The Body Sculpting Bible for Women (12 page)

FAQ
:

Can I ever go below or exceed the 8 to 15 repetition range?

ANSWER:

Absolutely! For all intents and purposes, the rep ranges that we recommend are for the workouts in the book. There may be times that you would benefit greatly by either doing more or fewer repetitions. It all depends on your goals and routine.

Training must be progressive
. Progression means one more repetition than the last time the exercise was performed or a little bit more weight if you are able to do more than 15 repetitions for a particular exercise. It is important to understand that you will not be able to increase weight or the number of repetitions every session. However, progression comes in many forms, like performing more work within the 60-minute period. The overall goal of a training routine is to ensure progression over a period of time to bring about continuous improvements in muscle tone and definition.

Training must be varied
. This principle is vital to ensure continuous gains in strength and muscle tone as well as to prevent boredom. Variation does not necessarily mean changing all of the exercises in your program. Variation can occur in the form of using different techniques to stimulate the muscle, changing repetition and set parameters, and even changing the rest between sets or simply changing the width of your grip placement on the bar to help isolate specific muscles. As you will soon see, the 14-Day Body Sculpting Workout makes full use of this principle since every two weeks your routine changes, providing
you the variation that your body needs to keep achieving results.

Training must consist primarily of free weight basic exercises
. Only free weight basic exercises provide the fast results you are looking for because they recruit the most muscle while you are performing them. Besides, the body is designed to be in a three dimensional universe. Whenever you use a machine you limit your body to a two-dimensional universe and consequently you limit the amount of muscle fibers that are going to do work. However, not all machines are bad. Some definitely have a place in our weight-training program because they allow you to isolate the muscle in a way that no free weights would allow you to do. However, our program should be mostly based on barbells, dumbbells and exercises where the body moves through space such as the dip, the pull-up and the squat. The best exercises for each body part are the following:

BACK

BASIC EXERCISES

Dumbbell one-arm row, pullover, pull-up, bent-over barbell row.

ISOLATION EXERCISES

Stiff-arm pull-down, low-pulley row.

CHEST

BASIC EXERCISES

Incline bench press (and its dumbbell version), flat bench press (and its dumbbell version), chest dip, and push-up.

ISOLATION EXERCISES

Chest fly (incline and flat versions), incline cable crossovers.

THIGHS AND BUTTOCKS

BASIC EXERCISES

Barbell squat (and its dumbbell version), ballet squat (and its dumbbell version), lunge, leg press.

ISOLATION EXERCISES

Leg extension.

HAMSTRINGS

BASIC EXERCISES

Stiff-legged deadlift (and its dumbbell version), leg press (feet high on the platform), lunge (how far you extend your leg when you do this exercise determines which leg muscle is activated the most. The farther away from the torso that you extend your leg, the more you hit the hamstrings).

ISOLATION EXERCISES

Lying leg curl, standing leg curl, seated leg curl.

FAQ:

I see all the regulars at the gym using machines. Are machines better than free weights?

ANSWER:

Free weights allow the muscles to be stimulated on many different levels. In order to prevent the free weights from wobbling around while you lift them, additional stabilizing and balancing muscles assist during the exercise, and you are fully working the entire muscle.

When you’re exercising using a machine, you are restrained to a predefined range of motion. There are no stabilizing muscles involved, and you are strictly concerned with getting the weight from point A to point B. The bad side of this is you aren’t getting the bonus of having additional muscles stimulated. The good side is that machines are great if you have an injury and need to isolate a muscle to avoid stressing it. You also may simply feel that you are being stimulated more with a machine than with free weights.

The best thing to do is use both free weights and machines. you can get the best of both worlds. As for the gym regulars: if you pay close attention, you’ll find that they are lifting their fair share of free weights.

SHOULDERS

BASIC EXERCISES

Military press (and its dumbbell version), upright row (and its dumbbell version).

ISOLATION EXERCISES

Lateral raise, bent-over lateral raise, rear-delt machine.

BICEPS

BASIC EXERCISES

Dumbbell curl, barbell and dumbbell preacher curl, incline dumbbell curl, hammer curl, reverse curl, and E-Z bar curl.

ISOLATION EXERCISES

Concentration curl.

TRICEPS

BASIC EXERCISES

Barbell and dumbbell lying triceps extension, barbell and dumbbell overhead triceps extension, triceps dip, close-grip bench press (and its dumbbell version).

ISOLATION EXERCISES

Triceps pushdown, triceps kickback.

CALVES

(Note: For calves and abdominals there is really no distinction between basic and isolation exercises.)

Standing, seated, and donkey calf raise, calf raises on leg press machine, one legged or two legged calf raises with dumbbell.

ABDOMINALS

Crunches, leg raise, and knee-in, trunk curl and crunch, V-up.

AEROBIC TRAINING

Aerobic training such as walking or running on a treadmill is a good way to accelerate the fat burning process as long as it is not overdone and as long as it is used only in addition to a good weight training program. It should never be used as a substitute for weight training since it does not permanently increase your metabolism and does not have the ability to re-shape your body.

In order for aerobic exercise to be effective, it needs to be performed within the fat burning zone. The fat burning zone is the zone at which you are doing just the right amount of work to burn fat. Your pulse (how fast your heart is beating per minute) determines this zone. It is important to remain in this zone for a certain period of time. If you work harder or longer than what the formula recommends you will quickly become exhausted which will prevent you from continuing to perform the activity for a prolonged period of time, which is absolutely necessary in order to burn fat. On the other hand, too low of an effort will not prompt your body to start its fat burning mechanisms.

FAQ:

Should I only weight train and leave the cardio to runners and endurance athletes?

ANSWER:

Absolutely not. Some fitness professionals will say that it is okay to only weight train, especially if your routine is made up of supersets. However, it’s best that your fitness routine have a balanced approach and heart-healthy aerobics/cardio training is crucial.

To determine your fat-burning zone, use the following formula:

Fat burning zone = 220-(your age) × (.75)

For example, a 20-year-old woman would need to reach a pulse in the neighborhood of 150 beats per minute in order to be in the fat burning zone. It is important to remember that this is not an absolute figure, but an approximation. As long as you stay within 10 beats of the number that the formula dictates, you can rest assured that you will be burning fat.

In order for aerobic exercise to be an effective fat burner it needs to be performed at the appropriate times. There are two ideal times when aerobic exercise is most effective in burning fat. The ideal time is first thing in the morning on an empty stomach after drinking 16 to 24 ounces of water in order to prevent dehydration. When performed at this time you burn 300 percent more body fat than at any other time in the day because your body does not have any glycogen (stored carbohydrates)
in the system to burn. Therefore, it has to go directly into the fat stores in order to get the energy necessary to complete the activity. The other time that aerobic exercise is effective would be immediately after a weight training session as your glycogen stores have already been depleted. Because of this, once you start doing your cardio, you will start burning fat as soon as you elevate your heart rate since it is the only fuel that will be available.

When aerobic exercise is not performed first thing in the morning or right after the weight training workout it takes your body approximately 20 to 30 minutes to start burning fat. This is how long it takes the body to deplete its glycogen stores and switch to a fat burning environment. Therefore, it is not as efficient to perform aerobic exercise alone at other times of the day because you would need to work out for 20-30 minutes just to get to the fat burning stage and then continue to work out for an additional 20 minutes to burn fat. This would mean a grand total of 50 minutes a day. In our opinion, aerobic exercise shouldn’t be performed more than six times a week for 40 minutes maximum each session, in order to avoid losing muscle mass. Remember that more is not always better and this is especially true when it comes to aerobic exercise. As you will see, for this program (unless you are interested in fitness competition), the most you will be doing is three sessions lasting between 20 to 40 minutes each at the most.

Good forms of aerobic exercise include riding a stationary bike, fast walking (this can be done on a treadmill), climbing on a stair stepper, swimming, using a fitness rider or rowing machine, using any good cardio tapes like Tae-Bo, or any other form of cardiovascular activity that raises your heartbeat to the fat burning zone.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Now we will learn how to put all this knowledge together in a workout program that will yield the results you are looking for. We present three different workouts. Which one you should choose will depend on your previous training experience and your fitness goals.

The first workout (the Break-In Routine) is to be used by women who have never done weight training before. This program is a break-in program that will not only allow you to get in shape quickly, but will also condition you to get in the shape necessary to be able to use the 14-Day Body Sculpting Workout.

The second workout (the 14-Day Body Sculpting Workout) is for women who have been weight training for at least 10 weeks and want to get into awesome shape (gain 5-10 pounds of muscle and reduce body fat to 12-16%).

The third workout (the
A
dvanced 14-Day Body Sculpting Workout) is the most advanced workout to be used only by women who either have an interest in fitness competition or just want to look like a fitness competitor (gain 15-20 pounds of muscle and reduce body fat to 12%). This last workout requires at least 1 year of weight training experience in the gym and is the most rigorous and time-consuming workout. It will emphasize all angles of the muscle in order to produce the most stunning body sculpting effect. Therefore, this workout is reserved for the most serious fitness gals out there.

Before we present the 14-Day Body Sculpting Workout, let’s discuss a few terms that you need to understand in order to execute the routine.

Repetitions or Reps:
The amount of times that you perform an exercise. For instance, imagine you are performing a bench press. You pick up the bar, lower it, pause and lift it up. That action of executing the movement for one
time counts as one repetition. If you perform that same movement a second time, then that is your second repetition and so on.

Sets:
A set is a collection of repetitions that culminates in the muscle reaching muscular failure. Muscular failure is the point at which, due to a buildup of lactic acid in the muscle, it becomes impossible to perform another repetition with good form.

Rest Interval:
The amount of time you rest between sets. For instance, a rest interval of 60 seconds means that after you finish your first set, you will remain idle for 60 seconds before going on to the next set.

Now that we have discussed these important terms, let’s discuss the main techniques that make the 14-Day Body Sculpting Workout so effective.

Modified Compound Supersets:
In a modified compound set, you pair exercises, usually for opposing muscle groups or for opposing muscle movements (e.g. push vs. pull). First you perform one exercise, rest the recommended amount of seconds and then perform the second exercise (i.e. first do biceps, then do triceps). Then rest the prescribed amount of time again and go back to the first exercise.