Heavier weights, lighter you

But why, everyone else is doing it?

Next time you’re on the treadmill, take a look around and ask yourself the serious question, ‘does the person next to me look how I want to?’. Chances are that unless you want to look red-faced, slightly podgy and have sore knee’s the answer is going to be no.

Have you ever noticed that a lot of amateur 10k runners, triathletes and marathoners all have that slightly soft look about them? Slightly too much waistline (but a cracking set of lungs)? That’s because cardio is an ineffective way of burning fat and will only really burn calories whilst you’re doing it. So, whilst burning that 200 calories for your 20 minute jog is a fantastic loss – as soon as you hit stop, it’s over. It was probably easier just to not eat that snickers after all eh?

So, what do I do instead?

Resistance training is about to become your new best friend. By resistance training we mean anything you do that is weighted for a certain amount of time or repetitions. Anything from bodyweight exercises such as press ups and planks to big heavy bench presses and deadlifts.

Resistance training allows us to create more of you (lean muscle), which allows us to burn fat at a higher rate even after you’ve left the gym – in some cases, even up to 72 hours after the session is over.

The bigger the exercise the better, try and get as many joints as you can involved for maximum effect. Squats, deadlifts, Press ups, chin ups/pull ups, inverted rows should all be the cornerstone of all your workouts. If you can’t do them just find an easier variation and build up from there – this goes for all the women as well!

Your weight selection should always be heavy, but heavy for the amount of reps you choose. If you decide to do three sets of 10, reps eight, nine and 10 should be damn hard. I’d honestly say to never really work over the 12-repetition mark, if you can do that amount of reps comfortably, you need to make the weights heavier or take the exercise to the next level.

Resistance sessions need only take 45 minutes – Just pick thee or four exercises and away you go! A sample workout might look something like this:

Monday – Deadlift 3x5 @ 90kg, Press Ups 3x 12 @ Bodyweight, Lunges 3x 8 (each) @ 10kg, Lat Pulldowns 3x 8 @ 45kg

Just make sure you pick the biggest exercises you can find, try and steer clear of resistance machines for 90% of your exercises choices and make sure your final reps are hard.

The formula is simple; big movements + heavy weights + lower reps = brand new sexy body. Strong is the new skinny and takes far less time and effort then your monotonous run on the treadmill.

Website: www.intouchpersonaltraining.com
e-mail: james@intouchpersonaltraining.com