Exercise tips for your best summer body

The clocks have gone forward and British summer time is here. It can only mean one thing – summer bodies are on the mind!! The long winter is behind us and we are looking ahead to long sunny evenings and time away with our friends and families. But is your body ready to hit the beach with your head held high, or is the thought or bearing your bits giving you the willies? To accelerate your beach body and your confidence, listen up, we have 5 training facts to make sure you get the most out of your time in the gym!

Lift weights, don’t wait for results…

A common problem people make in the gym is undertraining. This leads you to not receive the full benefits from your efforts. Training misconceptions often arise from celebrities who simply have great genetics and do very little in the way of exercise to keep their lean physiques (damn them!!) and then claim it’s all down to a spot of pilates and zumba classes.

People looking to transform their body with exercise, or drop a few pounds, shy away from heavy weights and steer towards aerobic activities. But lifting weights heaver than your hand bag will actually get you the toned body that you’re after.

Fact #1

Training at your ‘repetition max’ produces best results. Repetition max means that if your workout states 12 reps, you should be able to do 12 reps and no more. If you can do 13 reps (with good form) then you need to lift more weight.

Fact #2

Rest periods will effect your training results. Short rest periods of say 30-60 seconds will produce a release of growth hormone, which elicits fat burning. Lifting heavy while keeping your rests short will also produce lactic acid (that muscle burn) which helps boost growth hormone too.

Fact #3

Undertraining is a waste of your time and many women are guilty of this. Those pink dumbbells are no good to you! If you leave the gym still feeling fresh and without breaking a sweat, you are not going to change your body.

Fact #4

Lifting heavy weights increases your metabolic rate. We call this the afterburn effect and it last for up to 48 hours after your workout, which means you are burning more energy doing nothing. It’s like a bonus workout after your workout! Aerobic exercise or undertraining simply doesn’t elicit this sort of metabolic shock.

Fact #5

Lifting weights is the best way to increase bone strength and density. Studies show that lifting decreases chance of bone fracture in men by 50% and women by 20%. To build stronger bones you need to regularly train in rep ranges of 5-12, with challenging weights.

Conclusion: Lifting – 1…Zumba – nil!