Heavy duty

When we find ourselves in a situation where we have a pretty good chunk of weight to lose, often those first pounds come off fairly quickly and then we hit the long slog to get to the goal.  One thing that can keep the scale needle moving in the right direction is heavy lifting.

The big-muscle, multi-joint exercises (squats, deadlifts, lunges) burn more calories because we have to move more parts.  They also help boost our metabolisms so that we are burning more calories even after the workout is over.  Lifting heavy in these exercises allows us to get a lot of impact out of a few reps, which is just plain efficient.

When we find ourselves stuck, we can add a heavy day to our workout routine to unstick ourselves.

Please keep in mind that when we go heavy, we need to be even more conscious of safety.  We have to have a buddy for heavy lifting to spot us.  We need to make sure that our form is good so we can support the extra challenge.  We need to ensure that we take enough rest between sets and between heavy work days.

With those suggestions in mind, we can go for it and turn out stronger, leaner, and more awesome than ever.

Fit in the fitness

We are busy people.  It often seems like we have way more to do than will fit into our days.  Even thinking about it all can wear us out.  It’s no wonder we often think we don’t have time to exercise.

Here’s the thing:  we don’t have time NOT to exercise.  When we work out, we are investing in ourselves and we can expect both short- and long-term payoffs.

In the short term, we will increase our ability to focus on the rest of the day’s tasks and we will have more energy.  We’ll be in a better mood, which will make all those other things go better.

In the long term, working out improves our health, which increases the odds of living longer with a better quality of life (not so many of us want to live a long time in a care facility, but we can get behind hijinks into our second centuries, I think!).

It’s not procrastination or failure to prioritize; we’re being both smart and efficient when we choose to get in a workout!

Monday Workout: Battle!

One of the many awesome things about battle ropes is that they work both strength and cardio at the same time without overtaxing anybody’s knees.  (Another is that we can pretend to be Aaron Rodgers in the commercial with the woman with the long battle rope braids…)  Three rounds.

rope double slams	30
bench press	20
Arnold press	10
rope alternating slams	30
flies	20
1 leg squats	10
rope circles	30
bench rows	20
pretty princesses	10