Chesterfield gym owner shares three top fitness tips for 2023

Chester Street Gym was set up by Adam Bingham in November 2016. He has provided us with his three top tips for a healthier and fitter 2023:

1. Mindset and goal setting

It is important that when you want to commit to a new healthy lifestyle change you are prepared to remain dedicated and committed. If you are not fully invested into a new regime, failure will be inevitable. This can potentially be avoided by maintaining a routine and measuring your progress against regular, achievable goals.

From experience, mindset can be adversely affected at times of stress, and, in these instances, it is key to maintain focus on your goals. A great way to support your focus is to take regular progress pictures, making sure that you take your first pictures before you start your journey and then when motivation wanes you can look back at what you have achieved, which should help to reboot your mojo. Finally, do not compare yourself to others as everybody's goals are not necessarily the same, go at your own pace, do not make fitness become a chore or listen to silly exercise plans like 30-day abs and do not let fake photoshopped images put pressure on you to look a certain way or achieve a particular physique.

2. Scales and diet

Using scales and regular weigh-ins does have its importance within fitness if your goal is to put on muscle and lose body fat. However, one of my biggest bug-bares is when people place far too much emphasis on the number on the scales; sorry ladies, but this does tend to be more of a female trait as women do tend to be more self-conscious and chase a particular target weight. If you are attending a gym and wanting to tone up, loss of weight should not be the primary goal: it is loss of body fat. When considering my own experience there comes a point where the scales can be a hindrance to success with more advanced customers. This is because there is eventually a point where there is a trade-off between muscle and body fat, making sure you keep in mind that muscle weighs heavier than fat. More accurate ways of monitoring progress than scales would be to use skinfold calipers, looking at your physique in the mirror, and comparing progress pictures.

Diet plays a vital role in the success of achieving physique related goals. Learning how to properly calorie count would be your biggest tool to maximise your success and achieve your goals. A final important point to remember is to make sure you have a balanced diet, and not to eliminate carbs and healthy fats from your diet, as these both have important roles that will help contribute to your success.

3. Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Being new to the gym can be a very daunting and intimidating experience as there is a lot of kit to learn how to use in a way that is safe, efficient, and effective. Therefore, the most time efficient way of getting effective results would be to work with a personal trainer. It is important when choosing your personal trainer to make sure that their skills suit the demands related to the goals you wish to achieve, as different PTs specialise in different areas. As not everyone has the budget for a PT, another approach is to look for alternative measures like researching online and on social media about specific workouts which may help you in achieving your personal goals. At Chester Street Gym we have started creating our own content in order to assist members who have limited knowledge in using a gym, so don't be afraid to ask for help or advice! Here at Chester Street Gym (CSG Fitness) we take pride in giving away free advice.

Chester Street Gym, located at 17 Chester Street, Chesterfield, is open seven days a week.