Breakthrough Strength & Fitness

Over half the spots are taken for our #breakthroughstrengthchallenge now... are you ready for our new event, The Silver Bullet Grip Hold?? . For the lion’s share of strength training activities, the only connection between an athlete and the implement they’re using is the grip. When you join the BSC team you get your own Captains of Crush gripper! .... The BSC is open to members only so now is a great time to check out our membership options - we’ve got remote training plans too if you prefer to train at home or live out of our area! Learn more on breakthroughgym.com See more

We hope you celebrated big and had the best day ever, Aliza because you absolutely ROCK and we adore you!! Happy birthday!!

It’s BACK!! The #breakthroughstrengthchallenge is coming back this spring! If you are ready to emerge from this lockdown and unlock your strength, the BSC is for you!! . The double military press is the first of the three BSC events and there is such a rush to locking out heavy weights overhead... Just look at how happy @therealcoachcaleb is! . The Challenge is Saturday 5/15 and training begins 3/29. The BSC is open to members only and totally sold out last fall... Registration deadline is 3/22 so don’t wait to sign up. If you are not yet a member, check out breakthroughgym.com to see if we might be a good fit for you!

Ready to reclaim your strength? We’ve got you! . Breakthrough members can count on us for expert and caring coaching, professional programming, a great community, and the cleanest gym in town! All training sessions are by appointment only with no more than 6 people at a time. Each member has their own training zone and fully disinfected equipment at each session, with a Coach present to guide you every step of the way. . You can check us out with a complimentary Strategy Ses...sion to see if we are a good fit for you, and our memberships come with a 30 day guarantee to try us risk free. . You can go to breakthroughgym.com to learn more about us and book a consultation! See more

Needy Knees - Combined knee flexion/extension drills: . Hamstring Curl - This version uses slides, but you could also use a stability ball or a TRX. On your back with your feet planted in line with the hips, squeeze your glutes to bridge your hips up. Straighten your legs, and then use your hamstrings to bend the knees without letting the hips drop. . Warrior 3 Squats - Stand with your feet together, brace your core and hinge your hips back as in Chair pose from yoga. Fold ov...er until your shoulders and your hips are in line and then take one foot up off the floor, keeping the knees squeezing together. Straighten and bend the standing knee, while staying in the hinged position. . If you like tips like these make sure you are on our email list for articles about training, nutrition, mindset and more! Go to breakthroughgym.com to subscribe See more

MYTH - If I workout hard enough, I can eat whatever I want. . Well You CAN, you’re an adult so, you do you. But there is no such thing as workout that will allow you to eat whatever you want and be healthy - whether you want to lose weight or not. Even if you know this myth to be busted already, you might still benefit from a mindset shift on this topic. Too often we’ve heard people say they need a killer workout because they had a nutrition "cheat day" the day before. Or that after a hard workout they are going to reward themselves with a nutrition splurge. Food isn’t a reward for torturing yourself, and training isn’t a punishment for eating.

MYTH - In order to make progress you need constant variety. . Maybe you’ve heard of the myth of muscle confusion? The idea that you need to switch up your training every week or few days to be different so your body has to keep working hard to adapt to new stimulus There is some truth in that you can’t do the same training plan forever and expect to keep getting results. But if you never stick with a plan, or do random acts of variety instead of following a program, yo...u also won’t see any real results. You need to stick with a program long enough to make progress and see your strength and skills improve, but switch it up before you completely plateau. . The sweet spot is somewhere between 4 to 6 weeks. Even then, you might not necessarily benefit from changing the exercises you are focusing on, but rather continue making progress by adjusting the loads, reps and sets somehow. See more

MYTH - Lifting weights will make me bulky . Not unless you want to have that happen and are willing to work really hard! Ladies, this myth busting is mostly for you. There are different ways to train with weights depending on what your goals are. The hard earned physique of a body builder or professional athlete doesn’t happen by spending a few hours a week lifting in the gym. It takes specialized programming and daily dedication in the gym (and the kitchen) to get those k...inds of results. . The irony of this particular myth is that most ladies who are worried about getting too big would prefer to lift light/medium weights and do more reps. But the truth is that lifting heavier and doing fewer reps typically builds muscle in a way that doesn’t get a bulky appearance. This has to do with the different ways muscles grow - higher rep/lower weight encourages the development of sarcoplasm in the muscle, which is a fluid that makes them appear bigger and puffier; whereas lower rep/higher weight encourages the development of myofibrils, so you get stronger and show muscle tone but do not gain much in size. So, don’t be afraid to pick up something heavy ladies! See more

MYTH: Cardio is the best exercise for fat loss. Nope . Cardiovascular exercise is important, but your top priority for a fat loss goal should be strength training. Resistance training builds muscle tissue, with is more metabolically active than fatty tissue. This means that your body burns more calories maintaining and building muscle than maintaining adipose tissue. Not only does strength training super-charge your metabolism to help with fat loss, it also helps prevent the inevitable slow down of the metabolism as we get older, as one of the main reasons this loss of muscle mass occurs as we age. And of course training with weights also helps build bone density, so there’s another great reason to keep strength training at the top of your list!

MYTH: It’s only a good workout if you feel sore the next day - Wrong. When you start a new training plan, or have built up to a day on your program that you are challenging yourself, you will probably feel some soreness the next couple days. Your muscles basically go through micro-trauma when adapting to new training stimulus, and the process of repairing and rebuilding these tissues even stronger is what causes soreness. As your body adapts to your new program, the feelin...gs of soreness should decrease, but that doesn’t mean the training isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do for you. If you constantly chase that sore feeling it’s likely you are overtraining and not giving your body enough time to adapt and repair itself, and you risk possible injuries. . If you are someone who worries that soreness means you overdid it, that’s not necessarily true either. It’s totally normal to have soreness whether you are a seasoned athlete, or just getting started on your fitness journey - especially when starting something new as we mentioned. The best thing you can do is to keep moving! Take a walk, do a lighter training session, or just stretch and rollout. If you try to rest until you feel no soreness, you are likely to be in an endless loop where you always feel sore after training because you’ve waited too long and now your body has to adapt all over again. . As a word of extra caution - if you do experience extreme muscle pain that lasts longer than a few days without decreasing, or you feel other symptoms aside from muscle soreness, you should contact your doctor. . Bonus myth busting - people often attribute delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) to lactic acid build up, but scientists have debunked that theory. We still don’t know all the details of why we get sore following more intense or new training. Our bodies are magical and mysterious! See more