Friday Tri: Weight Lifting

I am surprised at how many people who want to be better athletes ignore this very simple way to prevent injuries and improve speed. Now, you don't necessarily have to go to the gym and use machines to do weight lifting. You can do yoga or Pilates. You can get a ball and do exercises while you watch TV. You can do it all without ever once lifting any barbells or dumbbells and using the weight only of your own body. But that said, you should do some weight lifting twice a week for 20-30 minutes IMHO.

This month, three of my children, my husband, and my sister-in-law all asked me to write them up training plans. They want to be ready to start a hard core running training plan come January, but it's really too early to get into that now and besides, it's the holidays, and not a lot of time is usually devoted to training during the holidays. There are too many goodies and too much time is being spent on other things. Plus, what's the point of losing weight when no one will notice because you're wearing sweaters and coats and flannel lined jeans?

The annoying thing about weight lifting is that people don't think of it as a way to burn calories. It doesn't make it so that you can eat more food than you usually do, so you can't reward yourself with a brownie afterward. On the other hand, weight lifting shows result faster than almost anything else. You will see the change in the definition of your muscles in a matter of weeks, and you won't be as hungry as you would be if you spent the time on the treadmill. For many people, weight lifting is more interesting than the treadmill.

It also has the advantage of being shorter. You can get in a great workout in thirty minutes and you're done for the day. Many people recommend one day of weight lifting followed by one day of cardio. I tend to do both, the weight lifting after the cardio so I don't compromise my cardio times, but that's my priority.

In the last year I have spent a lot more time in the gym than I have ever done in previous years, lifting weights. Now, I've always been a proponent of yoga, and I still love yoga for the relaxation it offers and for the way I can take it with me wherever I go. But for sheer muscle building power, traditional weights seem to work better for me.

Just a quick tip on what I do:

1. 3 set of 10 reps.
This means you choose a weight that is easy enough that you can do 10 reps with it and still feel like you do a couple more. I would caution most people to aim for lower than they think especially the first little while you're doing this. You will be pretty sore the first few weeks. That's perfectly normal, but you may not feel pain while working out, so be gentle on yourself. You can always go up for the next set.

2. Usually 5-6 exercises per session, prioritizing major muscle groups over minor ones.
This means I would prefer to see someone do chinups or assisted chinups or dips over isolated bicep presses. I would prefer you do chest presses to triceps work. I prefer working your hamstrings and quads to your calf muscles. And if possible, it's best to work out as many muscles at the same time as you can. So pushups, which work almost everything, are superb. Also, almost anything where you are using your own body weight is better than a weight machine isolated exercise because your body is what you use all the time. Lunges, therefore, are better in my mind than leg presses at the gym. That doesn't mean I always do them, but I think they're better.

3. Circuit training.
This means that instead of working on one muscle group at a time, resting for a minute, and then doing that same exercise again, I do the whole set of exercises without any rest in between, then start at the beginning again. About 10 minutes per circuit.

4.Don't do the same exercises all the time. Try to change muscle group focus for your two workouts and repeat after one full week. This helps boredeom and recovery at the same time. And movitation, since after doing lunges I don't want to do lunges for a month.

5. Core/abdominal work every time.
You don't have to do the same situps every time (I do a lot of situps--they're good for you), but there are a ton of exercises that work that area. You can do leg lifts, standing lifts, even chinups work your abs. Sitting on a ball works them. I never EVER use the abdominal machine at the gym. It's worthless, seriously.