It is
body pump if: (a) it is a weight-based group fitness program, (b) it is a type of weight-lifting routine that works one’s muscle groups, (c) it is a group of exercise class using barbells with adjustable weights, (d) it is a mixture of aerobic exercise and weights, and (e) its routine is heavily dependent on weight-lifting. Based on these definitions by authoritative sources, body pump is an exercise routine that works the muscles of the body and improves one’s strength. In some gymnasiums, the
body pump workout is divided into eight tracks or sessions, each of which is designed to strengthen specific muscle groups of the body by doing squats and lunges, weight lifts and presses. Among the muscles targeted in the workout are the chest, back, triceps and biceps, shoulders, and the abdominals. In an another gym, a
body pump routine incorporates effective exercises such as lunges and squats and the long bar across the back of the performer, and requires one to do dead lifts or lifting a barbell loaded with free weights, and butterfly crunch to strengthen the arms and biceps and the abdomen. The routine is completed by rotating between squats, lunges, dead lifts, skull-crushers or weight lifting exercises, and butterfly crunches on the exercise or medicine ball with the use of weights for resistance. Once you are through working all your major muscle groups, you can focus on the small muscle groups to attain the best results from your workout.
Sports authorities say that for a body pump workout to be effective, it must get the heart pumping and turn weight-lifting into an intense activity in order to burn fat. This can also be done through an aerobic routine or standing jump with free weights on the performer’s hands. Among the benefits that can be attained from a body pump routine include better posture, reduced body fat, increased muscle tone and definition, and worked out muscles on the legs, chest, abdominals, back, triceps, and shoulders. It can also improve density to help prevent osteoporosis, a condition characterized by a decrease in bone mass and enlargement of bone spaces that produce fragility.
There are as many people who want to
do a body pump workout at the gym as those who want to train at home on their own. If you choose the latter, you need to be prepared with the following tools and equipment to enable you to start: dumbbells, a long bar loaded with weights that you find comfortable to lift, an exercise mat, a step and an exercise or medicine ball. In choosing the weights for your bar, you must pick those that can challenge your body after a few repetitions on weight lifts. In taking heavy weights, you must perform your movements with controlled action, keep your joints slightly bent and most importantly, do not increase your weight as quickly as your body is challenged.
If for one reason or another, you don’t know how and where to
start your body pump routine, find a personal trainer whom you can trust to help you make a successful takeoff and provide you with able supervision and support, especially during the first days of your training.
