Want to lose fat, and change your physique? Then you have to work out with intensity. The actual definition of intensity is extreme force, energy, or a feeling of exertion. (well, that last one was mine.) That is what you want to be putting into your workouts if what you want to get out, is results. The old school way of walking for hours or even running for an hour at a moderate pace is done. No-one that understands how the body responds to exercise stimulus does that kind of workout any more. Well, not if they are trying to change their physique that is. You see, many things happen when you work out with intensity. You get the heart rate beating extremely fast, for short periods of time…you engage muscle fibers that you didn’t even know existed, and you increase your rate of muscular endurance at the same time. The reason your muscular endurance is increased is that you are putting your muscles to work fast and hard, over and over again. Repeated moves that involve muscular contractions and extreme exertion. In explosive moves like box jumps or jump squats, you are tired out relatively quickly but the result is a stronger body with huge cardio output that gets stronger as time goes on. The best part, bigger and stronger muscles that burn more fat. The type of workout that I am talking about is the one that keeps burning calories for hours after you are done.
It still amazes me with all of the information available to even the “layman”, that people still drive to the gym to walk on a treadmill for an hour. Everyone wants to lose weight. No one pays attention to gaining muscle or losing fat. The same women that tell me they could never be “my size”, are not even working up a sweat, and certainly aren’t getting any stronger. Hell, they have never even ventured into the weight room. Now don’t get me wrong, I have many limitations. One of them is not, and will never be the ability to crank out an intense, hard breathing, sweat inducing workout.
Training women is awesome. Nothing is more fun than training a woman that thinks that a 15 lb dumbbell is something that she will never be able to use. Seeing her face the day that it becomes “easy” is awesome! The cool thing about the body, is that it can get stronger at any age. If you keep placing a demand on the body, it will adapt. Intense workouts can be had any number of ways. Here are just a few ways to get your workouts jacked up so that you can start to see changes. Forget those days in the gym, or at home where you just go through the motions. Intensify your workouts. Make them short, and hard, and make them leave you breathless and spent. In as little as 4 weeks you can see your body start to add muscle and drop body fat. You could spend hours on cardio, and never get these same results.
Instead of walking on the treadmill…go for intervals. Walk for 20 seconds, sprint for 20 seconds. Do this 8 times.
Instead of sitting on a machine and doing chest presses, then doing rows on a machine…Go for 10 push ups, right into 10 bent over rows with something HEAVY!
Forget, back day…and leg day. Make a workout an “Intense Day” of FULL body!
How about this for a killer workout?
20 Bodyweight Squats
10 Push ups
10 Jump Squats
60 seconds of Jumping rope
10 Jump Squats
10 Push Ups
10 Rope Rows
60 Seconds of Jumping Rope
10 Push Ups
20 Step Ups
20 Jumping Jacks
Repeat 3 Times
A workout like this will kick your ass. AND…change your ass.
Forget about the time spent in the gym. Make the time worth it. Make the time matter. Make the time do something for your health, your physique and your muscles. Gain muscle, lose fat….Intensity your workouts.
In health and strength,
Dawn