Strength/Resistance Training

It’s been proven time and time again that strength/resistance training works wonders for your overall health and well-being.  Despite what you will see on TV or hear from the people making excuses, you WILL NOT get huge.  If you do, you have incredible genetics and would know it by now.

I have incredible heat-tolerance issues, as many of you do I’m sure.  I also get fatigued very easily.

This means that I need to get he most bang for my buck.

Because of that, it’s vitally important that we look at the facts:

  • totally fatigued muscle takes AT LEAST 72 hours to repair itself (not the 48 hours I grew up hearing)
  • effective strength/resistance training will benefit your brain and cardiovascular fitness as well
  • proper strength/resistance training is safe and even beneficial for people with joint problems such as rheumatoid arthritis (consult with your physician, though)
  • muscle development creates a situation where you are burning more calories all day every day – more muscle = more calories burned!
  • muscle exhaustion drains glycogen stores creating a situation where they need to replenish, thereby lowering insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes

What I need and what I’ve found to be possible is a situation where I can do one set of an exercise, and with only 4-6 repetitions, every 4-6 days.

It may sound too good to be true, but science backs it up and I’ve been doing it successfully for a number of years.

The key is to do five main exercises (working five major muscle groups), and do them to complete exhaustion.  The five exercises (and you can work the same muscles with a slightly different exercise) are:

  1. Bench press (pushing away from your chest)
  2. Row (pulling toward your chest)
  3. Lat pull-downs (pulling down towards your shoulders or chest from above)
  4. Military press (pushing straight up from your shoulders)
  5. Squats (best single exercise to work your legs)

I do each of these exercises incredibly slowly.  I take roughly 10 seconds on the contraction and 10 on the extension.  That’s roughly 20 seconds of muscle engagement and I adjust the weight or time to finish the exercise in 4-6 repetitions.

That ensures that I’m getting the maximum benefit and my whole work-out is done in 15 minutes!

I go into a little more detail below