For most of us, the last couple months were quite a trip with many Gyms seeing a significant increase in their membership as the New Year rolled around. Truth is, the gyms were as crowded as the Stadium on Machel Monday with gym goers coming from all walks of life, from the New Year Resolutioners and the Carnival Crowd to the Die Hard Gym Freaks and last but not least, we even saw an influx of those commonly referred to as "The Tusty Men", a most annoying bunch.
So now that Carnival is over and we're almost to the end of March, it's time to lock it down and get focused on the long-term fitness goals. For those looking to compete this year, you have just around 10 weeks to dial in the program, get swole and shredded as local competition begins from June 6, 2015 with the National Juniors Championship at Cascadia Hotel, St Anns followed by the Sportsworld Classic on July 4th at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya.
Other Show dates and locations (taken from the TTBBF page);
- National Seniors Championship (Cascadia Hotel, St Anns) – August 22nd
- CAC Championships (Guatemala) – September 3rd – 6th
- Body Tech Classic (Princestown) - September 12th
- Muscle Masters Classic (Grande) - September 19th
- Clinton Sammy Classic 25th Anniversary (Penal) - November 7th
- National Tobago Championship (Scarborough, Tobago) – December 11 - 13th
Our recent experience at the gym with the large crowds forced us to rely mainly on dumbbell exercises as most days not a bar, bench nor machine would be available for hours upon hours. Interestingly, this new approach to training brought some new gains.
First off, we noticed, and were able to address our imbalances as dumbbells allow unilateral training of each muscle group. We even saw an increase in strength as the dumbbells allowed us to use heavier weight without the fear of being crushed by the bar in a failed attempt.
Here are some of our favourite dumbbell training exercises;
So the next time you end up in an extremely crowded gym, man up, grab some dumbbells and get to work... time is of the essence, get overPUMPED
Here are some of our favourite dumbbell training exercises;
- Single arm clean and press
- Dumbbell swing
- Bentover row
- Goblet squat
- Single-leg deadlift
- Renegade row
- Hammer curl
- Incline curl
- Dumbbell shrugs
- Reverse flyes
So the next time you end up in an extremely crowded gym, man up, grab some dumbbells and get to work... time is of the essence, get overPUMPED
