Today you’ll feel firmer and stronger with a workout that takes less time.
Unlike cardio, weight training workouts get you maximum results based on the repetitions you complete, the sets you do, and the amount of time your muscles are continually contracting ( this is called time under tension).
That means that you can firm up your muscles, and become stronger without spending large amounts of time exercising.
In other words, it’s all about the quality of your workout, and not the quantity (or the amount of time) you exercise.
For This Workout, You’ll Need:
A set of light weights: This is a very light set of weights that feel easy to continually lift.
When you’re pressed for time, doing your first set of weight training with lighter weights has a dual effect.
- It provides a Neuromuscular warm up (a mind to muscle warm up) which prepares your body for heavier lifting by mimicking the exact movement patterns you’ll be performing with heavier weights on your second set. This not only makes you and your workout more efficient by perfecting form but it also reduces your risk of injury by enhancing agility, balance and technique.
2. It lubricates your joints, making the workout easier on your joints and ensuring your muscles are lengthening and strengthening freely as you gain strength and firm the muscles without injury.
A set of Heavy weights: This is a set of weights that feels heavy by 12-15 repetitions.
Heavy doesn’t need to mean you’re lifting a truck overhead. It simply means that for your personal strength, the weight begins to feel hard yet doable at around 12-15 repetitions.
Your legs are such powerful muscles, normally you’d have to lift a heavy bar or carry a heavy amount of weights to get results.
but, when you’re doing a workout that takes less time to do at home, you may not have a heavy bar handy.
Also, if you’ve got sore knees or a sore back, lifting a heavy bar on your back, or feeling the extra pressure of a heavy bar on your knees just isn’t practical.
That’s why we’ll be using a technique called Time Under Tension:
Hold your muscle in a contracted state until you feel like you’ve got to stop. You’ll recruit more muscle fibres, which increases your strength and firms your muscles without lifting really heavy weights.
You’ll save your knees, stave off back pain and still get those firm thighs and strong muscles that you deserve! YAY!
During this workout you’ll also notice we’re specifically targeting the big muscle groups in your body.
This workout includes 2 sets of back exercises, and 2 sets of leg exercises. These are the big muscle groups in your body that have the greatest amount of muscle.
Over fifty, the name of the game is to preserve and increase as much lean muscle as possible, since this revs up your metabolic rate, and firms and tones your body for maximum strength and for your best quality of life.
By targeting the big muscle groups, you’re literally recruiting more lean muscle, and creating more strength in the majority of your body.
When you exercise the big muscle groups of your back, you’ll also notice you’re moving your arms. As a bonus you are firming and strengthening your arms with each back contraction you do.