Home workouts.
If you workout at home and are looking to add some shape and tone to your body this coming year, here is a quick body weight workout you can do at home, the office or at the gym. According to Men’s Health magazine they found that these three exercises will help both men and women tone up and strengthen their whole body this coming year.
The three exercises you should do are:
- Squats or some type of one legged squat
- Push-ups
- Inverted pull-ups
I think everyone is pretty familiar with both squats and pushups, so I won’t go into too much detail about them. However there may be a bit of confusion about inverted pull-ups. Basically instead of pulling your complete body weight off the ground as you would doing a regular pull-up, which most people can’t do. You set the bar about two-and-a-half feet off the ground and with your feet firmly planted on the ground you pull yourself up.
You will find people at the gym doing inverted pull-ups or modified pull-ups, as they are commonly called, under a Smith machine or squat rack. It’s a great exercise that will definitely tone and strengthen your back and biceps. It’s a favorite of women who long to do pull-ups, or at least reap the benefits of a pull-up.
If you train at home and don’t have a Smith machine or squat rack handy you can simply bolt your pull-up bar around 30 inches off the ground.
If that doesn’t work for you try something like the Work Horse Fitness Trainer*. It is a portable pull-up and push-up bar that doesn’t require a doorway or tools.
The key to this short 5-15 minute workout is going from one exercise to the next with as little amount of rest between sets. It’s a high intensity, burst workout that activates the fast twitch, anaerobic muscle fibers. What’s important about those muscle fibers is that they trigger a greater release of testosterone and growth hormones than your typical aerobic, slow twitch muscle fibers that become active from a cardio, aerobic workout.
FYI….Testosterone and growth hormones are what activate your metabolism so you can burn fat and add lean muscle to your body.
Start out with….
- 20-40 Squats ….rest 5-30 seconds
- 5-15 push-ups…rest 5-30 seconds
- 5-15 inverted pull-ups….rest 5-30 seconds
Cycle through the routine 3-5 times for a short, burst workout. The way to determine if you are getting the most from this workout is that after 5-15 minutes, depending on how long you choose to workout, you are spent and glad the time is up.
If after this little high intensity interval workout you are Not whipped you are either resting too much between sets or not doing enough repetitions. It’s called ‘high intensity’ for a reason, it’s up to you to put the intensity into the workout.
FYI – The more intense the workout – the more testosterone and growth hormone you produce.
Give it a shot, it’s a great short workout that will help you lose those inches and tone-up your arms and shoulders quicker than anything.
Len Lopez is a contributing blogger for JenningsWire.
