Looking for something new

allother94

I’ve been training for a while and am bored. I’m thinking of signing up for a bunch of planet fitness and golds gym classes just to try them out. Anyone else go through this and have any advice? Mostly looking for muscle building without getting a trainer. Will probably move on to a trainer if I can’t find what I’m looking for…

Age 45, early intermediate lifter, 19% body fat

Thanks!

ToffeeApple71

I tried a range of different classes at my gym. My favourite ended up being "pump". Mostly because I run and wanted something for resistance on days I don't run. I also enjoy their other group classes, body blast and BTT. It's great to mix it up for me, mentally, because I get bored easily! Try different things and you'll find something you like and suits your needs. I also use the workouts on my Garmin app, and save the ones I like so I can do them whenever I feel like it.

cwolfman13

Most of those types of classes aren't great for the purpose of building muscle, at least in a way that you would with traditional weight training. Bootcamp classes and things like Body Pump and and cross fit and the like can be great for general fitness in that they typically provide you with weight bearing exercise along with a cardiovascular component and good conditioning and endurance work, but they tend towards lighter weights with higher reps by way of either a higher rep scheme or by using time.

I did cross fit for a bit years ago and as classes go, it was probably the most challenging within that realm...but I also saw a lot of nonsense going on and people getting hurt doing things like Oly lifts for time and completely losing form. I tend to think of these types of classes more on the conditioning side of the fitness spectrum rather than strength or hypertrophy. High rep schemes and time can be great for muscular endurance and be very challenging

I'm currently doing a kettle bell routine that is more of a metabolic conditioning routine and a big departure from my more traditional lifting. It is very functional in it's nature which is more of what I'm going for at the moment and I'm not really trying to put on more size or strength. It's also just kinda fun to do something different. Bonus...I'm working on dropping my COVID weight and it burns more calories than a traditional lifting program does due to it's cardiovascular component so I don't really need to do my weight room work and then a cardio session later in the day...I just run a mile afterwards.

justynsabcd

Changing things up is great, I've just currently gone for a bodybuilding-style split to mixing in hypertrophy, calisthenics, and HIIT training through the week. this way it gives me a way of doing something every day while still creating muscle and strength increases.

NorthCascades

Rock climbing is fun!