October's Challenge Begins....

I know wrong season, but you get the point of how varied body weight exercises can be and how to increase the difficulty. 

It's October!!!!! I think this is my favorite month, crazy that I have a favorite month, but I do and it is this month. So, with this being my favorite month, we are going to embark on one of my favorite things, working out. Throughout this month, your challenges will be focused on getting up off your butt and using it. I will also discus different types of work outs, benefits, draw backs, things to avoid, what to watch out for, the good, the bad and the ugly. Let's begin.....

For this first week's challenge, we are going to focus on basic movements, how to do them, their importance, and how to add them in.

We have been led to believe more is better, longer is even better, lite lifting is the way to go, especially for women, which leads people to think they need to be in the gym for 2 hours working out. Most of us do not have that kind of time or want to. If that is what you have to do in order to get into shape and have the benefits of exercise, then I am not going to work out.

None of this is true. You do not need to work out for hours, longer is not better, and lite weights are basically a waste of time. In fact, you do not even need to go to a gym to use all the equipment, body weight workouts, bww, are some of the best exercise to do. This can give you all the functional muscle you need and a fantastic workout all in 20 minutes. You end up with "go muscle, not show muscle".

I am not saying going to a gym is bad or weight lifting is a waste of time. I am letting you know, you do not need them. If you want to build bulk muscle and look more like a body builder, than yes you need to be in a gym pumping significant amounts of iron. Along with mass quantities of protein. Being that most of us do not want to look this way, bww are perfect. Your weight will provide the resistance you need to build muscle, obtain the physic you desire, go about your daily tasks with greater ease, all the health benefits of working out, along with the long term benefits of working out.

20 minutes three times a week is all you need.
More than this can actually do more harm than good, we will discus this in a later post.

Basic movements:
Pushing ~ push up
Pulling ~ pull up
Up and Down ~ squats
Back and Forth ~ lunges
Rotational movement
Planks
We are looking for 3-dimensional training, we are 3-dimensional beings, we live in a 3-dimensional world. Our bodies need to be prepared for this type of movement.

This is a great link to the "Four Essential Movements" as defined by Mark Sisson. He explains how to do push up, pull ups, squats and planks, with progressions.

With these basics movements, you can add to them, make them more difficult, add some weight, do any variations of them. You can make these as easy or hard as you want. It all depends on you and your fitness goals.

If you are a beginner:
as many push up as you can
10-15 squats
10-15 lunges
holding a plank as long as you can
Do one set to begin with. If later in the day you fill you have the energy, do another set. Wok up to doing 3-5 sets in a row with a 30 second to one minute rest.

As you progress, add more reps, try a variation to some of the exercises, most importantly, have fun. Working out should be fun. If you do not want to do an actually workout like this, than figure out something you enjoy and go do it. You have to just start moving.

For other ramblings and ideas on workout, here are a few other posts I have done on them, Body Weight Training and some thoughts about why you train.

It is not as hard as you would think. It is about making the choice you are going to do it.
Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God bless,
Jenn