Feeling Strong And Loving It! Try This Workout For Yourself!

I commend everyone who chooses to make the life-changing decision to start lifting weights! It can be an extremely intimidating experience...especially if you have only known cardio equipment your entire "workout life". But I will tell you what, there is nothing like it. 

For those ladies who say that they avoid lifting any weights (or anything above the ones that weigh less than most newborns) because they don't want to bulk up, I say you are not going to have to worry about that if you workout correctly. 

Strength training, weight training, resistance training or whatever else you refer to it as does not mean that you are going to have thick thighs or massive guns. Believe me...I lift a decent amount of weight and I do not look like a bodybuilder! Just lean and strong! 

To the contrary, adding endurance weight training is going to help you develop lean muscles which will make you tighter, more slender and will greatly contribute to increased calorie expenditure even at rest! 

As with any other type of training, you can hit a plateau. The important thing to keep in mind is that there are SO MANY variations of exercises to work every muscle group so change it up often. Secondly, but no less important, do not start out with say 8 lb weights and always stick with them. As you develop your muscles, your training, your body and your strength it is important to keep a constant challenge so do not be afraid to bump up the weights after you are conditioned!

Here is an upper body session I did yesterday that is still making me feel DAMN GOOD!

Obviously, by looking at the below you can see there are a lot of exercises. Complete 30 sec of each exercise in (1) for a total of 3 minutes. Go right from push-ups, to tri's and start right back over. 

For the rest of the sets (#'s 2-7), use a weight that allows you to lift roughly 12-15 reps (this means it will be fairly light AND will allow you to use minimal rest time). Be extremely cautious on utilizing good form and save the need to rush for the rest periods (Basically, do it right not fast and don't rest too long). 

After you do the 3 minute push-up/tri-cep dip warm-up complete each of the sets 2-3 times. Complete #2, move to #3, #4, etc.

1  Push-ups
    Tri-cep Dips

2  Preacher Curls
    Dumbbell Kickbacks

3  Concentration Curls (while in squat position)
    Skull Crushers

4  Lateral Raises
    Bent-Over Delt Raises
    Single-arm Seated Shoulder Press

5  Cross-body Curls
    Seated Tri-cep Extensions

6  Close Grip Cable Curls
    Tri-cep Pull-downs
    Lat Pull-downs

7  Chest Flye
    Bent-over Barbell-weight Row
    Squat w/barbell-weight overhead press

Best of Health,
Amanda Chubb
www.healthyathomept.com
www.healthyathomept.blogspot.com