One of the biggest mistakes I see as a trainer is that people
do not do their strength training from Day #1. That’s a
big mistake.
They say things like, “I’ll do cardio first and when
I start to
lose weight I will do some strength training to tone up.”
Well,
let me tell you, it does not work like that!
STRENGTH TRAINING IS CRITICAL IN WEIGHT MANAGEMENT — think of
it this way — MUSCLE equals METABOLISM! And we are not talking
about the kind of muscles that Arnold has — the REALITY is that
when women do the RIGHT strength training exercises and the harder
they work at strength training, the TIGHTER and TRIMMER their
muscles become!
So what is the RIGHT exercises and how hard should I be working?
Well, I’m a big believer in training at the right intensity.
Sure,
when you first start exercising you need to take your time, get
comfortable with the exercises and allow your body to adapt BUT
many people take it easy for months and months — never really
doing
the KEY exercises and/or bumping up the intensity of their workouts.
All the RIGHT exercises that you need to do can be done with
the Equalizer. And, and this is a big one — it does not take
much time — just a bit of effort for amazing muscle transformation.
Number one, you have to work your legs! They are the most muscle
in your body and squats are the number one exercise you need
to
start doing. The major mistake people make with squats is pushing
their knees forward and not sitting down low enough. Of course
if you have any limitations you should hire a trainer to help
you get started right and always consult your doctor
before staring any exercise program.
Squats are a very natural and safe movement though and done
right
can really work the legs — with no weights — just
add reps. It will
really get the heart pumping. When you are getting ready to increase
the intensity (remember, I was talking about doing that before
too long — have your trainer tell you when you are ready)
you can
use the Equalizers for SINGLE leg squats (very effective and
hit
inner and outer thigh as well as butt a lot more) and lunges.
NEXT UP — a PUSH and a PULL. For the upper body you need only
do two major exercises, a push and a pull. These two exercises
will ensure that you hit all the major groups up there. These
two exercises are the push-up and the vertical row — both are
best
done with the Equalizer — with lots of options for strength levels
of the participant and exercise variety (because of the scope
of this article, it is best to consult your trainer for proper
body positioning and exercise intensity, etc).
Because you are using your own body weight, you engage the CORE,
working more muscle than if you used a bench or lat pull down
and you get it done with less equipment which means less cost
and very little room taken up — and they
are portable to store after workouts.
And you thought that was it! Just because you could get away
with the last four exercises (single leg squats, lunges, push-ups
and vertical rows) does not mean I am going to let you stop there.
I am a trainer after all! I highly recommend my favourite Equalizer
exercise for the triceps and lower
abs.
You basically kneel down and slowly lower forward under one
of the bars — it’s got a good STRETCH built in and
really great for
the core!
That’s it — get this routine done every second day — do
the exercises
slow and controlled and find a way to always make it harder!
At
your level of course — but have a trainer help you determine
what that is.
These exercises will guarantee a revved up metabolism and tighter
leaner muscles — remember?! And STAY TUNED for
my next articles on how to vaporize body fat with proper diet
and cardio training to go along with these basic but MOST EFFECTIVE
Equalizer exercises. •
About the Author
Marc Lebert is a Certified Personal Trainer and fitness club owner. He is an NLP practitioner, a Black Belt in Taekwondo, and inventor. Marc also teaches boxing, sports conditioning and Equalizer classes. He has been seen on TV, is a published writer and conducts seminars. His new fitness product, The Equalizer can be seen at www.lebertequalizer.com.
