A gym is not just a place to go and vent frustration and excess energy. It’s also a place in which we work to strengthen our bodies and concentrate. It’s important to remember that we share the gym floor with like-minded people who are there for the same reason as you. The gym is meant to offer respite from the stress of the outside world, and this is only possible if we follow some basic codes of conduct.

Use a Towel

When working out on any machine, or lying on any bench, make sure to use a towel to separate your sweat from the surface. Using a piece of equipment that is covered in sweat is not conducive to a pleasant gym session.

Don’t Hog

When you rest, get up and allow others to jump in before your next set. Don’t sit resting on a machine, as this is time in which someone else could be doing something useful. If someone is standing close to your workout area, be aware of them and offer to change places between each set.

Keep Your Mouth Shut

Don’t shout or laugh with your friends in the gym. You’re there to work, not have a good time. You’re disturbing other people’s concentration.

Also don’t offer unsolicited advice to people – nobody likes this. You may very well know a more effective way of performing the exercise, but nobody asked you, so keep your guidance to those who ask for it.

Don’t approach women on the gym floor looking for a date – it’s not a singles bar, and she’s there to work out.

Finally, although it is advisable to exhale strongly at each rep, it’s not necessary to moan and scream like a woman in labour.

Put it Back

This is an obvious one: when you’re done with a set of weights, put them back where you found them. Don’t just leave them lying next to where you were using them, or it will take the next guy much longer to find them.

Running burns a lot of calories compared to other forms of cardio such as swimming and cycling because you are carrying your entire body weight at each step. But it is exactly for this same reason that running can also have negative effects on your body.

Every time one of your feet hits the ground the impact sends a shock wave up your leg and into your spine. This is why marathon runners commonly develop knee and lower back problems. In order to minimize damage you need to obtain proper running shoes and perhaps ask your physician about orthopedic knee support straps. You should try to take deliberately long strides while running so that you land on your heels. The stride should then ‘roll’ from your heel to the ball of your foot where it is lifted off the ground again. This rolling motion will translate some of the vertical momentum into horizontal momentum – reducing the stress on the rest of the body. Also make sure you run with a straight back, your head up and your eyes fixed ahead of you. This way you will run as efficiently as possible and reduce the negative effects.

However, no matter how good your shoes and your technique are, you will never eliminate the impact felt at each stride to zero during running. This is why you might want to consider switching to the cross trainer. This is an effective simulation of a running motion, but with none of the impact stress. In addition, you are working your arms, which means you are targeting more muscle groups and burning more calories. You can also vary the motion on a cross trainer from a cross-country skiing stride to a stair-climbing stride. In summary, cross training will yield all the benefits of running, without any of the negative aspects.

No – this is an urban myth. One type of cell (or substance for that matter) cannot turn into another. A fat cell is a fat cell, and a muscle cell is a muscle cell. Muscle does not turn into fat.

The reason this myth is so prevalent is because the external symptoms seen when a bodybuilder stops working out seem to agree with the idea that muscle turns into fat. If you work out for long enough you will build muscle mass through weight lifting and lose fat through cardio and a healthy diet. If you then stop this routine, a number of things will happen. The muscles you built will no longer be of any use to your body and it will begin to break it down and absorb it. The body does not keep excess muscle as it is just extra weight and requires extra energy. You will also likely start to gain fat as you are not doing regular cardio. If you start eating badly in addition you will gain fat at a faster pace. This may even happen rather naturally, as bodybuilders tend to become depressed when they stop a regular workout routine. This depression may result in an increased appetite. This in turn will cause an increased food intake and thereby a faster fat gain. This positive feedback loop is difficult to get out of and the best way to avoid it is to not stop working out.

We can see that the above processes in combination may look like the muscle is ‘turning into’ fat when you stop a workout routine. However, this is not the case, as there are two simultaneous and independent processes going on – the loss of muscle and the increase in body fat percentage.

Walking is one of the easiest and most common forms of exercise you can do. Although it is not physically strenuous in small doses, it can have significant benefits to health and well being. But exactly how many calories do you burn by walking? In order to answer this question, we will subdivide into categories according to weight and pace.

To begin with, walking at a medium pace, such as on a busy street, burns about 240 calories per hour if you weigh 150 pounds. At 175 pounds you will burn closer to 280 kcal/hour. At 200 pounds, you can expect to burn around 320 calories/hour.

We can then use these values to answer common questions such as, how many calories do you burn by walking a mile?

For a 150 pound person, one mile of walking will burn close to 80 kcal for every mile walked at a medium pace. A 175 person will burn just above 90 calories, and a 200 pounder (that’s a whole lot of meat!) will expend around 100 calories from walking a mile. Well done so far. If you walk a mile you’ve earned a medium to large size banana.

Walking may seem like a very simple and mundane activity, but there is actually a lot of bio-mechanical precision that goes into keeping you upright and balanced. You can read more about the science of walking here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking

So how many calories do you burn by walking 2 miles? That’s easily answered using the above. At 150 pounds, you will burn 160 calories during your 2-mile walk at a medium pace. For a 175 person, this becomes 180 calories. If you weigh 200 pounds, 2 miles of walking will yield 200 calories of effort. This is now reaching a significant amount, and you can equate your 2 mile walk with a tall to grande latte, depending on your weight.

However, there is some evidence emerging that walking is not as effective an exercise as was assumed. The study claims that walking alone will not give you the health benefits associated with more strenuous cardiovascular exercise such as swimming and cycling: See this article on the BBC for more in depth information: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5371116.stm

Other common questions submitted by our readers pertain to the time spent walking and the related calorific expenditure. To answer these, we will take the two extremes of walking at a very slow pace (2 mph) and a very fast pace (5 mph).

How many calories do you burn by walking for 30 minutes? At a slow pace a 150 pound person will burn 70 calories in this time. At a fast pace the same person will burn 270 kcal. This huge increase goes to show that picking up the pace, even by 10-20% could be the difference in your walking workout. At 175 pounds you can expect to burn 80 calories and 320 calories for a slow and fast 30 minute walk. At 200 pounds, these values lie closer to 90 kcal and 365 kcal.

How many calories do you burn by walking for 45 minutes? A slow walking 150 pound person will use 105 kcal. The same 150 pound person will increase his effort to 305 calories at a fast pace. At 175 pounds, a slow and fast pace give 120 kcal and 480 kcal, respectively. Our 200 pound man will burn 135 and 550 calories for a slow and fast 45 minute walk.

How many calories do you burn by walking for 1 hour? Slow and fast paces will give 140 kcal and 540 kcal for a human weighing 150 pounds, 160 calories and 640 calories for 175 pounds, and 180 calories and 730 calories at 200 pounds.

Kayaking is a lot of fun in the right weather and water conditions, and can also be a good way to burn some of those daily calories. You may spend your time in a kayak sitting, but this is more than compensated for by the continuous motion of your arms, and the effort in your core and hips in keeping yourself and the boat upright. So how many calories do you burn by kayaking? Keep reading to find out the answer in detail.

The calories burned kayaking will depend on your weight. At 150 pounds, the calories burned while kayaking turn out to be around 360 calories per hour. At 175 pounds, this increases to 420 kcal per hour. If you weigh 200 pounds, you can expect to burn in the region of 480 kcal in an hour.

The kayaking calories per hour will of course also be affected by the conditions in the water. In still conditions, such as in a lake at low winds, the values will be less. Similarly, in rough condition, and white water rivers the calories burnt kayaking will be much higher.

If you are considering kayaking weight loss as your program of choice, then make sure to seek out a qualified instructor if you are a beginner. There have been many accidents involving overconfident individuals that think they can tackle an expert course the first time round. You should also always wear head protection when out on the water. Kayaks are very light boats and can turn over easily. This can result in you hitting your head on rocks that were not visible above the surface of the water.

The most effective way to turn your kayaking session into a workout, is to make sure that you alternate the side on which you stroke the paddle. This will ensure that you are not workout one side of your body more than the other. Tacking alternating sides will also allow your shoulders and arms enough rest, so that you can keep going for longer.

If you’ve just purchased your new exercise trampoline, you may have asked the question: how many calories do you burn by jumping on a trampoline? Find out the answer below.

If you weigh 150 pounds, you burn around 220 calories (kcal) per hour jumping on a trampoline. At 175 pounds, you burn around 270 calories/hour and at 200 pounds, the number jumps to 310 cal/hour.

You will notice that these numbers are not particularly high, compared to other types of cardio workouts. Also, spending an hour on a trampoline will get extremely boring, and may make you dizzy. When it comes to trampoline workouts, its better to approach it as something that’s fun to do once in a while, to complement your other exercise activities.

Jumping on a trampoline trains all the major muscles in your legs. You use your calf muscles, quads and hamstrings to propel yourself into the air, and again to absorb the impact upon landing. In addition, you use your hips and your core to stabilize yourself throughout the motion. Even your arms benefit a little from jumping on a trampoline, but mostly they are used only for balance purposes.

It is hard to lose thigh fat. You need to combine a healthy fat loss diet and a good exercise regime. The diet will cause the fat to drop, exposing skinnier thighs. This is when you add these inner thigh exercises to your workout. They will tone your inner thighs and complement the rest of the leg exercises in your workout.

1. Sumo Deadlifts
Sumo deadlifts are similiar to standard deadlifts except that it involves a much wider leg stance with the toes pointing outwards. Basic deadlift execution can be found on this post on the best hamstring exercises.

2. Wide-Stance Squats.
This is just like the standard squat except that it is executed with a wider stance. If you need more instruction on executing a squat, please my post on the best leg exercises.

You only need two exercises at maximum, in a single week. If you do want more, you can try adding these:

3. Side lying leg raises with Ankle Weights
4. Lateral Lunges