of losing weight and staying fit, women often end up making mistakes like eating too less, not working out as per their body type and expecting instant results. It is essential to concentrate on having a balanced diet comprising all the nutrients, and compliment it with regular workouts by making exercise a fun activity rather than a boring task. Here's a fitness guide for the new-age women who are too caught up with their work, having no time for fitness:

Healthy Breakfast- a must!

A healthy breakfast with the inclusion of fiber and glucose is imperative to retain energy for the entire day. Out of all the three-time meals, breakfast is the most important one which should be light, healthy and nutritious. Choose food that is rich in fiber, protein, calcium, vitamins, and glucose as it provides energy for the entire day, fulfilling the requirements of the body.

Replace junk food with healthy snacking

The very first rule of maintaining a fit body is to remove unhealthy junk and oily food from their daily routine as it will affect your exercise routine and immune system. So switching to healthy snacking rich in protein, calcium, fats, carbs, minerals, and fiber will help in maintaining weight and reducing the risk of several diseases.

Follow a structured exercise pattern

One should prepare a structured exercise pattern to be followed daily with simple exercises like walking, running to tone the body. It is advised that women should exercise for at least three hours in a week to reach their fitness goal.

Keep your body hydrated

"When we exercise we lose a lot of sweat for which water is the best source that revives the body with immense energy for the day. Drinking water in regular intervals will help you avoid dehydration leading to a healthier you.

Cut out the carbs

Women should avoid refined carb-rich foods like cookies, chocolates, honey and white rice as they spike your blood sugar level, produce more insulin and increase the amount of fat in your body. Therefore the daily diet should extensively be rich in protein, calcium, and vitamins.

What to look for...

Don't rely on health claims on labels as your guide. Instead, learn a few simple label reading tips to choose healthy foods and drinks for yourself. You can also use the label to help you lose weight by limiting foods that are high in energy per serve.

Often these panels can seem quite daunting and confusing.

Nutritional panels are found on the back of food items, they provide information on the energy content of the food, the protein, carbohydrates, fat, saturated fat, sugars and sodium that a product has. They will also show any other nutrient claims, fibre content, allergens and additives.

They must show the amount per serve and the amount per 100g of the food item. Nutritional panels are often in kilojoules.

To convert kilojoules into calories you simply divide the total energy value by 4.2. For example, if the per serve value on the nutritional panel said 432kj, you would take 432 and divide it by 4.2 which would give you 102 calories per serve.

Key things to look out for:

• Total Fat: Try to keep under 10g per 100g

• Saturated Fat: Aim for less than 3g per 100g

• Discretionary foods: try to keep them under 600kj per serve

• Sugar: keep sugar under 15/20g per 100g

• Salt: try to keep salt less than 120mg per 100g

• Fibre: Always aim to have more than 3g of fibre per serve

• Energy: Try to ensure the energy totals of your day match your fitness and nutrition goals, this can be done by calculating your daily requirements and understanding your daily nutritional energy needs.

Happy Shopping!

We can’t over emphasise the importance of your core. And it’s got nothing to do with sporting a six-pack come summer. Your core is the base support system for the entire body, supporting not only our posture but also the function of our remaining muscle groups. By building strength in our core, including the abdominals and the obliques, we are going to take pressure away from our lower back and help to correct muscle activation when doing all sorts of movements, including running, cycling, weightlifting, and even sitting at our desks. There are many simple things we can do to improve core strength… even when we don’t have access to weights. So just because you’re not at the gym doesn’t mean you can’t squeeze in a core-busting workout.

Just breath

Diaphragmatic breathing is crucial for core activation. By breathing into our stomach versus breathing into our chest, we are able to activate our core muscles to be ready to work. Our deep core muscles provide us with stability and we can easily switch these on by breathing in deep, and then breathing out by pulling our belly button towards our centre. Allow your belly to rise as you breathe in and suck the belly in as you breathe out. This way our core muscles are activated and are ready to get stronger.

Minimal weights

The core is our centre and it is an important tool to stabilise our systems. To carry the weight of our bodies, it is vital that we create body weighted strength in these muscles. There are many different core workouts that you can do to help build strength without any equipment. Our personal favourite that requires only your body weight includes various exercises from walk outs, planking to pendulum legs.

Hit the treadmill

Our favourite core workout is running! Running is an amazing tool to control your breathing, activate your core and build strength through these muscles. Running is an entire body workout, and the simple movement of one foot in front of the other requires engagement of many muscle groups, which over time will build significant strength. To ensure you’re using your core whilst running, spend two or three minutes beforehand practicing diaphragmatic breathing. This way once you head out the door, your core is ready to work!

Stress doesn’t always have to be a negative thing, but often times it’s to do with changes in behaviour and poor decision making. In this blog, we share with you a few tips on how to manage & relieve stress to help you feel better and improve your physical and mental health.

MAKE A LIST

Writing out a list is a useful tool to help you visualise and understand what it is that’s stressing you out. Seeing these stressors written down on paper can help you focus on one thing at a time and allow you to feel more in control.

EXERCISE

Exercising is important to help clear your mind and relieve mental stress while working on your physical form. When you exercise, you are left feeling better due to your stress hormones being lowered (cortisol) and your body releasing endorphins thus improving your mood. Hammer House Brunswick is designed around you with our club including tons of equipment, rows of cardio & world-class Personal Trainers. Fitting in a workout a few days during the week will help you feel more confident & get a much better sleep, leaving you a little less stressed.

GET A GOOD SLEEP

Getting a good nights sleep helps to calm your mind and body, stabilises your mood and helps with cognitive function. If you are not sleeping enough, your body doesn’t have time to restore & relax, so it’s vital to get enough rest to feel energised the next day.

CHANGE YOUR DIET HABITS

Believe it or not, food affects your mood. When you eat foods that are higher in nutrients, your body receives its essential vitamins to keep you fuelled, energised and alert. When you eat foods that are higher in sugar, have little dietary fibre and contain a high amount saturated fats, you tend to feel more sluggish & tried. Being mindful of your diet can determine how much energy & concentration you’ll have throughout the day, generally leaving you in a more positive state.

REDUCE CAFFEINE

Consuming lots of caffeine can make you feel jittery and anxious. Typically, caffeine can be found in tea, coffee and energy drinks. Substituting non-caffeinated beverages like water, fresh juices & herbal teas can help you feel more relaxed and in control of your thoughts & actions.

THINK POSITIVE THOUGHTS

When you continue to focus on the negative thoughts in your head, you’ll find the intensity and language will increase. To reduce this, it’s best to change your negative thoughts into a positive or neutral thought. By simply changing the language of how you think about these thoughts, will help you feel less anxious and stressed. For example “I can’t do this exercise” can be changed to “I find this exercise challenging” or “I hate this” can be turned into “I would much prefer”. It’s easier said than done, but with practice, you will find yourself combating these thoughts positively and their negative power will become muted.

MAKE YOURSELF A PRIORITY

It’s important to take time out for yourself, do something you love! You will feel re-energised & fulfilled in what you did for yourself & will feel happier overall. Practising self-care will help you to reduce stress and feel more positive. Make sure there’s a balance between friends, family & alone time.

Here are three myths you’ve probably heard about women and weight lifting — and why you should feel good about reaching for more weight.

Myth No.1: It’ll make you bulky

Most women shy away from lifting heavy weights because they fear it’ll make them look bulky. This couldn’t be further from the truth! What we think of as “bulk,” or gaining muscle mass, comes from a combination of testosterone, consuming more calories, and almost daily weight training, If you’re not working muscle groups to failure six days per week or eating extra calories to bulk up, then lifting heavy weights will make you leaner — not bigger.

Myth No.2: Leaner muscle comes from lifting lighter weights

Out of fear of gaining bulk, many women tend to lift lighter weights while increasing the number of repetitions they complete for each exercise. At a certain point, your muscles will adapt to this strategy, and you’ll no longer increase your strength — but you will increase your endurance. But it’s simply not true that one strategy is better for building “lean” muscle than another. Lifting heavy weights can be just as effective at building lean muscle. In certain cases, it might even be more effective. The most important component of weight lifting is pushing your muscles to reach “progressive overload.” Essentially this means changing the amount of weight and reps you use for each muscle group, so they don’t adapt to a particular challenge. You can do this with both light weights and heavy weights — and still build lean muscle.

Myth No.3: Weight lifting doesn’t burn fat as effectively as cardio

Cardio is great for you — running, cycling, and other aerobic exercises increase your endurance, improve your circulation, and help regulate blood sugar. But cardio won’t help you build strength, define muscles, or lose weight as effectively as weight training. While you might burn more overall calories during a cardio workout, weight training increases your ability to torch calories long after you leave the weight room. Challenging weight training workout also helps elevate your metabolism for up to three days post-workout — increasing the efficiency of a healthy diet. The result? Less fat, more toned muscles, and a better metabolism. Want to know more? Be sure to speak to one of qualified Hammer House Personal Trainers about the best weight training exercises to help you achieve your goals.

In fashion, there's a concept called the capsule wardrobe: wearing the same limited set of clothes in different combinations, to save the time and energy of always having to find something new to wear.

The trend has now evolved into the capsule diet, aka the uniform diet: eating the same foods over again. Dietitian Melanie McGrice isn't opposed to the trend, pointing out that most people tend to eat the same "routine" foods anyway — but they're often the same unhealthy foods, whereas capsule dieting is focusing on eating the same healthy foods.

The obvious downside of eating the same foods all the time is that you eat the same foods all the time. The Australian Dietary Guidelines prescribe "a wide variety of nutritious foods" — that will ensure you hit all your nutrient targets, feed a diverse array of healthy gut microbes, and stop you from getting bored. You need a little bit of variety in your diet – BALANCE is key

A lot of people go the same chicken breast every single day, the same vegetables every single day. So you just need to mix it up a bit — swap your protein for another protein, such as lean red meat or tofu or egg or fish. The principle of Capsule dieting needn't be about always eating the same foods but rather following the same pattern. Say for example if your pattern is a serving of protein, a serving of grains and then three servings of veg, there's an awful lot you can do with that — grilled chicken breast with brown rice and veggies, or a stir-fry, or a roast. Be sure to speak to one of our qualified Hammer House Personal Trainers for more guidance