Secrets Of A Personal Trainer

We’re back with another Q&A from?Damian Hall, one of Ireland’s leading personal trainers, who shares more of his expert fitness advice.

Is there one exercise that trumps all? Is squatting the best overall body workout?

Squatting is indeed a great exercise that burns a tremendous amount of calories while contributing to a great afterburn post exercise. It is metabolism booster, which means you continue burning calories for up to 36 hours after you finish your last rep. Sounds good right? ?So it’s obviously very good, but it can be optimised further too.

In my opinion, if you added a shoulder press onto the squat, thus increasing your upper limb output ?whilst activating your core even more than just a regular squat, you are going to open up a whole new level of calorie burn, during and after the exercise

It can be tricky if you are beginner as you will need to be taught the movement and the squat pattern. It is quite common for people walking in the door to my studio or bootcamps, to have never done a squat before, so it is vital a basic squat movement, with no weight, is practiced until competent.

ICYMI: Six Secrets Of A Personal Trainer

I want a perkier bum – what’s the best thing to do?

Ah! We all want a perkier bum, yes, us men do too! ?What we really want to do is strengthen the area in question i.e. the glutes, and that is best done by using compound exercises such as the deadlift, the squat and the lunge. I see so many people in the gym doing isolation exercises such as Donkey Kicks to try and tone their bums when you could be getting so much more bang for your buck by lifting heavy with these three classic exercises!

And don’t be afraid to lift heavy provided you have had your technique checked out by a fitness professional. ?I would recommend looking at your diet too, to see if you need to clean it up and therefore drop your body fat to reveal those newly uplifted glutes!

I can’t shift my bingo wings, what’s the best thing to do?

The bingo wings are loose skin on the back of your arms (Tricep area) that can happen when you get a little older. ?What you need to do here is use resistance training (lifting weights/body weight) to build muscle in the Triceps. Choose exercises that involve a pushing motion through the upper body, i.e. Shoulder Press, Bench Press, Press ups, Tricep dips or Tricep extensions. The first three exercises mentioned are more compound exercises and would be more worthwhile if you were looking to burn extra calories and build muscle in more than one area at a time. ?I would recommend the last two exercises if your arms are your only problem area and you specifically want to work the area as these are more isolation exercises and isolate the triceps more.

Diet also plays a crucial role within tightening up lose skin. Increase your Vitamin C intake through citrus fruits, and cruciferous vegetables to increase your production of collagen. ?Also Including extra ?Selenium and Zinc in your diet through foods like shellfish or Brazil nuts will also increase the elastin production in your body and above all, don’t forget to stay hydrated – it really is one of the main pillars of health, wellbeing and fitness.

As well as ?being our new fitness pro, Damian Hall is the founder of Complete Personal Training, stay tuned for our upcoming review of his amazing 8 Week Transformation Programme. And if you have any questions for Damian to answer, tweet us @imageie and use the hashtag #imagefitpro.