Superhero Fitness

OF COURSE IT IS!!!

I had a chat with a  friend over the holidays there and the topic of conversation was whether or not the SUPERHERO FITNESS GYM catered for women!!

NOW, the womens argument is, no woman wants to be called a pussy bitch or be shouted at or feel intimidated.

My response to this and hopefully this can clear this up once and for all to EVERYONE!! I didn’t build a MANS only gym, there are more men that come in than women, this is fact.  I have never told anyone, man or woman, that they’re a pussy bitch (i really cant take myself serious when I say that),  I don’t shout at people whom I’m training with, we’re not in the army.  I will however, tell you, if what you’re doing or what you think you know about training, is rubbish.  This is because I have good knowledge on this subject and research my field.  I’m not saying I know everything but I know a good bit.

I’m not a sell out, I never will be.  I’m not going to just make you feel like you had a good session even though you were doing things wrong.  My objective isn’t only to make money, I’m trying to make people see the light when it comes to training, don’t follow fads and silly diet plans and all this other bullshit that ‘make’ you spend your money.

My goal is to educate PEOPLE the best way I can in the way of training, men and women alike.  I have no ego whatsoever so I don’t care who you are when you come into the gym.  If you have any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them the best I can.  I don’t treat women any different.

The way I see this is…if women think the gym is NOT for them then that’s their business, there are women that come into the gym and enjoy it.  It baffles me to think why some women enjoy there time in the gym and some women say its not women friendly…..my conclusion, it is the mindset of the women that DONT make it to the gym that stops them.  Its just another excuse for them to not become the best people they can be.

Fair enough some of the shit i talk about MIGHT be considered out there or in your face…I see it as being truthful, informative, no nonsense and a passion for making the world a better place.

I wish people could educate themselves on diets and training if that’s what they wanted to do but I really don’t think that’s possible, it doesn’t take a Philadelphia lawyer to know that McDonald’s is bad for you, coke, smoking, alcohol, sugar, jelly sweets, all these things are bad but society in general not only has these things as treats but in actual fact its the main part of there diet and personal make up.

SO…in short, I don’t give a fuck who you are, what you look like, fat, skinny, baldy, wears glasses, skinny legs with a fat head, dwarf, pre-op tranny, post op tranny, man or WOMAN!!I’m there to train everyone and I offer a no-nonsense approach.

Its not me that invented an all mans gym, I feel I’ve created a gym for ‘athletes’.  Other people like myself with a PASSION for training and as a result the SUPERHERO GYM is a great place with men and women who all, if not already, will have a great knowledge about how to become healthy, live a healthy life and be healthy for the rest of there lives.  If women feel they don’t want to come in then the problem lies within them.

As a result of this I’ll offer a FREE personal training session to every WOMAN for the whole of JANUARY that wants to come to the Superhero HQ and £5 off your first monthly membership.

I hope this has cleared everything up and if you’re a woman its changed your mind about training at Superhero Fitness(the BEST training facility in GLASGOW by FAR).

PEACE

P.S. To my woman, make sure my dinners ready when I get in!!!!!

I’m reading a book just now called The Amazing Samson.  Alexander Zass is an old time strong man that really lived a life!!

I’m surprised when i do any sort of research on this subject about strength and the old guys who really studied there field and got STRONG!!  This information is there for ALL of us to read and yet 95% of the population that ‘train’ still don’t know what its all about.

“i began to realise that great, big muscles do not always signify a lot of strength, as so many people wrongfully think”- Alexander Zass

this is after he MADE his own dumbbells from materials he had STOLEN.  (This sounds like something i would do.)

Why is this sort of information left behind, there are so many books on these guys and the lives they led, the stuff they talk about is incredible, it seems as if they just really don’t give a fuck and yet a lot of them had good morals and led a very happy family life.  My thoughts on this is because they were MEN.  They didn’t wear skinny jeans, they didn’t have big fancy hair all over the place, they knew what life was all about and there training was a big part of it.

Charles Atlas, Arthur Saxon, bob Hoffman.  All these guys had a passion for testing there bodies and seeing just HOW STRONG one man can get.  You can have a nice way of life if you dont train BUT if you are a fitness enthusiast you should be doing it properly, effectively and with a bit of passion thrown in there too.

It’s a great read and an interesting story so if you get a chance give it a read.

Check out the website www.sandowplus.co.uk there’s a wealth of info on old time strong men and hundreds of reading.

Just a quick post for anyone not a fan of our Facebook page yet and you are not seeing our updates – We have some stuff for sale.  Things that we no longer use or we have upgraded.

We have Kettlebells for sale, just your usual cast iron ones

8kg – £15

12kg – £20

16kg – £25

Great if you want to train at home, come to an introduction to kettlebell class and get to grips with what you should be doing and then begin the home workouts.

We also have the powerlifting platforms for sale, if you look a few posts down you should see the details.

Just give us an email or a call and to keep up to date with whats happening here at the superhero HQ go to www.facebook.com/superherofitness and hit the ‘like’ button

Take it easy!!

I believe that if you’re wanting to be strong all over and have correct posture when doing your workouts a good solid core is a must.

I’m taking a bit of time from my normal training and focusing more on my core strength for a period of time.  Sometimes this is quite good to do, test things out and see how they work for you, be adventurous and use your brain when your training, question things all the time.  Does this machine do what its supposed to? Am I getting the best out of my time in the gym?  Why is Ross at Superhero Fitness so damn handsome?  All these things will waken your brain up and allow you to train more effectively.

When it comes to core strength, automatically you think I must do more sit-ups!! no you don’t.  There’s a wide range of exercises out there to improve core strength, lets not forget about your lower back, this needs to be worked just as hard if not harder than the abs areas.  Sit ups just doesn’t cut it anymore, and NO!!… adding a dumbbell into the mix wont do either.

So… my training now, I’m taking out some exercises that i feel are good but not essential for me when i could be concentrating on having the most solid core ever.

Exercises that I’ll be doing more are

Static Holds

The aim is to do this for 1 minute…job done!! Take a deep breath into your stomach then contract every muscle and imagine your belly button is being forced down to the floor, your back squashing your fingers, lift your shoulders till you feel a good crunch, keep your feet 6-10″ off the ground, toes pointed forward, legs nice and straight and together.  Always keep good solid form.

L-Sit Holds

The L-sit hold, again the aim is to hold this position with every muscle contracted and feeling strong with good form for 60seconds.  If you’re just starting out, try with your knees up and once you can do this for 60seconds..move onto a single leg extended..60 seconds of this move onto both legs…simple!!

Hyper Extensions

Here im just using what i have in the gym, the tractor tyres make for a great hyper extension machine.  This is fairly straight forward, get to a comfortable position and make the movement nice n slow, you can also add in holds here at the stop and really feel your lower back working.

Front Lever/Dragon Flags

Here im using two kettlebells to counter my weight.  I’d say this is a pretty advanced exercise and the idea is again to keep every muscle contracted as your doing it.  Keep your body in a straight line from the shoulders all the way to the toes all the way up and down not letting your hips ‘sag’ in the middle to create a ‘v’ shape.

This is a few of the exercises i’ll be doing to see how it affects my overall core strength and stability.

All the best and any questions or comments please feel free to get in touch.

We have been looking around and can’t seem to find powerlifting platform’s that are affordable for the person with the garage gym or the small start up gym.  So do you know what we are going to do??  We are going to start selling powerlifting platforms!!  Ideal for all you people who like to train at home, they will fit in most living rooms, we sell tape to cover your wife/girlfriends mouth to stop all the hassle you will get by replacing the coffee table with one of these!!  (that is a joke, we dont think anyone should tape up their partners mouths, just throw her out!!)

They are the same as the picture above but they are a bit tidy-er around the edges!  They can have any graphics you want, all we need is an image or the text and we can work from that.  As you can see from the one above it has our ‘Superhero Fitness’ logo on it with the website address underneath and it looks pretty nice.

These can be delivered within 30 miles of the base camp here in Ibrox FREE of charge, any further and there will be a cost, we will keep the delivery as low as we possibly can and we wont be making any profit from the delivery cost.

So I don’t really know what else to say, its a powerlifting platform and if you are looking for bumper plates and bars just give us a shout and we will tell you where we get ours from, they are probably the best you can get for the price range they are in.

We had an idea of selling these on Ebay, we are still working on that and thinking on opening an Ebay shop but we will see how that goes.

Costs:  Powerlifting Platform – £300 incl. delivery if 30 miles in any direction from Ibrox, Glasgow. First 10 platforms ordered – £250.00. Please allow 5 days from time of order to delivery!

We might sell ‘Isometric’ boards too, if anyone is interested in these please get in touch.

Isometric training is what all the old time strongmen would use.  Arthur Saxon, Eugene Sandow,  George Hackenschmidt but to name a few.  They would do static holds at different levels and angles to gain FUNCTIONAL strength, and i don’t use the term ‘strength’ lightly.  These guys were just raw muscle and that’s because they trained for strength properly and effectively, no supplements, steroids, fancy gimmicky things in big shiny packets.  Just HARD work and a passion for looking after themselves.

Bruce Lee is another great man who would use isometric training for building amazing speed and strength.  You don’t need to be big to have superior strength.

Isometric Training consists of joints and muscles being worked against an immovable force or are held in a static position while opposed by resistance.

A quick example of this…Take the plank, add a weight to your back and continue as you would and ALWAYS keep perfect form.  Up the weight as you progress.

Another example…Overhead press, there are so many variations of this with different tools so I’m going to choose the kettlebell.  Whether it be a single or double press, the rules are still the same.  You will need some equipment for this, a platform with hoop secured to it, chain or straps and some sort of handle.  Set your handle to the height of your starting press position and that’s you.  what you want to do is press the handle as hard as you can, obviously it wont go anywhere, squeeze it as hard as possible for 7-10 seconds, your working maximum strength here so that’s enough time.  Make sure and contract every single muscle in your body as hard as possible while doing this.

Then set the chain/straps to maybe a couple of inches into your press position and repeat this process.  You can cover all the angles of your press and find out at which point you are strongest/weakest.

This is a great way to improve your strength MASSIVELY and not gain a lot of mass so if you’re a fighter that’s looking to improve i strongly suggest giving isometrics a blast and see how you  get on.

I’ll put a video of a few different isometric exercises up in the next couple of days.

ALL THE BEST

So I go on about training properly and being able to function in your day to day life without any hassle, run, jump, climb, chase people, run away from police and all that sort of stuff.

Now this guy up there, apart from looking like hes about to explode, I can imagine if you saw him running down the street he’d look like a bit of a fairy and not go anywhere fast.  This is all just my opinion and if you’re into this bodybuilding then fair enough, you’ll still be strong to a certain extent, I mean this guy and other peeps who do this kind of training don’t get to look like this with lifting heavy weights but there’s also the fact he’s undoubtedly rattled a lot of growth hormone, steroids and the like, this sort of shit doesn’t make you strong, big yes but not as strong as you could be!This dudes obviously trained properly and stuck to a complex diet but what im saying is, its not real life strength.

On the other hand….

This is Yuri Van Gelder…he is one strong mofo.  Obviously he’s a gymnast, and that’s what his training revolves around, he doesn’t do any training for looks, that look just comes from the type of training and exercises he does.

I’m not saying STOP all training and just start gymnastic training, just think about it, if you want to look good with your top off because you think that impresses people and you want them to be in aw of you, you’re going to have to put in some decent gym time to get that so why not make yourself function like a demon while you’re at it….without the use of steroids and the like.

There’s so many different types of training out there whether it be sport specific or not but to actually look strong and be strong you have to pick the right type of training and do it properly, stick to a programme and don’t chop and change all the time.

The benefits you get from gymnastics training carries over into other training regimes but it doesn’t work the other way around….i hope some of you reading this will take this on board and actually put your time in the gym to good use and train smart and effectively.

All the best

When we’re training, sometimes we switch off just to get through the session.  It might be a tough conditioning session and you really need to dig deep but that shouldn’t stop you from performing good quality reps every time.

A lot of us when our bodies start to fatigue, it seems as if we just throw ourselves into the next move without consciously thinking about what position our bodies are in, if we’re contracting all the right muscles, breathing at the right times and doing whatever the exercise is to the fullest and best you can possibly do EVERYTIME!!

No point in half arsing some exercises, especially the ones you know are hard,’just to get through the session!!!’.  Its so much more beneficial and more of a sense of achievement knowing you’ve done your training the proper way AND to the best of your ability.

Take the exercises you find hard and practice them, break them down into separate movements/stages and practice each movement either for time or reps, whichever would benefit you the most.  Practice at your training, if you have your normal programme you work to, add in that little EXTRA bit of practice to a certain weak area.  Go that little bit further (in the way of learning a technique) more than the next man and it’ll show in your training sessions and help you achieve those goals.

SO… don’t be cheating at anything, just do things good and proper and you’ll feel a whole lot better and remember practice, practice, practice.

All the best

Yet another great deal……

On WEDNESDAY 19th OCTOBER the gym will be open from 7am – 8.30pm and anyone that comes along can pick up a MONTHS membership for a reduced price of £20.

You don’t have to train when you come in, you can just pay for your membership and then go and do whatever you do??

This applies to existing members too, if you pay on WEDNESDAY 19th you can just run out the remainder of your month and this will cover you for next month.

This is too cheap for the BEST Gym in Glasgow but its just because we’re nice like that!!!

When did we become so stressed over work, running a household, kids, marriages all that shit that’s meant to be ‘LIFE’??

Life isn’t about stressing or worrying about ANYTHING!!

Life is supposed to be enjoyed, everyday.  Get out there and do what YOU want to do, not what you think other people expect of you.  You cant make everyone happy so I’m telling you right now, don’t even bother trying because in a day, week, or years time, those people you were trying to please all the time may not be in your life for a various amount of reasons.

Look after yourself and let other people do the same, its their life just like yours is YOURS!!  there’s a fine line between pleasing yourself and being selfish.  Pleasing yourself to me means DOING (not thinking about it) what YOU want to do, don’t bring harm to others in this way, just enjoy yourself in whatever your DOING.  Being selfish would be to be burden on others around you, wanting and expecting people to do shit for you all the time.  People have their own lives to deal with and enjoy so get a grip and deal with your own.

I Strongly believe if everyone took this mindset on board the world would be a better place.

SO….Releasing your inner child from a training perspective.  Get into the gym and roll about, do somersaults, climb ropes, do pull ups, cartwheels, handstands and the like.

You have no idea how stress relieving this can be and you’re getting a great workout in the process.

This is what i call functional strength, doing bodyweight exercises is all the things that will get you strong to go through your life and be able to take part in things you couldn’t before, a spontaneous game of football, playing and rolling about the garden with your kids, they’ll love you all the more for it, kids don’t want fancy expensive toys, take their mind off it by actually playing with them and i guarantee they wont be interested in shitty plastic toys around nowadays, they want to play properly.  And this is just one example.

Next time your in a supermarket, now this is aimed at guys, don’t follow your woman round looking glum, say ‘I’ll push the trolley tonight darling’ or whatever you people in those kinda relationships say to each other and rally round that supermarket like a demon.  People will look at you as if your a dick but who gives a shit, you have no idea how much more fun that is than just walking around getting things passed to you to put in the trolley.

Act like a child, it will make you a happier person I guarantee it.

This bit isn’t really from a training perspective, just live a happy eventful life that’s all.

Give it a try for a few weeks and see how you get on.

ALL THE BEST