Shoulder Workout

The shoulders are one of the most noticed body parts. When fully clothed or not, it can make ones appearance much broader. For bodybuilders and every day exercisers, it is the one body part that will make your waist appear smaller with out losing any inches. In addition, proper shoulder training will allow you to develop your chest and back quicker.
As a personal trainer for competitive bodybuilders, I always recommend concentrating on building up the side deltoids and of course the legs for this reason alone.
Here is a typical routine that I like to do and I brief description of each exercise.
First off, the shoulder muscles consist of three deltoid heads. They are, anterior(front), medial(side) and rear. The following exercises will work each area to the fullest.

1. Shoulder Press

A main stay exercise is the shoulder press. This pressing movement primarily works the side and front deltoids. Using a machine, a barbell or dumbells, can perform the shoulder press. I personally prefer to use dumbells because there is less restriction and most importantly the muscles move in their natural plane. When pressing the weight, try not to lock your elbows. Locking the elbows will reduce the resistance on your shoulder muscles and place unwanted stress on the elbow joint.

2. Side Lateral Raise

To hit the side delts, my favorite is the side lateral raise. This exercise can be performed with dumbells or even a low pulley cable. In most cases, I like to start my routine with this exercise because I want to be able to lift as much as possible. But never sacrifice form to lift heavy weights.
I see too many people either not lifting enough weight or doing this movement incorrectly. Remember to only lift the dumbells as high as your shoulders while keeping your elbow slightly flex.

3. Front Raise

A forgotten exercise is the front raise. The reason being is that you are not going to turn heads while doing the movement. You can use a variety of methods to burn the front delts. My two favorites are alternating dumbells and the low cable pulley with a short bar. It can also be executed while holding a plate like a car steering wheel. The key for this exercise is to keep a slight flexion at the elbow while lifting the weight just above shoulder level.

4. Upright Row

To tie in the front delts, side delts and traps, the exercise to do is the upright row. With this movement, you can choose your resistance from a low cable pulley, barbell or dumbells. I prefer, the low cable, because of the continuous tension. The key is to squeeze on the top portion of the movement and to hold for a beat. In addition, the shoulder shrug exercises the traps, but that is it. For beginners, I recommend the upright row because it works more than one muscle group.

5. Rear Delt Raise

I like to work the rear delts at the end of the routine and only do a couple of sets. The rear deltoids are exercised during most back movements, therefore, not as much work is needed. There are machines that specifically hit this area, or again you can use the dumbells. Either way, the exercise is done in the same manner in which you want to do a reverse chest fly. Lighter weight is recommended, because this is a true feel exercise.
All in all, these five exercises will give you total shoulder development. Remember to change the exercises from week to week because you do not want your body to adapt to any movement. I suggest choosing 3 exercises and complete 3 working sets of 10 - 12 repetitions for each shoulder workout. Do not forget to warm-up the shoulder with lighter weight.

Back workout

Here you will find a listing of back exercises to use in your back workout. Each of the back exercises listed should be performed with proper form to not only avoid injury, but to also allow the muscle to go through a full range of motion and get the most out of the exercise. To learn how to incorporate these back exercises into your back workout and set up a full workout routine and split.

Pull Ups

1. Grab the pull up bar with an overhand grip that is slightly wider than shoulder width. 2. Allow your body to hang freely from the pull up bar with your arms fully extended. 3. Using your lats, pull yourself straight up as far as you can so that your chin reaches the height of the bar or above it. 4. Lower yourself back to the starting position (arms fully extended).
- This exercise can be done using a variety of different grips. Overhand or underhand, narrow or wide. And, while each way is effective, the overhand slightly wider than shoulder width grip is my personal favorite grip for pull ups. - This exercise can also be weighted by either holding a dumbbell between your feet, or by adding weight to a pull up belt (also called a dip belt). - While pull ups are primarily a back exercise, they also recruit the use of the biceps secondarily. An underhand grip will recruit the biceps more so than the overhand grip. This is part of the reason why I prefer the overhand grip. - For information on how to increase how many pull ups you can do, read this: Do More Pull Ups And Chin ups
Lat Pulldown
1. Grab the lat pulldown bar with hands slightly wider than shoulder width with an overhand grip. 2. Sit down with arms fully extended overhead. 3. Pull the bar straight down either in front of or behind your head. (If in front, pull the bar to the top of your chest. If behind, pull the bar to the back of your neck.) 4. Return to starting position.
- Just like pull ups, this exercise can be done using a variety of different grips. Overhand or underhand, narrow or wide. Each way is effective. - While the lat pulldown is primarily a back exercise, it also recruits the use of the biceps secondarily. An underhand grip will recruit the biceps more so than the overhand grip.

Barbell Bent Over Row

1. Hold a barbell with a slightly wider than shoulder width overhand grip. 2. With your knees slightly bent, bend over at the waist so that your upper body is slightly above being parallel to the floor. 3. Pull the barbell straight up into your stomach. 4. Lower the barbell back to the starting position (arms fully extended).
- This exercise can be done using an underhand grip as well. - Do NOT round your back. Your back should be straight at all times. - While the bent over barbell row is primarily a back exercise, it also recruits the use of the biceps secondarily.
Seated Cable Rows
1. Sit down at a seated cable row machine with both feet flat on the foot board and your knees slightly bent. 2. Grab the handle with both hands and pull it into your stomach while keeping your back straight and your chest out. 3. Return to the starting position (arms extended).
- This exercise can be done using a variety of different handles. - While seated cable rows are primarily a back exercise, it also recruits the use of the biceps secondarily.

Bicep Workout

A biceps introduction would not be complete without an explanation of what the biceps are and how they function in order to get the look you desire.
Though the terms “bicep” and “tricep” are acceptable usages, the correct anatomical terms are “biceps” and “triceps”. The biceps brachii flexes the elbow, supinates the forearm. This is the prominent muscle on the inside of your upper arm. Antagonistically, the triceps brachii extends the elbow. Each exercise in your biceps workout will work both of these muscles simultaneously as one will raise the forearm and hence work the biceps; while the second part of the movement will lower the forearm and thus work the triceps.
Before beginning a biceps workout, please contact your physician and make sure you are physically able to begin an exercise workout. Many of the exercises can be strenuous if you are just coming on to the weight training field and the healthy you are to begin the better results you will have as you begin working out. This is especially helpful if you have a condition such as high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, or other types of potentially life threatening illnesses. If you have been leading a sedentary lifestyle up to know, this is also a good time to not only make sure you can begin weight training exercises, including biceps and triceps training, as well as giving you a baseline for your path onto better health and lifestyle.
We will be walking you through the learning stages of biceps workouts and introducing you to various forms and the right and wrong way for the movements. We will also be including beginning biceps workouts for seniors and women, as well as expert workouts for those looking for more strenuous workouts for their biceps.
Biceps workouts can be done with free weights such as dumbbells as well as on machines and bar. We will try to incorporate as many different types of apparatus to help you define, tone, and strengthen your upper arms. However, we will mainly be focusing on the bicep area of the arm including the biceps brachii, brachialis, and the brachioradialis. Each individual muscle plays its part in making a clearly defined “bicep” to show to the world.
We will begin with some of the easier beginning exercises and using layman terms help to visually show you what you will need to do in both muscle range as well as form in order to achieve the look you would like to have for your upper body.
In addition, we will also show you what not to do in your bicep workout. We will begin showing this from the very beginning. This will enable you to have good form, work the biceps to their fullest, and get what you are looking for in a great biceps workout. The last thing you want to do in your biceps workout is to have to relearn an exercise because you never knew you were doing it incorrectly from the beginning.

Beginning a bicep workout :)

Before beginning a workout, please check with a physician to make sure you are healthy enough to begin a workout regime. Bicep workouts train the area of the upper arm involved in the flexing of the elbow. The muscles are the most noticed muscles on the human body and give the appearance of physical strength.
Beginning your biceps workouts, you need to also start with the basic terminology associated with weight training techniques. Most important is to know what is meant by “sets” and “reps.” A repetition, or “rep”, is the number of times you complete a single movement, such as curling your forearm to your shoulder. A set is the number of reps in each section of that particular workout. Between each set, you normally would have a break of about thirty to sixty seconds, depending on the style of weight training you adhere. For example, two sets of ten reps would mean a total of twenty total repetitions of a single movement.
Begin each workout with a warm up session to get your body ready for the workout to come. Some people may prefer a cardiovascular workout before working out various areas of the body or stretching the upper arms.
When you begin a bicep workout regime it is important to feel both comfortable with the weight you are using as well as challenged by it. It would be absurd to give a specific weight to begin working with such as five to ten pounds, if you cannot lift it or you exhaust the muscle too quickly. It may also discourage you from continuing in your biceps workout.
Instead, begin with a weight that you can lift for a minimum of ten reps. When you are just beginning, one set of ten repetitions is fine. However, ten reps may be too much. If this is the case then do as many reps as you possibly can until you just cannot lift anymore. Then you will repeat with the other arm. For all explanations, we will assume you are beginning with your right arm.
When you are just starting out, you may want to do all the exercises you see laid out here. However, it is perfectly fine and advised to just begin with one exercise and go from there. As you train and become more physically fit and the biceps become stronger, you will be able to do more biceps exercises and spend more time working your upper arms. Some beginning exercises you may use when just starting out to build on to are dumbbell curls, cable curls, and barbell curls. These exercises are performed by using dumbbells, the cable machine, or a barbell and weights to accomplish the needed exercise. Begin with whichever apparatus makes you feel the most comfortable and we will build on that as we grow our biceps workouts. Remember also that as you work your biceps, you will be working your triceps as well.These exercises will be discussed in more detail under exercising biceps including both proper and improper form.

A Great Biceps Workout:)

A great biceps workout would be a workout that hits all of the flexor muscles of our arm, not only the biceps but the muscles surround the biceps as well from all angles.Begin with concentration curls and sit at the end of a bench, lean over and rest the back of your upper arm against the inside of your thigh. Grasp a dumbbell and twist your hand as you curl so your “pinkie” is higher than your thumb at the top of the repetition. Squeeze your biceps at this position, twisting your hand as far as possible, then slowly untwist your hand while lowering the dumbbell. Do three sets of eight repetitions.Hammer curls help your wrist by giving you a neutral position. Sometimes when doing regular dumbbell curls, your wrists may fee week. The hammer curl also allows you to stop your range of motion when they are parallel to the floor to keep tension in the biceps muscle. You will feel this exercise not only in your biceps but also in the forearm itself. Get two dumbbells and stand straight up. Your arms should be at your side; palms face your body. Tense your torso as you begin this exercise. Squeeze the dumbbells tight and life your arms. Pause at the top of the exercise which is when your forearms are parallel with the floor. Contract your biceps and then very slowly lower the dumbbell. If done correctly, it should look like you are wielding a hammer. Your palms should be facing each other through the entire repetition. Your palms should face each other through the entire exercise. Do three sets of eight.Lastly, the best workout to do for your arms consists of a reverse preacher curl. When u are seated a preacher bench hold the barbell with an over hand grip or palms down instead of up. Bring the bar to chin, pause for a count of one, and very slowly lower it back down. Do three sets of eight to complete the bicep workout.

Tricep Workouts and Exercises

Your tricep muscle makes up 2/3 of your arm and it is important to train effectively in order to increase your arm size and strength. This site offers free tricep muscle facts, effective exercises, stretches and recommended tips to get you on the right track of training, toning and building good triceps through your tricep workouts!
Having well toned triceps is important to both men and women. This website is going to share with you what you’ll need to include into your tricep workout to get the best results.
Consistency is important to any form of exercise routine. It’s best to split the routine you choose so that your working out three or four days of the week with a one day off schedule.
Progression is also important to the routine. As a tricep routine becomes easier it’s important to add a small amount of weight to keep your body working at it’s full potential. Supersets are very effective techniques for training your arms. Supersets are significant to pairing the biceps and triceps with very little or no rest in between.
Same muscle group supersets work the same muscle in a consecutive or back to back style with no rest in between. These isolation exercises are extremely sufficient in building target back to back works that muscle to it’s highest potential.
Tri sets are three exercises directed for the same muscle and also don consecutively. For the more advanced trainee, this keeps the workout challenging and productive.
Multi grip tri sets are one example. You simply select three exercises; each having a different grip such as palms down, palms facing each other and palms up. Usually you work the weakest grip exercise to the strongest but you can switch these at your leisure for variety or balance in development. Logically the basic superset would lower your choice of exercises to two with the same concept.
Drop supersets combine the elements of two of the ultimate body building techniques; drop sets and supersets. For these you need to choose two exercises for the same muscle group. Perform six to eight reps with no rest in between them. Quickly lower the amount of weight and repeat the superset twice more.
Pre-exhaust routines have about the same concept as supersets however, the difference is in the types of exercise you choose. One should be an isolation exercise, while the other needs to be a compound.
One issue of importance before performing any of these sets or routines is obtaining proper training initiatives. One of the key factors prior to any routine is warming up. No exercise routine will benefit you if it causes injury. Remember, safety first.

3 plateau busters

Bench press‘At the end of every other bench press session, do lockouts as a partial rep,’ says personal trainer Shaun Stafford. ‘This means you just do the top third of the lift. Use a heavy weight – at least your one-rep max – and do a couple of sets of three or four reps to hit the chest muscles hard while strengthening your tendons and ligaments to deal with a heavier weight next time.’ Just make sure you recruit a good spotter.
Squat‘A great way to boost your squat is cluster training,’ says Stafford. ‘Set the bar with your five-rep max but aim for ten reps – first do five, then rest for 15 seconds before cranking out three more. Take another brief rest, then fire off another couple before resting for a couple of minutes and repeating.’ The logic of this method is that it allows you to lift more weight over more reps that you’d otherwise do, and so stimulates greater gains in both size and strength.
Biceps curlBlitz your biceps with negative lifts because the eccentric, or lowering, phase of the biceps curl can deal with more weight. ‘You’ll need a partner for this but it is the best way of forcing your biceps to cope with heavier weights,’ says Stafford. ‘Load up a barbell with 20 to 40 per cent more weight that you’re used to. With help from your partner, curl the bar up until the bar is at the peak of the lift. Pause, then lower it, taking about four seconds, while in full control.’ Aim for four sets of around six reps once a week.

Abs Workout

The Men's Fitness Body Focus workouts target each part of your body in turn. Work your way through the series and you'll develop strength and muscle mass across your body.
The abdominal muscle is a single sheet of muscle with six sections. When the whole muscle grows, the distance between the height of the muscle tissue and the connective tissue between them increases and the segments 'pop out' creating a six-pack becomes greater. You'll only get a true six-pack, though, if you burn off the fat that normally hides those muscles. You'll find fat loss circuits and tips elsewhere on the Men's Fitness website.
How to do this workoutWorkouts 1 and 2 are designed as two separate workouts to be done on different days. Leave two to three days between each to give your muscles time to recover properly. You can add these workouts into a longer gym session or focus on the three exercises in each, so long as you make sure you maintain enough intensity to fully exhaust the muscles. Before you start the workouts, warm up with five minutes on a treadmill and some press-ups. Rest for two to three minutes between exercises.

upper body exercises

Performing upper body exercises will not only work the muscles of your chest, shoulders, triceps and biceps, but can also work your heart and lungs.Choose upper body exercises to meet your own strength / fitness levels. There is nothing wrong with starting at the basic beginners level at gradually increasing the amount of repetitions that you perform.

Whichever exercises you perform you should always follow the principals of good form and technique.There is no point trying to perform an exercise that is to hard for you, especially if your a beginner - as this will simply cause you to perform the exercise with poor technique, which can cause injury.Make a note of what exercises you do, and also how many reps you can perform of each exercise. Try and work each exercise for as many repetitions as you feel comfortable with, this may be only 8 - 12 for some exercises and a lot more for others. Certain exercises are simply worked for a set time - look at slowly increasing the amount of time and reps that you can perform for each exercise.Once you feel comfortable with all the exercises at the beginners level, move onto the next level, combining different exercises if you wish.The good thing about this section of the site, is that we have given you so many different exercise ideas, simply choose the ones that you want to do and try and perform a home circuit 2 - 3 times per week, lasting 20 - 30 minutes each time.Its vital that you work at your own pace, taking whatever rest you need to have between or during your exercises.For better results, try and work with a partner or small group of a similiar fitness level, as this will help you stay motivated.Having a small water bottle and towel at hand and also some music will also be useful.Begin each session with a suitable warm-up and stretching routine to help avoid sore muscles

Create An Effective Home Workout Program

If the sluggish economy has you paying extra attention to your monthly spending habits, one area you might be cutting back on is your gym membership. Luckily, this doesn't mean you must give up your workouts and let your physical condition suffer. It’s certainly possible to get a fantastic workout at home with a bit of planning and creativity.

Here’s how you can create an effective home workout program that will save you money without sacrificing results.

Determine your method of cardio training
If your main goal is to build muscle, you might think you won’t need to do a great deal of cardio training in the first place. However, including some cardio in your workout program does tend to help with nutrient partitioning, driving nutrients toward the muscle cells rather than the fat cells.

You can either choose to perform bouts of cardio between your strengthening movements, making it more like a calorie-burning circuit training program, or perform cardio all at once, after your strength training. You can also do cardio training in a separate session.

Do note that if your focus is on developing strength, you’re better off resting completely between sets to allow your body to recover, and performing cardio at another time.


At-home cardio options
Some good options for at-home cardio include:
Running up and down a set of stairs Jumping rope Step-ups on an oversize box or step (the higher the box, the better the cardiovascular benefits you’ll get Burpies These options are best used as an interval training excercise (going for 30 to 60 seconds hard, coupled with one minute of rest), which is ideal for at-home workouts since they are quick to complete and help burn fat more effectively.

Factoring in strength training
The next thing to do is plan out the strength training portion of your home workout. Ideally you should purchase a set of dumbbells and a barbell with weighted plates, that would allow you to perform many of the free-weight exercises you would do in the gym (bicep curls, triceps movements, deadlifts, rows, shoulder presses, lunges, etc). If you do not have these available to you, then it’s time to get creative.

Body-weight squats with a wall squat
Start by performing a set of 25 body-weight squats, being sure you are going as low to the floor as possible to the floor. Next, move over to the wall and perform a stationary wall squat, holding for one full minute.


Push-ups on an exercise ball
You can make the standard push-up more difficult simply by placing your hands on an exercise ball and performing the push-up from there. Additionally, you’ll also get the benefit of dramatically working your core muscles, making this an ideal upper body exercise.


Dips with feet raised
Next, move on to triceps dips off the back of a chair. To challenge yourself more, raise your feet up and place them up on a table, stool or bed in front of you. If you want to further increase the intensity, place a weighted object on top of your thighs.


Jump lunges
To work your glutes, hamstrings and quads, perform a series of jump lunges. Repeat until you have completed 10 to 15 reps for each set you do.


Pull-ups
For your lats and lower back area, if you have a sturdy bar somewhere in your house, hang off of it and perform a set of pull-ups. If you don’t, lie a strong broomstick or other pole across two solid surfaces (chairs, boxes, etc). Then lie down underneath it and mimic the pull-up action.


Single-leg deadlifts
Round out your home workout program by performing single leg deadlifts. Stand in front of a bed and place one leg back and up on top of it. From there, with a chair placed a foot or two in front of the body, bend down and grasp the bottom of the chair (note another weighted object can be used for this if you prefer -- a bag of sand, a box filled with cans, etc). Holding the object, rise up while keeping both legs as straight as possible, thinking of squeezing your glutes while you do so. Come to a full standing position and then lower the object to the ground once again to complete the rep.

As with any workout program, be sure you are also performing a good warm-up and cool down before and after the workout.

GYM INTRODUCTION

Take a guy from Norwalk CT, an accountant who runs, rows and climbs. Add a guy from Washington DC, an electrical engineer and a salesman who skates, plays handball and has been a hiker and climber for over 20 years. Distill the vision: make a living, contribute something to society, have fun and provide fun. This deceptively simple recipe and 18 months of hard work gave Stamford and the surrounding communities from New York City up to New Haven, CT a much-needed shot in the arm, known as Go Vertical that opened in 1994. Six years later in February 2000, Go Vertical opened its second climbing gym in center city Philadelphia, 1/4 mile from the Ben Franklin Bridge.

Micheal Rorick and Howard Kanner parlayed their business, sports and fitness backgrounds, interest and acumen into an indoor climbing gym par excellence to create a business that combines, as Rorick says "what I have to do with what I want to do". This climbing gym serves every need from health and fitness, entertainment to social interaction, feeding creativity to improving necessary life skills.

Let's take a quick look at what climbing is: an activity in which you move up a wall, natural or manmade, similar to climbing the stairs and scrambling up a steep hill but with finesse and precision. Add in the skills you used on the monkey bars and the slide of your childhood playground and voila you're climbing. Climbing is not difficult to learn, but there are a few tricks. To ensure safety, folks climb in pairs, to spot each other bouldering or to use a rope and harness to belay. Belaying is the art of attaching two climbers to each other and the wall. One person climbs and the other secures the rope so that when the climber falls and/or is through with a climb they will be safely lowered to the ground. This safety procedure requires lessons. Learning a few of the tricks requires lessons. In sport climbing it is necessary to take a lesson, primarily because someone's life may depend on your skill. Besides, you'll pay better attention, learn more and accept criticism, and compliments, if you're paying money. Lessons run about two hours and cover the basics.

The basics include discussion and demonstration of types of climbing and how to move on the wall initially. There are two types of climbing - bouldering and roped climbing. Bouldering refers to short, challenging climbs without protection or climbing aids, although "an active spotter is very important in the gym and outside" said Bobbi Bensman, world-ranked climber at a recent clinic. "Bouldering helps the climber warm up, build on technique and practice moves." The reach of a bouldering climber will be about ten to twelve feet. Roped climbing is for higher and harder climbs and requires a belay partner. Much of the lesson will be belaying skills. You'll learn to belay someone. You'll learn to trust your belayer and let yourself be lowered to the ground. Lessons will give you pointers on how to execute moves unique to wall climbing such as a sidepull or pinch. You will be told more times than you want to hear to "trust your feet". It takes practice, trust me on that one. You may even discover a little about physics - standing far away from the wall when belaying a person considerably heavier than you will get you a short trip right smack into the wall when your partner pops off (anchoring to the floor will help).

Beginning climbers should focus on quality not quantity. Lessons are key because now is the time when habits are made and you begin to build a catalog of moves. Some hints gleaned from lessons include: Put your weight on your feet and thrust to make your moves. Think about stepping up on the back of a pickup truck or a large rock when hiking - without your weight over your feet you'd just push yourself backwards. When you played on the slide you climbed up the ladder part, latched on with your hands and stepped up with your feet, latched up higher with your hands and stepped up again. Climbing up the slide part you grabbed the sides of the slide (in climbing called a sidepull), planted your sneakers full on for good traction and shimmied right up. If you recall, your rump was thrust away from the slide - that's what puts your weight on your feet and enables you to "Smear". Use your skeleton to hold your weight not your muscles: Torso rotation or foot work will give you the reach you need. You didn't stay tight into the bars when you were on the monkeybars, you twisted to reach. Climbing is about 50/50 muscle and technique. Practice good technique and the strength will come. This makes it doable for just about anybody.

Now that you know what climbing is about, here's what a gym is about. The bulk of the rock gym is a large open space with high ceilings. The walls seem to be liberally studded with the leftovers from an elementary school clay project with a cobweb of rope dripping down from the ceiling. The cobweb is a series of ropes anchored to the top of each climb ready for belaying. The blobs are really holds used for scaling the walls. Each hold is generally tagged with a colored ribbon in order to mark a route. Follow the same color to stay on the route. Each color is graded near the route usually from a 5.0 - 5.14 The five means a climber is using hands, feet and should be roped. Zero to 14 is a range from easy to extremely tough. Go Vertical has over 14,000 square feet of climbing walls, top roped, lead and bouldering in the Philadelphia gym making it the largest climbing gym on the East Coast. That creates an immediacy of "equipment" so that you don't have to wait to work out. Climbing is uniquely performed to provide a full body workout. For strength training, power moves on overhanging walls will work all the major muscle groups: back, chest, abdominals, arms, legs, glutes. It will also work the smaller muscles that are hard to target with traditional workouts: forearms, hands, fingers, hips and shins, and even neck. This is an anaerobic workout that is possible for anyone, even if they have been sedentary. It will hone the physique of an athletic participant and challenge the strongest of gym rats. Other intrinsic benefits are improved flexibility and balance. Howard Kanner refers to the gym as a place to practice "the vertical dance". Just as dancing improves balance and coordination so too does climbing, with the added advantage of a third dimension. The staff is always on hand to suggest a move or series designed to work a particular body part, like biceps or a particular skill such as flexibility.

For an aerobic workout, Go Vertical gives you all the advantages of a Nordic Trak or a Versa Climber and then some. To get an aerobic workout (though you'll probably be breathing pretty heavily on your first few straight climbs) all you need to do is laps. Choose a wall angle and level of climbing that is easy for one climb and simply do it over and over again with speed but with precision. You can increase the intensity by climbing up and down, rather than being lowered between the up portions. Raising your heart rate, expanding your lungs and resisting gravity in this way provides an incomparable aerobic workout.

An added factor in a climbing workout is the demands on your mental creativity. By following or choosing a route or path in the gym, you will be strengthening your mind, both halves of the brain, by using logic, spatial awareness and problem solving skills, ingenuity and imagination, all under physical exertion. This has residual impact in other areas of life that are nothing but beneficial.

While there is no argument that climbing provides all these benefits, let's not overlook a major component, the one that sets Go Vertical apart from all other health clubs, both climbing and non: dedication to FUN. Go Vertical promotes an atmosphere of camaraderie; it takes just a short while before you know everybody that climbs when you do - the staff call you by name whenever you come in. Kids are included in the fun - they have kids' belay so youngsters can come in and climb without having to learn skills beyond their ability for consistent safety. Parents can schedule parties for kids - grade school kids and teenagers alike have called their birthday party at Go Vertical "the best they ever had". Special programs are available for large groups such as class trips or scouting get togethers. While all of this is major league fun, it is also good for kids, giving them not only workout to enjoy, but a sense of accomplishment and increased self-confidence. Fear of falling is one of two natural fears (the other is loud noises); overcoming this is a boon for a kid of any age.

Another "party" opportunity is for businesses, clubs, junior leagues and professional organizations. While a convivial atmosphere prevails, sales teams and project groups can take advantage of the team building skills offered by Go Vertical's group climbing. Go Vertical is open all day to accommodate such classes during regular business hours.

Social opportunities abound at Go Vertical. Because climbing is such a complete workout, many athletes from other sports use it to cross-train and avoid overuse injuries. It's a great place to meet like-minded, fitness-oriented folks. Because the workout is an all-around strengthener and toner, Go Vertical appeals to women of all ages as a place to workout without intimidation, and to meet other women with similar goals. Go Vertical appeals to men trying to develop flexibility and coordination and use their strength in more natural ways. Climbing is one of the few sports where men and women participate on a more equal level. This makes it great to climb with members of the same sex, because they climb in a similar manner, and with the opposite sex because you can try new techniques that you might not have thought of. The tenor of the place is so friendly that if you stop in by yourself, you won't have to climb alone for long if you don't want to. Where else can you go for an evening out, have fun, feel great when you get home and not reek of smoke? The "last time to climb" call is more dreaded that the bar-hopper's "last call for alcohol".

Go Vertical may seem like a specialty gym, which it is, but a fad? We asked the question "Fad or Here to Stay?" of athletes, gym owners, cross-trainers and athletes. Here's their response: "There is a clear interest and permanent need for these gyms, especially here in the Northeast where you just cannot climb outside in the winter" says Crux Northeast's Will Tacy. Jeff Jackson, guide and instructor of "How to Crank like a Monkey Without Losing Your Day Job" clinics describes climbing as "a complete physical workout like a good racquetball game with [the requirement and development] of almost gymnastic moves and at the same time has the mental component of solving the moves and sequencing like a big chess game". This is the kind of workout that has timeless appeal to those on the fast track or full-time parents who need the most out of their gym workout hours. Life Design gym owner/personal trainer Tad Dun agrees "...that climbing has all the elements of a complete program: resistance, flexibility and a mental aspect as well". "Longevity will come from those gyms which offer classes, competitions, events and adventure programs. The local health clubs that toss up a wall to attract a member or three will not last. The lack of experienced and dedicated staff as well as the resultant risk of liability will catch up with them" predicts William Sullivan, climber and guide for Connecticut Mountain Recreation. Robin Hann, martial arts instructor in Fairfield County: "I'm afraid I'll lose students completely to Go Vertical", she laughs. "It's a great complementary workout for martial artists, perhaps the best cross training possible over any other sport. It's real training that masquerades as fun and one of the few sports where women are competitive with men." "In the 1980's there were three maybe four indoor gyms nationwide, now there are 160 with at least three times that on the drawing board" says Ralph Erenzo of ExtraVertical and 59th Street Gym in Manhattan. "It's great!" says new climber Juliana, "I no longer need my traditional gym membership." Sheryl, another gym regular is even more enthusiastic "It's a place to go with my friends, have fun, listen to music while still be able to hear myself think. I know I'll meet interesting people who don't have drinking and smoking as their number one priority."

This is a health club. From a fitness perspective, there is no better opportunity than Go Vertical with its full body workout, showers and separate locker rooms for men and women.

This is a community place. For a gathering of friends, there is no better place than Go Vertical with its friendly, knowledgeable staff, lessons, member clinics and great climbs.

This is an avenue for personal growth. To build confidence for your kids, your scout troop or your company there's no better venue than Go Vertical.

This is entertainment. Used as an element of summer vacation, an alternative to a movie or a nightclub, Go Vertical is all-American fun.

This is a playground. Flashback to the days of slides and monkeybars. While you're busy having fun, you'll be challenging your mind in new ways and sparking creativity. While getting a great workout you'll be improving your strength and flexibility. While building a physique (if you don't already have one) to be smug about, you'll be building great memories with old friends and building new friendships. Dark out, bad weather, uninspired workouts? No worries - come to Go Vertical.