How To Get Maximum Results In Minimum Time From Your Fitness Program

with Steve Preston

STRENGTH TRAINING 101

With all of the fitness scams out there these days, a lot of women are being misled. I've heard and seen all of the gadgets, gimmicks, pills, fad diets, etc. It's all a bunch of lies, from really good marketers, who don't care that it's a bunch of b.s. By the time everyone's figured out that they don't really work, these guys have made a lot of moolah, and have flown the coop. (I'll be exposing a bunch of fitness scams and myths in my next article!)

By deciding to train with me, you have taken a great step towards REAL fitness! My passion and my job are to help you reach your fat loss and fitness goals that are healthy and life-long.

Sure, it's hard work! Hey, I never said it would be easy. In fact, I hope I got the point across that it's supposed to be a personal challenge each time I train you!

So, why is all this hard work important for woman?

Here are some good reasons:

Strength training can help prevent osteoporosis. As you strength train progressively, over time, your bones become more dense. Combined with good nutrition, this disease that affects mostly women, can be minimized or slowed down.

Strength training will give you better shape. Bones and skin don't give the body great shape. Muscle is what gives you shape. Your progressive strength training program won't bulk you up. As a female, you don't have the testosterone levels in you to gain mass like a man.

Strength training raises the metabolism. A brief, intense strength training routine will spike the metabolism for a full 24 hours. However, you should never strength train more than 3 days per week. Any more than that is counter-productive. Your body has a reserve of nervous energy. Each time you train, you tap into this reserve. This energy is also required to help you recuperate from workouts. If you train too often you won't recuperate fully. Bottom line? Get a good workout in, then enjoy your life!

More muscle turns your body into a fat-burning machine. All of those dangerous pills and remedies out there that are supposed to help you burn fat without exercise don't work, and can sometimes be harmful. Nuff' said! By strength training, and putting some muscle on your body, you create a fat burning inferno. Why? Because muscle burns fat for energy.

Strength training gives you more energy. As you exercise in general, your energy levels pick up because your metabolism speeds up. The key here is to do the "least" amount of exercise in order to "get the job done." In other words, try to stick to fast, intense workouts for more energy, fat loss, and overall fitness.

Strength training makes you look better as you diet. Have you ever known anyone who has lost a significant amount of weight by dieting really hard, but they didn't do any exercise? I'll bet if you recall, they looked thinner in clothes, but were flabbier looking. Everything just looks like it dropped. That's because the body didn't have a purpose for holding onto the muscle while the calories it was receiving were reduced. The body doesn't want to allow us to just lose fat. It tries to preserve it unless you increase your daily protein consumption, along with a progressive strength training plan to hold onto the muscle.

Ok, now that we've convinced you that you're on the right path with your decision to embark on a strength training focused exercise program, let's go over some key points for overall success!

Train the body as a unit. Whether you're a busy mom, a time-pressed corporate executive, a professional athlete, or a senior, you should have a strength training program that focuses on the entire body. An advanced strength training program is split into different workouts on different days of the week. A beginning strength training program is usually the entire body trained on 3 non-consecutive days per week. No matter what your level, you need to train all of your body, not just "problem areas." Muscle imbalances can result if you don't train the entire body. For those of you looking to lose fat, you want to train each muscle hard as well.

Work the muscle from largest to smallest. Sometimes, for the sake of variety, I will change the order of body parts that we train with my clients. This helps break up the monotony of similar workouts, while tricking the muscle. Sometimes, we'll want to fool your muscle so that it has no choice but to respond to different stimulus. In general though, you should train the muscles from biggest to smallest in terms of overall strength of a muscle group. In other words, your chest is much stronger than your triceps, so you would generally want to work on the chest area first during your workout.

Train abdominals at the end of a workout. Abdominals are the cornerstone of your body's strength. Every muscle that you train requires stability from your abdominal muscles. If you train the abs before the other muscles, you won't get the overall effect that we're looking for in your fitness program.

Free weights rule! Some of the high-intensity principles that I apply when training athletes and advanced trainers might require machine training due to balance and overall strength levels. For the most part, women looking to lose fat and get fit, should use dumbbells and barbells for strength training. It will require more balancing of the equipment, therefore using more overall muscle.

Slow it down ladies! Hmm…I know a few of my clients out there reading this are smiling, because you hear this from me all of the time. Remember, we're "working muscle, not lifting weights!" I always tell you to slow down the weight, especially when lowering the weight against the force of gravity. We are trying to minimize momentum, because that maximizes muscle use. Now don't get me wrong. We don't want to work the muscle too slowly, but a count of 2-4 seconds up, and 4-6 seconds down does the job every time.

I love my clients and I love referrals. If you feel that my services warrant it, please tell your family, friends, and associates about me. They'll thank you and so will I :)

Steve Preston MSed
702-596-2927
www.steveprestonfitness.com
www.fast-fitness.net
www.backpainworkout.com