If you are a beginner, start with only 1 set of each exercise and try to do all 40 reps for set if you can. You should work your way up to 3 sets gradually. 3 pound weights doesn’t seem like a heavy weight, but for a beginner or someone who has been sedentary for a long time might be enough. That said, use a weight, that ‘feels’ heavy for you. Beginners usually make really fast progress and get much stronger already within the first month of regular exercise. As soon as you feel that your weight is not challenging enough for you, increase the weight or add another set per each exercise.

Best, Zuzana.

One of my favorite authors, Master of Sports and a former physical training instructor for Soviet Special Forces Pavel Tsatsouline, says in one of his amazing books: ”Anyone who claims that you can’t train a muscle group two days in a row is seriously disturbed. Ditto for the high-intensity cult that denies the value of a light workout.”

Light workouts are important for the training process – the more often you exercise the stronger and fitter you get. Another great benefit of light workouts is that it will help you to get rid of the muscle soreness after your heavy workout day. According to Pavel, the key to successful frequent training is constant variety of the training load: weights, reps, sets, rest periods, tempo, exercise order, exercise selection etc.  Varying the intensity of your workouts from day to day will result in faster progress.

I also like what Matt Furey says in his book Combat Conditioning:
”Take monkeys and other primates … They do the same type of exercises each day and they’re far stronger than human beings…Work some days harder than others, but do something every day.”

Listen to your body and soon you will be able to vary your daily training intensity according to your own instincts.

Best,
Zuzana.

I want to remind you of the importance of short rest periods between the sets in order to boost your metabolism and get you fit. Compressing your rest intervals is an important component of effective endurance training and fat loss. Keep your rest periods somewhere between 30 to 90 seconds and don’t get too passive during your break.  Go to have a sip of water and walk around a little to help your heart.

Vince Delmonte the author of one of the most popular fitness programs online says in his No nonsense 6 pack quest e-book: ”I want to elaborate on the power of shorter rest intervals, which I believe is the most underestimated variable to maximize metabolism and build muscle. Whether you are training for muscle or fat loss, I can’t recall the last time I saw someone in the gym training with any degree of oxygen debt, or sucking in air, as I prefer to call it. What you do see are people sitting on the bench looking around, chatting up a storm, or talking on their cell phone. It amazes me how many people expect to transform their body without sweating and going into any oxygen debt during their workout.”

I have never said that getting into the best shape of your life is going to be easy.

Best,

Zuzana.

The triceps is a three-headed muscle, made of the lateral, the long, and the medial head. The most visible part of your triceps is the lateral head which responds only to heavy resistance. If you have a problem with flabby triceps, you have to engage in heavy weight training. The best exercises for triceps development are presses and dips. The close grip presses put more emphasis on the triceps muscles and keeping the elbows close to your body will target all heads of the triceps evenly. For more recruitment of the lateral head, point the elbows away from the body.

Lie on the bench or step keeping a natural arch in your back, feet flat on the ground, and your elbows bent close to your body. Inhale and push the dumbbells up, extending your arms vertically. Exhale at the top of the movement and return to the initial position with a controlled movement.

Make sure that you are tensing your triceps through out the entire set. Don’t rest between the reps only between the sets for a very short time.

Best,
Zuzana.

You will do 3 set of 40 reps of bent over rows, and change the movement slightly every 10 reps as shown in the video.

Your weights for this exercise should be lighter than the ones you use for deadlifts or squats, but they should feel heavy. Lifting heavy weight for high reps is the best way to burn fat.  You won’t get bulky from lifting heavy weights unless you really want to – so don’t worry about that.

Pavel Tsatsouline in his book From Russia With Though Love writes:
”…forget the myth that low reps are for bulking, and high reps are for toning. The reality is that high calories are for bulking, and low calories are for toning.”

This is totally true. Last summer for instance I had no idea what clean eating was and I was eating everything back than, including candies and deep fried foods. I was slimmer than I am right now, and the reason why, is not because there was some difference in my training, but because I was eating smaller portions.

I started to eat bigger portions in the winter, when I discovered clean eating. I thought that I could eat more, as long as my meals were healthy. My body fat percentage stayed the same, but my muscles got bigger. It has been about 2 weeks now since I started to cut back on the size of my portions, and I can already see some results. My thighs and butt are shrinking. I don’t count my calories anymore, because I find that completely annoying, and instead I just measure my portions by hand.

I noticed that here in Canada and in the United States the portion sizes are gigantic compared to how much people eat in Europe. People here seem to eat very fast. Instead of taking the time to eat and actually taste the food they gobble it down on the run. Your brain needs about 20 minutes to realize that you are full – so you may be full with a much smaller portion if you just give yourself the time to realize it.

Lifting weights is the very best way to burn fat and shape up your body. If you want to make your body lean and tight without bulking up, learn to eat small portions in 2 to 3 hour intervals. Aim for 5 to 6 small meals a day.

This should finally lay to rest any concerns or questions that women have about bulking up when working out with weights.

Best,
Zuzana.

During the whole workout and especially this exercise where you work the big muscles, you can expect to experience muscle fatigue and pain caused by accumulation of lactic acid. This is good for fat loss, because your body will produce more growth hormone that helps to release fatty acids from your fat cells, which your body then use for energy.  Lifting heavy weights for high reps gives you muscles and generates more lactic acid which will result in fat loss.

When you squat down, fold in your hips and lean forward arching your lower back. Keep your upper back straight, and the weight on your heels. Don’t let your heels to come up off the floor so that your butt gets a good workout and your knees don’t suffer. If it’s difficult for you to keep your heels on the ground, you can practice your squats on slightly elevated surface such as a wooden cutting board – everyone has one of these in the kitchen. Stand on the cutting board, but leave the balls of your feet hanging in the air. Push your heels into the board and squat down. If your toes touch the floor, you will realize immediately that your form is not good and your heels are not planted into the ground as they should be. Try to keep your shins as vertical as possible and don’t let your knees go too forward beyond your toes. Also notice that I am always looking straight ahead which helps to keep good form. Do not look down at your legs, or up at the ceiling.
Squatting all the way down butt-to-heels will improve flexibility in your hips and various athletic activities such as running or kicking.

The one arm overhead sumo squat is really the hardest one. Get into wide stand position and bring one arm holding a dumbbell over your head. Keep the arm straight through the entire movement. Squat down until you reach with your other arm towards the floor and touch it with your hand. It really helps to keep your eyes on the dumbbell. If you look straight ahead, you will find it way harder to get really low in order to touch the floor while keeping the overhead arm straight.
I suggest trying this exercise without the weight first.

There are 5 more parts of this workout routine. So Check back for the rest of the exercises.

Best,
Zuzana.

Best,

Zuzana.

Marty Gallagher the author of The Purposeful Primitive writes in his weekly fitness column for dragondoor.com about these type of worthless aerobics – he calls them ”aerobic disgraces.” He goes on to say that  ”the epitome of  disgraceful would be Jane Fonda-type workout where a pack of syncopated sissies would gyrate and contort in a group aerobics dance class to the swinging sounds of Britney Spears or some sugary-sweet pop music. Everyone would wear an outfit and no one would sweat.”

People tend to think that cardio must be somehow separated from weight training and that it’s impossible to train aerobically at home without an expensive cardio machine that takes up half of your living room. Wrong. The most beneficial cardio is the one that is bloody intensive and makes you sweat like a pig. Rock Your body Workout – Release 2 is exactly that type of cardio. ”While running and swimming are fabulous cardio activities, and as natural for an athlete as natural can be, lifting heavy weights for high reps burns more calories than either activity”  says Marty Gallagher in his fitness column.

This workout has 8 parts; 8 different exercises. You will do 3 sets by 40 reps and change the exercise slightly every 10 reps. Try to keep your rest periods as short as possible. All you need for this workout are 2 pairs of reasonably heavy dumbbells and some space around you. I am using 15 pound dumbbells for bigger muscle groups and 8 pound dumbbells for smaller muscle groups. Beginners who have never tried this type of workout have to keep 2 things in mind. First the weight should feel heavy for the last few reps in each set and really heavy in the last few reps of the last set. Second you should be able to complete all of the reps in each set keeping good form. If you can’t keep good form for all of the reps, then your weights are too heavy.

There will be 7 more parts in this fitness routine, so don’t forget to check back for the rest of the workout.

Best,

Zuzana.