Making Time For Reistance Training for Awesome Results

This article is for those of you who have very limited time to devote to
exercise, but are serious about getting or staying in shape. Most fitness
experts agree that even just devoting 30 minutes to resistance training (also known as weightlifting and strength training) two or
three times a week is sufficient for strength, tone, and muscle development.

Many people make the mistake of adding more exercises and sets to
their program to make it harder. To increase intensity, do not look for
ways to do more exercise, look for ways to do the same or even less, by
efficiency. Try to increase the intensity and shorten your workout time
by using the following methods.

1. Make sure exercise is convenient: Getting to your exercise equipment
should be easy and convenient. If you have to drive a half an hour to get
to your gym, you will view working out as a chore. If you spend more time
traveling to the gym than you do in the gym, you might want to consider a
program that you can do in your home. Muscles do not care where the
resistance comes from--they are going to respond. Resistance can be from
body weight (push-ups), Thera-band® (rubber resistance), free weights,
machines, or a combination of any of these.

2. Work several muscles in one exercise: Another way to fit weightlifting
into your busy schedule is to choose exercises that work several major
muscle groups at the same time. Squats or the Leg Press (you can find the
instructions and video demonstrations for these and many other exercises
on my site) works the quadriceps, hamstrings, buttocks, and calves.
Essentially, you will be training four muscle groups at the same time with
these exercises.

3. Limit resting time: Skip the usual minute or so of resting time between
exercises. You can do this by doing Supersets, which involves doing two
or more successive exercises for a given muscle group without rest in
between.

This can be done one of two ways: The first is to do two or more exercises
in a row for the same muscle group without any rest in between. For
example, do a set of the Shoulder Presses and follow them immediately
with a set of Lateral Raises. This saves time and forces a lot more blood
into the shoulders and provides a more intense and effective training
stimulus for the shoulder muscles.

The second way to do supersets is to train two opposing muscle groups
without any rest in between. You can use this superset style of training
for two different muscle groups, but only if they have an agonist-
antagonist relationship with each other. In other words, on any given lift
one muscle is contracting and the other muscle is relaxing (such as the
biceps and triceps when performing a biceps curl). Choose muscle groups
that are physically close together such as biceps and triceps, or chest and
back, or quadriceps and hamstrings.

4. Have alternate exercises for each muscle group: This is especially
important for those who are pressed for time. Often there will be someone
working on the piece of equipment you want to use. You should always
have a back-up plan, an alternate exercise that trains the same muscle
group.

I hope you found this information helpful. Your greatest challenge is not
learning new exercises or the proper technique; it's not learning how many
sets or reps to do or how much weight to use. Nor is it deciding when or
how to change your routine. The greatest challenge facing you at this
moment is deciding whether you are willing to take action and make time
for yourself and make strength training a priority.

When you begin achieving great results, the excitement and fun you
experience will make the change and time you've spent well worth the
effort. Action creates motivation! Good luck: I hope you enjoy all the
wonderful benefits of an effective strength training program.