Frequently Asked Questions
What is UCGym.com?
What does “UCGym” mean?
What matters more, big muscles or being healthy?
How do I build muscle fast?
How can I lose fat fast?
What is a clean diet?
How much weight should I lift?
How long should I be sore after a workout?
How many times a week should I workout?
How many calories a day should I eat?
What should my Macros (Macronutrient Amounts) look like?
When is the best time to workout?
Should I take a Pre-Workout supplement?
Should I drink Protein shakes?
Should I use lifting gloves?
Should I use lifting straps?
Should I use a weightlifting belt?
What kind of shoes should I wear to the gym?
What is UCGym.com?
UCGym is a “Fitness Social Network” with a mission to unite all fitness lovers into one place. Think of it as Facebook for fitness. With this website, you’re able to connect with hundreds or thousands of people who share the same interest as you. What you accomplish with this incredible tool is up to you. You can find a new workout partner, ask for dieting advice, training advice, supplement advice, you can share your latest progress pics with your friends to see and be amazed by. The possibilities are endless with this our website. Also, we have our own custom-made apparel for men and women which can be obtained through accumulating a certain amount of points through being active on the website. The apparel can also be purchased monetarily if the user chooses to do so here.
What does “UCGym” mean?
The “UC” stands for “Under Construction.” This serves as a comparison between your body and something being built or undergoing construction. One’s body is always going through changes and ideally it’d be progressing into a healthy and athletic body. If you’re a person who actively goes to the gym and has a clean diet, you’re body is “Under Construction” and is going to result into a magnificent end product. Your body can be the Fallingwater of the architecture world if you apply yourself and maintain consistency.
What matters more, big muscles or being healthy?
To some people being healthy is what their life is devoted to, to others, it’s having big muscles. Although there are some perks to having big muscles, there can be some detriments one who chose to be healthy wouldn’t have. A healthy person can be classified as a person who has a well-rounded diet and exercise routine. A person with big muscles simply put is a guy with big muscles. If this big-muscled individual built his muscle naturally through hard-work, no steroids, and a clean diet, he can be classified as a healthy person with big muscles. But, if this big-muscled individual took the easy way out and took multiple performance-enhancing drugs and didn’t maintain a clean diet, by all means he’s the least fit individual. Usually this kind of person tends to be the one with very low cardiovascular endurance and would be near the bottom of the food chain, despite being strong. All in all, being healthy or having big muscles depends on the person’s goals or what they need that certain body-state for. So, to each his own.
How do I build muscle fast?
Well, if you’re asking this question, more likely than not you’re still a beginner when it comes to fitness and weight-training specifically. Also, I’ll assume you’re choosing not to choose Steroids. Beginners tend to be the one’s who go through a very small plateau of not seeing any changes in their physiques the first couple of weeks, but suddenly see an immense burst of muscle growth and fat loss after putting in hard work. Individuals often fail to realize that their bodies are machines who pump out Testosterone or Estrogen and are capable of delivering nutrients such as Branch Chained Amino Acids and Carbohydrates throughout the entire body within a matter of minutes in order to maximize performance and reduce recovery time. One very, very large component of building muscle (not necessarily fast, but in general) is nutrition. Ask any accomplished bodybuilder, physique competitor, magazine cover model, athlete, and they’ll tell you that nutrition is the most important piece of the puzzle. Without a proper diet, you won’t be consuming the right amount of Proteins that are very crucial to the process of Hypertrophy and you’ll be left with muscles that are taking much, much longer to repair than they should. Also, without consuming the proper amount of each type of Carbohydrate, you’ll be left without any energy to power you not only through your workout, but also through your day. As for fats, those tend to naturally fall into your diet as long as it’s clean, not that you’re going to need any if you’re a beginner in fitness. When you’re just starting out, having a low body fat will help with being able to see your muscle’s definition more easily. This is a trick used in the “300” movie series— it’s actors didn’t train necessarily in order to build huge amounts of muscle, but more so had a set diet workout routine that was geared towards having the actor’s muscle (more specifically abs) be visible which created the illusion that they were insanely jacked. So in closing, you can build muscle fast so long as you train consistently and have a consistent, proper, clean diet. More information on having a clean diet will be found on this FAQ page. But seriously, be consistent. If you’re not consistent, how do you expect to see results any time soon?
How can I lose fat fast?
Losing fat fast can be done the easy way or the hard way, same with building muscle. The easy way to lose fat is having anyone of the many surgeries there are out there— Lap Band, Gastric Bypass Surgery, or the Gastric Sleeve, to name a few. The hard way, which many very overweight people fail at, is changing their diet to a very clean one. Losing fat is a combination of clean dieting and frequent Cardiovascular Exercise— similar to building muscle, just replacing Cardiovascular Exercise with Weight-Training. Although, you can lose weight doing Weight-Training so long as you keep your heart rate up and do high-volume work in order to make your muscles burn more and in turn generate heat which assists in the dissipation of fat deposits in your body. There are false claims out there that taking one little pill can help you lose 70 pounds in 7 days or what not and that’s just a load of bull. Unless they infest your digestive system with ring worms, that ain’t gonna happen. The only way to really lose all that weight in 7 days is to starve yourself, not drink any liquids, and exercise like a mad-man for those 7 days straight. Same with building muscle, results aren’t made overnight— it’s a long term process. To truly lose fat, one must be consistent and fully dedicated. Another contributing factor can be one’s mental state. If you’re feeling depressed, anxious, nervous, angry, or all of the above, your body starts producing hormones that can alter the way your body looks as well as functions. Elite bodybuilders, for example, are trained mentally to not be nervous or anxious before a competition because they know once their body starts secreting those hormones, they can lose muscle tone and be drained of testosterone and lack the ability to pose to their fullest potential on stage. Same with losing fat, if you have some sort of nervous breakdown because you feel like you can’t continue with the strict dieting and hate the exercising aspect, you might relapse and throw it all away and start binge eating and pack all the weight back on. In general, losing fat consists of having a low fat, high protein, low-to-moderate carb diet. The low fat aspect should be pretty obvious, the high protein aspect is desired because studies show that protein is nutrient that leaves the body feeling full longer, which is what you want in order to not feel the need to eat a lot of food. And finally, the low-to-moderate carbs are there in order to provide the dieter with a sufficient amount of energy to be powered throughout the day. Being that carbs are energy sources, they do contain stimulants such as sugar, which as we all know, is no bueno if you’re trying to lose fat. But that’s not all, one still also has to take their vitamins and drink lots, and lots of water. The vitamins should be self-explanatory and the water is good for speeding up the digestion process as well as your blood more volume so that it may deliver nutrients more quickly through the body as well allow for your organs to filter the good and bad you consume and deliver it accordingly to your body or the toilet. So there it is— diet, exercise, vitamins, and water. These are the key players to losing fat fast, but most importantly the diet. Without the clean diet, you’re taking one step forward and taking two steps back. A definition for a clean diet will be found below in the form of another FAQ.
What is a clean diet?
A clean diet is pretty much as it sounds, not a dirty diet. What is a dirty diet? Basically one consisting of junk food. What is junk food? Well, it can range anywhere from fast-food to soda to sugary-candy to greasy pizza to fried chicken to donuts to potato chips to… get the idea? A clean diet is one that eliminates essentially all of those things. But more specifically a clean diet is one that is balanced, similar to the Food Pyramid created by the USDA. Depending on what your goals are in relation to your body (lose fat, build muscle, gain mass) you’ll change the amount you consume in each portion of the pyramid. Recently the USDA chose to use My Plate as a replacement for the food pyramid but the pyramid is a better graphic to base your diet on. What we’re going to do is break down what nutrition is made up of, you ready? There are three core Macronutrients that make up a clean diet, these are proteins, lipids (fats), and carbohydrates. Macro meaning large and nutrients meaning… well yeah. These macros make up all foods. Name a food and at least one macronutrient will fall into it. Let’s try it— Steak (protein and fats), Pizza (proteins, fats, and carbs), Chocolate Bar (proteins, fats, and carbs), Milk Shake (proteins, fats, and carbs), Broccoli (protein and carbs), Fish (protein and fats). Proteins are found in foods such as meat (obviously), tofu, dairy products, eggs, and nuts. Carbohydrates are found in grains, fruits, vegetables, starches, and sugary foods. Fats are found in oils, nuts, and fat. In general, a person should consume one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, about one gram of carbohydrates per pound of bodyweight (give or take 0.5g), and about one to two grams of fat per four pounds of bodyweight. This is the general guideline for the average Joe. If you have the intent to build muscle, then you’ll be increasing all of those macros. There are also nutrients called Micronutrients, which can easily consumed through multivitamins. But to put them simply, micronutrients are nutrients such as Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Iron, Calcium, and about a hundred others. Always always always take your vitamins, like Hulk Hogan used to say, “…Say your prayers, take your vitamins, and you will never go wrong.” So that’s pretty much all there is to a clean diet— making the right choices and being aware of what you eat. You don’t have to go all organic or only eat grass-fed beef, but you do have to aware of the certain dangers that come with eating the wrong foods. Like eating a lot of soy products if you’re a man can lead to you develop female traits being that soy induces the body into producing the female growth hormone Estrogen. Also I’m sure you’re aware the whole nation-wide epidemic that is High Fructose Corn Syrup. So that’s that, don’t eat junk and you’re pretty much there when it comes a clean diet.
How much weight should I lift?
Let me put it in three words— It’s all relative. The amount of weight you lift depends on the muscle group you’re training, how much you weigh, your goals, experience, and other minute variables. So let’s discuss the key players. First, the muscle group. One must be aware of the size of a muscle group, its function, and it’s potential of injury. The size of the muscle group can generally dictate its strength— an example being the muscles of the back (Latissimus Dorsi, Teres Major, Teres Minor, Rhomboids, etc…). These muscles compose a large majority of the back and when they all work together, they can achieve some pretty powerful lifts such as a row or a pull-down. Now if you compare this to your Triceps, the amount of weight lifted will be reduced to a half or a third. Now yes, the back is hard to isolate being that there are multiple muscle groups working together to do one lift and the triceps work alone (with the addition of the Anconeus) to achieve one lift, but nevertheless their strength is not matched. Secondly, The amount of weight you lift can also depend on how much you weigh. There’s a video I made regarding the physics of weight lifting that can explain this idea, but in short, your mass can also establish how much you can lift, especially in the three main lifts— the bench press, squat, and deadlift. The bigger you are, the stronger you are is the general rule of thumb. Same thing goes for being able to lift your bodyweight in those three lifts. If you can do that, you’re considered strong/fit already. Lastly which I’ll discuss is your experience. If you’re a noob when it comes to lifting, you can’t necessarily expect to lift an immense of weight with good form and zero injuries. As with any beginner, you have to start with the bare minimum, no matter how embarrassing it may look to all the other gym-goers. When it comes to the bench press, start off with the bare bar. If the 45-pound bare bar is too heavy, you can use the Smith Machine, whose bare bar generally weighs 15-pounds. Same goes for squatting, deadlifting, curling, rowing, and all others. First you must master your technique through watching yourself in the mirror, watching tons of YouTube videos, and asking around at the gym. Once you’ve got your form down, you can start adding on weight. What I do is translate weight into percentages. I’ll give you a real example that I use all the time— It’s leg day, I’m squatting, warming up, and have to decide how much weight I want to add on as I progress towards doing my heavy sets. As always, I start off with the bare bar so I get my joints and muscles warmed up, then I add ten pound plates to each side because that would amount to an approximately 50% increase in weight. From there, I’ll replace the ten pound plates with 25 pound plates, which would amount to a 100% addition in weight from the bare bar, leaving it at 95 pounds. Then I’ll add another ten pound plates on each side which will result in the bar weighing 115 pounds, and then I’ll increase it to 135 pounds which totals triple the weight of the warm up and about how much I weigh. And from there, I’ll add more weight depending on how I’m feeling, which is very important when it comes to weight lifting. Let’s say one day you pull of a 225 pound squat for ten reps. The next time you hit squats, you might not be able to do those ten reps with 225 pounds because you’re either sore, have low energy, or feel depressed. So instead of trying to do those heavy squats again and force yourself through them painfully with the potential for injury, you should decrease the weight to about 185 pounds and ten reps from there. Patience is key when it comes to this sort of stuff, results don’t come overnight. Or in a fortnight. It takes time, and a lot of it. But don’t take steroids to make the results appear faster, that’s just plain ol’ cheating.
How long should I be sore after a workout?
Your soreness after a workout depends on your fitness level/experience as well as how intense your training session was. Let’s take legs for example, everyone knows how gruesome it can be to do simple tasks such as walking the day after a leg workout or even immediately after the workout, which is also known as Acute Soreness. Soreness is a result of various things, such as the build of Lactic Acid, the process of Hypertrophy, an injury, or maybe just a mindset. To quickly explain what Lactic Acid is, it’s the derivative of Glucose (the body’s primary energy source) that is sort of the “leftovers” of the usage of the Glucose— the breakdown and absorption and what not. As the name entails, it’s very acidic which is what causes the burning sensation in the muscles (allegedly). It’s also believed that it serves as a warning signal to your body. Whenever you’re “feeling the burn” during a workout, that’s when the Acid is released, telling you to stop because you’re not going to be able to keep on going at an efficient pace and the human body is all about maintaining efficiency. But, back to the topic at hand. Generally, soreness should go away within 2-3 days. This varies as I said earlier depending on your experience and intensity. Once you “level up” in your fitness pursuits, your body becomes accustomed to doing high-intesnsity workouts and in turn becomes less and less sore over time. Your soreness may be reduced to just one day or you might not even be sore at all anymore (which is a sign that you should probably change up your workouts and do something new.) Now, there’s this thing called Delayed Muscle Onset Soreness (DOMS) which is essentially soreness that develops around 12 hours and up after a workout. The reason for this is not fully understood as of lately, but, it is indicative of a good workout. As mentioned in the third sentence, Hypertrophy can be a cause for muscle soreness and that is because the process of creating micro-tears in your muscles can be quite painful once your adrenaline and energy lowers once you’re done working out. You may not know it, but when you’re working out and you’re pushing yourself to failure and grinding out those last few reps, you’re forcing your muscles to tear. This sounds extremely painful, but it’s not all that bad when it’s on such a small scale. So, that Acute Soreness or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is just an indicator of your hard work paying off. This should come at no surprise, but you shouldn’t workout your muscles if they’re still sore. Work on something else until your muscles recover or at the very least have very little soreness. In short, you should be sore for around 2-3 days after a workout depending on how hard you trained and how experienced you are. That gives you plenty of time to work on something else while recover and begin a cycle of letting one muscle rest and train another at the same time.
How many times a week should I workout?
Ideally, you shouldn’t look at your workout schedule as a cycle that’s based on a week. It should be it’s own cycle with its own beginning and end. “Bro-Science” indicates that your training split or “Bro-Split” should be consisting of 4-5 days (Monday-Thursday/Friday.) The Split might look like this:
Saturday & Sunday- Rest
This split may look fine to the Average Joe, but there’s something gravely wrong with it. Can you guess what it is? You got it, this split only trains one muscle group once a week. That means that there’s a 168-hour gap between Monday and the next Monday. You only need about 48-72 hours to recover from your workout and the other 96-hours are just leaving that muscle dormant, leading to potential loss of gainzzzz. Old-school bodybuilders from the 60’s and on even knew this. What they would do is train the same muscle group 2 to even 3 times a week. As answered in the last question, no they wouldn’t be insanely sore because they were very experienced and knew what they were doing. To tie this in to what I’m trying to say, these bodybuilders scheduled their workouts with pinpoint precision. They tailored their workout to fit their schedules. They trained 5-6 days a week at the very least and this contradicts what I said earlier, but it doesn’t at the same time. They thought of it this way: they train 5-6 days in a row, and leave one or two days empty to rest. So as opposed to starting their routine every single Monday, instead, they would start on maybe a Tuesday or Wednesday and begin a cycle that didn’t revolve around your standard Monday-Friday routine. Many bodybuilders and gym-goers today tailor their workout in a similar fashion. An example being training for three days straight and then taking one day off and then doing another three days, to ensure that they workout the same muscle every 72-hours and maximize muscle growth. But, if your schedule doesn’t permit this or you just don’t have what it takes to do such a thing, then the “Bro-Split” can be done, but will lead to results coming at a much slower pace. One piece of advice I can give you if you have a very tight schedule, is to train multiple muscle groups at once during a workout in order to be as efficient as possible. Arnold Schwarzenegger used to train 3-5 muscle groups per workout in order to be able to train his muscles at least 3 times a week. He accomplished this by training muscles like his Chest, Shoulders, and Back all in the same day, and then Legs, Abs, and Arms on another. Now, although he did spend 3-4 hours a day in the gym working out those muscle groups with the amount of attention they deserved, you can cut time by doing supersets as he sometimes did. Supersets are two exercises done one after the other. An example being doing a set of Pull-Ups immediately after doing a set of Flat Barbell Bench Presses, resting, and then repeating. This can also be done three or more exercises in a circuit fashion. But that’s that. Train as many times as possible allowing at least 48-72 hours of rest for the muscles previously trained to rest before having to train again.
How many calories a day should I eat?
The amount of calories you eat per day depends on your current bodyweight/type as well what your goals are. On all nutrition labels and facts, there’s the infamous line that reads: “*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.” The FDA uses 2,000 calories to serve as the estimated daily recommended amount of calories a person should consume along with the percentages seen on the label of Proteins, Fats, and Carbohydrates. These three nutrients are know as Macronutrients, which are referenced in the “What is a clean diet?” question. In actuality, the amount of calories a person should consume is around the 2,400+ mark and the reason it says 2,000 on the label is because the FDA finds 2,000 to be a more well-rounded number and expect people to lose weight by consuming 400 calories less than they normally should in order to combat the obesity issue in America. Also, if you aren’t fully sure on what calories are, they’re units of energy. Anything that contains energy has calories in it. An example being a fruit. If an Orange has 100 calories in it, you’re able to produce 100 calories of energy worth of work with it. Think of it as gasoline, 10 gallons of gasoline will only take you wherever you want until those 10 gallons run out. That’s the nutritional aspect of calories. The scientific aspect of calories is not relevant here, but can be read more upon here. But back to the topic at hand. If you’re a fairly inactive person with a desk job from 8-to-5, your caloric intake should be around 2,400 consisting of a clean diet. If you’re an athlete or a gym-goer who trains with moderate-to-high intensity, then you would bump up that caloric intake to around 3,500-5,000+ due to the amount of energy and work you’re putting out in training. Once you achieve the elite level of athletic prowess of people like Michael Phelps (consumes 12,000 calories when training) or elite bodybuilders and Strongmen (consume 15,000+ calories), then your calories should be increased according to your level of athleticism. Although, your diet shouldn’t revolve around solely hitting your caloric mark, it should revolve around consuming the proper amount of macronutrients, which will be discussed in the next question. But to give you an idea, 1 gram of Protein has 4 calories, 1 gram of Carbs has 4 calories, and 1 gram of Fat has 9 calories. So you can see that the amount of Protein and Carbs you’ll be consuming should be similar and the Fats should be much much lower than that.
What should my Macros (Macronutrient Amounts) look like?
As you probably know, “Macros” refers to Proteins, Fats, and Carbohydrates. The amount of each of these Macros you should consume varies on what it is you want your body to evolve into. Here’s an analogy I came up with: Picture you have an equalizer in front of you, and there are three dials on it and a screen on top of it that shows the effects it has on the body when a dial is moved. The three dials are all Macronutrients. If you turn up the Fat dial, the body on the screen gets fatter. If you turn up the Protein and Carb dial and lower the Fat dial, the body develops a lot of lean muscle. You want to tailor the amount of Macros you consume this way. There are many calculators online you can use to calculate the amount of Macros you should consume daily and you can click here to watch a good video explaining how to calculate them. But, a quick starter Macro-quota should be about 1 gram of Protein per pound of bodyweight, 1-1.5 grams of Carbs per pound of bodyweight, and around 0.3-0.6 grams of Fat per pound of bodyweight to give you a good idea. If you have a specific goal in mind, such as muscle gain or fat loss, then you’re going to be increasing and decreasing those Macro quantities accordingly. Watch the video and you’ll have your questions answered. I’m not being lazy, it’d just be better for you to see a video than read a long complicated article on how to do it.
When is the best time to workout?
The best time to workout is ideally a couple after hours after you wake up and have had a proper meal. The reason I say this is because chances are you were laying down in bed, stiff as a brick, and had no movement going on in your body. Working out as soon as you wake up isn’t ideal being that your joints and muscles aren’t “lubed up” and are pretty stiff. As your day goes on and start being active, you begin to get warmed up and limber and have reduced the risk of injury by a drastic amount. If it be absolutely necessary, you can workout in the morning after doing a proper warm-up. If the workout is going to consist of weight-training, then doing 2-3 warm-up sets before doing a working set is absolutely essential in order to prevent injury. If the workout is going to consist of doing cardiovascular training, then doing 10-15 minutes of slow-paced jogging or walking is also quintessential to avoiding injury and maximizing performance. In short, training after being awake for a couple of hours or more is the best time to workout— although of course any time is a good time to workout. Now, I’m not saying you should only workout within those couple of hours, I’m implying that you should workout anytime time of the day, but ideally after being awake a couple of hours and on. Also, be sure to get a good meal in over an hour before the workout to ensure maximum performance.
Should I take a Pre-Workout supplement?
Well, do you think you need it? Do you absolutely need it? Chances are you don’t. But, if you find yourself having insanely low amounts of energy throughout the day and don’t think you’ll have enough energy to get a good workout, then… fix your diet. If your nutrition is up to par, you won’t have to take nearly any supplements! Consuming the proper amount of Macronutrients throughout your day will ensure that you’re properly fueled to get through your day and your workout. But if all else fails, then a Pre-Workout may be just what you need. And before you go out buying a garbage Pre-Workout that promises “1000% MORE GAINZZZZZ”, you should be aware of what it is you exactly need to get energy for our workout and what’s in the Pre-Workout you’re buying. There are four main ingredients in a Pre-Workout— Beta-Alanine, Caffeine, Sugar, and Arginine. Most of these ingredients are stimulants and what a stimulant is is a chemical or ingredient that raises your levels of psychological or nervous activity. It’s pretty clear as to how they can benefit your workouts. BUT BE WARNED! Taking these stimulants frequently (nearly daily) can and will reduce the amounts of natural stimulants and energy your body produces. What this means is that your body will overtime get used to these stimulants and you’ll have to take more of them in order to feel the same euphoric effect of getting insane amounts of energy. But, this also comes at a big cost. As you’re supplying your body with energy it doesn’t need to produce, it just won’t produce it! Your body is trying to maintain efficiency by not doing what it doesn’t need to do. So, the best thing to do is cycle your Pre-Workouts. Take them for maybe 2-3 months, and then don’t take them for 2-3 months and repeat the cycle. In conclusion, don’t take a Pre-Workout unless it’s absolutely essential!
Should I drink Protein shakes?
Protein shakes are supplements. The definition of a supplement according to the dictionary is “Something that completes or enhances something when added to it.” Let’s focus on the beginning part— “Something that completes…” A Supplement is meant to supplement you with something that aren’t able to consume through other means. An example being Multi-Vitamins. Do you think the average person in today’s society is able to consume the dozens of essential Vitamins and Minerals through just their diet? Of course not. That’s what the Vitamin is for— it gives them the Vitamins and Minerals they otherwise wouldn’t be able to consume in their regular food. Same goes for Protein. Drinking a Protein shake only needs to be taken in order to help a person consume their daily Protein needs. If you find your diet is low in Protein, no matter how hard you try to eat more meats and dairy products, and you just can’t bring it up, then Protein shakes are perfect for you. If you’re drinking Protein shakes just because “It’s what people do after working out.”, then you’re doing it all wrong. Although, consuming Protein after your workout is a very good thing to do being that that’s when the body is optimally breaking down Proteins and absorbing them to begin the recovery and reparation process. There’s the second reason for consuming Protein shakes— convenience. Shakes are convenient to take with you to the gym or leave in the car and can “guarantee” you get your Protein in after you workout. I put that in quotation marks because a lot of Supplement companies don’t always tell the truth on their nutrition labels. I have a video here in which I discuss this in more depth. But all in all, you should only drink Protein shakes if they will supplement your dietary Protein needs and if they’re more convenient for you than taking a meal in tupperware to eat afterwards (which is way better.)
Should I use lifting gloves?
There are three main reasons for wearing lifting gloves— protecting the hand’s skin from tearing, being comfortable, and to give you more grip. That’s really all they’re for. If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, then by all means go for it and wear a pair of gloves to the gym. But this sort of goes along with the Pre-Workout discussion in the previous question in which I said that you should use it if it’s absolutely necessary. Chances are, you don’t need gloves. I once used to train a high school student and he would wear weight-lifting gloves during every workout and one day he forgot to bring them and when the time came to hold onto some weights… well, he couldn’t bear the pain. He had gotten so used to working out with a layer of material protecting his hands that naturally his hands didn’t develop callouses and he couldn’t keep working out that day, no joke. Over time your hands naturally thicken and the need for wearing gloves dissipates, but if you’re a person who cares a lot about his hands, then by all means wear gloves. Women usually wear gloves because they don’t want to have “manly” hands, which is understandable. And if you’re a man and want to wear gloves… well go for it.
Should I use lifting straps?
Lifting straps are a great tool, more so than gloves. I personally use straps when I’m working out my back. Straps are essentially straps or material that go around your wrists and wrap around a bar and give the lifter the ability to focus on lifting the weight with the muscles they intend to rather than have their set cut short due to the lack of grip strength. I tend to go heavy on Back Day and lifting heavy is the only way I can feel a great pump and contraction. As the weight gets heavier through my workout’s progression, my grip strength begins to lower and I’m left to resort to using the straps in order to help me carry on with the set. With that being said, the straps should only be used when absolutely necessary as well. Not using straps will gradually increase your grip strength and eliminate the need for using them. But, until then, you can use straps to help you get out a couple reps or sets you wouldn’t be able to grind out otherwise.
Should I use a weightlifting belt?
Like the last three questions, the belt should only be worn when absolutely necessary. For those who aren’t aware, the belt isn’t used to eliminate back pain during your workout or keep your back straight on its own. The belt is used to create Intra-Abdominal Pressure, meaning that by giving your stomach/abs something to press against when doing your workout, you’re able to create pressure in your Abdominal Cavity and make your back stay straight as a result. If you have weak Sphincter Muscles in your Digestive System, then a belt may be a messy mistake. But otherwise, a belt is also a great tool to use if you aren’t able to maintain tightness in your body during exercises such as the Squat or Deadlift.
What kind of shoes should I wear to the gym?
The types of shoes you wear in the gym are entirely dependent on what it is you’re going to do at the gym. If you’re going to do cardio on the treadmill or the Stair Master or any other machine, then jogging/running shoes are the best choice. If you’re going to do an Olympic Weightlifting workout, then elevated-heel shoes are the best choice. If you’re going to have a bodybuilding workout, then really any shoes are acceptable so long as they’re comfortable and don’t have the potential of injury like open-toed shoes. If you’re going to have a Powerlifting-style workout, elevated-heel shoes are great for Squatting and not much else. So, for the average gym goers, jogging/running shoes are a good choice since they’re a well rounded shoe. A good choice would be one with a flat sole, being that they’re more useful in the gym than one with an elevated-heel and slightly more comfortable in my opinion. But to each his own.
